FOI Appeal to Access Secret Lesson Plan
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FOI Appeal to Access Secret Lesson Plan
Transparency in schools
Summary
Clare Page, mother of a 15 year old female student, was denied to access to the slides used to teach sex education to her daughter. Page was concerned by her daughter’s report of the content of the lesson. She was further told that she had no right to know who was teaching the lesson. Page made a Freedom of Information request but it was declined by Haberdashers’ Hatcham College on grounds of commercial secrecy for the charity and privacy for the teacher. Page then referred the case to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
In a landmark decision, the ICO backed the school's choice to keep the lesson and teacher's identity secret from parents. Page asserts that this is prioritising the commercial interest of a third party education provider over the public interest of parents to know what their children are taught and prioritising the privacy of the teacher over safeguarding concerns.
Page is appealing the ruling in the First Tier Tribunal.
More information can be found at at Page’s crowd funder here. Find Page on Twitter as @NoSecretLessons
Status
Evidence was concluded in a single day - 3 May 2023. Submissions were heard on 10 May. A decision is expected within four weeks.
Live Tweet Threads
Note: the threads for the morning session on 3 May 2023 were subject to some Twitter glitches and may be difficult to understand as they are not necessarily in the correct order in the thread.
Morning session 3 May - part 1
Morning session 3 May- part 2
Afternoon session - 3 May
10 May - Submissions
Abbreviations
Clare Page (CP) - mother who made the complaint
School of Sexuality Education (SSE)
Zoe Gannon (ZG), counsel for CP
Susan Wright (SW), counsel for SSE
Dolly Padalia (DP) ,CEO of SSE
Judge Buckley (JB)
Press Coverage
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/parents-battle-to-see-secret-lessons-on-white-privilege-959kfzl2t