Parkfield Community School

Primary school in Birmingham, England

52°29′05″N 1°50′56″W / 52.4848053°N 1.8488142°W / 52.4848053; -1.8488142InformationTypeAcademyMottolearning for lifeLocal authorityBirmingham City CouncilTrustExcelsior Multi Academy TrustDepartment for Education URN139162 TablesOfstedReportsHead teacherJames Wright^[1]GenderMixedAge3 to 11Websitewww.parkfield.bham.sch.uk

Parkfield Community School is a primary school in Saltley, Birmingham, West Midlands, England. In 2013,^[1] it became an academy school, which means it receives its funding directly from the central rather than local government, in contrast with a community school.^[2] The government authority Ofsted found that the school maintained high standards in inspections in 2016 and 2019.^[1] In 2019 98% of the students were Muslim.^[3]

No Outsiders controversy

Parkfield received extended national attention starting in 2016 over its No Outsiders curriculum which teaches tolerance of differences.^[4]^[3] The programme had been created in 2014 by assistant headteacher (as of 2019) Andrew Moffat, who is gay.^[4]^[3] There were extended protests and activism by parents against the programme for several years, which grew to include people from other faiths from outside the local area.^[5] The protesters accused the school of encouraging the children to be gay. Some of the allegations circulated in the controversy included that the "sexual mechanics" of homosexuality were depicted to children with clay figures, which the school broadly denied.^[3] Ofsted confirmed that the programme was appropriate.^[6]

Following 5 months of consultation the programme restarted in September 2019, entitled "No Outsiders for a Faith Community", and included year group consultations with parents in advance of the lessons starting. Despite Ofsted having assessed the programme as age-appropriate, objections from some parents, and calls for him to be dismissed,^[7] continued.^[8]

In 2019 Birmingham City Council applied to the High Court for an injunction to create an exclusion zone to protect the affected schools from organised protests following an investigation by the Commission for Countering Extremism which revealed the protests had been taken over by Hizb ut-Tahir and other pro-Islamist groups, unconnected to either school, with a specific aim to “entrench social division” and “amplify hate” against LGBT people. The judge, Mark Warby upheld a permanent exclusion to the groups and stated they had deliberately “grossly misinterpreted” the programme by suggesting it promoted paedophilia which was not true."^[9]^[10]

Moffat also runs an after-school club called Parkfield Ambassadors. Here children learn more about the programme and visit other local schools to tell pupils about it. One aim of the club is to make connections between school children and reduce the risk of radicalisation in vulnerable groups.^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "50062382". Ofsted.
^ "What does it mean to be an academy school?". BBC.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Parkfield LGBT protest: Why has the school's top teacher been silenced?". The Guardian.
^ ^a ^b "'We respect Islam and gay people' … The gay teacher transforming a Muslim school". The Guardian.
^ "Parkfield School LGBT lessons 'not axed' despite protests". BBC.com.
^ "Parkfield School: Protests called off as LGBT lessons ended". BBC.com.
^ Hazell, Will. "'School was brutal': Meet pioneering teacher at centre of LGBT lessons storm who was inspired to teach tolerance". iNews. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
^ Kotecha, Sima. "LGBT schools row: Equality teaching to return to Parkfield School". BBC News. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
^ Powys Maurice, Emma. "A High Court judge has ruled to permanently extend an exclusion zone banning anti-LGBT education protests outside a Birmingham primary school". Pink News. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
^ Powys Maurice, Emma. "Islamist extremists exploited LGBT school protests to fuel hate and division, official probe finds". Pink News. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
^ Lightfoot, Liz. "'We respect Islam and gay people' … The gay teacher transforming a Muslim school". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.