Politics in Schools
Political education is very close to political indoctrination and Parliament has been worrying about the
political indoctrination of school children since 1986. Here is what Nick Hancox said about it in The Law of Education,
paragraph A [1370]:
Politics at school
Political indoctrination in maintained schools is banned and junior pupils (Year 6 and below) may not become involved
in partisan political activities at all (Education Act 1996, section 406). Maintained schools must present political
issues (both in school and in extra-curricular or out-of-school activities) in a way which offers a balanced presentation
of opposing views (Education Act 1996, section 407. See also the Court decision in Dimmock v Secretary of State for
Education and Skills [2007], concerning the distribution to schools of the DVD called An Inconvenient Truth).
This law does not apply at independent schools, nor in fact at Academies, although in both cases, the people funding the school might well have strong views on the matter.
Does it mean that high schools can ban their pupils from standing in a mock general election as a BNP or Stalinist candidate?
No it does not mean that. (Although a ban of one or more extremist 'parties' might well be lawful in a school election, if
the ban can be shown to be politically 'balanced'.) What it means is that if somebody does put forward an extreme point of
view, than the pupils need also to hear the opposite view.
Balance is what it is all about; balance instead of indoctrination.
.
Maintained Schools
As Nicholas Hancox wrote in the Glossary of Butterworths' Law of Education, there are 34 separate statutory definitions of 'maintained school' and at least 14 of them are different. Most often, a 'maintained school' is defined as a community, foundation, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, community special or foundation special school, (see s 20 School Standards and Framework Act 1998). But other definitions of a 'maintained school' exclude special schools and some definitions include either 'maintained nursery schools', or 'pupil referral units', or both.
Section 482 Academies are not 'maintained schools', even though they are funded almost entirely by the state. Academies are largely independent of their local education authority and funded directly by the DCSF.
The Narrative of Butterworths' Law of Education adds:
"Clearly, most schools can be and are categorised in several different ways. A school with a big sign outside that says 'Avenue School' may not be telling the visitor much, but the categorisation exists nevertheless. 'Avenue School' may be:
- a co-educational voluntary aided primary school, or
- a boys' community grammar school for 11 to 19 year olds with specialist college status
- or a foundation middle school operating in a federation with two local primary schools, or
- almost any other combination of categories.
"One easy way to find out is to find the school's status on the LEA, Ofsted or DCSF website. The school's own admissions prospectus ought also to give the answer and its Instrument of Government certainly will.
"Many educational institutions are not 'schools' at all. The London School of Economics provides Higher Education. The Nottingham Law School is part of a university. Pupil referral units in every LEA area provide education to children of compulsory school age, but are not schools. Further Education Colleges teach 14 year olds some of the time, but that does not make them 'schools'. Section 482 academies, on the other hand, are schools for many purposes."
Trust Schools are Foundation Schools with a foundation or trust attached. They are described in section 23A of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (as inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006), but, oddly, the phrase "Trust School" does not appear in the Acts at all. Trust Schools are also 'maintained schools'.