Jewish people are under attack. What are we, in the teaching profession, doing about it?

It would be a national disgrace if black children attended school in daily fear of physical attack.

It would shameful and intolerable if children at Muslim schools had to regularly practise emergency escape drills in the event of attacks by far-right thugs.

I hope there would be an outcry against such a situation. I also hope that the outcry would be led by members of the teaching profession.

However, we are indeed tolerating such appalling scenarios. The only difference is that the children and the schools in question are Jewish rather than black or Muslim.

A Jewish friend of mine who lives in north London told me recently that he now volunteers at his local synagogue on Friday evenings, alongside the Community Security Trust – a charity set up to protect the Jewish community from attack. In the last two years, the height and strength of boundary fencing has been increased, new closed-circuit tv installed and most shocking to me, he wears a stab vest.

The local Jewish primary school – which is apparently typical of the 130-odd Jewish schools in this country - has removed Jewish symbols from signage and school uniform, regularly drills the pupils for two separate emergency alarms: the first, a bell that sounds to tell the children they must run out of the building as quickly as possible because a terrorist attack has begun inside the school; a second alarm, a klaxon, sounds to tell the children that they must run inside the building because an attack has begun outside.

This is a national scandal.

We in the teaching profession in Britain should be leading a campaign to pressure the government to act robustly and decisively to defend Jewish schools and Jewish school children – to end this appalling and shameful state of affairs.

But sadly, their appears to be moral confusion.

For example, at the last annual conference of the NEU – the union I was a member of for decades – an urgent motion was passed that emphasised “supporting the rights of Palestinian children to safety and education” and committed to “publishing and circulating educational resources to help (union) members increase understanding of the (Gaza) conflict” and expressing concerns that pupils displaying solidarity towards Palestine would not be the subject of ‘Prevent’ referrals.

I support all of those measures by the way, and if you’re interested, I support a so-called ‘two-state solution’ to the Israel-Palestine conflict – if such a thing will indeed provide a solution.

But I am dismayed that the NEU – an organisation at the forefront of shaping responsible opinion in the teaching profession in the UK – is guilty, along with many other people in our country, of a fundamental moral confusion.

Standing in support and defence of the UK Jewish community, its schools and children is not the same as taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nor is it an indication of ignoring the suffering of Palestinian children.

Jews and Jewish children in this country are not responsible for the actions of the Israeli government or the Israel Defence Forces. Nor are those actions the cause of antisemitism.

Antisemites are the cause antisemitism.

As a profession, our central concern must be to promote a values-based education that inculcates the fundamental British values of mutual respect and tolerance for people with different faiths and beliefs - and one that enables us all to critically distinguish when and where moral confusion occurs.

I have written to the Secretary of State for Education, to my MP, to the Policing Minister at the Home Office, and to the Chief Constable of my local police force and called on them to robustly and assertively defend the Jewish community, its schools and children from abuse, threats, incitement and violence.

I ask you, not as a political activist but as a civilised citizen, to do the same.

Alan Newland is a former headteacher, lecturer and advisor to the department for Education and the General Teaching Council. He leads sessions on professional ethics and values and promoting fundamental British values in schools. He is the author of ‘Becoming A Teacher – the legal, ethical and moral implications of entering society’s most fundamental profession’ (Crown House Publishing).

• The Secretary of State for Education is The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, Department for Education, Orchard House, 20 Great Smith St, London SW1P 3BT

• Your local MP can be contacted at Houses of Parliament, St Margaret St, London SW1A 0AA

• The Policing Minister is The Rt Hon Sarah Jones MP, The Home Office, 2 Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF