Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of England’s schools, slammed schools which shy away from promoting British values in favour of “superficial displays”, citing one educator which got its pupils to craft a picture of the Queen out of sequins.
Ms Spielman highlighted that the education system has a vital role in upholding the principles “that make us a beacon of liberalism, tolerance and fairness to the rest of the world”.
In a speech to the Birmingham Education Partnership conference, she argued British values should be at “the very heat of the curriculum”.
She said: "We know, that even in the UK some children are being brought up in an environment that is actively hostile to some of these values.
"So the education system has a vital role in inculcating and upholding them. Most children spend less than a fifth of their childhood hours in schools and most of the rest with their family.
"And so if children aren't being taught these values at home, or worse are being encouraged to resist them, then schools are our main opportunity to fill that gap."
She added that schools should enrich their students with a “real civic education”, including a “rich and deep curriculum in subjects such as history, English and geography”.
Some parents may either not teach them or even encourage children to “resist” them, Ms Spielman said, adding that education had to be a “values anchor in a stormy sea”.
She also linked the failure to promote British values to schools caught up in the Birmingham Trojan Horse scandal, which saw teachers accused of secretly brainwashing young pupils with Islamic doctrine in 2014. She said 10 unregistered schools had been found in Birmingham in the past two years, with eight now registered or closed while the other two are operating legally. She described the issue as a dangerous problem.
