A school has been accused of forcing pupils to “be quiet and quiet” by refusing to let them take part in the compulsory national anthem at their Christmas break.
The controversy, which erupted last week when a teacher in Staffordshire school No 5 was sacked after refusing to play the national anthem during a lunch break, also comes as Wales prepares to start a two-year apprenticeship system for young people.
The move has triggered a furious backlash from pupils and parents, with many saying they would not have taken part in their national anthem if they were not expected to do so.
But some experts have suggested that the school’s decision to stop pupils singing the song could have been a mistake, or even a deliberate attempt to stop them from saying it.
“It’s an unfortunate thing that a school would do, but it’s a problem that happens all the time,” says Mark Taylor, a lecturer in education at Cardiff University.
“The school is a public authority and they have to make sure that the pupils are listening to the music.”
Taylor, who is an expert in the education of young people, says that the problem with the Welsh government’s response is that it is not clear what the law is.
He says that it appears that children can be prevented from singing their national anthems during a break, but the problem is that they do not have to.
“There’s no statutory requirement that they have compulsory national ana- lson songs, they just have to sing them,” he says.
“In Wales the statutory requirement is that children must sing in a certain way and this is the national song.
But there’s no explicit provision that a pupil has to sing in that way.”
“But if you’ve got a school that is enforcing it, that means it’s an illegal requirement and that’s clearly not the case.”
The case highlights the challenge faced by parents and teachers who are trying to make a positive impact on children’s learning.
But, Taylor says, it is an important one.
What are the lessons of the Wales education system? “
You’re going to have a school with a lot of pupils who are learning to read and writing and all the things that they learn, that’s a very big impact on them.”
What are the lessons of the Wales education system?
What are some of the lessons learned?
The Welsh government says that in a few cases the pupils’ parents have refused to let the children take part and has said that the policy is being reviewed.
It says that pupils are not allowed to take part because they are learning in isolation.
It also says that when parents refuse to let their children sing the national an thes- ter they are being punished and should be punished.
But critics have argued that this does not go far enough and that pupils should be allowed to sing their national songs in the school lunchroom.
Wales’s education minister, Richard Leonard, has defended the decision saying that pupils will have to play at their own risk.
He added: “We’ve got the statutory duty to the pupil, the pupil’s parents, that they are doing it in a safe and appropriate way and if they don’t comply with the law that’s fine, we don’t have to enforce it, but we can’t do anything about it.”
“There are other things that can happen with the pupil in isolation, such as if they have some medical conditions, if there’s a child with a learning disability.”
What is compulsory national singing?
The national anthem is played at school and at other public places during the year.
It is sung in schools and in nurseries, but not at schools.
Schools that do not sing the song are required to play a different national song that pupils can listen to at home.
Some teachers will not allow pupils to sing the anthem in class because they fear it might cause disruption to other pupils.
But if the teacher is not prepared to play, the student can ask for the song to be played by the teacher at another time in the class.
This does not happen in schools where the song is sung.
What happens when a pupil does not take part?
The pupil who is not able to sing at school, but still wants to play with the other pupils in the classroom, can write to the school administrator or teacher.
In some cases, teachers will say that they will not play the song, or that they may have to turn off the school radio.
Some parents have suggested turning off the radio altogether, saying that it distracts the pupils from singing the national songs.
But it is up to the teacher to decide if this is a reasonable option.
In Wales, the Welsh Government does not enforce the rules and many teachers do not know whether they have the statutory obligation to play.
There is also a statutory requirement for teachers to give the pupil their own national an- thets