Over the last week we have been working with a number of students who attend the St Josephs School in Slough, who have each supplied disturbing statements in regards to the political bias displayed by senior staff at the School. This morning their issue was published by the Metro newspaper. The statements can also be found below in full.
It is clear from those who have come forward that the actions of those teachers involved have more than crossed the mark – and we call for those running the Academy trust to launch a full investigation into the matters that continue to be highlighted by students as soon as possible. Political indoctrination in schools is a violation of Section 406(1)(b) of the 1996 Education Act and should be taken very seriously.
What this issue highlights is the ease with which political bias has entered our education system – suppressing student’s individual freedom of thought and expression. We stand up for the rights of all students to go through their education freely able to express their own opinions without judgement.
As a result we have today written to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson MP (see link below), calling on him to ensure that the government looks at ways it can more seriously tackle this issue to strengthen student freedom, and we also call on local council leader Cllr James Swindlehurst to take action to ensure that this kind of issue isn’t faced in Slough-controlled schools.
It is high time we ensured that political bias is removed from education so that students are free to make up their own minds.
We are continuing to receive statements from students in Slough and urge any student who is finding this an issue in their school to come forward and submit their statement anonymously to [email protected].
Lee Pettman - Chair, Slough Conservative Association
UPDATE 20/09/19
Following news of potential action at the school we have removed the anonymous statements made by students to ensure their complete protection.
