A very British problem

[Gob]

The Birmingham academy trust at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse allegations has been accused of running schools which have "taken the Islamic focus too far".

A leaked draft report on Park View Educational Trust from the Education Funding Agency says some parts of the school curriculum are "restricted to a conservative Islamic perspective".

It found that girls and boys had been segregated in some classes.

The trust has strongly disputed allegations of extremism.

Park View Educational Trust runs three schools - Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen - caught up in claims that a group of hardline Muslims have been trying to take over schools in Birmingham.

This draft report, obtained by the BBC's Newsnight, is from the Education Funding Agency which can investigate providers running groups of academies.

This highly-critical report found a classroom culture in which Park View School which was not welcoming to non-Muslim pupils - even though the school is not a Muslim faith school.

It described a "madrassa curriculum" in PHSE (personal, social, health and economic) lessons and "posters written in Quranic Arabic in most of the classrooms visited".

Staff told the inspectors that loudspeakers in the school were used to broadcast the call to prayer.

The report says there were posters in classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer.

And there were claims of an inappropriate external speaker being brought in to talk to pupils.

In RE lessons, the report found that the few pupils taking a Christian unit in the GCSE course, rather than the Islamic Studies paper, had to "teach themselves", because the teacher had to concentrate on what the majority were studying.

But the report says there were no signs of an enforced Islamic dress code.

The report says that the way the schools are run is "inadequate", with the chair of the trust playing an "inappropriate role in the day-to-day running of the school".

The trust has strongly rejected the criticisms and does not accept that there has been gender segregation.

A response from the trust challenges much of the detail of the report, accusing it of "sweeping statements" and inaccuracies - arguing that it makes assumptions based on prejudices about the Trojan Horse claims.

Park View was previously assessed as an outstanding school by Ofsted - a rating which is likely to be overturned when the latest round of inspections are published.

[Gob]

A school is not protecting its pupils from the possible risks of extremism and should go into special measures, an Ofsted report has said.

Governors at Carlton Bolling College, Bradford, met the needs of Muslim students, but did not take sufficient account of other faiths, it said.

The report, seen by the BBC, said students needed more opportunities "to recognise extremist views".

Faisal Khan, chair of the governors, said it was "full of inaccuracies".

David Green, leader of Bradford Council, said he had asked the Department for Education to allow the council to send in an interim executive board to replace the governing body.

Mr Green said: "I firmly believe you need to teach all religions to ensure people understand, and are aware of, the multicultural and multi religious society in which we live.

"All schools should teach all religions."

He said the council had "a grip of all schools" it was responsible for and the national curriculum was "being taught properly".

"Not all governors agreed with some of the activities that have been reported", he added.

David Ward, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East and a former governor at the school, said: " Young people have a right to a good education and if the governing body is standing in the way of that it needs to move over and let somebody else take over.

[oldr_n_wsr]

RRR
And science

[Big RR]

I don't see any problem in teaching religions after those, if only " to ensure people understand, and are aware of, the multicultural and multi religious society in which we live." Like it or not, we interact with different people every day, and having a basic knowledge of what might drive their choices, as opposed to the pure drivel published in the tabloids and on tabloid tv, can only be good. But they should be taught from a truthful and objective point, discussing how adherents view the world, morality, etc., and not from a religious point; comparative religions, not indoctrination.

[oldr_n_wsr]

teaching religions after those

I don't disagree.
But one has to watch out for the "biases" those doing the teaching may have. But I think you pointed that out in your post too.

[wesw]

we wouldn t want to offend the fellows who seek to dominate the world.

if we were truly enlightened we d cut off our own heads and give them our daughters to show our good will.

[liberty]

we wouldn t want to offend the fellows who seek to dominate the world.

if we were truly enlightened we d cut off our own heads and give them our daughters to show our good will.

Here, here, absolutely mate I agree. The be headings should start immediately at the top of British society and anyone that is not willing to have their heads severed is surely a racist and should be driven out of the country.


On a serious note, I can't see why claims of racism have such power over the British people to the point they are willing to sacrifice their own children on the alter of political correctness. They were not a Particularly racist people, much better than most other people in the world. they used their Navy to end the transatlantic slave trade and their army to overthrow slave trading nations in Africa.

[wesw]

I think it may be the way we educate our children. in my country, the U.S., we are only teaching the kids about the bad things this country has done.

our founding ideals, and our founders are mostly ignored. as are our contributions during both world wars. our stand against communism is forgotten. the horror of our civil war and its results are forgotten. dr. kings struggle and its results are forgotten as well.

guilt is taught young, the way liberty once was.

[MajGenl.Meade]

guilt is taught young, the way liberty once was.

Well that explains lib, I guess

[Gob]

Not just a British problem then...

Islamic schools across the country will be investigated by the federal Department of Education after a string of sackings among senior staff members and principals, allegations of financial mismanagement and concerns over the delivery of the curriculum.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne said the department has commissioned an audit of all six schools to "get to the bottom of these matters".

"I'm concerned with allegations reported in the media in relation to curriculum, gender segregation, senior staff movements and financial transactions," he said. "We want to be confident that schools operate in the best interests of their students.

The six schools which receive up to $45 million a year from state and federal governments take in some of the highest levels of taxpayer funding in the country.

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They are all affiliated with the largest provider of Islamic education in Australia - the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) - which has come under years of scrutiny by state education departments for its governance and administration.

One of the schools under investigation is the largest Islamic school in Australia, Malek Fahd in Sydney's south-west, which educates up to 2500 students each year.

The Greenacre school came under the microscope in 2013 after it was forced repay $9 million in NSW government funding because it was found to be inappropriately transferring money to AFIC.

The latest investigation caps off a controversial week for the school after it began pursuing a student it had expelled in the NSW small claims court for $490 in unpaid school fees.

The school asked the student to leave in 2011 after it told his parents his academic performance was "deemed insufficient," following a report that suggested he was unlikely to get an ATAR above 80.

In his statement of claim the boy's father has described the schools actions as "astonishing and unjustifiable".

Five other schools associated with AFIC will come under the audit including the Islamic College of Brisbane, the Islamic College of Melbourne, the Islamic College of South Australia, the Islamic School of Canberra and Langford Islamic College in Western Australia.

Two schools in NSW that have come under fire from the NSW Department of Education have escaped the federal investigation, despite ongoing concerns of parents and regulators.

Al Noori Muslim School in Greenacre has until December to show it has addressed the Board of Studies concerns over financial transactions and governance by the school after a series of property deals in 2012 with the school's chairman were brought to light.

The school's funding was frozen for a year, but has since been restored. The school has denied any wrongdoing.

Rissalah College in Lakemba has also come under scrutiny from the NSW department after its former chairman brought allegations of financial management to light in a case that was settled in March.

Rissalah's funding was frozen in 2013 but was restored a year later after veteran principal Bill McKeith was parachuted in by the Association of Independent Schools to do an "emergency repositioning of the school".

Dr Mckeith has has since openly criticised the board's structure and its governance policy.

"The board did not have the variety of skills and backgrounds required to be an effective board," he said.

[Sue U]

[The British] were not a Particularly racist people, much better than most other people in the world.

"The wogs begin at Calais."

[MajGenl.Meade]

... Luton, Staines and Ilford account for the remaining three directions

[liberty]

[The British] were not a Particularly racist people, much better than most other people in the world.

"The wogs begin at Calais."

You don’t think that is a true statement? Do you think the British were the most racist people?

http://www.history.uk.com/history/endin ... ave-trade/

[Sue U]

[The British] were not a Particularly racist people, much better than most other people in the world.

"The wogs begin at Calais."

You don’t think that is a true statement? Do you think the British were the most racist people?

http://www.history.uk.com/history/endin ... ave-trade/

Abolishing the slave trade (which the British had engaged in for well over two centuries) is a fairly subterranean bar for determining whether a particular culture is racist. You can believe slavery is wrong and still be a racist -- as many (if not most) abolitionists were.

British colonialism was a spectacular display of racism, persisting well into the 20th Century. A more naked and virulent racism is still very much alive and well in Britain, as evidenced by the periodic riots from the 1980s right into the 2000s.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I don't doubt racism exists and always has in the UK. I blame the Scots. And the Welsh. And the travelling people. But, to stop being serious for a moment, I think that the UK produced a form of racism (while indulging in many forms) that differed somewhat from the common understanding.

It was a patronizing form perhaps (and I'm not claiming any virtue). At the higher societal level I think Kipling is a shining example - admire the fuzzy wuzzy for his bravery; applaud the bhisti boy for braving gunfire to bring water to the master ('yer a better man that what I am") but bear in mind that they are fuzzy wuzzy. Poor benighted and inferior creatures who need a helping hand with the rest of life.

Of course, you've got your NF types - send the darkies home etc. But (I've said this before) in the football stands of the 60s and 70s, cockney accented West Indians and Africans were OK if they were part of your own gang. It was equal rights all round when the team colours were the only ones that mattered.

Do blacks (have blacks/browns/tans etc) experienced racism at the hands of local authority, the police and so on - yes and nothing benign about that. But I do believe there was a point in the 50s and 60s when the social "norm" was more middle class (even when it was really working class like my dad) and anti-coloured attitudes were regarded as rather .... well, low class. My folks and people like them would rather live next door to an immigrant family than live next door to Alf Garnett.

Now, classism.... we're much better at that

[Sue U]

I think you're right on the mark, Meade. British racism historically has been tinged with a kind of nationalism derived from the assumed superiority of colonial masters, and until more recent times the "darkies" were most always foreigners in foreign lands.

Racism here in the States stems largely from the wholesale importation of people as slave labor and a refusal to recognize the rights of their descendants as full citizens of this nation. We were never much of a colonial enterprise.

[Gob]

We shoot a lot less of our blacks too. Over there it seems they are legitimately used for target practice.

[wesw]

we were never much of a colonial enterprise? try switching" imperial ' for "colonial" , FTFY

[Big RR]

No Wes, I think Sue is right; our idea of colonialization is to move in and move the indigenous people out--more of conquest and annexation than colonialization.

[Lord Jim]

We shoot a lot less of our blacks too.

That hasn't always been the case...