Latest news straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Furious Muslim parents reportedly withdrew 600 children from Parkfield Community School today after claiming they were being 'brainwashed' over gay lifestyles.

The pupils were taken out of classes as the row surrounding LGBT lifestyles being taught openly in the classroom escalated.

Some reports suggest as many as 80 per cent of the children at Parkfield Community School in Saltley have been removed - around 600.

Kids have been withdrawn over the school's "undermining of parental rights and aggressively promoting homosexuality", according to Alum Rock Community Forum.

The forum adds: "Dialogue, petitioning and protests by parents have been repeated and arrogantly ignored.

"Our children, Our Choice - Work with parents not against them."

The school has sent out a letter to parents appealing with them to stop the weekly protests for fears it is disrupting and upsetting the children, teachers and families.

Read here for the full letter and response.

The No Outsiders programme was started by the school's gay assistant head teacher Andrew Moffat.

Mr Moffat MBE has been criticised by parents for piloting the programme, which is run alongside sex and relationship education (SRE) lessons.

Its ethos promotes LGBT equality and challenges homophobia in primary schools.

How Birmingham reacted to the parent's decision to withdraw their children.

Books now being read by pupils at Parkfield Community School include Mommy, Mama and Me and King & King - stories about same-sex relationships and marriages.

But Mr Moffat and the No Outsiders programme have come under fire from some Muslim parents who condemn such teachings, as homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Islam.

(Image: Birmingham Mail / Darren Quinton)

Dad Abdul Ma, 46, told the Sun : “This is a brainwash.

"We bring our children here so they can later work as a solicitor or a teacher, not to be taught about being gay or a lesbian.”

Razina Mahmood, 40 added: “This is nothing but indoctrination of our children.

“You are using our children as an experiment.”

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted, previously explained how it is vital children know about "families that have two mummies or two daddies".

The Ofsted head has condemned the dozens of parents who have been picketing outside Parkfield Community School in Saltley in recent weeks against the No Outsiders programme - a curriculum started by its assistant head teacher Andrew Moffat.

Mr Moffat previously said he felt threatened by actions outside of the school gates, but vowed Parkfield "is the best school for me".

Mrs Spielman, in light of angry protests against teachings of same-sex couples, told the BBC : "It's making sure [children] know just enough to know that some people prefer not to get married to somebody of the opposite sex and that sometimes there are families that have two mummies or two daddies.

(Image: PA)

"It's about making sure that children who do happen to realise that they themselves may not fit a conventional pattern know that they're not bad, they're not ill.

"And, at the end of the day, it's something that the vast majority of faith schools, even those which clearly teach that homosexuality is not right in their faith, still manage to do in a sensitive and careful way that absolutely does fulfil the law and we report on that very regularly in our inspection reports.

"This is something where we've got to have sane, rational discussion to say, 'Are there places where it's not working well enough that we can find better ways?'

"But it's proper conversation that will change it, not protests."

She added: "The essence of democracy is we don't all get our way.

"The essence of democracy is that we accept majority decision which means there will always be things that some of us don't like.

"That if we were running the country, we wouldn't do.

"But that is the very essence of it - accepting that we can't have 100 per cent of what we want."