Thursday, November 20, 2014

Brits Judge Islamic Schools There- BBC


Ofsted 'to criticise six Muslim faith schools'

Sir Michael Wilshaw  
 
Sir Michael Wilshaw wants more frequent inspections
 

Related Stories

Highly critical reports on seven east London schools, including six Muslim independent faith schools, are set to be published by Ofsted.

The reports are expected to criticise "safeguarding" in the schools, with each set to be given an action plan to be implemented within weeks.

Government sources say there is no Trojan Horse-style plot to spread a conservative Muslim ethos here.
The reports follow a series of snap inspections at the schools in October.
Two or three of the schools are said to be "more concerning" than others, but each school is thought to have different issues.

These are understood to range from basic issues to do with health and safety to the type of speakers who have been visiting the school and, in some cases, the risk that children are not protected from extremist views.

The publication of these comes a day after details leaked of a report on one of the schools, Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat school, in Stepney, east London.

This is the only state school in the group to be inspected as part of the same set of snap inspections.
It is believed to have failed for not safeguarding and monitoring pupils adequately.

The report, also being published on Friday, is expected to say that a sixth-form society at the school set up a YouTube channel that was not adequately monitored.

The segregation of boys and girls in play areas is also expected to be highlighted by the report. But this is believed to have been in place for several years.

'No jurisdiction'
  Tower Hamlets council said it could not comment until the reports for all the schools had been published.

But director of education Robert McCulloch-Graham said: "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."

Independent schools, academies and free schools already have to adhere to the Independent School Standards (ISS), which demand that schools encourage pupils to "respect" British values.

More on This Story

Related Stories


No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered