Assalamualaikum,

A couple of years ago, the previous government spurred on by the sexual health lobby promised to make Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) statutory from the age of five. Thankfully this proposal failed, partly due to political miscalculation but also due to the strength of opposition from people like you. The fact that the Muslim community managed to muster a 23,000 strong petition against these proposals in a relatively short period of time, is an indication of what we can achieve if we believe in the importance of something. As parents with children, we are concerned that our children are raised with Islamic values and want to protect them.

Recently it has become clear that although there are pressures to make SRE compulsory, most recently from the House of Lords select committee on HIV and AIDS, the government has pledged not to do so. This is a welcome development in the short term.

After the London Riots, it is clear that values are even more important for our children. Please read my article on this.

It is very clear that although nationally there are unlikely to be any changes to SRE, the real battles will be won and lost on a local level. Although we believe it is important for parents to work closely with schools, experience tells that many schools will remain resistent to including your views when deciding on how SRE is taught and what resources are used.

This places much more responsibility on us parents to scrutinise, convince and use our right to withdraw if schools refuse to listen to our views.

We have been continuing to advise parents and we are often contacted when the situation reaches crisis point. I believe more should be done at an earlier stage to avoid the crises. Recently, after a parent contacted me, I did something which I haven’t done before I contacted the Head Teacher on behalf of the parent. I explained the concerns and the Head teacher was very responsive, she gave every impression she wanted to resolve any differences and asked that the parent meet her to discuss this issue further. The point is, a disagreement over the teaching of SRE does not have to lead to a war and believing it does is more often than not counterproductive. Diplomacy is the best tool you can use and we find it is far more responsive than going in and accusing the school of corrupting your children!

it is in no one’s interest for disagreements over SRE to lead to a breakdown of trust and communication. If concerns are communicated to schools early, there is a greater chance of resolving differences.
We are happy to advise you based upon what we have learnt supporting parents over the past three years.

++SRE RESEARCH AND ALTERNATIVE++
We are completing our SRE research study which will provide a picture of what is being taught in our primary schools, insha Allah we are looking to publish this in January.

We are also involved in developing an alternative SRE programme.

++TOWER HAMLETS++
We have also been supporting parents in Tower Hamlets as there have been a number of concerns about how SRE is taught there. We are looking to organise seminars for parents in Tower Hamlets, so if you want to be trained to understand how you can work with your child’s school to ensure your views are listened to please do contact me.

++VOLUNTEERS++
As SREIslamic is a voluntary initiative, run by people that are not paid, but also have full time jobs we are always looking for people who believe in what we do to join our team. If you have any skills, from writing articles to developing websites, training/presentation skills, data inputting, proofreading etc. Please do get in touch and help support the Islamic values of our children.

++WEBSITE FAQ++
Finally, we are in the process of developing our website, we want Muslim parents to be able to visit the site and understand the key issues in SRE at school, we want to do this by developing an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), please could you send your thoughts on questions you have or you feel could benefit others and I will include them in the list of questions.

++FACEBOOK/TWITTER++
Could I ask any of you who have a Facebook account to like SREIslamic. Please encourage everyone you know to like our Facebook page.

Please click on this link  and press like!

Please follow us on Twitter

JazakAllahu khairan for your continued support.

Yusuf
SREIslamic
http://www.sreislamic.org
yusuf@sreislamic.org
07883 027 067