Montague v The Governing Body Of Heavers Farm Primary School

Published date24 August 2023
Law FirmDeka Chambers
AuthorMr Richard Collier

An unusual, complicated and interesting case which confronts the delicate conflict between religious belief and inclusive secular education.

Earlier this year HHJ Lethem handed down judgment in Montague, a case that generated a good deal of press coverage. In this article Richard Collier considers the judgment, which, albeit long, is commendable in its balanced approach and detailed reasoning.

Ian Clarke of Deka Chambers represented the successful defendant, instructed by James Fawcett and Naadia Ellis of Browne Jacobson.

Background

The three claimants comprise a Christian family; the Second and Third Claimants are mother and father respectively of the First Claimant. Between September 2017 and October 2018 the First Claimant, who was 4 years old at the time, attended Heavers Farm primary school ("the School") as a reception student. This is a non-faith school serving an ethnically, religiously and socially diverse pupil body.

In mid-2018 the School arranged a number of activities to coincide with 'Pride Month' in June. This formed part of a broader programme throughout the year to encourage tolerance and inclusion, addressing the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of the pupils ("SMSC"). The topics and activities grouped around the notion that there was 'no hierarchy of equalities' and addressed diversity in all its manifestations including black history, disability awareness, mindfulness and mental health, women's history, and the environment.

The curriculum for the material time period in June 2018 included drawing posters of pupils' families and rainbow posters to reflect a wide range of colours getting on and being friends. One of the posters contained the message "some people are gay, get over it!" and another depicted about ten family situations along the lines of "Mum+Dad= love, Aunt+Uncle= Love, Mum+Mum= Love, Dad+Dad= Love". At other times of the year there had been posters relating to topics like black history, suffragettes and disability, coordinating with the SMSC teaching in each half term. The children were read to from "The Family Book" by Todd Parr which addresses diverse family structures and on one page acknowledges that same sex families exist.

There was intended to be a "Pride March" to celebrate the diversity of the School in June 2018, however this was controversial - some parents protested and there were discussions at the school gates in which the staff were called child abusers, that the school were teaching 'bum sex' and that homosexuals should be killed or locked up - and it was renamed the "Proud to be Me Parade" ("the Parade"). Pupils were encouraged to make placards for the Parade, focused on the children's families and what they felt proud about, and the First Claimant made a placard saying he was proud of going to church and playing with his cousins. During the Parade the pupils were encouraged to wear bright colours and sang three songs: 'True Colours', 'We Are Family', and '123 it is good to be me'. As part of this SMCS topic they were also given gender-based toys and their teacher discussed with them that the use of toys was a choice and should not be governed by gender. In the week leading up to the Parade, there was an international food day on which each child brought in food from home and spoke about their families.

The Second and Third Claimants are Christians who believe that homosexuality is a sin and pride is a vice which should be avoided. There are two forms of sexual lifestyle, total abstinence or lifelong fidelity in marriage between a man and woman. They accused the School of moral and cultural proselytism; the Parade was not simply part of a broader based curriculum, rather the other parts of the curriculum were a screen for the School's true LGBT agenda. The aggressive form of education conflicted with their religious household and exposed their young and vulnerable child to the possibility of conflict and confusion. The teaching was problematic in a number of ways, for example that the three songs in questions were "gay anthems" and the posters told the children that same sex relationships were normal. There should be no mention of LGBT to the First Claimant in school. Gender teaching is a matter for parents, indeed a proper respect for parental rights requires that issues of diversity should be addressed within the domestic setting. The word 'celebrating' means advancing the cause of LGBT which itself is sinful and not a cause for celebration. Accordingly the First Claimant did not attend the Parade despite not having been excused.

A messy and unedifying course of behaviour and complaints ensued, beginning with a complaint from the Second Claimant to...

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