‘Horror stories’ of children quizzed on family life

SCHOOL INSPECTORS have come under fire from the Bishop of Shrewsbury this week, in an escalation of the Church’s row with the Government’s education regulator, Ofsted.

In a homily during the annual Mass for Marriage and Family Life at St Columba’s Church, Chester, on Saturday, Bishop Mark Davies described reports of Ofsted inspectors questioning young children over their understanding of marriage and the family as “horror stories”.

He said that marriage was becoming increasingly “unmentionable”, with politicians often reluctant to say the word and teachers increasingly too scared to recommend marriage as a model of life to pupils.

“We have even heard horror stories of inspectors in schools questioning very young children as to whether they have been taught ‘narrow’ understandings of the family,” said the bishop. “The Church may well find herself among the last voices in society whole-heartedly speaking for the family based on the strong foundation of the lasting, life-giving, faithful union of one man and one woman.”

His comments follow publication of a letter on the website of The Tablet last week from Edmund Adamus, the Archdiocese of Westminster’s director for marriage and family life, accusing Ofsted inspectors of “emotionally traumatising” children with “invasive questions about their appreciation of homosexual lifestyle and practice”.

Last December, the Catholic Education Service demanded an apology from Ofsted after it downgraded St Benedict’s Catholic School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, from “good” to “requires improvement” for failing to promote British values. The CES accused Ofsted of making an “unsubstantiated” claim of extremism against the school after a snap inspection report suggested that younger pupils “show less awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation” and questioned whether the school prepared pupils “for life and work in modern Britain”. However, last month St Benedict’s was listed as the top state comprehensive school in England and Wales in the Gov­ernment’s School Per­form­ance League Tables. The Ofsted checks were introduced in the wake of the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot to impose hard-line Muslim values on some state schools in Birmingham.

The head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, a former headteacher of a Catholic school, has said that some faith schools could do more to promote social cohesion. He has denied any vendetta against faith schools and said that inspectors should follow up allegations of homophobic bullying.