I know this is the second post I've made requesting Greg's response in the last month. (And, if I haven't before, I thank you Greg for responding to my last questions about that Aaron Clarey fellow.) But this latest story, I figure, needs some follow up.
In the past, on these boards, Greg has argued that public schools in Britain are fine. I just read the following article, and I want to know if he still thinks this way. Has your opinion changed?
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2924236/Girls-11-quizzed-lesbians-Whitehall-zealots-waging-war-Christian-schools-Special-report-Tom-Rawstorne.htmlGirls of 11 quizzed about lesbians and how Whitehall zealots are waging war on Christian schools: A Special report by Tom Rawstorne-Pupils at Durham Free School were quizzed on ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity and religion
-Ofsted inspectors asked 11-year-olds if they had 'gαy or lesbian friends'
-The Government-funded school is now to be closed by Easter
-It comes after the introduction of new Ofsted rules based on Equality Act
-Inspectors can downgrade status based on teacher's handling of law
-Here, TOM RAWSTORNE investigates its highly controversial practice
As her 11-year-old daughter Grace arrived home, Deborah Finch naturally asked her how the day had gone.
Her response could hardly have been more surprising.
She explained that Ofsted had launched a snap inspection of her school in Durham, quizzing pupils about their experiences.
‘Grace told me what she had been asked and I could not believe it,’ says Mrs Finch, 36, herself a teacher at another school. She was asked if she knew what it was to be gαy and whether she had any gαy friends.
‘She was asked if she knew any lesbians and whether any family members had gαy friends. At one point she was even asked whether she had ever felt she was in the wrong body, which completely baffled her as she hadn’t any idea what the woman was talking about.
She felt very embarrassed and uncomfortable — she said she felt under pressure as though she was being forced to sit some kind of test and worried she wasn’t giving the right answers.’
As it turned out, those worries were entirely justified.
Earlier this week, the Department for Education announced it was withdrawing funding from Grace’s school, Durham Free School, and that come Easter, it would close.
The reason? The results of that inspection by Ofsted last November.
‘One day spent in a failing school is one day too many,’ was the reaction of Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, adding: ‘I am deeply concerned when I hear of pupils being let down.’ But while the pupils, parents and staff do feel ‘let down’, it is not by the school — but by Mrs Morgan and by Ofsted.
Parents and leaders at the school have claimed it was targeted because of its Christian ethos. They allege pupils were effectively seen as bigots by inspectors desperate to promote a politically correct diversity agenda and find evidence of religious extremism.
And in the same week, very similar grievances were being aired by the head teacher at Grindon Hall Christian School, just ten miles away in Sunderland. On Tuesday, he issued a statement complaining about an Ofsted inspection which saw his school downgraded from
Again, the accusation is that inspectors went in with an agenda, quizzing pupils about racism, homophobia and extremism. It is alleged they were even asked if they knew what lesbians ‘did’.
Other Christian, Catholic and Jєωιѕн schools claim also to have been marked
down in similar circuмstances — one for failing to invite Muslim imams to take assemblies, another for being ‘too white’.
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There is now growing concern that these schools are suffering because of a new requirement to promote qualities such as tolerance, fairness, respect for other faiths and the rule of law and democracy — which were egregiously described as ‘British values’.
A worthy aim, but one that some fear has gone badly off the rails.
‘You get this sense that some inspectors have been longing for this sort of power,’ says Colin Hart, director of the Christian Institute. ‘They’ve been told for years to focus on exam results, attainment, behaviour, uniform and those sorts of things. Now they’ve got these political correctness powers and some have just leapt upon it.
‘They have a real sense of indignation that schools could ever believe in traditional marriage or just have Christian assemblies.’
The new rules designed to combat extremism were introduced at the end of last year after the so-called Trojan Horse plot was discovered, an attempt to impose hardline Muslim values in some state schools in Birmingham.
Schools are now required to ‘actively promote’ values such as tolerance of other faiths and lifestyles, democracy and the rule of law. For the first time, the rules give Ofsted inspectors the power to downgrade schools where teachers are breaching the Equality Act, which encourages respect for lesbian, gαy, bisɛҳuąƖ and transgender people, as well as those from other races and religions.
While that may sound reasonable in theory, its execution has been highly controversial, something highlighted by the furore at Durham Free School.
Set up by a parents and teachers, when it opened in 2013 it was hailed by the then-Education Minister Michael Gove as a ‘challenger school’ which would raise standards in the area.
As a free school, it was funded directly by government and promised an education shaped by Christian values.
Admittedly, things have not gone smoothly since. The school has been criticised for being expensive to run and for the way in which its finances have been administered. And the founding headmaster, Peter Cantley, recently left, his contract terminated by the governors on performance grounds — a decision he is challenging through an employment tribunal.
And at the end of last year ‘serious allegations’ about the running of the school were made to the DfE. As a result, an Ofsted inspection was ordered at the end of November.
According to the governors, it quickly became clear what the inspectors were looking to find.
Ariella Wilkinson, 10, came home in tears after being questioned by Ofsted inspectors at Grindon Hall Christian School
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Ariella Wilkinson, 10, came home in tears after being questioned by Ofsted inspectors at Grindon Hall Christian School
‘The clear impression when the inspectors arrived was that they were expecting to find evidence of religious extremism, for example, asking what the school was doing to educate students about female genital mutilation which, whilst important in some contexts, was not a priority for 11 and 12-year-olds in the context of the characteristics of the communities served by the school,’ they told the Mail in a statement.
The questioning, they say, was aggressive and intimidatory and left pupils embarrassed. It is claimed they included: ‘Do you know anybody in the school who is gαy?’, ‘Have you ever met anybody who is gαy/bisɛҳuąƖ’ and ‘How have you learned how to make a baby?’
They can't stand schools believing in marriage
It is also understood one pupil, when asked about Muslims, made a reference to terrorism. As a result, when the report was published this week, it concluded students were not being prepared for life in ‘modern Britain’.
It continued: ‘Some students hold discriminatory views of other people who have different faiths, values or beliefs from themselves.’
Taken with other criticisms of the school, Ofsted declared it ‘inadequate’ and placed it in special measures. Mrs Morgan announced the situation was so bad she would shut the school.
But outraged parents and governors, feel the inspectors focused disproportionately on the ‘British values’ issue. They say the 11-year-old boy who responded inappropriately about Muslims should not have been seen as reflective of the whole school.
Petrina Douglas, whose son Luke, 11, has attended the school since it opened, denied it fostered discriminatory attitudes. Mrs Douglas, who also sits on the board of governors, says: ‘It feels like the school has been made a scapegoat. Durham is primarily white British, so knowledge of other cultures is not as prevalent. But I don’t think the children are bigoted. They just might not be as aware of other cultures and at the school we are trying to address that.’
Open: Grindon Hall, which teaches pupils aged four to 18, has a Christian ethos but no faith-based selection criteria, resulting in an intake that includes pupils from various religions
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Open: Grindon Hall, which teaches pupils aged four to 18, has a Christian ethos but no faith-based selection criteria, resulting in an intake that includes pupils from various religions
Yesterday, an Ofsted spokesman said: ‘Ofsted is aware that allegations have been made about the conduct of Her Majesty’s Inspectors who inspected Durham Free School, and a suggestion that findings on whether pupils were being prepared for life in modern Britain were based on comments made to inspectors by a single pupil.
‘The school did not raise any of these issues with Ofsted at any point either during the inspection visit or during the various moderation and pre-publication stages, despite having had every opportunity to do so.
‘Ofsted would like to make clear that in reaching their conclusions about the effectiveness of the school’s work in preparing students for life in modern Britain, inspectors considered a wide range of evidence. Discussions with students formed just a part of the evidence that was gathered.
The questions were aggressive and intimidatory
‘Inspectors found that senior staff at Durham Free School had allowed a culture to develop where it was acceptable for racist words and sɛҳuąƖly derogative and homophobic terms to be used. Leaders were failing to properly tackle or challenge this type of language and behaviour.’
The Durham school is now set to shut in weeks. But in Sunderland, the battle to restore the reputation of Grindon Hall Christian School looks set to run and run.
Following a separate Ofsted inspection in November, it has also just been placed into special measures. A free school with pupils aged four to 18, it was downgraded by the report from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘inadequate’.
‘A significant proportion of pupils are unaware, for example, of the diversity that exists within modern British society,’ was one of its conclusions.
‘Pupils are not taught to develop appropriate levels of respect or tolerance for those from other faiths, cultures or communities. Pupils . . . found it difficult to name a religion other than Christianity or identify any festivals that other faiths or cultures may celebrate.’
But Chris Gray, the school’s head, has accused Ofsted of ‘playing politics’ with the new regulations on British values. He claims that pupils were subjected to ‘hostile’ and ‘inappropriate’ questioning.
Ten-year-old Grindon Hall pupil Ariella Wilkinson was left in tears. Her mother Lena, 46, says: ‘The questioning was completely inappropriate. They asked her what lesbians were, and whether she felt trapped in someone else’s body. She said she didn’t want to talk about it, because she was embarrassed.’
A pathology registrar, from Sunderland, she adds: ‘She’s been crying a lot over it. She thinks the bad Ofsted report is her fault.
‘The silly thing is, Ariella knows about same-sex relationships because one of our best family friends is gαy. There’s no way she’s homophobic —she just didn’t realise they would be asking that kind of thing. They put her on the spot.’
Sixth-formers at the school recorded what they were asked. One wrote: ‘Regarding the Oftsed inspector who questioned us, I felt she was directing the conversation towards racism, homophobia and extremist views. When we answered that these were obviously not tolerated in our school, she rephrased the questions and went on to ask whether we felt at a disadvantage because of only being taught about Christianity.’
Another said: ‘During the interview, the inspector always seemed to be leading us towards answers that portrayed the school as discriminatory . . . it always felt like she was pushing for a “racist” answer.’
Mr Gray also claims inspectors expected pupils to celebrate religious festivals from other faiths. He says: ‘This would breach our Christian foundation, which stipulates that we are a Christian school. It would certainly offend against the consciences of many of our staff, pupils and parents. No one should be told by a government official to celebrate any religion. Learn about it, yes. Celebrate its festivals, no.’
He adds that anyone comparing this report with one published in May last year would think two different schools had been inspected, saying: ‘There have been no major changes of staffing, pupils or policy to account for the difference,’ he says. ‘The difference was the introduction of the widely discredited “British values” rules and the aggressive attitude of the inspection team.’
Yesterday, in relation to Grindon Hall, Ofsted said: ‘These allegations, which were not brought to the attention of Her Majesty’s Inspectors during the inspection, are now subject to Ofsted’s formal complaints procedures and will be thoroughly investigated. However, it is important to assure the public, parents, pupils and other schools that we have undertaken a detailed examination of the evidence base, interviewed each of the three inspectors who carried out the inspection, and have held a separate meeting between the principal and Ofsted’s North East Regional Director in respect of these allegations.
‘To date, we have found no evidence to indicate that inspectors failed to act with care and sensitivity and to ask age- appropriate questions when they spoke to pupils.’
The inspector kept pushing for a "racist" answer
But concerns about the way the rules on British values have been imposed are not confined to these two schools. A primary school in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, was marked down because pupils lacked ‘first-hand experience of the diverse make-up of modern British society’ — even though 97 per cent of the population of the town is white.
The report said: ‘The large majority of pupils are white British . . . and currently no pupils speak English as an additional language. The school needs to extend pupils’ understanding of the cultural diversity of modern British society . . .’
Trinity Christian School in Reading, meanwhile, says it was warned after an inspection in October it could face closure for failing to invite imams and other religious leaders to take assemblies.
That same month it also emerged that a high-profile Jєωιѕн school had fallen foul of the new rules. The Beis Yaakov secondary school for girls in Salford was downgraded from good to inadequate and placed in special measures. The management made a formal complaint to Ofsted over the conduct of the inspection, with pupils reported to have felt bullied by inspectors’ questions about ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity and whether pupils had friends from other faiths.
Similarly concerned is Hugh O’Neill, head of St Benedict’s Catholic secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, which had a snap inspection at the end of last year. The initial report, subsequently amended following a re-inspection, claimed that younger pupils at the school showed a lack of awareness about ‘the dangers of extremism and radicalisation’.
Mr O’Neill says: ‘You wouldn’t expect to find evidence of radicalisation actually being promoted in a Catholic school in Suffolk.’
It’s a fair point, dismissed by those responsible for the inspections.
A Department for Education spokesperson last night told the Mail that it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest that schools would ever be penalised for having a faith ethos.
He said: ‘Schools are neither discriminated against nor given special treatment based on any religious belief. All schools are treated equally . . . any suggestion otherwise is ludicrous. We want every school to promote the basic British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs so that all children are prepared for life in modern Britain.’
But can the responses by the DfE and Ofsted explain away children of 11 being asked if they are living in the wrong body? Or schools in overwhelmingly white areas being condemned for being ‘too white’?
It seems such a depressingly right-on approach is what passes for British values in our oh-so modern education system.
Topic: "Public Schools Are Fine" (Read 2643 times)