Friday 6 July 2012

Angry parents in Tower Hamlets to present petition to mayor calling for an end to explicit sex materials in the borough’s primary schools

9,000 local people have signed a petition calling on Tower Hamlets Council and the Healthy Lives Team to stop funding the Christopher Winter Project – a sex education programme which employs graphic images to teach young children about sex.

Parents are calling Tower Hamlets council to account for this use of taxpayers' money and to bring an end to local authority intervention in teaching sex education in primary schools. Schools need a clear message that sex education must be delivered in line with parents' wishes and the ethos of the community.

Mayor Luthfur Rahman has been asked to receive the petition on Wednesday 11 July at 1pm at the Town Hall, where leading parents from the Tower Hamlets Parents' Action Group on SRE will hand him the petition.

Parents will be meeting 10am to 11am on 11 July at the London Muslim Centre, where they will hear from Dr Lisa Nolland, a social historian, family issues expert and leading figure in Anglican Mainstream.

Also speaking will be parents from the Tower Hamlets Parents' Action Group, formed to campaign against explicit sex education in the borough. Mrs Emma Clarke, a parent from Northampton, will address the meeting. Mrs Clarke campaigns against graphic sex education in her area.

Yusuf Patel of SREIslamic and Antonia Tully of SPUC's Safe at School have been supporting the parents’ campaign.

The NHS paid £78,000 to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to train teachers to deliver the Christopher Winter Project. Tower Hamlets Council spent £2,277 plus VAT on DVDs. Both training and DVDs were offered free of charge to schools in the borough.

For more information, please contact Antonia Tully of SPUC Safe at School on telephone 020 8407 3463 or email safeatschool@spuc.org.uk

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