Unions have accused the Education Secretary of “inflaming controversy” around sex education and unfairly criticising schools.
School leaders’ unions wrote to Gillian Keegan to say it was “desperately disappointing” that she had chosen to “denigrate” schools “in pursuit of a headline”.
Their letter referred to a press release issued this week about correspondence being sent to schools to make clear they should provide parents with access to relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum materials, and to parents, telling them they have the right to know what their children are seeing and being taught in the classroom.
In a statement, Ms Keegan used the phrase “no ifs, no buts and no more excuses” as she said the Government was “acting to guarantee parents’ fundamental right to know what their children are being taught”.
But, in an apparent sign of strained relationships between education unions and the Government, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said the letter had been “‘spun’ into a press release that was clearly designed to give the impression that you are getting tough with recalcitrant schools for failing to provide access to these materials”.
The unions said they believe the vast majority of schools share RSHE materials with parents, with only a “very small number” of possible cases of that not happening.
