Mr Canham added: 'But, as the law states no-one has to be DBS checked unless they have regular unsupervised contact with the children, so we are going above and beyond what the law tells us to do. Channel 4 wants transgender Bristolians undergoing gender change for three-year documentary.However, the organisation reassured many of the drag queens it uses are already DBS checked for jobs they have done previously as teachers and volunteers in outreach programmes. Parents' agitation is also to with whether or not the drag queens who volunteer with the self-funded organisation are DBS checked. It ranges from The Hungry Caterpillar to And Tango Makes Three.' “If parents have any worries, especially in regards to age appropriateness then I encourage them to go on our Facebook page which has all the books and authors we use at readings. Parson Street Primary School recently won the Gold Best Practice award from LGBT education charity Educate & CelebrateĭQST organiser Mr Canham said: “All of the reading material we use at our performances are specifically written for children, and cover all of the topics we engage with in an age appropriate format. However, the school stated it takes the safeguarding of its pupils to be their absolute priority and confirmed it has communicated information about DQST to the parents of the school prior to the event. Several mothers also accused the headmaster of the school Mr Jamie Barry of being deliberately “vague” about which drag queens were attending the school and what stories they would be reading. Hundreds of parents fined by council for failing to send children to school.'They are adult entertainers, I just don't see how that is age appropriate,' she added. “One of the drag queens refers to herself as Bristol’s Resident Slag, these are children of between four and 11 – they don’t need to be exposed to that.

“But I just think it’s gone too far now and the head is using his position of power and influence to push this information on the children. “There are books dotted around the school about sexuality, they learn a lot about LGBTQ+ in that school and that’s fine,” said the mum. “Lots of parents at the school are not happy about it but the headmaster says there’s no negotiation and if we don't like it we should take our kids out of school on an unauthorised absence,' said one mum who asked to remain anonymous. However, many of the parents at the Bedminster primary are in disagreement with the event. And if projects like these can go some small way to helping prevent or curtail that, then it can only be a good thing.' “Racism, homophobia, misogyny and the like are all learnt behaviours – we aren’t born with any form of hatred, you get taught it over time.

Speaking about the project last year, 25-year-old Mr Canham said: 'For me the project is about drag queens providing fun and inclusive reading for children about issues around misogyny, homophobia, racism, LGBTQ and gender fluidity in a way which they can understand.ĭrag Queen Story Time at Bishopston Library in August, 2017 Bristol libraries host UK's first drag queen storytelling sessions for children.The organisation has had country-wide success in teaching LGBT tolerance after a crowd funding campaign helped founder Tom Canham buy books and pay for a DBS check to perform in nurseries in London.Ī team of six drag queens have since performed to over 2,000 children during the past eight months, including those who attended the performances in Bristol libraries over summer 2017. Speaking to the Bristol Post, a number of parents expressed concern about who the drag queens are as adult entertainers and the age-appropriateness of the reading materials. Parson Street Primary School is welcoming the Drag Queen Story Time (DQST) organisation on Mato 'Share a Story' with them in keeping with this year's book day theme. Disgruntled parents of a Bristol primary school have hit out at the academy for going a 'step too far' in inviting drag queens to read stories of tolerance to their children for World Book Day.

Drag queens