The government’s new Relationship and Sex Education curriculum will be put into practice as schools start returning post-lockdown.
This means that RSE is now compulsory in all schools across England, with institutions being given until summer 2021 to put it into practice.
Under the new curriculum, primary school students will be taught about different family models, while secondary students will learn about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Sex education lessons could include education about sexting, periods, domestic abuse and Female Genital Mutilation.
If a primary school teaches sex education, you can withdraw your child but you cannot withdraw him/her from Relationship and Health Education.
If your child attends a secondary school, you can make a request to the headteacher to withdraw him/her from the Sex Education element of RHSE but not the Relationships or Health Education elements. The headteacher has the ultimate right to decide to approve or reject your request.
Although RHE and RHSE have been made statutory, schools have been given a huge amount of flexibility over areas of implementation such as which resources to use and which year groups to cover the learning outcomes.
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Writing in Islam 21C, educationalist Yusuf Patel said there is substantial anecdotal evidence that some schools are involved in the ideological imposition of pro-LGBT values in classrooms. And he said it is likely that schools will be teaching children about sexually liberal relationships.
Yusuf Patel told 5Pillars: “The LGBT lobby is trying to put a spin on this by saying that pro LGBT teaching is now compulsory in schools but this is not accurate. There is nothing in the learning outcomes that a school has to teach that mandates LGBT teaching.
“But even if schools decide to cover the existence of LGBT people or families, Muslim parents need to argue that they must do so in a factual way and not in a way that makes teachers gender activists in the classroom, or makes them promote or encourage children to explore their gender identities.”
He added: “Parents must demand that their schools consult within them and take into account the age and religious background of their pupils.”
