Poisonous Campaign?
Back in June, The Guardian's comment editor, Seumas Milne, wrote about a poisonous campaign of discrimination and intimidation that he claimed lay behind concerns over standards of teaching in some of Birmingham schools.
I wonder what Seumas will have to say now given that the latest reports highlight the fact that in some of these schools children were taught that 'all Christians are liars', 'that if they didn't pray they would go to hell' and that 'women who refused to have sex with their husbands would be punished by angels from duck to dawn'.
Now I don't know about Seumas but it seems to me as if the real poison here is coming from people who wish to indoctrinate school children with offensive and sectarian religious beliefs.
Here's a report from The Guardian on the Ofsted inspections which found that there is a 'culture of fear and intimidation' in some of Birmingham's schools.
Elsewhere in the newspaper, The Guardian's comment editor Seamus 'Shameless' Milne claims that these inspection are based on naked discrimination and represent an 'assault' on schools which is nonsense, of course, because anyone reading the Ofsted report will readily see that only 5 out of 21 were rated as inadequate.
So while there is clearly a problem at some of the schools, the majority were given a clean bill of health even if, like all organisations when properly inspected, certain issues were categorised as needing further improvement.
The world would indeed be a better place if people like Seumas didn't see plots and conspiracies everywhere, but then again maybe that's the only way he puts food on his table.
Culture of fear and intimidation in Birmingham schools, says Ofsted chief
Sir Michael Wilshaw says governors exerting inappropriate influence on schools, some of which now in special measures
By Richard Adams - The Guardian
Nansen primary school is one of five Birmingham schools placed in special measures as part of the 'Trojan horse' investigations. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
Ofsted's chief inspector says "a culture of fear and intimidation" has rapidly developed within a group of schools in Birmingham which are under investigation over allegations of a city-wide takeover plot by Islamist extremists.
Sir Michael Wilshaw said Ofsted inspectors found that school governors had "recently exerted inappropriate influence on policy and the day-to-day running" of several schools in Birmingham, and castigated the city council for not providing adequate support to staff who tried to resist.
"Although the test and examination results in many of the schools were good or improving, the curriculum has become too narrow and pupils are not being prepared well enough for life in modern Britain," Wilshaw said.
"It is my view that the active promotion of a narrow set of values and beliefs in some of the schools is making children vulnerable to segregation and emotional dislocation from wider society."
He suggested the government needed to do more to make schools promote British values, and – controversially – called for the introduction of professional governors in places where governance had been judged to be inadequate.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, said later on Monday that schools would in future be required to promote "British values", including equality between genders and tolerance of other faiths. But he is likely to reject plans for tighter regulation of school governors.
In several schools, Wilshaw said, pupils' experiences "are being restricted rather than broadened" and he was concerned by a few schools where boys and girls were not being treated equally. "For example, in one school, some members of staff actively discourage girls from speaking to boys and from taking part in extra-curricular visits and activities."
Wilshaw's statement, published as a letter to the education secretary, Michael Gove, was an overview to the 21 inspection reports published on Monday by Ofsted, following Ofsted visits carried out in March after the emergence of a "Trojan horse" letter alleging a takeover plot orchestrated by Islamic extremists.
Of the 21 schools, five were rated as inadequate and placed in special measures due to concerns about pupil safety and school leadership. These included Oldknow primary and Park View academy secondary school, previously judged by Ofsted to be outstanding; as well as Saltley secondary, Golden Hillock secondary and Nansen primary schools. A sixth school, Alston primary, was already in special measures.
Of the remaining 15, five schools – Small Heath, Washwood Heath, Waverley, Chilwell Croft and Ninestiles – were cleared by inspectors of concerns related to risks of extremism and governance, while 11 "required improvement" with specific issues, largely to do with pupil safety and the relationship between staff and governors.
By branding religious conservatism 'extremism' in Birmingham, ministers are making it clear that different rules apply to Muslims
Seumas Milne - The Guardian
‘The absurdity of the inspectors’ findings is clearest in the case of Gracelands, whose staff were taken to task for failing to ensure its 2- to 4-year-olds were protected against ‘extreme and radical behaviour'.' Illustration: Matt Kenyon
The harassment of minorities on the basis of forged documents has a grim history. So the official onslaught on mainly Muslim state schools in Birmingham, triggered by what has all the hallmarks of afabricated letter outlining a supposed Islamist plot to take them over, should be cause for deep alarm.
Instead, the architect of the clampdown, education secretary Michael Gove, has been hailed by the bulk of the press for standing up to "extremism". Inspectors have now turned their attention to an alleged Islamic takeover of schools in Bradford, and a local MP has demanded action to halt the "Islamist infiltration" of east London politics.
All this is music to the ears of the neoconservative Gove, who regards political Islam as a totalitarian "enemy within" and has gone to war with the home secretary, Theresa May, over who can claim to be toughest on Muslim "extremism". Four separate inquiries, including by the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, have been set in train.
Now the schools inspector Ofsted, transparently under political direction, has done what was expected of it. Five schools have been put in special measures, four lined up for takeover and 11 others taken to task – mostly for not teaching children enough about the threat of extremism.
But this extremism turns out to be a different beast from the one first trailed in lurid accusations a few months back. It is nothing to do with terrorism, or even the elastic boo-word of Islamism. The target is religious conservatism – or even just plain religiousness.
But for Gove – and now David Cameron – "nonviolent extremism" must be targeted as much as its violent counterpart. For those unclear what extremism might mean exactly, the government last year defined it as "opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect".
That clearly wouldn't apply to those involved with the targeted Birmingham schools – who, like most British Muslims, are more likely to identify with Britain than the rest of the population. But some are religious conservatives who Gove equates with "extremists" – convinced there is a "conveyor belt" from Muslim piety to terror.
So the inspectors had no problem finding the evidence required and what they claimed was a "culture of fear and intimidation", even if the evidence was thin on the ground. Teachers and parents say the fear and intimidation was rather spread by inspectors, who turned their findings on their head in 10 days.
They came up with a string of allegations, most based on hearsay, contested or exaggerated out of recognition according to teachers and parents. Christmas had been cancelled, it was said, music banned, an extremist preacher had addressed pupils, girls and boys were segregated, western women had been described as "white prostitutes".
The only prostitute mentioned turned out to be in a homily of the Prophet Muhammad's about a woman who saved a thirsty dog, Christmas events abounded in the censured schools, music was taught and gender segregation took place in PE, as in many other schools – while single sex schools are common across the country.
But the absurdity of the inspectors' findings is clearest in the case of Gracelands nursery school,whose staff were taken to task for failing to ensure its 2- to 4-year-olds were protected against "extreme and radical behaviour".
That's not to say, of course, that there's nothing behind the allegations, which have clearly been fed by former and current staff – or that there aren't legitimate grievances. These are not faith schools and some have clearly pushed the schools' religious boundaries.
It's just that they have nothing to do with extremism or terrorism, and could have easily been dealt with in a routine system of accountability. Instead, schools which had delivered outstanding results for deprived communities are now smeared and destabilised – and their pupils with them.
There's a powerful case for secular education. But it doesn't exist in Britain's schools, which are awash with religion. And unless the same rules apply to all, the result is naked discrimination. But has Gove sent inspectors to root out anti-abortionism and homophobia in Catholic or evangelical-sponsored schools, or cultural isolation in mainly white schools where racism is rife?
Not at all. Nor has he investigated the influence in schools of far-right extremists. Instead, he's effectively ordered two Birmingham schools serving overwhelmingly Muslim populations, Oldknow and Golden Hillock, to hold a "daily, broadly Christian act of worship" (excused in other such schools).
Of course, Gove's drive to break up and part-privatise the English school system has cut away the local accountability which could have checked some of the problems in Birmingham, which are now being used to line them up for a real takeover by his pet academy chains.
But the campaign to bring to heel Birmingham's schools and humiliate the Muslim community in the process is a wider threat in a country where war-fuelled Islamophobia is already rampant. Dog-whistling to Ukip bigotry might seem a cute electoral trick.
However, it risks driving Muslims from participation in public life, pushing Muslim pupils out of the state sector and boosting the extremism the government claims to be battling. Gove's assault on Muslim schools in Birmingham isn't about British values: it's a poisonous campaign of discrimination and intimidation.
Now I don't know about Seumas but it seems to me as if the real poison here is coming from people who wish to indoctrinate school children with offensive and sectarian religious beliefs.
Conspiracy Theorists (14 June 2014)
Here's a report from The Guardian on the Ofsted inspections which found that there is a 'culture of fear and intimidation' in some of Birmingham's schools.
Elsewhere in the newspaper, The Guardian's comment editor Seamus 'Shameless' Milne claims that these inspection are based on naked discrimination and represent an 'assault' on schools which is nonsense, of course, because anyone reading the Ofsted report will readily see that only 5 out of 21 were rated as inadequate.
So while there is clearly a problem at some of the schools, the majority were given a clean bill of health even if, like all organisations when properly inspected, certain issues were categorised as needing further improvement.
The world would indeed be a better place if people like Seumas didn't see plots and conspiracies everywhere, but then again maybe that's the only way he puts food on his table.
Culture of fear and intimidation in Birmingham schools, says Ofsted chief
Sir Michael Wilshaw says governors exerting inappropriate influence on schools, some of which now in special measures
By Richard Adams - The Guardian
Nansen primary school is one of five Birmingham schools placed in special measures as part of the 'Trojan horse' investigations. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
Ofsted's chief inspector says "a culture of fear and intimidation" has rapidly developed within a group of schools in Birmingham which are under investigation over allegations of a city-wide takeover plot by Islamist extremists.
Sir Michael Wilshaw said Ofsted inspectors found that school governors had "recently exerted inappropriate influence on policy and the day-to-day running" of several schools in Birmingham, and castigated the city council for not providing adequate support to staff who tried to resist.
"Although the test and examination results in many of the schools were good or improving, the curriculum has become too narrow and pupils are not being prepared well enough for life in modern Britain," Wilshaw said.
"It is my view that the active promotion of a narrow set of values and beliefs in some of the schools is making children vulnerable to segregation and emotional dislocation from wider society."
He suggested the government needed to do more to make schools promote British values, and – controversially – called for the introduction of professional governors in places where governance had been judged to be inadequate.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, said later on Monday that schools would in future be required to promote "British values", including equality between genders and tolerance of other faiths. But he is likely to reject plans for tighter regulation of school governors.
In several schools, Wilshaw said, pupils' experiences "are being restricted rather than broadened" and he was concerned by a few schools where boys and girls were not being treated equally. "For example, in one school, some members of staff actively discourage girls from speaking to boys and from taking part in extra-curricular visits and activities."
Wilshaw's statement, published as a letter to the education secretary, Michael Gove, was an overview to the 21 inspection reports published on Monday by Ofsted, following Ofsted visits carried out in March after the emergence of a "Trojan horse" letter alleging a takeover plot orchestrated by Islamic extremists.
Of the 21 schools, five were rated as inadequate and placed in special measures due to concerns about pupil safety and school leadership. These included Oldknow primary and Park View academy secondary school, previously judged by Ofsted to be outstanding; as well as Saltley secondary, Golden Hillock secondary and Nansen primary schools. A sixth school, Alston primary, was already in special measures.
Of the remaining 15, five schools – Small Heath, Washwood Heath, Waverley, Chilwell Croft and Ninestiles – were cleared by inspectors of concerns related to risks of extremism and governance, while 11 "required improvement" with specific issues, largely to do with pupil safety and the relationship between staff and governors.
Map of affected schools in Birmingham.
Ofsted inspectors' concerns for safeguarding pupils against extremism extended as far as Gracelands nursery, a small local authority nursery with pupils aged between three and five. "School leaders were unaware of local authority or government guidelines on the prevention of extreme and radical behaviour," the inspection report said.
Wilshaw said in his letter: "The evidence suggests three broad categories of school: in some schools, the inappropriate influence of governors is widespread and deep-rooted; in others, there are significant weaknesses in governance, but the level of undue influence exerted by individual governors is less established; in a few schools, leaders have successfully resisted the attempts of governors to change the nature and ethos of their school."
The chief inspector noted that the decline in several schools had occurred since their previous inspection: "As a result, some schools previously judged to be good or outstanding have experienced high levels of staff turbulence, low staff morale and a rapid decline in their overall effectiveness."
In one case a school leader was so anxious about speaking to Ofsted inspectors that a meeting had to be arranged in a supermarket car park, he said.
The report hinted at a co-ordinated network alleged in the original "Trojan horse" letter, with Wilshaw noting that some headteachers had identified governors "who are highly influential across several of the schools that were inspected".
Oldknow school, a large primary with mainly Muslim pupils in Small Heath, east Birmingham, received a highly critical report. Ofsted inspectors said that the school's chair and other governors "exert too much control over operational matters in the academy" and that they failed to protect students from "the risks of radicalisation and extremism".
"[The governors] are unable to ensure that pupils are kept safe from any extreme or radical views they encounter because they do not consider this is an appropriate topic for primary school pupils. Pupils and staff are poorly equipped to understand, respond to or calculate risks associated with extreme or intolerant views," the report said.
Inspectors also found that raffles and tombolas were banned at a recent school fete because they were considered un-Islamic, and governors had used the academy's budget to subsidise a trip to Saudi Arabia for only Muslim staff and pupils. "The choice of destination meant that pupils from other faiths were not able to join the trip," the report said.
While the school was given outstanding ratings for pupil achievement and teaching, Ofsted graded Oldknow's schools leadership and pupil safety as inadequate, placing it in special measures.
Wilshaw made stinging criticisms of Birmingham local authority's role in allowing the situation to develop, saying that his inspectors had seen weaknesses in general oversight of schools in the city.
"Experienced and successful headteachers have consistently complained about the conduct of governors to the local authority, including about attempts to take control of governing bodies by stealth," Wilshaw said.
"The local authority has not exercised adequate judgment when nominating governors to maintained schools. The local authority does not routinely assess the suitability of prospective governors and, on at least one occasion, has not listened to concerns raised by headteachers about particular governing body appointments."
Michael Gove's toxic assault on schools is based on naked discrimination
Ofsted inspectors' concerns for safeguarding pupils against extremism extended as far as Gracelands nursery, a small local authority nursery with pupils aged between three and five. "School leaders were unaware of local authority or government guidelines on the prevention of extreme and radical behaviour," the inspection report said.
Wilshaw said in his letter: "The evidence suggests three broad categories of school: in some schools, the inappropriate influence of governors is widespread and deep-rooted; in others, there are significant weaknesses in governance, but the level of undue influence exerted by individual governors is less established; in a few schools, leaders have successfully resisted the attempts of governors to change the nature and ethos of their school."
The chief inspector noted that the decline in several schools had occurred since their previous inspection: "As a result, some schools previously judged to be good or outstanding have experienced high levels of staff turbulence, low staff morale and a rapid decline in their overall effectiveness."
In one case a school leader was so anxious about speaking to Ofsted inspectors that a meeting had to be arranged in a supermarket car park, he said.
The report hinted at a co-ordinated network alleged in the original "Trojan horse" letter, with Wilshaw noting that some headteachers had identified governors "who are highly influential across several of the schools that were inspected".
Oldknow school, a large primary with mainly Muslim pupils in Small Heath, east Birmingham, received a highly critical report. Ofsted inspectors said that the school's chair and other governors "exert too much control over operational matters in the academy" and that they failed to protect students from "the risks of radicalisation and extremism".
"[The governors] are unable to ensure that pupils are kept safe from any extreme or radical views they encounter because they do not consider this is an appropriate topic for primary school pupils. Pupils and staff are poorly equipped to understand, respond to or calculate risks associated with extreme or intolerant views," the report said.
Inspectors also found that raffles and tombolas were banned at a recent school fete because they were considered un-Islamic, and governors had used the academy's budget to subsidise a trip to Saudi Arabia for only Muslim staff and pupils. "The choice of destination meant that pupils from other faiths were not able to join the trip," the report said.
While the school was given outstanding ratings for pupil achievement and teaching, Ofsted graded Oldknow's schools leadership and pupil safety as inadequate, placing it in special measures.
Wilshaw made stinging criticisms of Birmingham local authority's role in allowing the situation to develop, saying that his inspectors had seen weaknesses in general oversight of schools in the city.
"Experienced and successful headteachers have consistently complained about the conduct of governors to the local authority, including about attempts to take control of governing bodies by stealth," Wilshaw said.
"The local authority has not exercised adequate judgment when nominating governors to maintained schools. The local authority does not routinely assess the suitability of prospective governors and, on at least one occasion, has not listened to concerns raised by headteachers about particular governing body appointments."
Michael Gove's toxic assault on schools is based on naked discrimination
By branding religious conservatism 'extremism' in Birmingham, ministers are making it clear that different rules apply to Muslims
Seumas Milne - The Guardian
‘The absurdity of the inspectors’ findings is clearest in the case of Gracelands, whose staff were taken to task for failing to ensure its 2- to 4-year-olds were protected against ‘extreme and radical behaviour'.' Illustration: Matt Kenyon
The harassment of minorities on the basis of forged documents has a grim history. So the official onslaught on mainly Muslim state schools in Birmingham, triggered by what has all the hallmarks of afabricated letter outlining a supposed Islamist plot to take them over, should be cause for deep alarm.
Instead, the architect of the clampdown, education secretary Michael Gove, has been hailed by the bulk of the press for standing up to "extremism". Inspectors have now turned their attention to an alleged Islamic takeover of schools in Bradford, and a local MP has demanded action to halt the "Islamist infiltration" of east London politics.
All this is music to the ears of the neoconservative Gove, who regards political Islam as a totalitarian "enemy within" and has gone to war with the home secretary, Theresa May, over who can claim to be toughest on Muslim "extremism". Four separate inquiries, including by the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, have been set in train.
Now the schools inspector Ofsted, transparently under political direction, has done what was expected of it. Five schools have been put in special measures, four lined up for takeover and 11 others taken to task – mostly for not teaching children enough about the threat of extremism.
But this extremism turns out to be a different beast from the one first trailed in lurid accusations a few months back. It is nothing to do with terrorism, or even the elastic boo-word of Islamism. The target is religious conservatism – or even just plain religiousness.
But for Gove – and now David Cameron – "nonviolent extremism" must be targeted as much as its violent counterpart. For those unclear what extremism might mean exactly, the government last year defined it as "opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect".
That clearly wouldn't apply to those involved with the targeted Birmingham schools – who, like most British Muslims, are more likely to identify with Britain than the rest of the population. But some are religious conservatives who Gove equates with "extremists" – convinced there is a "conveyor belt" from Muslim piety to terror.
So the inspectors had no problem finding the evidence required and what they claimed was a "culture of fear and intimidation", even if the evidence was thin on the ground. Teachers and parents say the fear and intimidation was rather spread by inspectors, who turned their findings on their head in 10 days.
They came up with a string of allegations, most based on hearsay, contested or exaggerated out of recognition according to teachers and parents. Christmas had been cancelled, it was said, music banned, an extremist preacher had addressed pupils, girls and boys were segregated, western women had been described as "white prostitutes".
The only prostitute mentioned turned out to be in a homily of the Prophet Muhammad's about a woman who saved a thirsty dog, Christmas events abounded in the censured schools, music was taught and gender segregation took place in PE, as in many other schools – while single sex schools are common across the country.
But the absurdity of the inspectors' findings is clearest in the case of Gracelands nursery school,whose staff were taken to task for failing to ensure its 2- to 4-year-olds were protected against "extreme and radical behaviour".
That's not to say, of course, that there's nothing behind the allegations, which have clearly been fed by former and current staff – or that there aren't legitimate grievances. These are not faith schools and some have clearly pushed the schools' religious boundaries.
It's just that they have nothing to do with extremism or terrorism, and could have easily been dealt with in a routine system of accountability. Instead, schools which had delivered outstanding results for deprived communities are now smeared and destabilised – and their pupils with them.
There's a powerful case for secular education. But it doesn't exist in Britain's schools, which are awash with religion. And unless the same rules apply to all, the result is naked discrimination. But has Gove sent inspectors to root out anti-abortionism and homophobia in Catholic or evangelical-sponsored schools, or cultural isolation in mainly white schools where racism is rife?
Not at all. Nor has he investigated the influence in schools of far-right extremists. Instead, he's effectively ordered two Birmingham schools serving overwhelmingly Muslim populations, Oldknow and Golden Hillock, to hold a "daily, broadly Christian act of worship" (excused in other such schools).
Of course, Gove's drive to break up and part-privatise the English school system has cut away the local accountability which could have checked some of the problems in Birmingham, which are now being used to line them up for a real takeover by his pet academy chains.
But the campaign to bring to heel Birmingham's schools and humiliate the Muslim community in the process is a wider threat in a country where war-fuelled Islamophobia is already rampant. Dog-whistling to Ukip bigotry might seem a cute electoral trick.
However, it risks driving Muslims from participation in public life, pushing Muslim pupils out of the state sector and boosting the extremism the government claims to be battling. Gove's assault on Muslim schools in Birmingham isn't about British values: it's a poisonous campaign of discrimination and intimidation.
