Staff at a nursery school threatened to refer a four-year-old boy to a de-radicalisation programme after he drew pictures which they thought showed his father making a “cooker bomb”, according to the child’s mother.



The child’s drawing actually depicted his father cutting a cucumber with a knife, his mother says, but staff misheard his explanation and thought it referred to a type of improvised explosive device.

On Friday the boy’s mother showed the Guardian video footage of her son in which he is playing happily on the floor of his home, and is shown a cucumber and asked what it is. “A cuker-bum,” he says, before going back to his toys.

The footage was taken by the mother at the family home in Luton after the nursery discussed referring the child to a de-radicalisation programme out of concerns that pictures drawn by him referred to explosions and an improvised explosive device known as a “cooker bomb”.

In between the odd tear and laugh of disbelief, the mother spoke about the experience, which she said had left her shaken and upset, and involved her being told at one point: “Your children might not be taken off you ... you can prove yourself innocent.”

Of another exchange with nursery staff, she added: “I said: ‘When you look at me from where do I look like a terrorist?’ … and she said: ‘Well, did Jimmy Savile look like a paedophile?’”

The case is the latest chapter in the often unhappy story of the relationship between British Muslims and the various incarnations of the government’s anti-terrorism Prevent programme. In particular, the mother’s lawyer and activists now also say that the incident raises questions about the circumstances in which 19 children were referred last year to a panel which, under Prevent’s Channel initiative, assesses those at risk from radicalisation and recommends possible interventions.

A spokesperson for the nursery, an independent one, said that no referral to Channel was made, adding: “Under statutory guidance, as reflected by our own safeguarding policies, early years providers are required to record – and if necessary, report – any incidents that they feel may warrant further attention or discussion.

“In this instance, after seeking advice from the appropriate agencies, we concluded that no referral was necessary.”

Luton council said that it had advised the nursery not to make a Channel referral.

The child’s mother says that she remains disappointed that no apology was made and claims to have come under pressure from the nursery to sign a form which appeared to endorse its assessment.

“When I dropped him in one day they were there as a pack, with his various pictures and a report,” she said.

“Some of the pictures were just scribbles, but I said that I knew one of them and it was of his dad cutting a cucumber. She said: ‘Well, he said to us that it is a cooker bomb.’ For the life of me I didn’t associate the two words.”

Having not hear of Channel before, she said that she was left distraught by the experience and particularly by what she says was a mention of social services. “The thing you think about is that they take children away from families,” she said, “so that was the worst thing you could say to a parent.”

The conversation, she says, also turned to what her son had been watching on television: “I said to her: ‘Can we just put it to bed? I won’t let him watch Power Rangers ... I actually went home and put parental control over the kiddie channels. Don’t refer me because I don’t want someone coming over and telling me how to raise my children, but she said: ‘It has been done already. It’s out of my hands.’”

Eventually, the mother got in contact with community activists and was put in touch with a solicitor.

Her son remains at the nursery, where his three siblings have also been. “He loves nursery … At the time I banned all his programmes and told him not to do any drawing,” added his mother.

“Initially I was so upset and distraught that I told him not to do any more drawings … God bless him, he said: ‘I won’t draw anything ... I’ll just draw a house, or the remote control. And I said: ‘Don’t draw the remote!’”

The issue comes against the backdrop of a debate about how schools and teachers are dealing with the pressures of government anti-extremism initiatives, designed to stop British youngsters being lured by Islamic State propaganda.



A Muslim schoolboy in north London was questioned last year about Isis after a classroom discussion about environmental activism, the Guardian revealed.

The parents of the 14-year-old said they were taking legal action after the boy said he was left “scared and nervous” by his experience with school officials, and was left reluctant to join in class discussions for fear of being suspected of extremism.











