Relationship Education in Schools

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy, for the third time this afternoon—we are on a roll here. I commend the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing this debate, on a subject that can be quite difficult—I think that is a fair way of putting it. I will give a parental perspective. The hon. Member and I are not in opposition to each other, but I want to put my view on record.

I am pleased to represent the case for Northern Ireland—I understand that my hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart) will do something similar—and parents who want to have a say on what their children are taught in school. My contribution will be about the importance of parental rights. Many Members will be aware that there has been a shift in the content that schools teach and that is approved by boards of governors, who should be allowed to ensure that RSE in taught in line with community values. There should be a commitment to best practice and good relations between parents and teachers. That always has to be there, and is a key issue in schools.

Such commitment is found at Victoria primary school in Newtownards, in my constituency of Strangford, where parents were brought to an open night, the evening before teaching was to take place with the children, to allow interested parents to know the way in which sensitive topics would be taught, and give them tools that could help them to follow up with their child afterwards. I felt that was a constructive and positive way forward.

I am pleased to see the Minister in her place. She always tries to reassure us, and I seek such reassurance in her response. The sensitive approach that I described was welcomed by parents, and speaks well of a school that looks at education holistically, including home life, which is part of who we are. There is no doubt that teachers play a central role in helping children to grow into successful adults who are equipped with the skills that they need to be safe in a fast-moving world. It is a much faster world than the one in which I was brought up, but I am of a certain age, so people will probably understand that.

Some of the most contentious issues will be taught in RSE. I believe that parents have every right to exercise their authority over what they deem safe and appropriate for their children to be taught. I am putting the marker down clearly for parents, on behalf of their children. There are issues of a personal nature and matters of morality, and it is best left to parents to decide how to raise their children. Their input into this process must be critical. It is not for the state to decide the morality and standards of each family in the United Kingdom. I say that with respect to people. I want to be quite clear: we understand that parents raise children differently. I may disagree with others about what they choose to teach their children, but this is a democratic society, where all values must be respected, no matter how much we disagree with them, in order to uphold freedom of conscience and religion.

There is a blurry line between relationships education and sex education but I will always be a voice for parents, and for them to deem what is appropriate for their child to be taught in school. There must be regulation to ensure that, should a school decide to implement changes to RSE, a parent has a right to withdraw their child, if it is going the wrong way and the parents do not like it. I put that marker down as well.

I urge the Government not to push forward any changes that would diminish parental authority and control. I ask the Minister to continue to speak with her counterparts in the devolved nations to ensure that parents who are genuinely seeking to safeguard their children are afforded respect, in terms of the classroom syllabus, and have their rights to reasonably held views protected. Parental rights, first and foremost.