Academy trust removes exercises mentioning suicide from primary children’s textbooks, following coverage by Education Uncovered

A high-profile academy chain has told parents it has now removed exercises from textbooks, used by its primary schools, in which children had been asked to imagine themselves as historical figures about to commit suicide.

The move by Future Academies follows community outrage after the existence of the material was revealed by Education Uncovered. I understand the revelations had led to complaints at the gates of at least one of the trust’s three primary schools, while parents have been writing letters asking to see the textbooks in full.

Future also told parents that it is reviewing the entire contents of its textbooks, which were the subject of wider concerns voiced in coverage on this website last week. In a letter to families at one of the schools, it tried to distance itself from the textbooks, saying they had been “written a number of years ago” and perhaps suggesting authorship had not been by its Curriculum Centre, though this has existed since 2012.

Last week I highlighted two exercises mentioning suicide in a textbook used by the children. I have now come across a third, very similar, task, in the same book.

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