Plan B Forum

The Birmingham school at the centre of an alleged campaign of “Islamisation” by Muslim radicals is to be placed in “special measures” by the Government’s education watchdog in a move that could see its head teacher and governors removed.

Park View, previously rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, will be downgraded to “inadequate”, the lowest possible score, in two categories, leadership and management, senior education sources said.

This enables Ofsted to place the school in special measures, allowing the watchdog, if it wishes, to remove the school’s entire leadership.

The move, described as “seismic” by senior educational sources, follows a highly unusual two Ofsted inspections in the past three weeks at the school, the alleged victim of a campaign by Islamists called a “Trojan Horse” to remove secular head teachers and install Islamic practices in Birmingham state schools.

It will be embarrassing for the inspectorate and the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who previously hailed Park View as an example of educational excellence.

The disclosure comes as parents and school governors and staff describe in detail how the campaign has destabilised and undermined successful schools.

In extensive interviews with The Sunday Telegraph, more than a dozen sources disclosed how children at one supposedly non-religious primary school, Oldknow, were led in anti-Christian chanting by one of their teachers at assembly.

The school also conducts weekly Friday prayers, has organised at least three school trips to Mecca subsidised from public funds, and requires all pupils to learn Arabic — almost unheard of at a primary school.

It also runs its own madrassah, or religious school. Oldknow’s highly successful non-Muslim head teacher has been driven from her post for resisting this “Islamising agenda”, this newspaper has learnt.

The head of another successful primary school, Springfield, received death threats, had his car tyres slashed and is under “non-stop attack” by radical governors, according to parents, other governors and staff at the school.

Several sources said their schools had repeatedly appealed to Birmingham city council and the education inspectorate Ofsted for help, but were ignored.

This newspaper has also established that one of the alleged leaders of the Trojan Horse plot, Tahir Alam, is an Ofsted inspector and is employed as a “specialist in school governance” by Birmingham city council. Mr Alam says the plot is a fabrication and denies any involvement.

The council has downplayed the fundamentalist activity. Its leader, Sir Albert Bore, dismissed the allegations as “defamatory” and said there are “no serious flaws” in its management of schools.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, however, that late last week, in a highly unusual move reflecting deep concern in Whitehall, at least a dozen officials from the Department for Education were sent to three of the schools allegedly targeted: Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen Primary. All three state schools are run by Park View Education Trust, whose chairman is Mr Alam.

The deputy head of Nansen, Razwan Faraz, the brother of a convicted terrorist, is the administrator of an organised group of teachers, governors and school consultants called “Educational Activists” dedicated to pursuing what Mr Faraz, in leaked messages, called an “Islamising agenda” in Birmingham schools.

Nansen, like Oldknow, is one of the tiny number of primary schools in the country that teach compulsory Arabic to all pupils.

“The DfE people are talking to the teachers and children and they are even photocopying exercise books,” said one teacher at Park View. “I have never heard of anything like this before.”

She feared that scenes in which her character appears topless and tied to a bed while Jung [Michael Fassbender] spanks her behind would be too outrageously explicit, and attract undue attention, she told The Daily Telegraph at the film’s British premiere in London last night.

But Knightley was surprised to discover that, weirdly, the scenes haven’t been mentioned in most countries. In the whole three days the cast were at the Venice Film Festival, they were not mentioned at all and the rest of the world seems to have turned a blind eye to them… except in England.

"In England it’s got mentioned all the time," she said. "I don’t know what that says about us. We obviously like spanking."

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/film/44932/eng ... z2wnwI75dh

Guidance on 'Sharia compliant wills' has been drawn up by The Law Society meaning high street solicitors can draft documents in line with religious principles, reports the Telegraph. The wills will be able to deny an equal share of inheritances to women and non-Muslims and children born out of wedlock can be excluded completely.

Nicholas Fluck, president of The Law Society the measures would promote "good practice" but others have condemned the move as risking creating a parallel legal system for UK Muslims. Baroness Cox said: "This violates everything that we stand for. It would make the Suffragettes turn in their graves.

Big RR wrote:I don't know, as long as the exclusions are permissible under British law, I can't see a problem with it.

The key paragraph states: “The male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir of the same class. Non-Muslims may not inherit at all, and only Muslim marriages are recognised. Similarly, a divorced spouse is no longer a Sharia heir, as the entitlement depends on a valid Muslim marriage existing at the date of death.”

It adds: “This means you should amend or delete some standard will clauses. For example, you should consider excluding the provisions of s33 of the Wills Act 1837, because these operate to pass a gift to the children of a deceased 'descendant’. Under Sharia rules, the children of a deceased heir have no entitlement, although they can benefit from the freely disposable third [the third of an estate that can be given to non-heirs or charities].

Even accepting that testators have the right to act in a discriminatory fashion with their assets if they choose to, this guidance encourages solicitors to adopt a separate approach to clients who are deemed “different” – in this case, clients who are Muslim.

This is what is known as the “racism of lower expectations”. Furthermore, the Law Society has set the scene for further disharmony. The guidance also states that “there are specific differences between Sunni and Shia rules on succession. These differences are not covered in this practice note.”

In time, will the Law Society publish different guidance for different branches of Islam? Or different religions? Should it be the role of a secular organisation such as the Law Society to take a view on theological matters?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... -what.html

The male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir of the same class.

Non-Muslims may not inherit at all

Similarly, a divorced spouse is no longer a Sharia heir, as the entitlement depends on a valid Muslim marriage existing at the date of death.

This means you should amend or delete some standard will clauses. For example, you should consider excluding the provisions of s33 of the Wills Act 1837, because these operate to pass a gift to the children of a deceased 'descendant’. Under Sharia rules, the children of a deceased heir have no entitlement

Even accepting that testators have the right to act in a discriminatory fashion with their assets if they choose to, this guidance encourages solicitors to adopt a separate approach to clients who are deemed “different” – in this case, clients who are Muslim.

Should it be the role of a secular organisation such as the Law Society to take a view on theological matters?

An investigation into an alleged hard-line Islamist takeover plot of Birmingham schools has widened, with 25 schools now under the spotlight.

Birmingham City Council said it had received more than 200 reports in relation to its inquiry.

It has appointed former head teacher Ian Kershaw as its chief advisor.

Anonymous claims hard-line Muslims were trying to take over the running of some city schools were made in a letter sent to local authorities last year.

The 25 schools now being looked at include primaries, secondaries and academies.

More appointments

Besides the announcement about Ian Kershaw, who'll oversee the Trojan Horse investigation on behalf of the city council, there have been two other important appointments.

Stephen Rimmer will chair a second group which will include faith groups and figures from the local communities affected by the allegations.

He was brought to the West Midlands last year to lead an investigation into the abuse and sexual exploitation of children, but was previously employed by the Home Office as director of its Prevent strategy, set up to counter radicalisation.

And the Department for Education has also announced the appointment of its first Commissioner for Schools in the West Midlands.

Pank Patel will decide which schools can become academies and will monitor performance.

There has been a lot of criticism during the Trojan Horse inquiry that governance at academies has been too opaque.

The 200-plus reports to the council include emails and calls from staff, parents and governors.

Mr Kershaw, who is managing director of Northern Education, will report to a newly-formed review group made up of MPs, councillors, national teaching and governors groups, the police and faith leaders.

The group will also oversee the work of the operational committee, which is co-ordinating the investigation of the allegations.

A follow-up report containing recommendations for schools locally, and for the DfE to look at nationally, is to be published by July.

Separately, Ofsted inspectors were sent in to 15 Birmingham schools in the weeks after the allegations came to light.

Concerns were raised last year when an undated and anonymous letter emerged outlining the alleged plot, dubbed "Operation Trojan Horse".

At least six Birmingham schools at the centre of an alleged Islamic takeover plot are set to be placed in “special measures” by Ofsted in a move that could see their entire leadership removed.
The six schools are implicated in the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot by extremists to “Islamise” secular state education in Birmingham which has allegedly seen the illegal segregation of pupils and discrimination against non-Muslim pupils.

The Telegraph understands the six will be rated “inadequate” by the schools inspectorate after a series of snap inspections over the past few weeks. The label usually leads to “special measures”, which in turn give Ofsted the power to remove senior managers or even close the schools.

Ofsted will also take action, although less drastic, at a further nine schools in the city where the attempted Islamic takeover is less advanced, or where secular head teachers are resisting it. Only one of the 17 schools inspected by Ofsted so far in connection with the alleged plot has received a clean bill of health, although one report is yet to be completed.

One source said: “Almost all of the reports to a greater or lesser extent are pointing out flaws in leadership, management or safeguarding driven by an Islamist political ideology. Sometimes the flaws are light. In some cases they are very severe. Those to be put in special measures are those where [radical] governors are effectively running the school.”

A teacher at one of the Birmingham state schools allegedly taken over by Muslim radicals in the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot has been reported to police after he broke into a female pupil’s mobile telephone to prove she was having a “forbidden” relationship with a boy.

The girl, who at 16 is over the age of consent, had her telephone confiscated by the teacher during a Sunday event at Park View School last month. Two members of staff told The Telegraph the device was then taken, without her permission, to a shop for its passcode to be broken, and its contents unlocked and examined by the school.

Images of the girl with the boy, a fellow Year 11 pupil at Park View, and text messages between them, obtained from the phone, were used by the school as evidence to suspend her, weeks before her GCSE exams. The boy was also suspended, but more briefly.

The Telegraph has also been told that Year 11 pupils about to sit their GCSEs at the supposedly secular school were asked to go on an Islamic fast to put them in the right “spiritual frame of mind” for exams; that boys and girls suspected of being too friendly towards each other were disciplined; and that the sexes had to sit apart in class.

Staff at Park View said the mother of the girl whose phone was confiscated had reported the incident to the police. The interception of private text messages is illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which was used to convict phone hackers from the closed News of the World newspaper.

The school confirmed that the police and the local authority’s child safeguarding team were involved in the incident, but refused to elaborate. The names of the pupils concerned are known to The Telegraph, but are not being published for privacy reasons. The girl’s mother declined to comment.

“This was an appalling act of bullying and invasion of privacy,” said a staff member, who described the teacher involved as part of a morality “police” enforcing conservative Islamic values on pupils.

Tahir Alam, the chairman of governors at the school and the alleged ringleader of the takeover plot, has written that “girlfriend/boyfriend relationships .  . . are not acceptable practices according to Islamic teaching” and that schools should “prepare Muslim pupils to lead their personal and public lives in a manner consistent with their Islamic moral principles and values”.

The boy was also suspended, but more briefly.

An inspection report by the Department for Education, leaked to The Telegraph, found that girls and boys were made to sit apart in some classes, “often with boys sitting towards the front of the class and girls at the back or around the sides”. In some lessons, teachers “gave [students] seats in which to sit in class by gender to avoid having to mix”.

An internal school calendar leaked to this newspaper shows that separate annual sports days are being organised for girls on June 17 and boys on June 18. Some governors had objected to the arrangement, which is new, a staff member said.

Econoline wrote:

The boy was also suspended, but more briefly.

That one short sentence says quite a lot, doesn't it?

A council has said it will send police into a failing school if staff "refuse" to allow it to replace its governors.

Al-Hijrah School, in Bordesley Green, was placed in special measures by Ofsted last year after inspectors found evidence of inconsistent teaching and poor governance.

Birmingham City Council said it tried to replace the school's governors on Thursday but staff had not cooperated.

The council said it would call on support from police "if it had to".

But the chairman of governors said he will ask police to prevent a takeover.

Waseem Yaqub said the school would take all legal means necessary to stop the new board moving in.

He said a group of eight officials from the Interim Executive Board, as well as officers from the council turned up unannounced at the start of the school day on Thursday.

The school said that because the head teacher was not there, the chairman of governors not in the country and the official letter giving notice of the dismissal of the board of governors and its replacement had not been sent, they were right to refuse them entry.

Gob wrote:How bad does it have to get?