Tower Hamlets Parents Association (THPA) alongside other institutions including the East London Mosque, Darul Ummah and Ashaadibi Centre have had 4 meetings over the past 10 months with Mayor John Biggs and his team to discuss the communities concerns around the LBTH guidance on RSE given to schools.
After going around in circles several times, LBTH finally agreed to send out our Faith Sensitive RSE Guidance. A letter was sent out from Steve Nyakatawa the Director of Education at LBTH on the 8th September 2021 to all headteachers alongside the Faith Sensitive RSE guidance.
While this is good news, it is clearly too little too late for many parents and schools. We have pushed the Mayor and the council since December 2020 to send our guidance so schools can consider alternative perspectives and better understand the faith-sensitive approach. If it was sent in the first instance it may have helped parents and schools shape the RSE policy and be more balanced and reflective of the school’s community. However, now the majority of schools have finalised their policies it begs the question of whether this is just a tokenistic gesture from LBTH to appease the community?
Nevertheless, parents should be engaging with their schools and highlighting the faith-sensitive guidance document they received and asking schools to take this into consideration in the shaping of their policy.
Many parents have complained about the inept and sham consultations that several schools have undertaken. Parents should be following the complaints procedure if the consultations have not been done fairly.
Also if any school stating that they have to follow the LBTH guidance then please get in touch with THPA as we can raise this with LBTH directly to set the matter straight.
Letter to headteachers from LBTH
