By Gavin Mackintosh-
A minister has asked schools to prevent pupils from criticizing Boris Johnson as part of their coursework, the education secretary has said.
Randall said he had written to the Education Secretary to ask him to investigate whether the headteacher’s duty of impartiality under the Education Act 1996 has been breached.”
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The minister reacted with anger on Wednesday after it emerged that children at a school in Nottingham had been writing letters critical of the PM’s behaviour as part of an exercise.
The students had been influenced to write to their local MP criticizing Mr Johnson’s rule-breaking during lockdown.
The school says pupils were shown an edition of children’s television programme Newsround covering the Partygate affair .
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Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith for Bassetlaw earlier in the week called for the staff member responsible to be sacked and blasted them for ‘putting words put into their mouths’.
The former teacher said schools were not for ‘furthering people’s personal political agendas’ and added it ‘falls below the basic standards that parents expect’.
Mark Spencer, the new leader of the House who represents the Sherwood constituency, replied: “I think the right honourable gentleman raises a very important issue.
“Education in our democratic processes and democratic establishments is a very important part of young people learning how our democracy works but they have to be taught with sensitivity and it has to be taught without political bias and any suggestion there is political bias is quite unfortunate.”
The tweet has since been deleted along with the school’s Twitter account, with the headteacher, Rebecca Gittins stating this was because it had
He said: “There is understandable public interest in the allegations of gatherings at Downing Street, but does my right honourable friend share my concern about this subject has been taught recently at Welbeck Primary School in Nottingham.
“According to the school’s own tweet about the lesson, children appear to have been taught the allegations as fact and they also appear to have been taught, Mr Speaker, that you have been biased with no alternative view given.
He said it was one-sided” to explain the PM’s rule-breaking to the children in this way.
The education secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the Daily Mail that the exercise and others like it should be off-limits.
“While there is a clear need for schools to address political issues in the classroom from time to time, this must not be done in a partisan way,” he said.
“No school should be encouraging young people to pin their colours to a political mast.”
Welbeck Primary School was rated outstanding by Ofsted at its last inspection.
The school does its best to enhance the knowledge of its students and improve their reading and writing skills substantially.
Rebecca Gittins, the headteacher of the school, said in a statement: “As part of a democracy topic, the Year Six class has been looking closely at national politics, our leaders and decision-makers, while discussing fact and opinions.
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