Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent advice she has given to schools on tackling Islamophobia.

The Department for Education’s policy is to tackle all forms of discrimination, extremism, hate crime and bullying. All schools are required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faith and beliefs. Our guidance published in November 2014 says that British values include accepting that others of different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour. The guidance can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-fundamental-british-values-through-smsc.

All publicly funded schools are required to promote community cohesion and teach a broad and balanced curriculum.The curriculum provides many opportunities to foster tolerance and understanding. As part of the history curriculum, pupils could learn about different cultures, and about how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain. The citizenship programme of study sets out a requirement for pupils to be taught about ‘the diverse national, regional, religious, and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom and the need for mutual respect and understanding’. PSHE can teach young people about the rights and responsibilities of living in a diverse community and how to respect others.

All forms of bullying are unacceptable and all schools are required to have in place a behaviour policy with measures to tackle bullying and they are held to account by Ofsted. Inspectors will look at records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour, either directly or indirectly, including racist, disability and homophobic bullying, use of derogatory language and racist incidents.

We have made clear in advice to schools that where bullying outside school is reported to school staff, it should be investigated and acted on. If the misbehaviour could be criminal or poses a serious threat to a member of the public, the police should always be informed.