The controversial charity Educate & Celebrate, which teaches school children, has been accused of deceiving the public by claiming that it has been endorsed by Ofsted.
The school inspectorate ordered the charity to remove references from its website, saying it does not endorse any resource provider.
However, some of the over 100 schools it has worked with still describe the organisation as ‘Ofsted-endorsed’.
‘Smash heteronormativity’
The charity’s founder, Elly Barnes, has previously told teachers that parents do not need to be informed if their child exhibits gender confusion, and advocated replacing words like boys, girls, son and mother with ‘gender-neutral terms’.
Educate & Celebrate has been known to encourage staff to chant “smash heteronormativity” during training sessions.
One of its former patrons, Jordan Gray – a man who claims to be a woman – was removed after backlash following his performance on Channel 4’s Friday Night Live, where he exposed himself during a profanity-filled pro-trans song.
In an interview in 2016, Gray reported that he had visited schools as part of the group. The charity said they were not aware that he visited schools on its behalf.
‘Highly contentious theories’
A spokeswoman for the Women’s Rights Network, Heather Binning, said the charity “promotes highly contentious theories about gender identity to children of primary school age and above, teaching them that human beings can change sex and that sexual orientation is just a matter of choice.”
She said: “None of this is age-appropriate or remotely acceptable, yet Educate & Celebrate has been operating in plain sight since at least 2014.”
According to Binning, some of its publicity claimed that it was an ‘Ofsted and Department for Education recognised Best Practice Award Programme’ but Ofsted denied the endorsement.
Educate & Celebrate said they were “not aware of ever using the term ‘endorsed by’”.
Government review
Last week, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman warned that children are receiving sex education lessons that have “no basis in any reputable scientific, biological explanation”.
She welcomed the Government’s recent announcement to launch an urgent review of guidance on Relationships and Sex Education, saying that Ofsted is currently powerless to sanction schools that are using inappropriate materials.
Rishi Sunak promised the review in the House of Commons earlier this month in response to a challenge from Miriam Cates MP.
Mrs Cates told the Prime Minister that children are being “subjected to lessons that are age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents.”
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