Published: February 17, 2022
By: James Robinson
- New guidance now released on tackling 'politically-charged' issues in schools
- Ministers hope the guidance will help students better form their own opinions
- Government hope it will combat politicisation of issues such as race and gender
Lessons in disputed critical race theory for nine-year-olds, bans on phrases such as 'boys and girls' due to fears of 'sexism' and classes closed because of spiders have sparked fears Britain's schools are 'going woke'.
Parents and politicians warn 'left-wing' teachers are 'brainwashing' young pupils into accepting contested theories as fact, leaving them unable to make their own evaluations and opinions on important, yet sensitive, topics.
Today new guidance, issued by the Department for Education, will look to ban teachers from 'indoctrinating' pupils on politically-charged issues surrounding race and gender.
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Educators will also be told not to give one-sided accounts of national heroes such as Winston Churchill, who has been branded 'racist' by activists in recent years.
Though the guidance will continue to insist that teachers make clear 'that racism has no place in our society', Government sources hope it will help to combat the politicisation of sensitive topics by campaign groups - such as Black Lives Matter and Stonewall - which they say 'do not have a monopoly on the moral stance of these issues.'
Ministers hope the guidance will also help pupils to critically evaluate groups like Black Lives Matter - who along with raising issues of racial injustice have openly backed Marxism and have called for political policies such as defunding of the police.
But teaching unions warn it could impact on freedom of speech by limiting what what schools feel comfortable about teaching.
The guidance, issued by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, comes following a series of 'woke' incidents in British schools in recent months.
Here MailOnline looks at some of the incidents and the schools in which they took place:
The £32-650-a-year day school teaching critical race theory to children as young as nine
One of Britain's 'wokest' schools is also one of its most expensive day schools.
The private American School in London (ASL) was at the centre of a wokeism row last year after parents kicked up a storm about its new 'woke' agenda.
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Headteacher Robin Appleby quit the school in January after a group of parents penned a furious 12-page letter complaining that their children were being 'indoctrinated' in the 'controversial and divisive' ideology of critical race theory.
Primarily a US concept, but one that has spread throughout the world, critical race theory is a social movement and intellectual discipline aimed at understanding how American racism has shaped public policy.
Headteacher Robin Appleby quit the school in January after a group of parents penned a furious 12-page letter complaining that their children were being 'indoctrinated' in the 'controversial and divisive' ideology of critical race theory
Parents with children at the school warned in their letter 'every subject, from art to literature to history, is now being taught through a prism of race or gender' – one revolving around the ideas of white and male privilege. Pictured: A chart given to pupils at the school to audit their own 'privilege' and 'victimhood'
One of the two controversies that predated Appleby’s departure involves long-standing complaints by parents about an ultra-‘woke’ teaching agenda she chose to introduce some 18 months ago. Pictured: ASL
But it has been criticised as 'divisive' because it says racism is part of everyday life and that white people, even those who actively oppose racism, make choices that fuel racism against black people - and that their ability to live freely with that amounts to 'white privilege'.
Parents with children at the school warned in their letter 'every subject, from art to literature to history, is now being taught through a prism of race or gender' – one revolving around the ideas of white and male privilege.
The letter also alleged that a recent decision to create racially segregated after-school clubs, in which pupils mix solely with peers of the same ethnicity, was illegal as it breaches the Equality Act.
The accusations rocked the prestigious school, near Regent's Park, whose alumni include Hollywood star Kathleen Turner and Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
Ms Appleby resigned in January after five years - leaving behind an annual salary of £337,000. In a carefully worded letter, Ms Appleby said the decision was taken so she could ‘focus on her own wellbeing and that of her family’.
The school that banned 'good morning boys and girls' over fears it was 'sexist'
Anderton Park Primary in Moseley, Birmingham, was accused of 'wokeism' last year after banned phrases like 'good morning, boys and girls'
Headteacher Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson stopped teachers from using terms including, 'let's go, guys', 'man up', 'grow a pair'.
Students as young as three were also taught to hold up posters flagging 'sexist' terms and the two pupils who find the best examples were rewarded with certificates at the end of the week.
But the move sparked fury, including from broadcaster Nana Akua, who told Good Morning Britain today: 'I'd be very worried if this woman was teaching my kids. What I think we're doing here is creating a generation of wallflower kids who are listening for an offence.'
Headteacher Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson stopped teachers from using terms including, 'let's go, guys', 'man up', 'grow a pair'
Protestors (pictured in June 2019 protesting about the teaching of LGBT issues) hold their first demonstration since an injunction was granted barring action immediately outside Anderton Park Primary School, in Moseley
And Chris McGovern, a former primary school head and now chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, told MailOnline at the time: 'This is about adults who have a neuroses about gender and are hoisting their own anxieties onto the shoulders of young children.
'By trying to correct a children's language at a very early age, one is actually limiting, restraining and burdening them with an anxiety they don't need.
'This is an attempt to control language, which is a very sinister development. It is part of a woke philosophy across education, an unstoppable tsunami of Wokeism.'
The school that closed due to SPIDERS - sparking outrage from parents
Parents blasted The Duston School in Northampton after it was closed in September last year due to a suspected outbreak of false black widow spiders.
Some 1,650 pupils were told to stay at home after school leaders said it would have to close its doors at short notice.
Parents were emailed by headteacher Sam Strickland informing them that the school would close the next day and students would be provided with work to do at home due to the suspected spider infestation.
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