At the weekend, The Sunday Times reported that Tower Hamlets council has started to encourage parents and teachers in its schools to report “concerns about young people’s safety, including racist or extremist behaviour”.
Its article added this:
The appeal by Tower Hamlets council will coincide with the publication of damning reports by Ofsted, the schools watchdog, this week, which will brand at least four schools in the borough “inadequate”.
They include Sir John Cass’s Foundation and Redcoat School, a Church of England state secondary under the control of Tower Hamlets council, and three private Islamic schools: Al-Mizan primary, the London East Academy and Jamiatul Ummah secondary for boys. The first two are run by the East London Mosque Trust.
Inspectors who examined Sir John Cass are understood to have been alarmed at the slow response to claims about a Facebook page created by Muslim sixth formers that linked to an extremist speaker.
None of the schools responded to requests for comment but Robert McCulloch-Graham, corporate director of education, social care and wellbeing at Tower Hamlets council, said: “There is simply no room here in Tower Hamlets for racist or extremist behaviour from any quarter.”
The Ofsted reports will be published on Friday morning and they follow a number of “emergency inspections” over the past couple of months.
Sources in Westminster have told me that Sir John Cass, in Stepney, will definitely be going into special measures because it has failed the “safeguarding” aspect of the inspection. A failure on that automatically triggers special measures, as I understand it.
This will be devastating for the school, both for its students and staff.
It genuinely is a “flagship” school. Its results are at the top end in the borough and it has in Haydn Evans a headteacher who is regarded as one of the best. He was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to education and the last time the school was inspected it was rated “outstanding”, the highest ranking available. I hope he remains in place.
And let’s be clear what this is not.
It is not a failure by the council (whose senior managers, Anne Canning and Robert McCulloch-Graham, are also considered excellent).
Neither is it a failure by or the fault of Mayor Lutfur Rahman: he’s understood to be angry at how the problems have come about.
And nor is this Trojan Horse 2. In Birmingham, there was a said to be a subversive plot by governors to change the ethos of schools. At Sir John Cass, the apparent problems are rooted in the activities of some sixth form students themselves.
The failures at Sir John Cass have arisen through a lack of governance oversight, or “grip” as they say in the Civil Service. Processes, and checks and balances are important, as PwC underlined in their report on council grants.
The governance failures also raise some extremely interesting questions about freedom of expression, British values, religion and religious identity in state secondary schools.
The Ofsted report will centre on several issues, but I suspect the headlines on Friday will centre on two things: the activities of the school’s sixth form Islamic Society (which uses school premises for meetings and which has been innocently raising cash for a charity under investigation for its activities in Syria); and the fact that the school allowed segregated playgrounds for boys and girls.
On the second issue, which sounds disturbing, we’ll await the school’s explanation.
On the first, Islamic Societies (ISOCs) at sixth form colleges and universities have been a headache for educational authorities and beyond for several years.
Radical outfits such as Hizb ut-Tahrir see them as fertile recruiting grounds. Perhaps most notably, Ed Husain, one of the co-founders of the Quilliam Foundation counter-extremism think tank, was radicalised in the Nineties via the Islamic Society at Tower Hamlets College, Poplar.
But I had no idea there were ISOCs in state secondary schools. However, I now understand this has been the case in Tower Hamlets for a few years. As far as I can make out, Mulberry School for Girls in Mile End also has one.
One Bengali Muslim councillor in Tower Hamlets told me this week there was a concern that sixth formers were increasingly being encouraged by imams and Arabic teachers at after-hours supplementary schools to organise themselves this way.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with ISOCs at school. Many schools have Christian Unions and Jewish Societies.
It’s the activities that matter; and that’s why there needs to be good oversight by school authorities.
At Sir John Cass, the ISOC set up its own Facebook page and as I understand it, at least one link was posted on it to an extremist preacher.
Apparently, the school bosses, who are responsible for the safeguarding of all students, failed to deal with this properly.
It may well be there was other material on that Facebook page which also alarmed Ofsted’s inspectors.
The Facebook page has now been deleted, but you can still find archived material for the SJC ISOC Sister’s page in Google’s cache.
Here:
On that page was a poster for an ISOC event at the school’s Great Hall earlier this year. Here:
There’s nothing to suggest any of the speakers were, or are, of concern.
The ISOC also has its own YouTube channel, which is still live:
So three innocuous videos and 57 views as of 5.30pm today. Hardly popular or dangerous.
The ISOC also had a Just Giving Syrian charity appeal, which was linked via Facebook. The details of that appeal for Human Aid are here:
Human Aid, which is based in Whitechapel, is one of five UK charities operating in Syria that are currently under statutory investigation by the Charity Commission. Human Aid denies any wrongdoing on this.
The ISOC’s Just Giving page no longer exists:
So that’s just a flavour of some of the potential problems faced by the school’s bosses when you have an active Islamic Society operating among impressionable teenagers in such a volatile climate for foreign affairs. They will probably seek guidance from ministers at the Department for Education.
That all this is happening at a Church of England governed school, where 80 per cent of the pupils are Bengali Muslims (and where there is no religious assembly but a “thought for the day” broadcast over the tannoys, makes it more interesting.
This was no subversive governors’ plot. The governors include(d) highly respected names. The Bishop of Stepney has a representative on the board.
David Pascall CBE, a City financier, was until very recently the chair of governors. He has decided not serve another term and The Rev Trevor Critchlow, the Rector of the wonderful St Dunstan’s Church across the road from the school, has taken over.
I would imagine action has already been taken in the relevant areas and I hope the special measures aren’t in place too long.
Interesting development. It may not be the fault or failure of many people whose names could be listed. It is however a part of the much larger problem that is lack of integration between groups of people in the borough – and one doesn’t have to look around too hard to see who the un-integrated groups are.
You report that Rahman is ‘angry at how the problems have come about.’ If this is true then it underlines the stupidity of the man; his administration is at the centre of the reports of division and disharmony in the borough, from handing out ‘grants’ willy-nilly to Bengali and Somali groups to the flying of the ISIS flag outside the town hall, and a hell of a lot in between. Radicalised islamic societies in the schools in his borough will be an (indirect) consequence of such stupidity and he should, once again, be hanging his head in shame.
Tim.
Such a shame about Sir John Cass. My son attended that school not long after Hayden Evans took over, and I must say, it was the making of my son. At the time it had very strong old fashioned values, and some good old fashioned teachers. By the time my son left, he was the only non-muslim in his class, but he never had any problems there
One of my concerns with the private Muslim independent schools is how little some of them charge per pupil per year. Some go as low as £2,400 a year, some charge more for wealthier parents and some will get charitable donations but a state funded school gets twice as much per pupil and does not have to pay for premises or capital costs. As a comparison Faraday independent school in the borough has an emphasis on being careful with money but costs £8,000 per pupil per year. 75% of a schools costs are staff so these schools must be skimping on the numbers of teachers or relying on teachers who are paid less then in state schools, not a recipe for success.
Devasted and shocked to learn Sir John Cass is potentially about to be put into special measures!
I had my entire secondary and sixth- form education as a former pupil at SJC. Those six years of my life I would never change for anything, memories I will heartedly cherish forever. We were all fortunate to be one of very few schools which had our own swimming pool and a field-studies centre at North Wales called Plas Einion. We were so fortunate and as a result, we experienced so many adventurous tasks including climbing Mount Nevis and Mount Snowdon.
As a Muslim I and others had no issues with it being a Church of England school. We had regular assembly inclusive of morning prayer and rwgularly attended St. Dunstans church to mark founders day etc. Being a mixed-sex school, I cannot understand why its playgrounds are now segregated if that happens to be the case? That would be wrong. The attainment at SJC has been a phenomenal turnaround from the days it was not classed as a desirable school, to one now that parents desperately compete to have their children enrolled within. I really hope ofsted recognise the success story of SJC and find other means to deal with any areas of concern it may have. Putting SJC into special measures would be a ‘slap in the face’ for both its excellent teaching staff, and its successful star pupils. They do not deserve what I fear is about to be leashed upon them by the ruthless ‘scare-mongering’ media.
Fabulous comment, Shahed.
Whoever is the Cabinet Member for Education should have been made aware of segregation. If in a secular, state school in 21st Britain little girls and little boys are prevented from playing together…then clearly this school has been infiltrated by the Islamic far-right. The same people that Shahed praised as “progressive” in the council chamber.
Perhaps Shahed has finally seen the way the wind is blowing and is trying to put some distance between himself and the rest of the mafia running this borough.
Sinking ship?
Putting things in perspective, when I went to a Catholic school, many years ago, the children were gender separated at playtime. The girls had one playground and the boys the playground at the other end of the school.
CC.
Do you think he might be about to jump ship? I am sure that a lot of Lutfur’s crowd will be looking to their allowances and I am sure conversations are taking place in various households across East London. By that I mean not just Tower Hamlets but points further east as well where so many councillors and movers and shakers actually live as opposed to where they appear on the electoral register.
I was talking to some Labour members, whites, who are resolutely opposed to any deals, admissions or re-admissions but I understand from other sources that while some of the leading THF members are beyond the pale others lower down the pecking order and food chain might decide to do deals.
I am correct in thinking that now that Lutfur’s powers have been substantially reduced he will be unable to award grants, sell properties, subsidise newspapers and TV stations and other sources of support? What happens to next year’s Mela festival. It was taken away from Shiraj before on the advice of accountants, is the same thing going to happen again?
Can you develop your argument about the ” ruthless ‘ scaremongering’ media “? I take this to mean that none of what has been said about these schools is in fact true and that you take the line that the OFSTED report as well as the accountants report on which Pickles moved the commissioners in are in fact fabrications and the whole thing is a campaign to remove Lutfur because he has been so successful?
Based on the account in the article, this is a school of the Church of England and children are free to profess Islam and organise themselves in an Islam Society.
What about the Muslim schools also mentioned in the article? Are there any Christian Societies there? Would non muslim children be allowed to organise themselves and profess their religions? What about Jewish children?
It seems that tolerance has reached such an extreme that it gives way to a lot of intolerance. Is there such a thing as an excess of tolerance? Or is perhaps the problem that while tolerance should be a two way exercise, here in Tower Hamlets it is strictly a one way system?
What about the Muslim schools also mentioned in the article? Are there any Christian Societies there? Would non muslim children be allowed to organise themselves and profess their religions? What about Jewish children?
That is a very interesting set of questions and I’d quite like to hear the answers. Can anyone shed any light on them?
Tim.
I think the question is irrelevant. I can’t imagine why non-Muslim pupils would be attending a fee paying Muslim school.
Leaving aside the fee-paying aspect, are Jewish and Christian kids in Muslim-maintained schools allowed to set up societies for their own religions?
The question may be moot in this instance but remains relevant in other circumstances.
Tim.
What Muslim maintained schools?
State-funded muslim faith schools, for a start. As well as any school that is funded by an Islamic organisation but does not charge fees and therefore has ‘open’ entry.
Tim.
Such as?
Islamia Primary in North London and the Islamia Girls Secondary school, as well as Al-Furquan Primary in Birmingham. According to this FOI request:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-faith-schools
… there were another eight in 2010, and I suspect the number has increased since then.
Tim.
I think they charge fees. What i’m looking for is an equivalent for Sir John Cass.
Islamia certainly doesn’t.
http://islamiaprimary.org.uk/content/view/56
I strongly suspect (but am not 100% sure, admittedly) that the FOI request I linked to is referring only to non fee-paying schools, hence the words “state-funded schools”.
Shall we go back to the original question?
Tim.
Let’s find a school to ask. We’re talking about secondary schools where entry is free so there’s a higher probability of attracting enough fervent Christian students who’d want to create a Christian Union.
But we already know the answer because it’s unlawful to discriminate on grounds of religion.
We’re living in Tower Hamlets, where a lot of unlawful things seem to have happened recently but have continued unchecked.
The original question was whether the unlawful thing known as “preventing a Jewish or Christian society being set up in an islamic school” (regardless of the source of funding) has ever happened. Given the status quo, are we assuming the answer is ‘Yes’?
Tim.
And I’m saying the question doesn’t arise but should it happen the answer would have to be no.
Why do you say the question doesn’t arise? The circumstances are there for it to arise (I’ll grant you that it’s unlikely that a Christian family would ever want to send their kids to a muslim school but kids don’t always follow the religion of their parents – I didn’t and don’t).
Also, why are you saying that the answer is ‘No’? It should be ‘No’, but I bet it isn’t.
Tim.
Based on what evidence exactly?
Sorry Ted, I’m not quite sure I follow your question. What is based on what evidence?
Tim.
Your bet
Erm, bets aren’t based on evidence, they are based on a personal prediction of what is not yet known. This concept underlies the entire gambling industry.
However, to continue the discussion, I bet that a Christian Union or Jewish Society would not be allowed to be set up in a muslim school in the UK. I am aware that to prevent one being set up would be unlawful, and I don’t know for sure that such a prevention would take place, but I am confident that such a union or society would be prevented by the school in question.
I base such a prediction on sentiment such as that expressed by ‘prisoners of stepney’, namely “It seems that tolerance has reached such an extreme that it gives way to a lot of intolerance. Is there such a thing as an excess of tolerance? Or is perhaps the problem that while tolerance should be a two way exercise, it is strictly a one way system?
Why do I get the impression that I am being taken to task here?
Tim.
Tim, do you have any evidence whatsoever that pupils in Muslim schools have ever been denied a request to set up a Christain or Jewish society? Or that any Muslim school has a policy prohibiting non-Muslim children from doing so?
Thought not. Ted is right, your question is irrelevant.
=> Konnu
Why don’t you ring the school and ask if their pupils would be allowed ?
I can guess the answer, so can many reading this blog.
Tim is doing a good job and making a very positive contribution.
Curious Cat
Awww, thanks Cat! I’m feeling all luvved-up now! (:
I fear that Konnu hasn’t read my posts where his question is answered in detail, but I know it is easy to post in haste and subsequently realise there is detail you have missed. My suspicion is no more than that – a suspicion – but I think it is shared by many.
(I’ll also add that this discussion is a bit off the topic of Ted’s original post. Perhaps we should all try to get back on-topic.)
Tim.
Mayor Lutfur claimed at his rally in Waterlily last week that his authority’s record is impeccable and Tower Hamlets has achieved highly across every sphere of council life including education.
What a surprise, extremists are dictating one of his school’s agendas. Perhaps it is to do with his links to the IFE and their efforts to get him elected at the last election.
How could a local authority managed school allow an Islamic society to function without monitoring it to make sure that all is well. Perhaps it is to do with Mayor Lutfur’s direct influence on the school that those who initiated this society were connected to him.
Lutfur Rahman is bringing more shame and scandal on our authority. Has he ever thought how this will impact on the everyday life of ordinary Tower Hamlets citizens?
This tarnishing will last much longer than Lutfur’s administration, ordinary citizens are powerless only he can rectify by working with all concerned.
It’s not often that I’ll defend Rahman but, in fairness, I can’t see any suggestion that “extremists are dictating one of his school’s agendas” in the article. Have I missed something?
Tim.
Is it certain that the downgrading of the school(s) is not part of an attempt to force any of them into becoming academies? Ofsted has a sorry history since 2010 of suddenly finding formerly good schools to have significant problems, and then lo and behold some ‘saviour’ appears on the horizon.
Does not really apply here, Sir John Cass, is a voluntary aided Church of England school so already semi-independent with the Church as its academy ‘sponsor’. The other schools are independent schools so cannot be forced to become academies although some independent schools have become free schools for financial reasons although they would cease to be selective at that point i.e. could no longer be 100% Muslim by choice.
Are schools allowed to say – we will only admit Muslims? In that case why isn’t a CoE school saying we will only admit Anglicans?
I assume, not having researched anything, that CofE schools were created long before the very important 1944 Education Act (promoted by RAB, R. A. Butler) which introduced universal secondary education.
I think CofE schools were a genuine attempt by a dominant social entity (the Church) to educate the masses. Without those schools, children are unlikely to have been educated or received virtually no education. Vast amounts of children benefited from these schools and I understand religion was not ‘rammed-down’ pupils throats.
Curious Cat.
I think part of the problem is that outstanding heads like Mr Evans get pulled out their own school so often to help out others or to address conferences etc and are therefore not as on the spot as they should be . But I agree with you Ted that, whilst there are clearly issues that need to be addressed, in particular in relation to the segregation of the playground- especially if Shahed is right that this is a recent decision. I could see perhaps some point in having a girl only or perhaps just a quiet space to ensure that football doesn’t take over everywhere – but that is different from complete segregation. Special Measures seems a bit heavy-handed as this is clearly not in the Trojan Horse category. The ISOC issues do indicate a need for a bit more supervision. I know the Christian Union in my school back in the day would have been jumped on hard if we had been engaging with Christian extremists and we were once mildly asked to tone it down when an assembly we were asked to run was seen to be a little more overtly evangelistic than was felt appropriate in a school setting. No one however would have thought that any more action than that was needed and indeed it wasn’t.
Sorry one the sentences above got mangled -after “decision” it should read “-these should not be over exaggerated”. Need an editor….
Islamic societies across all our colleges and universities in UK must be encouraged to make themselves more transparent. This will strengthen their position as a society, open to new ideas and as and when a member of the society expresses extremist views these can be challenged or criticised.
Am I right in thinking that OFSTED started inspections in all local authorities with significant Muslim communities after the Trojan Horse episode? Presumably these inspections were part of this initiative?
I think the notion was that if things could get so out of hand so fast in one community, then matters needed to be checked in others to make sure
It might not be concerns of quite the same ilk but these are very real and very significant concerns nonetheless.
I find the notion of segregated playgrounds for boys and girls in a mixed school to be extremely shocking. I’m sure I won’t be alone in associating segregation with apartheid in South Africa or the southern states of the USA before the equal rights acts were passed. It’s a way of treating people which very many of us have condemned for many years.
I’m very pleased to see Cllr. Shahed Ali also thinks such segregation is very wrong.
Looking to the future, I remember reading recently that one of the very real concerns about the schools inspected as part of the Trojan Horse investigation was that very little had happened since to remedy matters.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/14/trojan-horse-schools-done-little-fix-problems-ofsted
Maybe it’s time for the government to be a little more vocal as to where it stands re religious freedom vs. segregation and the standards of behaviour expected in ALL schools?
I wonder if maybe that’s what these inspections are trying to do?
This is the Guardian
Schools accused of failing to protect children from extremism
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/19/schools-tower-hamlets-ofsted-wilshaw-extremism-threat
This is the BBC
Church school fails inspection on Islamic society
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30113315
This is an article in The Independent
“Top London CofE school ‘failed to safeguard pupils from Islamic extremism’”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/top-london-cofe-school-failed-to-safeguard-pupils-from-islamic-extremism-9871462.html
But you read it here first!
Independent splashed it in print edition this morning. The BBC followed up the Indy and the Guardian came next.
Not according to my Google results. I seem to recall Guardian was about 2-3m hours in front of the Independent and BBC.
Indy went live at 915pm, guardian 2 hours later
Well Google was being a bit slow last night with picking up the results! 🙂 I always looks to see who got it first and generally go for the oldest report.
It is important for the well-being of our society (meaning England) that the Moslem religion is not permitted to dominate our lives. I, for instance, do not want Islam rammed down my throat nor do I want Shari law either.
Islam is one of several religions. Like the Christian faith, Islam has many denominations – some peaceful and others aggressive.
I have seen the effects of Moslem influence in closing down a council outdoors swimming poor because some men, professing to be alarmed by young girls running around in bikinis within the swimming pool curtilage, their holy Moslem culture has been offended. Only Labour would pander to such strange whims – and they did.
There is no doubt Islam is an old fashioned religion that has failed to modernise with the times. Some mosques still preach in Arabic and some ban women. Others segregate women by placing them on a different floor or hanging a curtain between the women’s and men’s areas. News that pork is dirty has no reality in these modern times, about 1,300 years after Islam was invented. The ban, supported by death threats, on non-Moslem men marrying Moslem women is abhorrent. What matters is how the couple relate to each other. Then there is the belief that white women and girls are trash, created by God for the exploitation of Moslem men.
We are living in 2014, not in 794 AD.
My good friends, Bachir and Abdul, tell me Islam is a very tolerant religion yet perverted extremists continually hijack Islam because they hate the west, the western way of live. education for girls and women and equal rights for women. One wonders why they live in England. But they do.
We need real and determined efforts to tackle all sorts of extremism in our society (including UKIP). We need much more mixing between Moslems and non-Moslems. We are all brothers and sisters regardless of our heritage and our skin colours.
Our society will become stronger and better for all if there is improved community integration which lets people know more about each other providing religion, in any form, is prevented from dominating our lives. We are all brothers and sisters, so we should strive to live amicably together – and that includes everyone speaking the language of the host country.
Poor adult literacy and fear of others is a major factor preventing improving social cohesion in Tower Hamlets.
The only beneficiary of the Tower Hamlet’s divided community is his Worship but he is oblivious to its existence and the negative effects it has on all our lives. Instead of tackling the problem, His Worship exploits the gulf for his personal benefit.
Schools should be ‘religion free’ zones not indoctrination (brain washing) centres pumping the kids full of often distorted reality.
Curious Cat.
[…] Then there is this, […]
Several people are quiet lately. The Rev Green of Bethnal Green, Glynn Robbins of something East End, Jon Lansman of Micheal Meacher’s Left Futures, Andy Newman of Socialist Unity, Giles Fraser who quickly pocketed £2000 for chairing Lutfur’s ” Fairness Commission” which found that life was unfair if you are poor and anyone else that people can think of. Who else has deserted the dear leader and wishes now they had never been associated? Answers of the usual postcards but no crisp fivers. They’ve all gone.
At least you’re still with us though, madmullahofbricklane
Did you notice that large coach, with blacken windows, heading-out of Tower Hamlets in the direction of Aberdeen ? I’m sure some of them were on there.
A real friend remains by your side even at the bleakest of moments. Silly for anyone to think they can buy “friends” with the public’s cash.
Curious Cat
What’s happening in Aberdeen?
Seems to be a refuge for ‘rats’ abandoning a slowly sink ship called ‘Lutfur’s World’.
Ted’s best mate ‘Takki’ has taken a 20% salary reduction for a job up there in the top left corner of Scotland – 554 miles away from the Mayor’s HQ at 5 Clove Crescent, E14 2BG (measured to Aberdeen council at Broad Street, AB10 1AB via motorways).
Scientifically the southern half of Britain is slowly sinking (or tilting if you prefer) into the sea whilst the northern segment is slowly ascending (sounds like an advert for the SNP :-)) The ‘sinking’ has nothing to do with the Westminster Wallies or with Tower Hamlets people fleeing northwards. It has been happening ever since the last ice age – that is why we can no longer walk to the European mainland or to the Isle of Wight.
Curious Cat
So can somebody tell me what happens tomorrow when they formally announce the results of the inspection.
What happens next? Do we know?
Maybe Ken and George will pop along for another rally?
It’s on the Ofsted website today.
…and the Council spokesman for this is NOT Mayor Rahman who just the other day was boasting about how all Council services were excellent.
He was nearly right.
This is on ITV news website http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-11-20/school-named-and-shamed-by-watchdog-for-failing-to-protect-pupils-from-islamic-extremism/
“The inspection reports have not yet been published so we are unable to comment on the contents but what we can say is that when any issues in our maintained schools do occur, we have a strong track record of intervening swiftly and successfully to address them.
We note that of the schools inspected, only one is a publicly-funded maintained school.
As is common practice, we will work with the leadership of this school to address any issues identified by Ofsted.
As a local education authority, we have no jurisdiction whatsoever over teaching and standards at independent faith schools. This is Ofsted’s area of responsibility.
We do, however, have responsibility for safeguarding all children in the borough and have always exercised our safeguarding duties to the full.”
– ROBERT MCCULLOCH-GRAHAM, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, TOWER HAMLETS COUNCIL
For deserters from the Lutfur cause I should of course have added the ludicrous Dave Hill of The Guardian.
East London Advertiser comments http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/we_need_child_safeguard_powers_over_islamic_links_tower_hamlets_urges_1_3857397
Before commenting to the press, I think maybe the Education Director needs to think long and hard about the powers he already has available to him with respect to Child Protection and protecting children and young people from the significant harm associated with emotional abuse.
However it does occur to me that maybe the Government could be more helpful in its guidance. Maybe it would rethink and revise the clarity of its guidance with respect to the contexts in which children can be abused by people who are not their parents – specifically within schools by the actions of other children or young people and the actions and inaction of teachers and governors.
Bottom line – this is a child protection matter – and the laws already exist to protect children from significant harm.
This is the current government guidance on safeguarding children which covers ALL children in England – and all agencies with designated responsibilities. Note that neither religious communities nor free schools are exempt.
Working Together to Safeguard Children
A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
March 2013
Local Authority Chief Executives and Directors of Children’s Services are REQUIRED to follow this statutory guidance, as they exercise their social services functions, unless exceptional reasons apply.
It should be read and followed by
* Local Safeguarding Children Board Chairs and senior managers within organisations who commission and provide services for children and families,
including social workers and professionals from
* health services,
* adult services,
* the police,
* Academy Trusts,
* education and the voluntary and community sector
who have contact with children and families.
To my mind it’s another jolly good reason why this borough needs a competent, experienced and professional Chief Executive of some stature.
Too many Fat Cats at the top of local government. Paying someone, for examples, £1/4 million annually (plus generous pension top-ups and 6 or 8 weeks annual holiday) has never been a guarantee of quality. All that happens is the fat cats can fatter at the public’s expense and waste public funds subscribing to ‘reputation management’ services that scan the Internet daily seeking ‘image damaging’ reports on themselves and their councils.
Quality is being denied to the public suffering at the hands of incompetent half-witted council bosses because of the stupid concept – widely adopted – of only employing people with previous local government experience.
How about putting a ‘no nonsense’ ex-military officer in charge ? Someone who abhors incompetence, slovenliness and corruption ? I am sure Council Tax would go down whilst the public’s satisfaction will increase.
Today we have English local government as a comfortable, cushy and excessively well-paid refuge for those genuinely incapable of effective leadership and lacking a genuine commitment to serving the public.
No wonder we have so many problems in our daily lives.
Curious Cat.
I’ve been doing some more digging. The issue which all independent schools must now address is the government’s guidelines on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development for independent schools. According to the Guardian
“The government’s guidelines on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development for independent schools came into force on 29 September, while the Tower Hamlets schools were inspected under the guidelines in October. “
This is a link to “Improving the SMSC development of pupils in independent schools” published a year ago in November 2013
This is formal Departmental advice outlining independent schools’ obligations in relation to spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development.”
Paragraph 2 of the above – which in effect provides benchmarks for OFSTED inspectors – states
“A commitment to make changes to strengthen the SMSC standard was included in the Government’s Prevent strategy (see weblink in Associated Resources section on page 12). In line with this commitment, sub-paragraphs 5(1)(a)(ii) and (iii) have been amended to clarify existing requirements on schools. In addition, new sub-paragraphs 5(1)(a)(vi), 5(1)(b) and 5(1)(c) are intended to ensure that schools:
* encourage pupils to respect specified fundamental British values;
* do not promote extremist views, or partisan political views, through their curriculum and/or teaching, and
* offer pupils a balanced presentation of views when political issues are brought to their attention.”
I’m now leaning towards a conclusion that appropriate guidance exists and has not been properly implemented in certain schools – and this is why they have been failed on safeguarding.
I’m a great believer in reading the details as opposed to the third hand summary headlines of what has been said by OFSTED
For example – in the Sir John Cass report School Inspection Report
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/files/2434205/urn/100977.pdf dated 21 November 2014 you can read the following
“neither staff nor governors have received any training in how to identify or respond to the early signs of extremism and/or radicalisation.”
and
“There is insufficient evidence that challenge and support provided to the school by the local authority are having an impact. The local authority has considered the school to require only ‘light touch’ support. Although leaders comment on good links with local police, these links have not been used to raise awareness of risks such as those associated with extremism, amongst students, parents, staff or governors.”
and
“Leaders and governors have not checked that policies relating to safeguarding and child protection have been updated annually. They have not ensured that all staff are aware of the statutory guidance issued to all schools by the Department for Education in April 2014. Neither the leadership team member responsible for e-safety, nor the Chair of the Governing Body was aware that the school had received notification by the police of the concerns relating to the social media and internet postings. Communication between senior leaders and governors to ensure that students are safe, particularly those in the sixth form, has been ineffective.” MY BOLD.
I think OFSTED, through these inspections, has just made it absolutely EXPLICIT TO head teachers and governing bodies what sort of priority should have been given over the last 12 months and should be given in the future to the development and rigorous implementation of new policies which relate to both safeguarding and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of children and young people.
I, for one, have absolutely no problems with a government or an Inspectorate which is doing all it can to protect children and young people and combat extremism in schools.
There’s a lot of scope for both parents, teachers and governors to learn from the Inspection reports about what’s now expected in ALL schools – and then to start asking questions!
imposes no lawful obligation on anyone unless the relevant law states has it must be obeyed. If challenged, the defendant(s) can argue it is only meaning general advice.
The Tories, just like Labour, have made a confused mess; the evidence is conspicuous.
Curious Cat
I think you will find there’s “guidance” and then there’s “GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE”.
The latter is usually an expression of a law which has been passed which sometimes indicates that guidance will be promulgated.
Ignore the government guidance at your peril if you want a school to achieve good ratings from OFSTED (or a local authority to avoid intervention by Commissioners).
So, for example, the Working Together guidance on safeguarding children is actually STATUTORY GUIDANCE ie ignore this and you may lose your job….
Another example – the Guidance titled “Improving the SMSC development of pupils in independent schools” is actually guidance issued with a view to helping independent schools (including academies and free schools) understand their obligations under the standard for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of pupils contained in the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010.
The crucial words in that paragraph are “obligations” and “Regulations” – in other words this is NOT OPTIONAL.
Guidance is issued to help statutory bodies and others interpret what the law and regulations actually mean. It’s sometimes revised if practical problems crop up and/or people just don’t “get it”. However that just updated and refines what is already an obligation. The issue at the end of the day is whether the desired outcome is achieved.
Bottom line – almost all government “guidance” is underpinned by a legal set of obligations and duties and “must dos”.
Thank you.
CC.
Pupils at six small Muslim private schools in east London are at risk of extremist views and radicalisation, says Ofsted’s chief inspector.
Sir Michael Wilshaw said the pupils’ “physical and educational welfare is at serious risk” following a series of emergency inspections.
He said all the schools focused too heavily on Islamic teachings.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says the schools will be closed down if changes are not made quickly.
At one school, inspectors found pupils did not know the difference between sharia and British law.
And they said the curriculum at Mazahirul Uloom School in Tower Hamlets “focused solely” on Islamic themes.
Some students told inspectors: “Women stay at home and clean and look after the children. They cook and pray and wait for us to come back from school with homework.” It is in special measures.
The findings of the other five Ofsted inspections included:
Jamiatul Ummah – good opportunities to study and practise the Islamic faith but pupils were not provided with a broad and balanced curriculum. It was previously judged outstanding but has been downgraded to inadequate.
Ebrahim Academy – (secondary) pupils not prepared for modern British life and curriculum said to be too narrow;
London East Academy – (secondary) rated inadequate. Curriculum is not broad and balanced, and students have insufficient understanding of how other people live in Britain and abroad. Also school’s work to keep children safe is inadequate. Most of the school library books are in Arabic;
Al Mizan – (primary) rated inadequate. Work in religious studies books shows many pupils have learned only about Islam. Systems for keeping children safe are weak – public have open access to school;
East London Islamic School – (primary) rated inadequate. The majority of lessons focus on Islamic or Arabic studies. All pupils learn to recite religious texts by memory and repetition. Teachers adopt a similar teaching style in other lessons.
Source: BBC
It is absolutely clear that the THF Cabinet Member for Education Councillor Gulam Robbani has to resign.
To which the Director of Education and/or Cllr. Gulam Robbani will reply that LBTH is not responsible for education at any of the independent schools and doesn’t have the power to intervene to inspect in the same way as OFSTED does!
I think the really interesting question is whether the government would want the power to intervene devolved to a Council that has been recently identified as lacking in good governance and biased towards one part of the local community!
In the past there have been notions that authorities which achieved the best standards could mentor and assist those who are have significant weaknesses and failures. I believe the same thing happens re.schools.
However the problem with that is when “the best” have not kept up with the rigour required for new policies and practices which need to be implemented and kept under proper scrutiny across the board.
That certainly seems to me to be what has happened at Sir John Cass.
An ignored issue is the creeping privatisation of public primary and secondary education in England. Once upon a time all schools receiving Tax Payers dosh were accountable to the LEA = Local Education Authority (or the infamous ILEA etc.).
Under Labour and Tories the council’s control has slowly disappeared. Some councils were utterly crap in education matters but removing council control meant there was no longer a local ability to monitor and intervene when necessary.
Today many public schools are effectively private organisations (foundation schools and academies). When will the ‘Ltd.’ or ‘PLC’ appear after the school’s name ?
Curious Cat
Curious Cat – the reduction in local authority control is not the same as privatisation, they are two different things. It does mean that they report to a different group of people who are more remote then the LA which can be judged to be a good thing as in most cases it allows schools to get on with things (the few bad apples not with standing). That is one reason why Regional schools commissioners were appointed this year to try and bridge that gap and I know they have already been visiting academies and free schools in Tower Hamlets. I was an LA school governor in west London for five years and my school decided to go down the academy route, the LA’s role in our school was mostly pointless (the Director of Education and Childrens Services never visited the school), negative (their HR department gave us bad advice) and also confused the lines of responsibility, was it us as the Governing Body that carried the can if a mistake was made or the LA on whose advice we acted?. I think local authorities have a valuable role to play in the education sphere but I do not see them any longer as being the main players, they have too many other responsibilities and distractions. For example I told Tower Hamlets Council months ago that the % of primary school children attending schools rated by OFSTED as Outstanding had fallen from 27% to 15% over the last five years (most of that decline was in the northern part of the borough), the % attending schools rated Inadequate has gone from 0% to 4% in five years. What has happened since then?
The increasingly favoured solution from the Department of Education appears to be Multi academy trusts i.e. schools can leave LA control as part of a small group not alone (unless they are Outstanding), that means a problem with any one school can be picked up as part of the group.
Privatisation is a separate issue, as what we are taking about here is who reports to whom and the role of LA’s
That’s certainly my understanding of how things work these days.
The devolution of power to schools started a very long time ago. The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced Local Management in Schools which was the beginning of the end so far as LEA control was concerned.
What’s been happening more recently is more of the same under a different name – and thankfully some of this is beginning to address the issues associated with schools which need a lot of help.
The real issue is that the Governing Bodies in many schools are weak and that’s why, with a concerted effort it’s perfectly possible for specific interest groups to wrest control – as apparently happened in Birmingham
One of the reasons that Governing Bodies are weak is that many of the nominated Councillors are a big waste of space………
Just likes the Catholic schools did 50 years ago. Kids learnt the Catechism (a printed book of questions and answers) just like parrots.
God made me.
God made me in his own image and likeness.
…………… etc etc etc ………. (or ‘et cetera’)
I’ve never ever been a willing parrot.
Curious Cat.
However the point is this is not 50 years ago. It’s 2014 and all schools have to comply with all extant law, regulations and guidance relating to how schools should operate.
OFSTED is not interested in whether kids can behave like parrots.
It’s interested in whether kids get a well rounded, balanced and grounded education which enables them to maximise their potential in our contemporary world.
It’s interested in whether kids get a well rounded, balanced and grounded education which enables them to maximise their potential in our contemporary world.
Surely the issue ought to include the banning of at all schools ? Kids should not be forced by adults to learn the entire Koran (or so it seems to me) repetitiously. What about the exclusion of important subjects to permit the religious brain washing ?
Can one really blame some Moslems for copying what the Catholic schools did in the past ?
Time for School Rights for all children – a sort of mini-Human Rights Act.
Curious Cat
Curious Cat
I was a child in one of those schools over 50 years ago.
Mornings were English lesson including reading, writing and spelling up to morning break. Arithmetic and tables were taught to 12 noon.
Religion was a 15 minute pre lunch lesson of the standard catechism.
Lunch.
Afternoons varied with Geography, History, Music, PE, Art etc.., Some listening to the BBC radio programmes for schools.
There was nothing Catholic or indeed anything religious brought into any lesson except the 15 minutes before lunch.
Extra curricular religious activities were voluntary and run by the Church on Church premises not school premises.
Our school entrances and playgrounds were not segregated nor were the class lines (remember those) we formed in the playground before eing instructed to enter classes.
Hi Aym,
Seems you had a better education than me.
CC.
Curious Cat
I had a traditional Scottish education tinged by Catholicism because state (public) schools were originally not available for Catholics. Real bigotry existed despite the Scottish Enlightenment of 1700 odds which transformed education everywhere and impacted some great American institutions.
The Catholics in the late 1800s and early 1900s had to build and fund their own schools and teachers. They adopted the best curriculum in vogue at the best state schools to give their pupils the best education to combat the blatant bigotry and discrimination present in the workplace; this was still present even in the 1970s.
This is where I do not understand any politician who cannot look at Scottish or Northern Irish history and see that sectarianism, bigotry and separatism has been proven not to work. Au contraire, it is divisive.
It would appear that there is too much kow-towing to political correctness and fear of upsetting a minority. If I was an immigrant, I would expect the best for my family not a return to some great, old country I had purposefully left to better myself and my family.
I agree with all who have stated religion should have no part in education and the age of majority should be an appropriate time to decide if religion will play a part in one’s life.
One bright sunny day a wise government will bring an end to the indoctrination of children in faith schools and let children learn about religion when they are old enough to make their own decision on God or no God
Well written Sir.
Extremely sensible and a mirror of my own belief and also that of, unknown to everyone on here, a Dutch religious organisation known as The ‘Apostolisch Genootschap’. It is a Christian denomination, slight strict when I knew some members. It refuses to allow children to become members until they are 18 years old.
Children can attend the weekly church service (lots of hymn singing and sermons on the importance of treating others with kindness and respect) and other events but are not permitted to gain membership until they are 18 then can make their own un-pressured and un-brainwashed choice.
Contrast that with Church of England and Catholics baptism (capturing the young while they haven’t got a clue they are being ‘branded’ as members), Islam, Judaism (cutting-off foreskins) etc. etc.
Surely religiously brain-washing young children is child abuse ?
Curious Cat
All local councils are required to have a Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education that has to hold its meeting in public. Does anyone know if Tower Hamlets publishes the minutes of the meetings of its SACRE committtee, who sits on it and what their views are on the above?
I would be astonished if an ordinary member of the public ever attended such a meeting. Some local authorities hold those meetings during school time, or straight after the kids have gone home, in discreet locations such as an empty class room ion a school somewhere.
http://www.faithintowerhamlets.com/default/1250.resources/
Tower Hamlets has a thriving Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education – or SACRE.
Among other roles, SACRE agrees and monitors the religious education syllabus. This has a strong multi-faith core and includes information and guidance for schools.
SACRE includes representatives from a wide range of faith groups in Tower Hamlets and meets quarterly. It completes an annual report on its work and also holds an annual lecture on religious education for schools and faith group representatives.
The Local Education Authority ensures the work of the council is fedback to schools by Paramjeet Sehmi, a school development adviser who supports SACRE as part of her responsibilities.
If you would like to find out more about SACRE and its work, please contact Parmjeet on 0207 364 4598 or parmjeet.sehmi@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Is a three month gap between meeting sensible and adequate ?
Curious Cat
Thanks for the link.
The headline at the top of that page was “Faith in Tower Hamlets”.
Considering recent revelations about Tower Hamlets Council for many, what little faith people have in it seems to have gone. 🙂
I made a FOI request to my own local Council (Wirral Council) for the minutes of the last SACRE meeting. There’s an obscure law that alao says I’m entitled to them.
It took about 20 months and an ICO decision notice to get a redacted copy (that leaves off all names of people who aren’t councillors on grounds this is “personal information”). Other councils publish the minutes and agendas of these public meetings on their website (in full).
There seems to be a lot of variation across Councils in how open and transparent they are when it comes to their Special Advisory Council on Religious Education though.
As you point out, if it’s held in an obscure location, hard to get to and nobody other than the people on it knows when or where is that really a “public meeting”?
=> John Brace,
Thank you sincerely for confirming my ardent belief that English local government badly needs a complete overhaul and must to involve the public much more.
I’ve been the victim of the questionable secrecy, the lies, the cover-ups and the prevent-the-public-knowing attitude of local authority staff. They are supposed to be working for us who pay their salaries.
Regrettably Central Government (periodically composed of MPs from all major parties) have failed to empower the public in respect of local government activities. At the moment, the public are usually powerless despite the local authority being created to serve them. Its a gravy train for failing sub-standard individuals unable to get the same salaries in the private sector.
In my area, the SACRE meetings are every 4 months and they are spending money on employing a ‘Professional Advisor’. The last agenda mentions “a dedicated SACRE newsletter”, “The aim of SACRE in promoting quality Religious Education in schools”, “Collective Worship”, ………………… That meeting was held in a controversial Moslem school and the next meeting will be in a Mosque. With only 3 meetings per year, and the SACRE chairman being a strict Moslem, am I mistaken when I think it is a bit one-sided ?
Why Oh Why are they no equivalent meetings for the teaching of Maths, Science, Languages, History, Geography ?
Why should RE (Religious indoctrination) be more important that the other subjects especially when there are no attempts to balance the equation with the concept (or reality) of there being “no God” ?
If someone wants to know about historical fairy tales, like if you die fighting on behalf of one side in a war, you go to heaven and get 50? virgins to have sex with, surely that should be part of history or a new subject called Delusion ?
Curious Cat.
=> Curious Cat
Local government is of course going through an overhaul. As to involving the public much more. Here are some example of “involving the public”.
A) We’ll hold a public meeting, but make sure we lock all the doors to the building, so only members on the committee can get thus (almost) preventing the press/public being there (a local council)
,
B) We’ll hold a public meeting, but make sure it’s in a part of the building you need permission to access through a card entry system. There’ll be a “doorbell” there so that when it is answered you’ll get asked a lot of questions as to why you’re actually there and we won’t actually let you in to the meeting to talk to anyone until after the meeting is started (a since abolished (~2012 police authority made up of local councillors and independents)
C) You request a copy of the background papers (application, representations against it being granted) for a licensing meeting deciding (in public) for politicians to decide whether to change (or grant) a licence to serve the public alcohol. Refusing such a request when in custody of the documents is a criminal offence since August 2014 (see Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014) and these papers aren’t anymore published on the organisation’s website.
Request refused by the senior manager in charge of the section because as the next Monday is a bank holiday other officers are very busy they are dealing with inquiries from taxi drivers (that always get a higher priority than dealing with the press). (local council)
D) you request copies of the nomination forms of candidates in an election to your local council from the Returning Officer. You are told be election staff they are too busy to allow you to inspect them (despite a legal right to do so) or requested copies.
Election staff insist on charging you for copies they are instructed later not to give you.
You are emailed copies of the ~10A4 pages you requested just before people go to vote (at least about a month or more after you requested).
E) You request election expenses returns of a succesful candidate (now councillor). Details of a large ~£1000 donation from a political party to their campaign is deliberately blacked out (unlawfully) by staff.
When you ask for it to be done correctly, they have to (reluctantly) photocopy it again without blacking out the information.
F) You are constantly refused access to information or registers the law states you can have access to. So you go to the local library (also run by the same organisation) to photocopy the information that shows you are entitled to. You take the photocopy back and they tell you as they close at 5.00pm they apologise for their mistake, but now don’t have the time to do what they should have done correctly the first time.
I could write a whole book about all this, and maybe I should!
However going back to your point. I will answer with the caveat that my response applies to England (I’d have to look up the position as regards to Scotland).
In England the SACRE for each council area has by law have four groups on it (you’d have to check on whatever legal requirements apply in Scotland as this is a quote from the English & Welsh legislation s.390 of the Education Act 1996):
Group A “a group of persons to represent such Christian denominations and other religions and denominations of such religions, as in the opinion of the authoirty, will appropriately reflect the principal religious traditions in the area”
Group B “except in the case of an area in Wales, a group of persons to represent the Church of England”
Group C “a group of persons to represent such associations representing teachers, as in the opinion of the authority, ought to be represented, having regard to the circumstances of the area”
Group D “a group of persons to represent the authority”
You also ask two questions (of many) I will try to answer:
Q1) Why Oh Why are they no equivalent meetings for the teaching of Maths, Science, Languages, History, Geography ?
Because religion is seen as so important it is decided at the authority (rather than school) level.
Q2) Why should RE (Religious indoctrination) be more important that the other subjects especially when there are no attempts to balance the equation with the concept (or reality) of there being “no God” ?
The whole point of the above legislative requirements in England and Wales is to have a balance of teachers, councillors and/or officers, someone from the Church of England (in England) and religious leaders.
However the religious leaders/people to the committee are chosen by the council involved, based on what the predominant religions are in that area. It’s up the committee (which may include councillors) to decide on its Chair each year and they may be selecting from only one person who wants to do it.
Hopefully that helps, but never having attended a SACRE public meeting I’m not sure how they go. In America of course, there’s a separation between church and state. Here in the UK the Church of England and other religions are involved in the decision making (for example if we take the Church of England I think (and please correct me if I’m wrong) CoE bishops in the House of Lords for example).
Even though it has been humiliated on this matter it seems The Guardian just won’t give up. After the debacle of the series of Dave Hill articles exonerating Rahman Comment id Free has today weighed in with an article by one Harun Asif.
I’ll do more checking on this gentleman and the organisations he is a member of and report back later but what is interesting are the responses. I am assuming that all are Guardian or at least CiF readers and most are hostile. This latter is getting more and more typical of responses to this kind of CiF article. Have a look and see what you all think.
Claiming that the school was ok during his time, nearly 4 years ago, because he did alright is a poor argument.
I’ve skimmed the Ofsted report for the Jamiatul Ummah Islamic school
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/131388
and am alarmed by what I read:
Safeguarding issues – non vetted staff, are they actually qualified teachers?
Health & safety – no banisters on stairs, no changing rooms – use dining room yeugh! etc..
Narrow curriculum – no Geography, emphasis on sects of Islam – what about Christianity, Judaism, Sihkism, atheism etc..
Someone directed my attention to this. It’s not a site I have looked at before but it’s an interesting article. http://www.labour-uncut.co.uk/2014/11/19/labour-must-discipline-livingstone/#more-18909
If we can get back to the topic of this post! (People who want to expound at length on their own pet topics really ought to get a blog of their own!)
This is a country which is currently rated at a “severe” status re the likelihood of violent attack by extremists (i.e. people are who are enemies of the state).
Plus nationally we’ve also seen or read about what’s been occurring to children and young people who’ve been exposed to extremist views – and the consequence of that i.e. a lot of Muslim parents who are grieving for their children killed overseas or trying to retrieve young people who have suddenly disappeared from their homes.
We’d be severely critical of the government if they were NOT active in aiming to ‘raise the game’ of everybody with respect to the impact of extremism on children and young people – and rightly so!
ALL those responsible for the safeguarding of children and young people from extremism need to ‘up their game’. As well as OFSTED this includes
* parents,
* teachers, year leaders, head teachers,
* governors,
* maintained schools, independent / free schools,
* youth service leaders and workers
* education authorities such as Tower Hamlets Council,
* the Director of Children’s Services and
* the local Safeguarding Children Board Chair
I’d be interested to know:
* who is the Chair of the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Children Board?
* what specific actions has the Board taken about safeguarding children from extremism in Tower Hamlets post Birmingham and the “Trojan Horse” affair?
* what does the Chair have to say about this matter regarding the safeguarding of children from extremism in Tower Hamlets?
* what SPECIFIC help does the Safeguarding Board need the government to provide to enable it to do its job properly and thoroughly with respect to safeguarding EVERY child in the borough from extremism?
Sarah Baker, chairwoman of the Local Safeguarding Children Board
Dated July 2013 A quick read and I can’t find anything to answer questions about preventing radicalisation.
However, The Children’s Act 1989 . Part V Section 47, is referred to and states:
“(5ZA)The local authority referred to in subsection (5) is—
(a)the local authority who —
(i)maintain any school at which the child is a pupil, or
(i)make arrangements for the provision of education for the child otherwise than at school pursuant to section 19 of the Education Act 1996, or
(b)in a case where the child is a pupil at a school which is not maintained by a local authority, the local authority in whose area the school is situated.]”
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/we_need_child_safeguard_powers_over_islamic_links_tower_hamlets_urges_1_3857397
“Tower Hamlets Local Safeguarding Children Board wants the government to give town halls more powers to deal with children’s safety in privately-run schools.
“We have some concerns about whether existing legislation gives sufficient authority for the council to take an active role in independent schools,” the Board’s chair Sarah Baker said.
“The Board requests that Ofsted and the Department for Education consider this carefully to improve these independent schools.””
Again – Sarah Baker appears to be as ignorant of the existing Safeguarding powers as the Director of Education.
Which is worrying…….
I still read the Guardian more from habit than anything else and find that it is increasingly losing touch with reality on several issues especially anything to do with Islam. The latest contribution from regular columnist Zoe Williams is the most bizarre by a long chalk.
Headed ” The ‘Swamp’ it seems, is in Osted’s head”. It has the sub heading ” The rush to tackle extremism in education is symptomatic of a hatred-driven political frenzy”. And her evidence for this? Well I can’t find any having now read the article several times.
If people want to comment on the article I would hurry up as The Gruaniad has a habit of closing comments very quickly when it’s under fire, so much for Comment is Free!
I share your habit and your view on The Guardian. Something went very wrong with editorial direction a while back – it’s well evidenced in other parts of the paper on other matters.
Theresa May spelt out changes in legislation yesterday. One of the proposed measures – according to the BBC News report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30173238
“Counter-radicalisation measures – requirements that schools, colleges and probation providers help prevent people being radicalised”
If the legislation is passed then there will be absolutely no question that some schools will need a major rethink of how to prevent kids from being radicalised in Tower Hamlets.
Those who have as yet not been inspected would do well to take heed of the recent Inspections and the prospective legislation which will spell out a legislative duty of care more precisely.
I feel most sorry for the pupils at these schools of Islam who are being educated in a religious cocoon and will be ill prepared for life on the big wide world. Unless their world consists of rotten Tower Hamlets, a life on benefits, repopulating the globe, treating women as baby making cooking/cleaning drones, anti Semitic and eventually heading for jihad if and when they need a little excitement, or they take the vile teachings of the latest hate spouting cleric to grace their local sandle swapping venue to heart! Or am I generalising somewhat? Having witnessed this creeping along for decades, I think I’m saying it how is, regardless of the bad taste this leaves while typing!