A handful of parents, a far-right outrage machine, and the damage misinformation does to real communities:
A simple school assembly in Swansea, where a visitor from a local mosque spoke about her faith, became the latest culture war story fuelled by far-right activists, misinformation, a Reform councillor and GB News.
Earlier this month, a small primary school in Swansea invited a representative from the local Sketty Mosque to visit the school. She held an assembly attended by Year 1-6 pupils and told them about her religion.
Cue outrage among a small group of parents…
They contacted a local Reform Councillor and set up a meeting with her. The meeting was promoted online and attended by Voice of Wales (VOW), a far-right media outlet banned from YouTube in 2021 for racism.
VOW filmed several interviews before and after the meeting, posting them on their various social media accounts.
The following day, GB News and Talk TV were reporting the ‘story’ and Far-Right activist Tommy Robinson was retweeting it, with absolutely no regard for the truth.
The Claims vs the Reality
The claims being made about this visit in the videos and on GB News sounded outrageous, which, as you know, is always a sign for me to do a bit of digging!
Here they are, alongside the reality I’ve been able to glean from speaking to several parents, which align with official statements from the council and school.
Most of the claims collapse under even a moment’s scrutiny – from the logistics of prayer mats to the supposed conversion threats.
“Parents weren’t told about the visit”
Firstly, I’m not entirely sure why parents need to be told about each assembly upfront, and I would wager that they’ve never thought they needed to know when a priest gives an assembly, nor if a local Rabbi were to visit.
But that aside, I have heard from a local resident with family at the school that:
It was made known that it was happening. Many parents just don’t read the information
Another parent told me:
I knew about it. I remember reading ‘visit from Sketty mosque’ and saying, “That’s not going to go down well with certain parents.”
So it seems that some parents knew it was happening. The parents angry about the visit, believe they should have been told, so they could prevent their children from attending the assembly.
They have since constructed a template letter to pull their children out of any “workshops, or external visitors involving religious content”, but “have no objection to my child learning about British values, culture, and history”. This template has been given out to others to fill in if they wish.
“Christianity doesn’t get the same representation”
The VOW video said: “They are supposed to have mainly a Christian ethos, particularly at Easter, Harvest and Christmas, but that’s not happening”
GB News repeated this claim, saying “Christianity doesn’t get the same representation”
In reality, while Sea View Community School is a non-faith school, it has many strong ties with Christianity:
- Their Chair of Governors, Mike Sutton-Smith, is a Christian Pastor who leads four churches across South-West Wales.
- The school newsletters highlight the Easter Bonnet Parades, Harvest Festivals, the Christmas concerts, Christmas dinner, and Christmas trips. In fact, they have their upcoming Harvest Festival next week.
- The school diary also showed Year 4,5, and 6 Church visits and a Year 6 Residential to a Christian Youth Camp
- The Governor’s annual report notes that the school has monthly assemblies led by Reverend Justin, visits from Reverend Sarah, and strong links with St Mary’s Church and LifePoint Church.
Christianity gets plenty of representation, through two different churches, regular assemblies, celebrations and activities. In fact, it’s so common that parents will barely notice it happening. Unlike the one assembly being given by a representative from a local Mosque.
“Children were made to pray on mats”
One local said:
I spoke to my niece, who is in year six and was in the assembly, and she said that they were not made to pray. That the lady was demonstrating how they pray and explaining the religion.
Another told me:
My daughter was in the assembly and they did not pray on mats. There are 150 children in school and she brought 1 mat and she showed them. No one else had a turn
Even just a little thought given to this claim should have led to the question of whether they really brought 150 prayer mats into a school assembly! And how long that would take to hand out and set up? I imagine any primary school teachers reading this are shuddering at the ensuing chaos that would cause!
“They were told they’d all be Muslim by Year 6”
This was the most shocking claim – that a Year 2 child said they didn’t want to pray on a mat because they were Christian, and was told, “You will all be praying on mats by Year 6”.
This was then reported as the children being told they’d all be Muslim by year 6.
The parent I spoke to said:
…definitely were not told that in year 6 they would all be Muslim. They were told that in year 6, they would visit the mosque and have a turn at praying.
So not “You’ll all be praying on mats because you’ll all be Muslim” but “when you come and visit our Mosque, you’ll all get a turn to try praying on the mat”
In the VOW piece covering the incident, the quote was “You will all be praying on mats by Year 6”, – which makes sense, and you can see how the parent misinterpreted what the child said or missed the context.
But GB News then turned the quote into: “By Year 6, you’ll all be Muslim”
Tommy Robinson went with: “tells kids they’ll all be Muslim in a few years”
The school confirmed:
It is untrue to claim pupils were told they would all be Muslim by the time they reach year six
“There were no staff present”
Again, another claim that should ring misinformation alarm bells. The idea that a visitor of any kind would be left alone with 150 school children without any staff present is absurd.
The parent I spoke to confirmed:
It was in the hall, years 1-6 were there. There definitely would have been staff with them. My girl doesn’t know how many though.
The school stated:
Members of staff were present throughout and led a Christian prayer at the end of the assembly.
“They were taught and expected to learn Muslim prayers”
The school stated:
It is untrue that they were taught or expected to say Islamic prayers.
“They were told they had to fast”
The VOW piece said it was “Dangerous to be teaching 5-year-olds fasting. Kids are already scared about putting on weight and looking on the internet to find scary diets and fat jabs. And now they’re being told in schools about fasting”
That’s a slightly weird take, but then they ruined their own point by saying, “I bet they don’t teach them about Lent and fasting”!
So fasting in Islam is bad because of body image problems, but fasting in Christianity is good. (Yes, I know the type of fasting differs, but this is not the kind of nuance being discussed by VOW)
The school stated:
It is untrue that they were encouraged to fast.
“Children were marked down for misspelling Quran or Mosque”
This appears to have come from one of the vocal parents sharing his daughter’s school book on Facebook last month:
#Share #Share So just looked at my 6Yr Olds books from her work in Yr1 primary…. I can’t believe my Fxking eyes… So my Daughter gets marked wrong and this is the curriculum out of UK Goverment. Wtf since when has this ever been in the curriculum?? I never learnt it and my parents didn’t learn it till at least year 7/8 And that was RE.
So as a Catholic myself and my faith where the f*** is the sense in my Daughters learning this sh** “Quran & Mosque” where the f***s “Church or Bible” my Child ain’t being marked down in Curriculum for this Sh**.. Unbelievable 🤬🤬😠
(*** added by me)
But if you actually read what the teacher wrote, she said the little girl needed support with spelling those words. She wasn’t “marked wrong” for those spellings. Her spellings of ‘Quran’ and ‘Mosque’ were actually correct. She was being asked to concentrate and practice handwriting, capital letters and finger spaces.
One anonymous parent took to Reddit and summarised the whole situation:
There are a group of parents in the school who have been complaining every time Islam is mentioned. One talking point in these posts has been how their child got marked down for not spelling Mosque correctly. Every time Islam is taught in RE, they go to the office and kick off.
Then last week, someone from Sketty Mosque visited the school and did an assembly on Islam to the whole school.
The group of parents went nuts. Came to the office and had an argument with the head teacher. The head teacher apparently called them racist. Police were called to talk to the head teacher.
They then came up with a list of things that their children told them about the assembly:
They sang songs about loving Allah.
They were told they’d all be Muslim by year 6.
They were forced to sit on prayer mats.
That Allah is their God.
They have to fast.
We have all asked our kids about this, of course. And it’s been denied by every child asked.
Further claims
I have covered the main claims that have been spreading on social media. If you watch the VOW video that appears to have prompted GB News to pick up on the story (I don’t recommend it!), they also cover:
- Claims that LGBTQ, NSPCC, 20 mph speed limits, digital IDs and a bicycling charity were “all connected” to this assembly.
- “We’re now appearing to get in Wales a de facto religion called Islam in schools”
- Called for an “urgent public enquiry” into the assembly visit
- That the lady from the Mosque didn’t cover all the negatives of Islam; “Children didn’t come back speaking about any other religion the way they were about Islam, which proves it wasn’t balanced” (I’d suggest that it was simply a novelty and the lady from the Mosque did a good job in engaging the children!)
- That children aged 5 were taught the word ‘Penis’
- Socialist teachers
- Activist teachers
- Something about a ‘global caliphate’ and ‘Agenda 2030’ (this refers to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a global plan to end poverty and achieve a sustainable future – which Conspiracy Theorists have lost their minds over!)
In the GB News piece, they also managed to squeeze in the claim that “Radical Trans issues were being taught”
Wider Media
For once, I have to praise the mainstream media for not running with this story, though it must have been tempting! Only GB News and Talk TV covered it. I don’t know why the rest stayed away. Maybe they realised it was too ridiculous to take at face value, maybe they read the statement from Swansea Council that appeared fairly early on, or maybe they saw the statement from the school read out at the end of the GB News piece, which contradicted everything that was claimed during the segment itself:
“We have a strong ongoing relationship with our local churches. We have regular visits and our pupils participate in major Christian festivals with them, including Christmas, Easter and the annual Harvest Festival.
This was the first time someone of the Islamic faith from our local mosque was invited to the school.
It is untrue to claim pupils were told they would all be Muslim by the time they get to year six or that they were taught Islamic prayers.
We pride ourselves on being a school where everyone is treated with dignity, tolerance and respect.
Like all schools in Wales we are required to include religious studies as part of our curriculum.
Lessons and assemblies mainly reflect the broad traditions of Christian belief, but we also try to give our pupils a basic understanding of the world’s other major religions.”
But whatever the reason, it does highlight that there is still a boundary outlets such as the Telegraph, Express and Daily Mail won’t cross, while GB News and Talk TV are happy to sit firmly on the other side.
Impact on parents
The parent who posted to Reddit went on to say:
[The group of parents] then wrote letters for each parent to give to the school demanding their child be removed from RE whenever Islamic or “non-British” values are taught.
Voice Of Wales then got involved and organised a meeting with the parents and a “local” (Mumbles) Reform Councillor to have a meeting about the “unbalanced religious studies” in the school. And it’s blown up from there. VOW did a 10-minute video of all lies, calling it a Christian school (it’s not). GBNews jumped on it last night. Tommy Robinson today.
Outside of the small group of parents, everyone else feels pretty scared and like the school is now a target. Heard rumours in the yard today about people wanting to move their kids out of the school to avoid trouble with the far right.
Teachers have been visibly upset as their names have been dragged through every comment section. And Lord knows how the many Muslim families in the school must feel. A really bad situation there right now. With many hoping it all blows over soon, but it really doesn’t feel like it.
I spoke to two parents from the school; one said they didn’t want to be quoted, even anonymously, as they worried about their child becoming a target at school.
Another was prepared to be quoted anonymously. They told me how unpleasant it was at school:
It was a minority of parents who now feel that they are a majority, as they have had the backing of the Reform councillor for Swansea.
It’s a horrible atmosphere down in the school yard at the moment. I don’t like the mob mentality of it all.
I have had lots of parents private message me saying thanks for standing up, but not many that will back me up, as I suppose they are afraid to get involved
Everyone is just hoping that it will blow over. Sea View school is a very diverse school, and if I felt uncomfortable, I don’t know how others must have felt.
This could have just been a dispute between a small group of parents and the teachers at Sea View school about the right to pull your child out of certain lessons or activities.
But instead, it was amplified by far-Right activists such as Voice of Wales and Tommy Robinson, lies were put out as truth by GB News and Talk TV, leading to inevitable abuse of parents and teachers online, and the chilling silencing of moderate voices who are scared of correcting the lies.
This fits a now-familiar playbook: a local misunderstanding gets reframed as a national moral crisis, picked up by fringe outlets, then laundered into legitimacy by GB News and TalkTV.
The aim isn’t accuracy, it’s always the outrage.
As I finished writing today, I received a message to say that, despite the vocally angry group of parents, the social media amplified meeting with the Reform councillor, the Welsh media coverage (which highlighted the lies rather than perpetuating them, here and here), and the GB News/Tommy Robinson amplification, fewer than 10 parents at Sea View school have handed in a letter demanding their children be excluded from Religious Education lessons.
I really hope other parents at the school who felt fearful because of their own religion or ethnicity, as well as those who wanted to show allyship but preferred to stay quiet, take heart from knowing it is really a very tiny minority of parents who created this situation, and a toxic far-right online media ecosystem that amplified the lies.
While I feel like this message is getting repetitive, it’s important to keep reiterating it:
When you see something that sounds outrageous – “Primary school children told they’ll all be Muslim by Year 6” – stop, take a breath, ask yourself how likely that seems in reality, and then do a bit of research.
- Do a Google search for the story. (Other search engines are available!)
- See who is reporting it and whether any facts are available.
- Look for official statements from those involved.
- See if there’s clear evidence that contradicts any of the claims (in this case, the school website showed regular Christian festivals celebrated, regular Christian assemblies, which rejected the claims that Christianity was being ignored and Islam was given priority).
- Have a look through the comments sections on social media posts sharing the claims. That is where you will often find people who were involved in the incident who can shed light on the reality.
Islam is the current focus of the Far Right, and sadly, I expect we’ll see more of these kinds of stories, so please keep your misinformation antennae primed.
For this one, I really want to thank the parents from Sea View school who took the time to share their thoughts and talk to their children about what happened to help me untangle this story. Having the official statements from the school and council was helpful, but hearing from multiple parents gave more crucial detail and context.
This article was first published on Emma’s excellent Substack, MonkDebunks, and is republished here by kind permission.
