Parents have lost a legal challenge against the teaching of young children about gender identity and sex in primary schools across Wales, with Mrs Justice Steyn rejecting a judicial review.
Campaigners launched a judicial review in the High Court against the Welsh Government’s new relationships and sexuality education curriculum. The curriculum was launched in September and sees the mandatory teaching of relationships and sexuality education to pupils from the age of seven.
The two-day legal challenge, which was heard in November at the Civil Justice Centre in Cardiff, was brought by Public Child Protection Wales, which says the new curriculum is inappropriate for primary age children.
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In written arguments, Paul Diamond, representing the claimants, said the legal challenge centred on the “whole-school approach” of the new curriculum – and it was not subject to any rights of parental excusal.
Mr Diamond said the claimants were five parents – four mothers and one father – with children ranging in age from nine to teenagers. Some of the children attend state schools while others have been removed due to concerns about the curriculum.
“All five claimants have moral and philosophical objections to the proposed curriculum and would wish to exercise rights of excusal on behalf of their children in relation to the provision of any such classes,” Mr Diamond said.
“The proposed teaching of Relationships and Sexuality Education in Wales is specifically constructed to be value-laden since much of the teaching, particularly that regarding LGBTQ+, will concern not facts of a scientific nature but highly contentious theories relating to moral and behavioural choices made by individuals.
“Were it to be taught as a stand-alone class and subject to a right of excusal, there would clearly not be any possibility of indoctrination.
“At stake in the present case is the question of whether there is any limit to what can be taught to children in schools or, ultimately, any place including the home and whether the state is to endorse the values of modern, liberal democracy or adopt instead a form of ideological totalitarianism.”
Jonathan Moffett KC, representing the Welsh Government, rejected the language used by the claimants.
“Such hyperbolic rhetoric, which has been a feature of the claimants’ case throughout, is unhelpful and serves only to obscure the fact that, properly understood, the claim raises conventional public law issues in relation to the principle of legality and the lawfulness of guidance, issues which do not require anything other than a conventional forensic approach on the part of the court,” he said.
Mr Moffett said the claimants had failed to identify “what allegedly unlawful teaching” the new curriculum would adopt and instead “resort to broad assertions”.
“The claimants have not pointed to any passages in the code or the guidance that authorise or positively approve teaching that advocates or promotes any particular identity or sexual lifestyle over another, or that encourage children to self-identify in a particular way,” he said.
In a written judgment, Mrs Justice Steyn said: “In my judgment, for the reasons I have given, the case law and texts relied upon by the claimants do not support the existence of a fundamental common law right of excusal. I reject the contention that such a right exists.
“This conclusion is unsurprising, given the nature of the claimed right, which is conceptually dependent on a pre-existing obligation of school attendance, and which, as defined by the claimants, has the appearance of legislation rather than a common law right.”
Welsh Government education minister Jeremy Miles said: "I welcome the Court’s decision which found in favour of the Welsh Ministers on all grounds. The Court rejected the characterisation of the RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) curriculum by the claimants.
He added: "Now more than ever, our children need our help in protecting them from harmful content and people online. RSE should provide young people with confidence to say no to bullies, to call out harassment, and to understand that families come in all shapes and sizes.
"Parents can expect the teaching their children receive to be appropriate for their children’s age and maturity: this is a legal requirement."
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