Mrs Taylor was shocked at the work sent home for her daughter A mum is "fuming" after her 11-year-old daughter's schoolwork...
Mrs Taylor was shocked at the work sent home for her daughter
A mum is "fuming" after her 11-year-old daughter's schoolwork asked her to define hardcore pornography and other topics she deemed "inappropriate".
Youngsters in years 7, 8 and 9 were set the work for their Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) class, as part of their home-learning during the coronavirus school shut down.
Teachers at Archbishop Sentamu Academy in east Hull asked the 11 to 14-year-olds to "define" pornography, soft pornography, hardcore pornography and transsexual pornography, as well as female genital mutilation, wet dreams, trafficking, male circumcision, breast ironing and more.
They were also asked questions about alcohol, drugs and smoking.
Following complaints from parents, the academy has now apologised for any offence caused.
The children were asked to define a range of "inappropriate" terms
Mum-of-three Mrs Taylor said if her daughter had searched these phrases online in order to
define them, the results would have "destroyed her mind" and "scarred her for life".
The mum of children aged seven, 11 and 16 was warned about the work in a Facebook post
by another parent before her daughter began working on it.
The 34-year-old said: "My daughter is still very much a child, we've still got magic elves, her
bedroom is done in My Little Pony. She is very innocent and naive.
"She was only in primary school last year living her best life, now she is being asked to search
for hardcore pornography.
"She’s 11, she should be doing stranger danger, and don’t share your info online, but genital
mutilation is another thing. It was asking about male circumcision, breast ironing...
I don’t even know what that is myself.
"I'm just thinking is there kids out there who have done this work? You would be scared at what you saw. At 11 I was playing with Barbies.
"Now it's making me think what they are learning about at school that we don’t know about. We only know about this because they're home learning."
Mrs Taylor said some of the work was acceptable, and encourages learning about sexuality, but said a lot of the work was "completely inappropriate."
Other parents and carers said they felt the same and were equally "disgusted".
Leon Dagon, 25 saw the work when he was sorting out his 13-year-old sister's work for her. He took to Facebook to warn other parents.
The headteacher at Archbishop Sentamu Academy in east Hull has apologised
He said: "When I first opened it I thought, 'Wow, this cannot be a 13-year-old's home work'.
What kind of teacher would set that?
"Luckily I found the work otherwise she would have typed this stuff into Google and you
know what would have come up and that makes me feel sick. I felt sick thinking she
was going to go onto the computer to search it up.
"I've taken the work out, this is not happening on my watch.
"I'm appalled. I get sex education is vital in anyone's life but when there's raw topics like
this it's something else."
The academy has apologised to parents and said students were not expected to search
those terms online.
Academy principal Chay Bell said: "I am genuinely sorry if parents or students have
unnecessarily researched any of these phrases and for any offence caused.
"I have asked that any future materials of this nature have a clear statement ensuring
students and their parents are aware of any potentially sensitive content and will ensure all
materials are fully age appropriate.
"The PSHE materials that we share with students are produced in line with government
guidance,the PSHE Association Programmes of Study and the Sex Education Forum’s
definition of Sex Education. They also cover the Equality Act of 2010.
"Students were not directed to research these topics themselves on the internet because
all the answers to the questions students posed were contained in the teacher-produced
materials we shared.
"Again, I am genuinely sorry for any upset caused at this difficult time."
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