Five Birmingham Schools now under "Special measures"

And yet you consistently blame those on the front line of education and refuse to accept the myriad other factors involved.

Of course I blame those who claim to have the children's best interest at heart but who have been happy to enjoy the status quo when standards were falling (but grades were rising) all the while while they were getting above inflation increases and large pensions, yet only ever voted to strike for the own pay and pensions.

Had those people stood up to the Labour government and highlighted the dumbing down of education (and demonstrated their focus on education rather than their own pay and benefits) then I'd have a lot more sympathy for them.

I presume you do actually understand the difference between what I'm saying and what you are claiming?

You are clearly happy to see the target driven, performance related culture that worked soooo well in the finance sector to our children and the teachers trying to teach them.

So predictable - is that really what has been suggested? Of course not.

Yet being able to differentiate between the best and the worst teachers would seem like a good thing to most people and private sector involvement in education works well in that socialist utopia of Sweden.

Yet teachers think that 'they know best' and should be allowed to carry on as normal without state interference while getting above market pay and benefits, all the while standards decline. And those seem people are so keen to force state interference on private companies....
 
There he is ....!
Missed ya . X
 
Has anyone noticed an unsubtle shift in jargon in the news? The extremists seem to be increasingly referred to as Islamist extremists rather than Islamic extremists or Islamists. Not sure I'm happy about that.

This is an interesting article on these subtle differences in name which mean quite a lot in practice.
http://www.newsweek.com/it-islamic-or-islamist-73961

Next lesson in the pedantic is Afro-Caribbean (used earlier in this thread) but now considered to be incorrect, unless you are visiting the hairdresser.
I digress :)
 
Thx for that link Cliff ... reinforces my unhappiness that in news bulletins it's being called Islamist extremism, since Islamism is already an extremism/fundamentalism - which is either a case of dumbing down or not wanting to offend any nice Islamists.
 
A couple of points.

The DofE was told about this in 2010.

Some of these schools are OFSTEDed and found to be 'Outstanding' after then, but have now been found to be 'inadequate'.

How completely useless is any OFSTED judgement after a debacle like this.

Secondly, even the FT now says that the inspectors found no evidence whatsoever of the conspiracy claimed in the anonymous letter which kicked the public debate off a couple of months ago. So where did that letter come from, and what's the agenda?

A quick point in response to an earlier post about faith schools. NONE OF THESE ARE FAITH SCHOOLS.

Whilst in principle I don't think faith schools are a particularly good thing, I'm not rabidly against them. And this is one of the reasons why - they can be a bit of a red herring. These problems can exist just as easily in non-faith schools.

I think we need to be honest about any problems and what we need to do to solve them. But I think we need to be measured, and not respond with any knee-jerk reactions (as the government just have by introducing shorter notice inspections).

OFSTED are increasingly looking like a busted flush. They're unreliable and incompetent. They're not trusted by teachers, and stories like the ones we've had over the past 6 months mean they're becoming less and less trusted by parents. And now even the politicians (like Wilshaw's best friend Gove) are unhappy with them.

Time for a complete overhaul.

Steve W
 
A couple of points.

The DofE was told about this in 2010.
.....
How completely useless is any OFSTED judgement after a debacle like this.
...I think we need to be honest about any problems and what we need to do to solve them.
---And now even the politicians (like Wilshaw's best friend Gove) are unhappy with them.
Time for a complete overhaul.

Steve W

Ah.. cage rattled...

OK, so it was known about in 2010, we have the phantom letter, we have politicians pointing the finger at each other, and we have Ofsted who appear to be inconsistent and loathed by teachers. And Mr Gove who can't do anything right.

But let's address the problem..
Measured steps or knee jerk, what should be done to stop this? Or is it OK?
 
Look at the parallel events happening at the Al Hijra School in Bham - it certainly being a faith school .!
 
Cliff, I think quite clearly some of what's gone on is far from okay.

For a kick off we need an inspection system which works and inspectors who know what they're doing.

We need proper local accountability - something that's been lost in the drive to academies. I'm not saying ditch academies, just that some if the better aspects of LEAs have been lost and we need to find a way if bringing them back.

Professional, paid governors, perhaps.

Properly trained and accountable governors, certainly.

It cannot be denied that we have serious problems here which OFSTED missed. Give, at the inner it's not clear that he's done anything wrong, and we won't know until the question us answered as to whether or not he knew something in 2010, what he knew, and what he did/didn't do about it.

Steve W
 
Well one of the inspectors working or affiliated with the schools they are inspecting is certainly a problem to start with!

As for surprise inspections, I've yet to hear a good reason why not, any argument should be viewed the same as the health inspector, why give notice?
 
Pragmatic, the arguments are pretty solid.

There might be the entire senior team out of the school if you turn up unannounced.

It might be during an exams week.

It might be while an entire year group is out on a trip.

The inspectors do not just want to see lessons (and want to do do less and less ), but want to inspect paperwork and interview individuals - who might not be there.

And finally, there's the argument which Gove conceded two years ago. The idea that OFSTED should be there to help raise standards, rather than becoming a feared Spanish Inquisition.

Steve W
 
If the schools out then they'll have to come back, if the senior staff are out so what?

The inspectorate need to work with schools where a surprise visit would mean that not everything they'd like can be available, but that doesn't mean that a subsequent visit (like the next day) could be organised for those things that can't be produced at the time.

At a minimum an unannounced visit could check out classes, state of the infrastructure, pupils behaviour, books in the library etc.

Getting children to take some part in or have available well known numbers for whistleblowers, be they students or teachers. The issues in Birmingham would have happened differently and came to a head quicker if there was such a facility.
 
In my experience, more recent OFSTED inspections are much more to do with data than teaching - consequently the whole education process is now geared towards the collection, collation and analysis of data and much less about the children as individuals. To make that amount of data available requires at least half a days notice .
 
If the schools out then they'll have to come back, if the senior staff are out so what?

It was announced earlier in the spring that Outstanding and Good schools (apart from those which are Good but close to Outstanding) will have a 1 day visit every 2 years by a lone HMI. The HMI will spend most of that time speaking to governors and the SLT, looking at data, policies, etc.

They simply won't have time to judge a school based on lesson observations. Even if they spent the whole day in and out of lessons, one person in a school where there are maybe 250 lessons in a day couldn't hope to make a solid judgement on the standard of teaching in a school. They currently say they need 20 minutes minimum to judge a lesson, meaning they can only realistically get to 2 lessons each hour long period - that's 10 lessons a day if they did nothing else at all.

They have stacks of data showing how much progress students are making. There's no way that visiting 4% of the lessons in a school day can hope to give you any reliable information which could outweigh what that data tells you.

The presence of governors and all the SLT is absolutely vital and core to what the HMI will be doing.

Steve W
 
For details:

Ofsted to relax inspections as school standards rise | Education | theguardian.com

Note:

"We see little point in a team of four or five inspectors turning up every five years, or seven years if it is a converter academy, and confirming what the school already knows and the data already says – that it that it is a good school." He would much rather target those schools in special measures or requiring improvement with "strong interventions".

"We are suggesting a good school will see an inspection of a one-day visit of an HMI once every two years and that HMI will discuss the data with the head teacher and the governors of the school and senior staff and engage in professional dialogue with the school and make a judgment as to whether the school is still a good school," Wilshaw said."


How an HMI can discuss data with a HT and governors, and engage in professional dialogue with senior staff if they're not there is certainly a puzzle.

To be fair, it's not yet clear whether every inspection will have no notice. I suspect for Good and Outstanding schools they may well still give notice, for pretty obvious reasons, unless they fear a school has slipped.

Steve W
 
Isn't it all in the details. There was an interview with a head teacher at one of these schools. 710 pupils, all but 5 Muslim. She had an issue with two parents who every year campaigned for all staff to wear Muslim headwear. She refused every year.
Not a reason to close a school.
 
Well the report is out Trojan Horse: Leaked report reveals 'aggressive Islamist agenda' in Birmingham schools - Telegraph
and a shorted version without comments to be swept under the carpet Findings of the Kershaw report into Birmingham's 'Trojan horse' schools | UK news | The Guardian

Seems it wasn't a witch hunt, some serious areas of concern. Whats gonna be done about it, lessons learned?

Edit: Sorry no longer a fictitious witch hunt
The Trojan horse inquiry’s draft report shows Michael Gove had to go | Hugh Muir | Comment is free | The Guardian
it was Goves fault all along (forgiving only one was an Academy, and has been since before Gove, the rest bog standard LEA).

Comments on the editorial, not the news element (can't have people making their own mind up, right?).
 
Last edited:
This makes grim reading. Councillors with a policy of looking the other way and appeasement.
Reports like this are rare because they are politically sensitive and to actually fix the problem will require some measures that will be labelled Islamophobic by some. But it needs to be done. No more Lilly levered tolerance when a storm is brewing.
We cannot have normal schools LEA or Academy, teaching on Islamic lines (let alone a strict Sunni Islam).

Image if an academy was set up on Christian ideals in Birmingham and insisted on 'For what we about to receive' prayers before school dinners - there would be an outrage and the BBC would run the 10 o'clock news from the school!
 
Last edited:
Let's be honest, councillors don't want to upset those who will vote them out.
Then London isn't really interested in what gets brushed under the carpet, people get more isolated and the cycle continues.
It's not just minorities.
Blyth in Northumberland kept voting for the same MP (Ronnie Campbell) because they always voted for Labour even though all he is interested is himself. The local hospital (Ashington) has been a death trap for decades and he does nothing. A guy I knew was supposed to be in a sterile environment but there were old dressing from a previous patient on the floor etc.
 
While not forgetting there are a significant proportion of white rape gangs but that would have meant exposing failures and negligence in the care system.
 
We need to wash away this fear of being called racist, I think we are all big and ugly enough to see true racism when it is in front of us. Ironically these actions are racist as they wouldn't be condoned if it were a non 'minority', I quote because in many locations they have long since stopped being a minority.
 
The enemy within, can't spot them, grant them all the benefits of our society and even pay some of them with benefits while out recruiting/causing trouble. No wonder we are a breading ground for this sort of stuff, not only are we a soft touch, we make it comfortable while doing it.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom