Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the use of discriminatory language in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.

The department is clear that any incident of discrimination and derogatory language is unacceptable and should be dealt with quickly and effectively by schools. All members of the school community are responsible for creating a positive, safe environment in which threats or abuse are not tolerated and everyone is treated respectfully.

The ‘Behaviour in schools’ guidance outlines that school staff should challenge all inappropriate language and behaviour between pupils, never normalising abusive language or behaviour by disregarding it or treating it as ‘banter’.

The relationships, sex and health education curriculum has a strong focus on equality, respect, the harmful impact of stereotyping, and the importance of valuing difference.