A Salford MP has expressed her concern about a school in Little Hulton after a decision was taken to remove more than 130 classic books from library shelves due to the nature of their content.
Walkden MP Yasmin Qureshi has written to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to ask what powers the government has at its disposal to investigate The Lowry Academy after the Salford secondary school removed books against a librarian’s wishes.
In an article published under the title ‘Books being banned in schools’, Ms Qureshi wrote the librarian had resigned from her role at the school and shared her unease over them being “subjected to that degree of pressure for exercising her professional judgement in good faith.”
The Lowry Academy in Salford denied that books had been ‘banned’ and said they had instead been placed into “age-appropriate categories.
“It is not the case that books have been ‘banned’ by the school,” a spokesperson for the academy said.
“Following concerns that a number of books within the library were neither age-appropriate nor content-appropriate, an audit was conducted.
“Following this, books have been placed into age-appropriate categories and returned to the shelves. A very small number of books were deemed inappropriate even for older children due to their content and have been removed.”
Index on Censorship reported in March that more than 130 books were allegedly to be removed from the shelves at a school library in Greater Manchester, rising to nearly 200 if each issue of the “graphic novels” was counted.
The books reportedly included a graphic novel of George Orwell’s 1984, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series, as well as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books.
Ms Qureshi said that many of the books in question “would be considered wholly uncontroversial” and stressed that literature in schools should be provided due to its educational need and not the “personal views of those in positions of authority.”
“The books in question include titles on misogyny, gender identity and race, among them We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Pageboy by Elliot Page, as well as works that by any reasonable assessment would be considered wholly uncontroversial, including autobiographies of sports stars, musicians and political figures; beloved Young Adult fiction like Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, and graphic novel adaptations of classics like Dune by Frank Herbert and 1984 by George Orwell,” she said in her letter to the education secretary.
The Lowry Academy received a “good” rating from Ofsted after its last inspection in February 2024 and was rated “good” in leadership and management.
The school, which had 894 students aged between 11 and 16 on its books at the time of the inspection, is part of the country’s largest academy trust.
“I would be extremely grateful if you can set out what powers the Department has to investigate scenarios such as this, what guidance has been issued both to Multi-Academy Trusts and Local Authority maintained schools regarding the curation of literary content in their libraries and whether the department or Ofsted intends to conduct a specific investigation into this specific case or the wider question of library governance in multi-academy trust schools.
“Like many people, I am extremely concerned about the message that this incident sends to the wider public and to the workforce of teachers and school support staff across the country, and I hope that your response can be of reassurance to parents and school staff alike,” Ms Qureshi added in her letter.
The Walkden MP’s letter comes as teachers called for an end to censorship in school libraries amid fears classic books are being banned due to the nature of their content at a union conference.
Delegates at the National Education Union (NEU) conference in Brighton have voted for a motion calling on the union executive to oppose censorship in school libraries and to promote the body as a union for librarians.
“Any move to censor books in school libraries based on misinformation and fearmongering should ring alarm bells for all of us,” NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said.
“The USA and Hungary are examples of countries which have implemented book bans in schools, primarily targeting books by women, black and LGBT+ authors, and the NEU is clear that this is not a path we are prepared to follow in the UK.”
The motion passed by delegates said librarian members of the union are reporting both internal and external censorship of library materials, as well as redundancies, budget cuts, and extremely low pay.
Proposing the motion, delegate Kristabelle Williams said schools must be prepared to defend their book collections in the context of the rise of the far right, warning there is a likelihood of more “challenges and hate campaigns.”
Delegates at the NEU conference supporting the motion spoke about other schools where they had heard reports of books being removed.
Speaking in support of the motion, Laura Butterworth said: “I’ve heard many accounts from librarians in my district of them having to take art books off the shelves because they have historic paintings and sculptures of nudes.”
