An East London primary school has been forced to close as parents staged a protest after an eight-year-old boy was allegedly reprimanded for wearing a Palestine flag on his coat.
Parents gathered outside the gates of Barclay Primary School in Leyton on Thursday morning to protest. Crowds chanted “education is under attack” as they stood with pro-Palestine placards and banners.
The Lion Academy Trust - which runs several schools including Barclay Primary School - has denied all allegations and said they have closed the school early for Christmas break in light of “escalating threats against staff and the school”.
The row was initially sparked after parents said they received a letter from the school reprimanding them for allowing their children to wear the colours of the Palestinian flag to Children in Need day on 15 November.
The letter - which was sent two days later and then circulated on TikTok - warned parents and their children against making “overt demonstration of political beliefs” as the school wished to remain “apolitical”. It is claimed the letter said students would be referred to the government’s anti-terror scheme Prevent or the Waltham Forest hate crime team if extremist or divisive comments were made at school.
Lion Academy Trust confirmed the letter had been sent to eight families but said it had been “deliberately taken out of context” and said it had never reported a student to Prevent.
