Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, and Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the
National Association of Head Teachers, have written to Education
Secretary today to express their
disappointment with the tone of a press release issued
by the Department for Education on Monday over Relationships, Sex
and Health Education (RSHE) materials and the comments in the
press release from the Education Secretary. The letter is as
follows:
Rt Hon MP
Secretary of State for Education
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
Friday 27 October 2023
Dear Gillian
We are writing to raise our concerns about the way in which your
letter to schools regarding RSHE materials was ‘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. In reality, we think that
the vast majority of schools already share RSHE materials with
parents and that if there are examples where this has not
happened for any reason, it is in a very small number of cases.
This simply isn’t an issue which warrants a press release
containing the comment from you: “No ifs, no buts and no more
excuses.”
It is desperately disappointing that you as the Secretary State
for Education – the very person who should be standing up for
schools – instead chooses to denigrate them in pursuit of a
headline. This sort of thing undermines public institutions and
feeds a breakdown of trust that is corrosive. You are aware that
schools are experiencing very difficult conditions in terms of
challenging pupil behaviour and high levels of absenteeism. We
need political leaders to be encouraging parents to support
schools rather than making that relationship more difficult. It
is also incredibly hard to recruit and retain enough staff to
deliver the curriculum in general, let alone the extra demands of
a subject as sensitive as RSHE. Inflaming controversy over RSHE
is hardly likely to encourage people into the profession or
inspire confidence among teachers who are teaching this subject.
We are making this letter public in order to provide some sort of
balance to the press release that you issued – without warning –
on Monday. We implore you to think more carefully about the
impact of such statements in the future and to be a champion for
our schools and colleges.
Yours sincerely
Geoff Barton
General Secretary
Association of School and College Leaders
Paul Whiteman
General Secretary
National Association of Head Teachers
