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Nurseries to teach 'British values' under new rules

Nurseries to teach 'British values' under new rules

Categories: Latest News

Friday August 08 2014

BBC News, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, Daily Express and Daily Mail all cover the announcement by the new Education Secretary of a withdrawal of funding from those providers or early years education who “[Do] not meet the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils set out in the Independent School Standards; does not actively promote fundamental British values; or promotes, as evidence based, views and theories which are contrary to established scientific or historical evidence and explanations.”

The Department for Education has opened a consultation on the matter with the Education Secretary setting out the envisaged plans saying “One of the most important roles of the education system is that it should prepare young people for life in modern Britain.

“I am clear that public money should not be used to support any school or early years’ provider that does not support this aim because it seeks to promote ideas and teachings than run counter to fundamental British values.

“The changes we are making today will ensure that all early years providers and schools are aligned with the need to protect children from views that are considered extreme.”

All of the newspapers allude to the alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ affair in their coverage of the announcement linking the report by ex-Met counter-terrorism chief, Peter Clarke, with the policy focus on nurseries that draw on taxpayer funding.

The Daily Telegraph which places the news on the front page claims that the Education Secretary is “understood to be concerned about the risks posed to children by nurseries linked to radical mosques or run by Islamic hardliners.”

The Guardian covers the effect of the proposed rules on the teaching of creationism in schools. While BBC News mentions an important detail concerning the role of the British Humanist Association in the proposed new rules.

BBC News states: “450 of its [BHA] members responded to a recent government consultation, asking for funding to be withdrawn where there were concerns that nurseries were being run by people with “extremist views” or who promoted creationism as a scientific fact.

“About 1,000 people also wrote to their MPs.”

The BHA have previously targeted early years’ education provision by the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation using an FOI to elicit information on nursery grants received by the school under the government’s ‘free early education’ programme.

Muslim nursery children have also attracted the unwarranted attention of counter-terrorism officers and the Taskforce on Tackling Radicalisation report mentioned proposals covering Muslim supplementary schools with the report calling for “improve[d] oversight of religious supplementary schools”.

The Guardian notes Labour’s reaction to the announcement with a stating “there is no concrete intelligence about individual nurseries that demands immediate action”. And BBC News includes the reaction of the National Union of Teachers with Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney commenting: “It is disappointing that it is the notion of extremism which is the subject of the first major announcement of the new Secretary of State.”

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