Worlds collide as gay assistant head teaches kids about homosexuality in 98 per cent Muslim community
Two worlds collide at 'outstanding' inner-city school in Birmingham as teacher brings 'modern methods'
WITH an MBE for promoting equality and diversity, teacher Andrew Moffat might be the last person you would expect to be accused of cultural insensitivity.
Indeed, Andrew is one of three British teachers shortlisted for a £760,000 award to find the world’s best teacher.
Yet the gay assistant head has faced an angry barrage from parents at Birmingham’s Parkfield Community School, who say their children are too young for his lessons about homosexuality.
There has been a 400-name petition to scrap the classes at the inner-city school, which is almost completely Muslim.
The faith does not generally tolerate homosexuality because the Koran teaches it is both unnatural and against the will of Allah.
Some parents accused the teacher of brainwashing.
Incensed mum Fatima Shah, who first raised the issue, pulled her ten-year-old daughter out of classes, saying: “It’s inappropriate, totally wrong.
“Children are being told it’s OK to be gay yet 98 per cent of children at this school are Muslim.
“He said all parents are on board with it. But the reality is that no parents are on board with it.”
The mum, 29, who later let her child rejoin lessons, added: “We have nothing against Mr Moffat. We are as British as they come. We respect the British values but the problem is that he is not respecting our ethos as a community.
“We don’t send our children to school to learn about LGBT. We send them to school to learn maths, science and English.”
Mrs Shah is far from alone.
He is not respecting community ethos
Fatima Shah
Mum-of-two Fatiya Hasham, 27, whose seven-year-old is at the school, said: “It’s just wrong. We should be telling them these things, not the teachers. They’re too young.
“It’s not a part of our religion and we don’t believe in it. Mr Moffat is the problem.”
Yusra Hashan, 25, who has two kids aged seven and five at the school, insisted: “I think the lessons should be introduced in secondary school.
“Mr Moffat teaches it in a way that’s brainwashing the kids. My son came home saying he was Christian.”
Andrew, who is in a civil partnership, says he feels threatened by the outpouring of anger, which has included a leaflet campaign and a threatening phone call.
He blamed a “small minority” of parents, insisting: “The feedback from the vast majority of parents has been good.”
If kids want it, they should do it. Times have changed. This is normal now
Sufiyan Javed
It is not the first time Andrew has been embroiled in controversy.
In 2007 the teacher called for five-year-olds to be taught about the existence of gay men and women in an education guide called Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools.
And he resigned from a previous school in 2014 after an outcry from parents.
They were upset that he revealed he was gay in an assembly at Chilwell Croft Academy in nearby Newtown, Birmingham. He said at the time: “Some Christian and some Muslim parents have told me they don’t want their children learning that it’s OK to be gay.
“I did come out at school in an assembly after a group of 11-year-olds held up a poster they made with the heading ‘Gay is good’.
“Following my coming out, some parents from different communities complained to the school, but I maintain that my decision was the right one.”
Parents, not teachers, should be teaching our kids these things
Fatiya Hasham
Where he now works, Parkfield Community School, is in the gritty Saltley area of Birmingham, with a high population of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage. Taxi driver Abid Ali, 56, originally from Mirpur, Pakistan, told me: “We’re a traditional community.
“We weren’t taught about homosexuality at school. We think it should be the parents’ choice.”
Yet attitudes among younger members of Saltley’s Muslim community are more liberal.
Student Sufiyan Javed, 17, said of the lessons: “If the kids want to do it, they should.
“The times have changed and it’s normal now.”
Fellow student Armaan Reham, 17, added: “Younger people accept this. Perhaps it’s the older generation that have an issue.”
TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
Parkfield — with 775 pupils from 23 nationalities — serves an area of east inner Birmingham where three inquiries were held into an alleged “Trojan Horse” plot by Muslim governors to take over schools.
Parkfield was not affected and Ofsted rates it outstanding.
The school was also honoured by Andrew being shortlisted in December for the US $1million prize for the best teacher in the world, handed out each year by the Varkey Foundation.
The winner will be announced next month.
Will's Two Dads tale
POP star Will Young will read a children’s story featuring same sex parents for CBeebies’ popular Bedtime Story.
The tale, called Two Dads, is about a boy adopted by a pair of men and is being told by the gay singer as part of February’s LGBT History Month.
Will, 40, said he hoped the story, to air on the BBC’s kids’ channel on February 9, would ensure “all forms” of families were recognised and celebrated.
A teacher for more than 20 years, Andrew introduced the No Outsiders programme to Parkfield in 2014.
It is taught separately to sex and relationship education lessons, and it is the scheme for which he won an MBE in 2017.
The aim is to promote British values, prepare youngsters for modern life and teach them to be proud of who they are while recognising and celebrating difference and diversity.
Each year group, from reception kids aged just four, up to year six children aged ten — has five No Outsiders lessons per year. They cover areas outlined in the Equality Act — age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Four story books he uses
THESE are some of the books Andrew gets kids to read in his lessons about people’s different relationships, including same-sex.
- KING & KING: A fairytale in which, despite his mum’s efforts to pair him up with a princess, Prince Bertie lives happily ever after with Prince Lee.
- MY PRINCESS BOY: A picture book where a boy sometimes enjoys wearing a dress and a tiara, and other times climbs trees in jeans.
- MOMMY, MAMA AND ME: For four or five-year-olds, about a toddler’s day with two mums, ending with the women tucking the child into bed.
- RED ROCKETS AND RAINBOW JELLY: Shows how different people like different things –“Nick likes apples, Sue likes pears” – but still like each other.
Describing one book used in his lessons, Andrew told a local newspaper: “There’s one, for example, called Mommy, Mama And Me.
“It’s a very nice, gentle board book for four or five-year-olds and it’s a little story about two mummies. I’m just teaching children from an early age that there are different families out there.”
Sex education is not part of the curriculum in primary schools and the Government does not intend to make it compulsory under new guidelines to be brought in next year.
But under a proposal put forward by the Department for Education it will be “recommended” that primary school children are to be given lessons in gay relationships in England from 2020.
At present, many primary school children currently learn about relationships in Personal, Social, Health and Economic education, but this is not compulsory.
For year five children, aged nine to ten, kids learn about life cycles of both humans and animals, including reproduction. They also learn about puberty.
Once children are aged 11 and in secondary school they do have to learn about reproduction in science lessons, although parents can ask for their children to be withdrawn from classes that teach sex education.
Academies and private schools do not have to follow the curriculum, but they are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum that includes science.
The Department for Education says that teaching about LGBT relationships has to be done in an “age appropriate” way.
I’m just teaching children from an early age that there are different families out there
Andrew Moffat
Meanwhile, Birmingham Labour councillor Tristan Chatfield said the school’s work was being “misunderstood” by some parents.
And while Muslim councillor Mohammed Idrees initially supported the protesting parents and complained pupils were “too young” to be taught about homosexuality, he has now apologised for his comments.
Head teacher David Williams was yesterday unavailable for comment but Hazel Pulley, the chief executive of Excelsior Multi Academy Trust, which runs the school, said she was disappointed by the parents’ protest.
She said: “We’ve been doing No Outsiders for four years now and it’s been so successful. We want the best for our children. We want them to be accepting and to welcome anybody.”
Yet there are still deep-seated fears from the conservative parents in Saltley that children are learning too much too soon.
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Mum-of-two Adeg Hasham, 32, whose four-year-old attends the school, insisted: “They’re taking the children’s innocence away. We can’t explain to the kids how two mums can have a child.
“We are not against LGBT, but the teaching of it should be up to the parents.”
A Department for Education spokesman gave support to the teachers, saying: “Parkfield is an outstanding school with a leadership team and staff committed to ensuring pupils are prepared for life in modern Britain.
“The Department trusts headteachers and teachers to develop a curriculum and whole school approach that ensures personal as well as academic development of their pupils.”
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