Suffolk parent vows to remove daughter from Thurston Primary School, near Bury St Edmunds, over lessons on puberty

A parent has raised his concerns over compulsory education on puberty at a Suffolk school which he deems to be inappropriate for his eight-year-old daughter.

Michael Doherty, 51, who lives near Stowmarket, has applied to take his daughter out of Thurston Primary School after discovering that the Year 4 pupils will be learning about the menstrual cycle, the different parts of female and male genitalia, and changes in the body in their PSHE lessons.

The school has said its PSHE curriculum is in line with statutory guidance from the Department for Education's policy on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) which became compulsory in September 2020.

Other parents at the school have said they have no concerns about the education and are satisfied with the content being covered in lessons.

Despite this, Mr Doherty believes his daughter is too young for some of the content and questions some of its relevance, particularly an animation video on the BBC Bitesize website which shows the sexual bodily functions of a teenage boy.

He said: “They are doing things like getting eight-year-olds to label all the parts of the vagina. My daughter came out of class and said ‘we’ve been learning about vaginas and penises today’.

“I didn’t even know this was going on, they are by law supposed to share the material with parents.

“I’m going to remove my child from the school and mainstream education as a result because I’m not going to subject my eight-year-old daughter to this sort of material.

“I think it’s really disturbing.”

He believes he was not consulted properly by the school and battled for six weeks to see the content which was being taught in PSHE lessons.

However, Andrea Cureton whose nine-year-old son also attends the school, said she is not concerned about the content being taught at the school and says it hasn’t impacted her son.

She said her son did mention the video when he came home from school that day but that she was able to have an open conversation with him.

She said: “The video doesn’t have any words in it and as the video is being played in class, the teacher is pausing it and talking about and it’s put into a different context.

“We didn’t make it a dirty thing, we talked about it openly and that it is perfectly normal for when he gets older. He hasn’t mentioned it since. It hasn’t damaged him.”

Another parent, who did not want to be named, added: “The school are doing, and have always done, a wonderful job at educating our young people about their bodies.

“The families at the school were consulted on the teaching in 2020 when it became compulsory teaching and again were notified in May that the teaching was starting and what the curriculum would cover.

“We were invited at that time to meet with the school if we had any concerns. Some parents did meet with school and have been satisfied with their teaching and responses. The children themselves have stated that the teaching itself has been useful and informative and the teachers open and approachable.”

Headteacher John Bayes said: “A small minority of parents have expressed concerns about a particular resource produced by BBC Bitesize which is used as part of the approved curriculum.

“After contacting the PSHE Association raising points that the minority of parents have raised, I am confident that Thurston CE Primary Academy is teaching the correct content in the appropriate manner.”

The national picture

National newspapers reported in March that Rishi Sunak has called for the Department for Education (DfE) review into sex education materials be brought forward, following claims from MPs that children are being taught ‘graphic’ and ‘inaccurate’ content.

This came after 50 Conservative MPs wrote to the prime minister claiming ‘children are being indoctrinated with radical and unevidenced ideologies about sex and gender’.

The DfE’s statutory guidance said that primary school pupils will learn about the key building blocks of healthy, respectful relationships, focusing on family and friendships.