BBC Panorama set to expose new claims as row over LGBT teaching continues

An estimated 370 children were kept off school on Friday at Parkfield Community Primary.

Head teachers have been left alone to confront people resisting 'hard-won equalities' at the school gates while ministers and faith leaders 'whisper in secret' but do nothing.

That was the frustrated message from human rights lawyer Nazir Afzal, who says city primary schools like Parkfield in Alum Rock and Anderton Park in Sparkhill have been 'hung out to dry' because of a 'deficit of local and national leadership'.

He also issued a direct challenge to city mosques and community leaders to "stop whispering in secret" and instead be up front about their views and solutions 'so we can have these discussions in the open'.

Mr Afzal said he was appalled that the LGBT education issue was continuing to dominate headlines 'when people are dying and suffering harm because of other issues we are failing to talk about.'

An estimated 370 children were kept off school on Friday at Parkfield Community Primary in protest over moves to reinstate a modified version of the award winning 'No Outsiders' equality teaching programme from September.

The programme, created by the school's assistant head Andrew Moffat, features story books and lesson plans starring characters with a range of protected characteristics, including LGBT.

Earlier in the week angry protesters repeated claims that they did not want their kids to learn that 'being gay was okay'.

A parents' group says the outcome of the consultation has been a shambles and has triggered the direct action.

Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council is seeking a permanent injunction seeking to ban protests at the gates of Anderton Park School, which has faced mass gatherings and a pupil withdrawal against its teaching around LGBT equality.

A BBC Panorama investigation tonight will claim that Parkfield was persuaded to suspend the No Outsiders programme to allow for consultation against its will to try to get the issue out of the headlines.

The DfE said it did not accept pressure was applied to stop teaching about equality at Parkfield. It said any suggestion the dispute should be kept out of the media was not intended to silence the school but to bring an end to the protests and encourage consultation.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said the suspension of the programme made the situation worse.

Author's comment: This issue was highlighted in a Britain First article last week, and is the result of Government policy to create two protected groups - LGBT and Muslims - without considering the highly likely probability that those two groups were never going to co-exist in an educational context because of Islamic doctrine concerning homosexuality.

As we said last week, if Mohammed won't come to the mountain, then the mountain will have to go to Mohammed.