The 1,000-strong secondary school at Bilton in Rugby boasts: “We treat everyone with kindness."
I can assure you that it is untrue. In fact, it’s balls.
This is the story, and I fear it might be replicated at schools all over the country. The idea was innocent enough, although I did spot the word ‘’inclusion’’ in the invitation and that always puts my teeth on edge.
The parents were asked in a note brought home by their children to send their child to school wearing something of their heritage. What they didn’t say was that Britons need not bother. Why wouldn’t they embrace our own culture? You tell me.
So, 12-year-old Courtney White ( a straight-A student) got into the spirit of things and wore a Union Flag dress (Spice Girls style) and wrote a nice piece about British culture, which was personified by ‘’drinking tea, love of talking about the weather and the Royal family’’.
Spot on.
Her teacher told Courtney the dress was ‘’unacceptable’’ and, unbelievably, she had to leave the class and was made to sit in the waiting area of reception all morning until her father turned up to take her home.
Imagine how she felt? Humiliated.
Apparently, idiot teachers at the school took the view that only those with cultures outside the UK could turn up in something of heritage, as British pupils were always in something "local’’. That is untrue. It’s schools like Bilston which make you wary of showing off your flag.
I took a look at the heritage breakdown on Rugby and I can’t even see why they needed an ‘’inclusion’’ day. In Rugby only 7.6 per cent are Asian (a mixture of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim) 2.7 per cent black but 85.7 per cent are white, the vast majority British.
Stuart Field
| Banning a schoolgirl for wearing a Union Jack dress exposes the lie we have all been sold - Kelvin MacKenzieDad Stuart Field said: ‘’My daughter shouldn’t be punished for celebrating being British.’’ Correct.
Other pupils with St George’s flags and even Welsh flags were also turned away from the school gates.
When the row exploded, the school came up with a load of verbal piffle, saying ‘’lessons will be learned’’ and ‘’we are reviewing our policies". They did apologise to the dad, but by that time, the damage was done.
The reality is that if Stuart, a marine engineer, had not posted on Facebook, nobody would have known about his daughter’s treatment.
Parents across the nation should take that on board. When he raised the issue with the Head of Year, he got nowhere, but when the story exploded in the media, all the senior staff put on the reverse bicycle clips.
The staff have learned a lesson. What is astonishing is that they had to be taught it in the first place. The truth is that almost all teachers are of the Left. Most would be happy in the new Corbyn party, and those who wouldn’t keep very quiet about it.
Nobody can get preferential treatment in education by being a Conservative, and if you were, say, a history teacher who voted Reform, there is a very good chance you would be fired and at the very minimum eased out.
The teachers at Bilton probably have no idea what they did wrong. No idea how humiliating it must have been for Courtney to sit for hours in reception waiting for her father to take her home.
No idea why television and new channels, including GB News, gave the story so much coverage. They are completely out of touch, and that is what is so worrying.
What is clear is that it’s not only the pupils who need educating, it’s also the teachers.