HC Deb 09 April 2003 vol 403 c293W
Mr. Paul Marsden

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance he has given to schools in Shropshire in terms of the military action in Iraq and(a) racist incidents, (b) emotional support from teachers to pupils, (c) teachers' responses to questions by pupils, (d) how the citizenship curriculum covers the conditional legal issues of war and (e) how teachers are expected to assist children with armed forces personnel relatives. [107200]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

My Department has net given any specific guidance to schools about military action in Iraq because advice is already available to them through a range of relevant material from the Department, the Service Children's Education Agency (SCE), and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Advice on dealing with racist incidents can be found in the updated pack "Bullying—don't suffer in silence" (first issued in December 2001) and at www.qca.org.uk/ca/inclusion/respect for all/. Citizenship coverage of issues surrounding war can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/citizenship/cit117. The SCE provides advice to forces personnel on education issues and has recently issued a deployment pack to local education authorities in areas, including Shropshire, where there are likely to be numbers of children from service families.