NAPCE News – September 2021

Making a positive difference to young people through pastoral care

FEATURE ARTICLE: LGBT+ Issues in Schools: a Reflection on the First Anniversary of the Introduction of Statutory Relationships & Sex Education in England & Wales by Max Biddulph

September 2021 marks the first anniversary of the introduction of statutory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in England and Wales, following a campaign by researchers, practitioners and activists in the field over two decades, to secure a more solid footing for this subject in schools.

Along with PSHE, this subject not only comprises a strong component of the pastoral curriculum, it also informs the pastoral interventions that teachers make on a daily basis with children and young people on a one to one.

Being a gay man of ‘a certain age’ I know from my own ‘educational back-story’ why feeling included and supported in a personal identity is so important in sustaining a sense of self-esteem and associated feelings of agency, needed for personal growth and educational success.

These are not only conditions that I want for me, I feel they are absolutely fundamental for all human beings in the world. Given this backdrop, I would like to share with you some observations on this, the first anniversary of the new ‘curricular-pastoral environment’ in the teaching of LGBT+ issues in RSE.

Historically, a tension has always existed between the concepts of ‘schooling’ and ‘sexualities’ and in the UK context, attempts by the state to control the messaging to children and young people about sexuality and gender is characterised by legislation such as the now infamous Section 28 of the Local Government Act, 1988.

Developments in the new millennium changed this stance and a combination of homophobic/transphobic bullying research, calls from practitioners, pressure from LGBT+ Communities and the legal implications of the Equality Act 2010, have combined to create the antecedents for reform.

Given that schools are now required to teach either Relationships Education (primary) or Relationships and Sex Education (secondary), it was perhaps inevitable that the inclusion of LGBT+ issues would have the potential to initiate another round of controversy.

In her article ‘LGBT teaching in primary school: equality, discrimination and freedom of expression’ (Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 42(2) 243-245), Emma Nottingham (2020) captures what was in 2019, perhaps the peak moment in the challenge between members of mainly British Pakistani community and an inner-city primary school where weeks of protest on the street outside the school culminated in a legal injunction being sought by Birmingham City Council to restrict the street gatherings and the online abuse made via social media of staff teaching the Relationships Education curriculum.

At the heart of this dispute is the question as to whether it is appropriate to teach primary school children about a range of relationships and identities that exist in society i.e. heterosexual, same-sex etc.

In the case of Birmingham City Council vs Afsar, Nottingham (2020) notes that the ruling by Mr Justice Warby who found in favour of the city council, drew on both the UK Equality Act 2010 and the European Convention on Human Rights.  With regard to the latter, Justice Warby stated that his judgement sought to strike a balance between Article 10 (freedom of expression), Article 8 (right to private and family life), Article 9 (freedom of thought conscience and religion and Article 11 (freedom of association). This is an important judgement for two reasons:

1. It sets a precedent in the legal acceptance of Relationships and Sex Education to be taught in an inclusive way i.e portraying the full range of sexualities and relationships
2. It shines a light of the extraordinarily complex territory that education has to navigate in terms of culture, values and what constitutes ‘age-appropriate knowledge’.

In responding to the challenge of teaching RSE in schools where cultural diversity is very prominent, a number of really significant implications emerge.

The first of these relates to the need for a really robust stance when it comes to the ways in which equality diversity and inclusion will be addressed in the day-to-day activity of the school.

Having worked with colleagues in the school at the centre of the dispute, I can see that their stance on this is the bedrock of their practice, and the mechanism that ultimately lead to a legal resolution of the issue. This ‘whole school approach’ permeates not just the statements in policies that position the schools’ values but communicates the need for respect in all relationships in the school community.

The latter requires incredibly sensitive handling and an ability to engage in assertive communication that simultaneously ‘holds’ and respects the range of diversity.

In the post local education authority era where specialist professional development has to be sought further afield, I would urge schools not to struggle with these issues on their own. Specialist advice is available from national organisations such as the Sex Education Forum/National Childrens Bureau, who can advise for example, on consultations/information giving for parents about the content and delivery of RSE.

A second ‘implication’ relates to the ways in which communities and identities are understood by practitioners. An unsettling dimension of the dispute is the fact that the issues cut across sensitive domains of race, culture, faith, ethnicity and sexuality.

It would be easy to stereotype individuals based on these dimensions and the problem with this is that it leads to blind spots which obscure the complexity of intersectionality. With a more open mind it is possible to see how for example, a young person of British Pakistani heritage could find themselves curious or questioning their sexual orientation.

Fifty years of narratives of LGBT+ experience has taught us what a potentially lonely and difficult place this is, emotionally. Having an identity acknowledged or affirmed albeit in the form of a passing reference, could be crucial to longer term experience of self-esteem.

Since these tumultuous events of 2019, life in the school briefly returned to normal and the street outside fell silent again.

The arrival of the Covid-19 global pandemic with all the diversion and disruption that ensued, has briefly drawn a curtain over the new dawn of RSE in schools in England and Wales.

The issue of mental well-being in school communities has surfaced as a key consideration and this illuminates a final implication emerging from the case.

Staff self-care needs to be paramount especially in situations where staff find themselves caught in situations where strongly held values and emotions are being expressed in relation to the inclusion of LGBT+ issues.

Some comfort can be taken from the fact that legal injunctions can be taken out to prevent the online abuse of school staff via social media and the fact as Nottingham (2020:245) observes:
‘that sex and relationships education can be capable of reflecting various relationship types whist respecting the values and cultures and religions that advocate heterosexual relationships’.

Max Biddulph, Chair Editorial Board, Pastoral Care in Education (NAPCE)