Pro-Palestinian demo held after badge row at school

By Shabnam MahmoodBBC Asian Network, reporting from London

A school has closed early for Christmas due to a row with parents after a pupil wore a Palestinian badge to school.

Parents held a protest on Thursday calling for the boy whose mother is from Gaza, to be allowed back to class at Barclay Primary school in Leyton.

He has been off for over a month after refusing the school's demand to remove the flag badge from his coat.

The school has been asking parents to stop sending pupils to school wearing any signs of political allegiance.

The school closed on Wednesday, two days before the end of term.

The boy's father, Shahid, has told the BBC his eight-year-old son is traumatised by the incident.

"He was not allowed to have play time, he was not allowed to have lunch with others in his year group," he said.

Shahid went on to say his son was "sad, upset and angry" and has been questioning if he had "done something wrong".

His mother, Rasha, has lost many family members, he explained.

He said wearing a flag was his son's "way to show empathy for his dead relatives and friends in Gaza".

Other parents have also claimed their children have been unable to show their support for Palestinians in school even on a non-school uniform day like Children in Need.

The school has sent out several letters asking parents to stop sending their children to school wearing clothes, badges or scarves showing any political allegiance.

Two of the letters, seen by the BBC, mention a referral to the government's counter terrorism programme, Prevent, which has alarmed parents.

The letters stated: "Extremist and divisive comments will be referred to Prevent team or Hate Crime Team in Waltham Forest."

Prevent is a key part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy.

In practical terms, it places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene in their lives before it is too late.

If the local panels find someone who is at risk of becoming a terrorist, the Prevent teams use specialist mentors or other support programmes to turn around their lives.

A mother outside the school gate said: "I was annoyed and angry they would threaten parents with Prevent."

Another mum, who has two children at the school, said that she was "shocked and stunned" to receive the letter.

She added that she was "upset the school took that approach".

In a statement on their website, the Lion Academy Trust which runs Barclay Primary school, which is rated "outstanding by Ofsted", strongly refutes all allegations.

It says the "correspondence has been misappropriated and deliberately taken out of context".

It also says that there was "no evidence to support any allegations of bullying or misconduct against the eight-year-old boy".

The parents of the schoolboy have said they are seeking legal advice.

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