Brighton and Hove City Council has clarified their school policy for the words 'mum' and 'dad' following national news reports that schools here had banned the terms.
The clarification comes following a number of stories in the national press, namely The Times, The Mail and The Sun, that four state schools in Sussex had banned the words 'mum' and 'dad'.
Primary Schools, St Luke's, Elm Grove, Saltdean and Carlton Hill have apparently infuriated parents for "banning" the use of the words so as not to make children in different types of family units feel discriminated against.
Each of the schools hit back, quoting from their 'equalities' policies, which deny the banning of the words but explain that the terms 'mum' and 'dad' are used with individual children if their circumstances are known.
The schools stated that using the term 'grown-ups' when speaking to large numbers of pupils, acknowledges the different family groupings that are becoming more common and avoids marginalising children who are living with step-parents, foster carers, two mums or two dads.
The city council responded with this on their website yesterday (Feb 22):
Recent reports claiming four Brighton schools are not allowing the words ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ to be used are untrue.
These are the facts:
- The words ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ are still used for children who have a mum and dad, and this hasn’t and won’t change.
- For instance, a teacher/staff member speaking to a pupil who they know has a mum and dad would say to a pupil, ‘tell your mum and dad...’.
- However, not all children have a mum and dad. So, if a child has two mums, two dads, are looked after by their grandparents, foster carers or has a single parent (a mum or a dad), then the appropriate term will be used.
- If a teacher/staff member isn’t sure of the child’s family situation, then ‘grown-up’ would be used.
- If a teacher is talking to the whole class, or a group of pupils, they will use the more general terms ‘tell your grown-ups’ or ‘tell your parents and carers’ as it’s possible not everyone in the group will have a ‘mum’ and a ‘dad’.
As most parents and carers will know, this approach and use of ‘parents and carers’ has been used in schools throughout England - not just in Brighton & Hove - for many years to ensure schools’ staff are addressing children’s very differing family situations sensitively.
We hope this clarifies the situation.
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