A primary school has been forced to abandon anti-homophobia lessons following protests from Muslim parents.
Parkfield School in Birmingham has said it will ditch the ‘No Outsiders’ classes until after Easter while a ‘consultation’ takes place with parents.
The school’s gay assistant head, Andrew Moffat, created the lessons to promote tolerance of same-sex couples and other minorities.
However, strict religious parents said they objected because homosexuality is against their religion, while others said children were too young to learn about such matters.
On Friday, the parent campaigners said about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day in protest.
Mr Moffat, who is himself gay, has also been threatened and the school was daubed in graffiti as the row escalated in recent weeks.
At one protest parents held signs that read ‘say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children’, ‘stop exploiting children’s innocence’, and ‘education not indoctrination’.
The school yesterday confirmed in a letter to parents that the lessons would be suspended for several months and religious education would be taught instead.
It said: ‘Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE).
‘Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.’
Mr Moffat, who is currently shortlisted for the Global Teacher Prize, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim parents.
His No Outsiders programme has been shared online so that other schools can replicate it.
Books being read by the pupils include Mommy, Mama and Me, and King & King – stories about same-sex relationships and marriages.
In a letter to the parents, the trustee board of Excelsior Multi Academy Trust, which runs the school, confirmed that the lessons will now be stopped until the end of the term.
The decision was reached after a meeting between Andrew Warren, the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, parents, the trust, and Liam Byrne, the local Labour MP.
The letter said: ‘The discussions were a helpful first step and identified the key issues that are concerning parents, including the ethos, the books, the age appropriateness, the lessons and the assemblies.
‘The agreed outcome of the meeting was the need to have a discussion with the school community about the No Outsiders curriculum and how it should be delivered.’
It comes after Mr Byrne spoke about the row in a Commons debate on a petition over parents’ rights to withdraw children from such lessons.
From 2020, all primary schools will be encouraged to teach gay and transgender issues as part of compulsory relationships education – and parents will not be allowed to withdraw their children.
Mr Byrne said: ‘There has been a breakdown of trust between parents and teachers [at Parkfield] which is completely unacceptable.
‘On the one hand we have very angry parents. On the other, we have teachers that have felt very intimidated and we had a graffiti attack on the school this morning. Both absolutely unacceptable.’
Mr Byrne said that while he applauded Mr Moffat’s efforts, he will be fighting for parents ‘rights for their views to be heard, the right for their role to be respected and the right for choice to be protected’.
However, Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, has praised the programme and said all children should be taught some families have ‘two mummies’ or ‘two daddies’.
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