He said that Birmingham City Council had limited its process and terms of reference "in a way which excludes critical evidence", that it had employed "too narrow a definition of extremism" and that the governmental report had reached a very different set of conclusions by accessing a different evidence base. [20] Ian Kershaw, Head of Northern Education Trust in Newcastle, was named as its full-time special adviser.[52]. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 13, [123] The Guardian also revealed that West Midlands Police was investigating whether the alleged plot was a hoax concocted to support one of the schools named in the plot, Adderley primary school, in an industrial dispute. A new podcast produced by Serial Productions and co-hosted by Hamza Syed and Brian Reed has shone a light on the sordid Trojan Horse Affair. It tries to deceive the user to load and execute the files on the device. [2], "Operation Trojan Horse" redirects here. "[78], Segregation was found in one classroom with girls sitting at the back with their heads covered. In consequence, the Panel judged that the matter was "an abuse of the process which is of such seriousness that it offends the Panel's sense of justice and propriety. WebIdomeneus King of Crete, hero who defended against Hector, and killed 20 Trojan heroes. It criticised the spending of the school's budget on paying private investigators to investigate the emails of senior staff and paying for meals in restaurants. The report stated the messages evidenced that the group had "either promoted, or failed to challenge, views that are grossly intolerant of beliefs and practices other than their own". 163-183. [19] It found evidence that the "five steps" to destabilise a school's leadership, as outlined in the original Trojan Horse letter, were "present in a large number of the schools considered part of the investigation". He said that "protecting our children" was "one of the first duties of government" and convened an emergency meeting of the Extremism Taskforce and a ministerial meeting to discuss the affair. "[128] Bhupinder Kondal left the school again shortly after. [23], Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the Trojan Horse plot was driven by the same Islamic extremism as that of Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist group. [2], Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School, Park View Academy all run by the Park View Educational Trust Oldknow Academy and Saltley School were placed in special measures after inspectors found systemic failings including the schools having failed to take adequate steps to safeguard pupils against extremism. [115], David Hughes, a trustee at Park View School, claimed that Ofsted's investigation of the school was biased, and dubbed the inspection a "witch hunt". Mark knew the Adderley case well and the letter Media coverage of Operation Trojan Horse was varied. Today the term Trojan Horse is a metaphor for a person or a thing that appears harmless on the surface, but is in fact, workign to undermine the enemy. [19], In an incident that was referred to counter-terrorism police, a teacher told the pupils at the Golden Hillock school "not to listen to Christians as they were all liars". Students were also told that it is un-Islamic to have a pet dog. The latter found that there is "no evidence to suggest that there is a problem with governance generally" nor any "evidence of terrorism, radicalisation or violent extremism in the schools of concern in Birmingham", but said that there was "evidence that there are a number of people, associated with each other and in positions of influence in schools and governing bodies, who espouse, sympathise with or fail to challenge extremist views", and that there had been "co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained" attempts "by a number of associated individuals, to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos" into "a few schools in Birmingham". [78] The EFA team concluded: "We saw evidence that Oldknow academy is acting as a faith school and is not making active efforts to make the academy attractive to all faith denominations including pupils of no faith. After the Trojans got within four, the Long Beach Poly product rattled off his own mini 7-0 run. Hamza Syed There was a fact checker on our team who said when he heard that scene, it brought a context that has largely been missing from what it actually means to be Muslim. Marks doctoral research concentrated on the use of sport stadiums in urban regeneration projects and he is currently working on a graphic/comic version of his thesis. Mark Panton and Geoff Walters (2019) Tottenhams Trojan Horse? It is a code that is malicious in nature and has the capacity to take control of the computer. [4], These claims by witnesses were unsubstantiated. Of 21 schools investigated by Ofsted, and 14 schools investigated by the Clarke Report, charges were brought against teachers at just 4 schools. Akmal criticised female politicians, saying: "She has to sacrifice her family, she has to sacrifice her children, she has to sacrifice her husband, all in the name of equality." No charges of extremism were put forward, only charges associated with 'undue religious influence'. [4], Student ambassadors, known as "religious police" by some staff, are appointed at Park View to report "the names of staff or students who exhibit behaviours deemed unacceptable by conservative Muslims". About. [93], The investigation, however, did not find evidence of a "conspiracy" to promote "violent extremism or radicalisation" values.[19]. [98] New clauses were added into funding agreements for academies, stating that the Secretary for Education could close schools whose governors do not comply with "fundamental British values". There was evidence from officials at the Department for Education responsible for managing the incorporation of schools into PVET, as well as initiating a memorandum of agreement between PVET and Oldknow (paragraph 123). [2]:15, In May 2015, the National Association of Head Teachers' annual conference heard that the problems associated with Operation Trojan Horse persisted, and there were claims that teachers had received death threats for attempting to dissuade students away from homophobia. The two inquiries shared evidence, with the Kershaw inquiry deferring matters of extremism to the Clarke inquiry. [17], Birmingham City Council announced an investigation into the allegations, estimated to last six months. We have taken action to remove and continue to take action to remove people from being in schools who don't follow British values."[129]. Servant Leader and faithful optimist of delivering an exceptional partnership product experience. "[4] He conducted no interviews with governors or teachers who were accused of misconduct, with the exception of Tahir Alam. ", The government's Department for Education initially responded to the scandal by banning Alam and 14 other teachers from the teaching profession for life in 2015. [5] The inspections found that head teachers have been "marginalised or forced out of their jobs". It was entitled Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. [9] The introduction of the document states that the "purpose is to promote greater understanding of the faith, religious and cultural needs of Muslim pupils and how they can be accommodated within schools. Although the school describes itself as "multi-faith", there are claims that the Islamic call to prayer is broadcast to the entire school. The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, involves claims of an alleged conspiracy[1][2] that there was an organised attempt to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. Arrangements for the hearings were deeply unsatisfactory, with four separate cases brought against different groups of teachers associated with PVET and one other school, Oldknow Academy (which it transpired had a Memorandum of Understanding with PVET, signed at the behest of the Department for Education). This 345ac property fronts the south side of SR70 / Okeechobee Rd, a major cross-state highway ; Is 4.5 miles west of the I-95 & Florida Turnpike [76][77] Exchange visits with nearby churches had been curtailed. Andrew Gilligan of The Daily Telegraph wrote extensively on the episode. ", "Birmingham Trojan Horse letter 'no hoax', "Top academy investigated for 'sidelining' non-Muslim staff", "Inner-city academy investigated after being accused of 'side-lining' its non-Muslim staff and trying to put Islamic studies on curriculum", "Trojan Horse: 25 schools probed over alleged takeover plot", "Head teachers raise 'serious concerns' over Islamic school take-over", "City fights new Trojan Horse Islamic schools plot", "Teachers 'assaulted and marginalised in Islamising plot', "Birmingham 'Trojan Horse' plot 'started 20 years ago', "Ministers 'given Trojan Horse schools warning in 2010', "Trojan Horse fears in Birmingham 'raised in 2008', "Watch: Oldknow Academy principal: 'I was forced out by Trojan Horse plotters', "Bradford school governors 'promoted Islamic agenda', "Trojan Horse probe headed by ex-Met chief Peter Clarke", "Trojan Horse: Special adviser brought in to investigate 25 Birmingham schools", "Council expects 'firestorm' over Trojan Horse schools plot", "Schedule 1: Breaches of the Funding Agreement and/or legislation applicable to Academies", "Ofsted inspectors make U-turn on 'Trojan Horse' school, leak shows", "Trojan Horse schools: 'British values' must be promoted in the classroom, says Michael Gove", "Girls claim discrimination at 'Trojan Horse' school", "Extremists and the 'Trojan Horse' approach in state schools", "Trojan Horse leaked report says pupils 'not protected from extremism', "Trojan Horse school Golden Hillock still 'inadequate', Ofsted finds", "Hardeep Saini, Sikh Teacher in Britain Accused of Unprofessional Conduct Towards The Students", "Trojan Horse school looking to new future", "Trojan Horse school forced to recruit teachers from Australia", "Culture of fear and intimidation in Birmingham schools, says Ofsted chief", "Muslim teacher spoke of 'white prostitutes' to children in assembly", "Gove to order teaching of 'British values', "Dossier of Trojan horse evidence finally laid bare after leaks and allegations", "Trojan Horse: Birmingham academy spent 50,000 on trip to Saudi Arabia using travel firm linked to school director", "Trojan Horse schools: Harriet Harman calls on Government to protect music lessons", "Trojan Horse hearings: Pupils shown picture of white person to teach them what Christians looks like", "Michael Gove calls for further schools investigations after Trojan Horse affair", "Books 'promoting stoning' found at Olive Tree Primary School", "Trojan Horse row: Teachers suspended for refusing to impose strict Islamic model", "Birmingham schools: Education Commissioner's report", Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Monzoor Hussain, Mr Hardeep Saini, Mr Arshad Hussain, Mr Razwan Faraz, Ms Lindsey Clark. [4][89], The discussions contained: "Explicit homophobia, highly offensive comments about British service personnel, a stated ambition to increase segregation at the school, disparagement of Muslims in sectors other than their own, scepticism about the truth of reports of the murder of Lee Rigby and the Boston Marathon bombing and a constant undercurrent of anti-western, anti-America and anti-Israel sentiment. [8], Ofsted found that the governing body interfered with the running of Saltley School and undermined the work of its senior leaders. Michael and Ruth Haephrati were well-educated people with [12] West Midlands Police and the city council investigated whether the letter was a hoax and the plot had been concocted to support Adderley's school case at the employment tribunal. [44], Michael White, a former teacher at Park View School which was mentioned in the letter, told the BBC that the school's governing board had been "taken over by a Muslim sect" in 1993. [54] Kerslake deferred issues of education to the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, but an appendix to his Report provided contextual data on poverty, adult education attainment, unemployment and school performance across comparator cities and for England as a whole. The Kershaw and Clarke Reports provided no data on school performance in Birmingham or of the schools improvement programme which had shaken up schools following Sir Tim Brighouse's appointment. [28] This included a special concern with the achievement of pupils of Asian heritage, as set out in its "Asian heritage achievement action plan" of 19 December 2003. [106], Salma Yaqoob, a former Birmingham City Councillor and prominent Muslim spokesperson, began a group named "Hands Off Birmingham Schools" in the aftermath of the inspections, saying that they were influenced by "a climate of political and media hysteria". [85] The governors of the school were sacked in April because of inappropriate interference in the running of the school. He said that the efforts to instil fundamentalist practices into Birmingham classrooms were based on a "warped and abusive view of the religion". This pre-dated by approximately .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3+12 months the date on which the witness statements were signed and finalised". It also provides useful information and guidance and features of good practice in meeting those needs. [3][4] This reflects the views of the neo-conservative Henry Jackson Society and included the description of a document intended to provide guidance about the needs of Muslim pupils in state schools as a "blueprint for Islamisation". In August 2014, the Principal Hardeep Saini was replaced by an interim principal. The study of French was replaced by Arabic. [113], Sir Albert Bore, the leader of Birmingham City Council, called the original Trojan Horse letter "defamatory" and "hugely difficult to investigate" and offered protection to the whistleblower if they would come forward to help in the investigation. Three schools were commended. An alleged Trojan Horse plotter claims the Nazis could have killed as few as 100,000 Jews. [79] For three years running non-Muslim pupils and staff were excluded from these trips. [7][8] This document provided guidance about the religious needs and practices of Muslim parents and pupils that would facilitate their integration into schools. The headteacher and deputy headteacher were subsequently found guilty at an NCTL hearing of falsifying SATS tests. 25/05/2022; Posted by The inspection said that "too little is done to keep students safe from the risks associated with extremist views". [25] This would be so despite the fact that the previous duty on schools to promote community cohesion had included an emphasis on 'shared values' which were exactly the same values espoused in the new duty. Three schools were commended. The Department for Education had also commissioned a report by Ipsos Mori in 2010 into how schools understood their duties with regard to Community Cohesions and Prevent. Children were banned from playing musical instruments and drama lessons were dropped from the schedule. Neoptolemus son of Achilles, who according to a prophecy had to fight at Troy in order for the Achaeans to be victorious. [35][36] However, both the Kershaw Report and the Clarke Report organised their inquiries in terms of the 5-step plan described in the letter and following the publication of their reports, Birmingham City's education commissioner Sir Mike Tomlinson stated his belief that what the letter described was happening "without a shadow of doubt". In the podcast, the link between the Trojan Horse letter and the Headteacher of Adderley Primary School in Birmingham, Rizwana Darr, is explored and it is alleged that Darr is the real author of the Trojan Horse letter. One EFA inspector went on to become educational adviser to Peter Clarke. In May, Mark Rogers, Birmingham City Council's Chief Executive, had a meeting with head teachers of affected schools. [citation needed] Later, he was critical of the Conservatives' plan to teach "British values", claiming that it would alienate moderate Muslims. [23] The government terminated its funding arrangement with three of the schools. They included:[3][4], The report found there had been changes made to the curriculum and education plans, including increasing the faith component. [26] Waseem Yaqub, former Head of Governors at Al-Hijrah school, called it "a McCarthy-style witch-hunt" and that the letter was used by councillors "to turn on [Muslims] and use Muslims as scapegoats". The teacher also used school facilities to copy Osama bin Laden DVDs. [4] No evidence was provided to substantiate these claims. The hearings were expected to be concluded quickly, but continued through until May 2017. [68][69] Two other senior teachers were also suspended. Serial Productions recently released its latest investigative podcast series, "The Trojan Horse Affair." [97], Michael Gove, the Education secretary, announced that all of England's schools would have to promote "British values" of tolerance and fairness and that teachers would be banned from the profession if they allowed extremists into schools. It was entitled Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. Pupils studying biology were not taught the section of the syllabus about reproduction and the teacher stated when briefly outlining evolution that "this is not what we believe". He said "man-made" British laws were "very confusing", unlike those "given by God", which were fair. The way the letter is written it is like an outsider's perspective on how Muslims would communicate or talk. The Truth about the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair (2017). They investigated schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community. In a discussion on 5 February 2014, a teacher at Oldknow and governor at Small Heath School, revealed that the group's favoured candidate had become the head teacher at Small Heath. [82], Pupils had limited knowledge of any religion apart from Islam. [58] Ofsted stated that the school had failed to protect students from "the risks of radicalisation and extremism". banned from any involvement with schools,[10] while the bans against 14 other teachers were eventually overturned, dropped and/or dismissed in courts between 2016 and 2017. [118], On reaction to Gove's call for British values in schools, the Muslim Council of Britain expressed fear that it would effectively bar conservative Muslims from becoming school trustees or governors. The contracts for the taxpayer-funded school trips never underwent a formal tender process, and instead a travel firm was used with close links to a current teacher and former director of the school. [95], Prime Minister David Cameron, on a visit to Birmingham, praised his government's swift action in investigating the conspiracy. [62], Forced segregation of the genders was observed in some classes at Golden Hillock and was mandated in some departmental policy documents. It found that non-Muslim staff were banned from assemblies in which the children were preached at and told that white women were "prostitutes". [24], Members of Parliament of all three major parties in Birmingham wrote a joint letter for an inquiry. The art curriculum was altered to "remove full faces or immodest images, such as paintings by Gustav Klimt". However, what was at issue also included other documents outside the Clarke Report that had potentially been relevant to the case. [5][15][16] Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School, Park View School all run by the Park View Educational Trust Oldknow Academy and Saltley School were placed in special measures after inspectors found systemic failings including the schools having failed to take adequate steps to safeguard pupils against extremism. [19], At Nansen School, Islamic religious assemblies were introduced and Christmas and Diwali celebrations were cancelled. [26] In protest of the investigations, Tahir Alam and several governors of affected schools resigned. Indeed, neither the Kershaw Report, nor the Clarke Report asked the question of how a school could be taken over by governors and teachers. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years. Under the academy schools programme, it could only be done with the active involvement of officials in the local authority (including over the transfer of assets to the new trust) and at the Department for Education and it would require an academically successful school to be the sponsor of 'failing' schools. [66], On 9 June 2014, Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for schools, wrote to Tahir Alam concerning the OFSTED and EFA reports and outlined the actions required by the school.[67]. The show also found evidence of unregistered Haredi Jewish schools in London, which an ex-pupil claimed were not teaching a balanced curriculum. He raised concerns about the governance of Golden Hillock 20 years ago stating that the Trojan horse plot "reveals something, something that is true". As set out in the Panel Report,[133] this included evidence an inspector from the EFA Report who had acted as adviser to the Clarke Report about the circumstances of the EFA inspections where the Panel proposed that "no doubt it would be argued that this further undermined her credibility and the reliability of her evidence" (see paragraphs 124/125 of the Panel's justification of discontinuing). [1], A former teacher at the school reported that the current head teacher, Monzoor Hussain, expressed "mind-blowing" anti-American views at school assemblies, describing the US as the "source of all evil in the world". Book Sport Policy and Politics in an Era of Austerity. The annual sports event for boys and girls was scheduled in different days. At the heart of the affair The Muslim Council of Britain also described the investigation as a 'witch hunt'. [5][80] Inspectors found that no humanities, arts or music was taught in Year 6 and only "limited" teaching of these subjects in Year 5. Children were urged to join in anti-Christian chants. [50], The Educational Funding Authority, Ofsted, and Birmingham City Council agreed to investigate the letter, although West Midlands Police decided that it was not a matter for them. [107], In June 2014, there was a highly public argument between the Home Office and Department for Education ministers about the responsibility for the alleged extremism. The New York Times podcast "The Trojan Horse Affair" uncovered this secret document that disproves one of the central allegations of the Trojan Horse letter, that there was a conspiracy against the headteacher of Adderley primary school. [citation needed], An investigation ordered by the government found a "sustained, co-ordinated agenda to impose segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline, politicised strain of Sunni Islam" in several Birmingham schools. "[92], The report concluded that based on the examination of emails and correspondence: "There is incontrovertible evidence that both senior officials and elected members of Birmingham council were aware of activities that bear a striking resemblance to those described in the Trojan horse letter many months before it surfaced. WebTrojan horse virus, also called trojan, may be defined as malware that appears to be legitimate or appropriate software and used by attackers to compromise the systems security. Mr Justice Phillips declared that evidence for the defence presented in the hearing against the senior leadership team should have been made available to the defendants in the other case. Youre otherwise a regular Joe, you just go and pray on occasions. [81], During the tribunal it emerged that a photo of a white person was shown to students as an example of what Christians look like. He has performed over 60 operatic roles in the standard This showed Birmingham to be performing badly on most indicators, but outperforming other cities and the national average for its school results and the proportion of schools graded outstanding. At the same time, The Trojan Horse Affair ultimately tells us more about the two hosts than this central mystery, as they chase leads and question each other, leading up to a At Park View, Golden Hillock, Nansen and Oldknow academy, it is alleged that teachers were instructed not to use images in any subject which displayed even slight intimacy between sexes. Staff wishing to discuss LGBT matters were lambasted by governors. "[49], In Bradford, teachers reported instances of governors imposing an Islamic ethos. The choice of modern language teaching had been restricted to the study of Arabic or Urdu at several schools. She also said, "It is not just an academy problem, this was happening before we became an academy. Assistant principal Lee Donaghy, a self-declared agnostic, said that the school was achieving more by "accommodating" Muslim practices, but called it "pernicious" the idea "that people running the school are trying to force more religion on these kids than the parents want". Three cases against junior teachers were heard separately from that against the senior leadership team at PVET. [108][109] The Prime Minister, David Cameron, intervened, requiring that Secretary for Education Michael Gove apologise to the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism head Charles Farr for briefings critical of him appearing in The Times, and Home Secretary Theresa May to sack a close adviser, Fiona Cunningham, known to be in a relationship with Farr,[110] who was found by a Downing Street inquiry to have been the source of a negative briefing against Gove. It is designed to steal, damage, or do some harmful actions on the computer. It also included evidence from then secretary to Birmingham SACRE, given to the Clarke inquiry but not reported by him, which "conflicts with the evidence of NCTL witnesses who had been saying that it was wrong for collective worship to be solely about Islam when a school had a determination but [the secretary] who had been with SACRE for 9 years, said it was acceptable" (paragraph 125). A Trojan Horse (Trojan) is a type of malware that disguises itself as legitimate code or software. [90] Nasim Awan, a governor at Springfield, said that the "first agenda item" should be to apply for Islamic assemblies at the secular school. They say that the letter had disproportionate emphasis on events at Adderley Primary School and the letter's timing proved a boon to Adderley's head teacher, Rizwana Darr, in Adderley's contemporaneous employment dispute immediately after an internal audit report had referred the dispute at Adderley to the police, specifically recommending Darr be investigated. The investigation found that "terms such as condom, the pill and so forth have been banned" and that governors had insisted on an Islamic approach to subjects, such as Personal, Social and Health Education, science, religious education, and sex and relationships education. Skilled Account Development Executive in areas of Insurances and Financial Book review by Rick Howard Like Zero Day, another Mark Russinovich novel I recently reviewed for the Cybersecurity Canon, Trojan Horse is a book Id recommend for casual readers.Cybersecurity professionals wont learn anything new here, but all readers might enjoy wallowing around in a Tom Clancy-esque story Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures. Speaking after withdrawing her resignation, Ms.Kondal said: "The pressures outlined in the Trojan Horse letter are very real and it mustn't be allowed to happen again. [78][80] Christmas events were cancelled and raffles and tombolas were banned at a recent school fete because they were considered un-Islamic. Community cohesion and PREVENT: how have schools responded? Mark Walters has been removed from his current school's website very recently. The malicious code can be injected on benign applications, masqueraded in e-mail links, or sometimes hidden in JavaScript pages to make furtive attacks against vulnerable internet Browsers. [75][78] The summer play was criticised by staff for its "use of musical instruments" and a teacher was observed covering his ears during his music lesson. [19] Like Peter Clarke, Kershaw seemed unaware that all schools had a duty to promote community cohesion. However, the report interviewed none of the teachers or governors against whom allegations were made with the single exception of Tahir Alam. [58], The government ordered an inspection of the Olive Tree school following comments by its head, Abdul Qadeer Baksh, that in an ideal Islamic state, homosexuality would be punishable by death. The group promoted links to extremist speakers that betrayed "an Islamist approach that denied the validity of alternative belief", and some group members who believed that the murder of Lee Rigby was staged, encouraged other members to promulgate this view. It described the ideology being promoted as "an intolerant and politicised form of extreme social conservatism that claims to represent and ultimately seeks to control all Muslims. The rush to set up the hearings in July and August 2015 (prior to the Conservative Party conference in September) provided little time for the preparation of the case for the defence prior to the start of the hearings in contrast to the long-drawn-out nature of the proceedings once they had started. [3] It found that a number of governors and senior teachers had been promoting a form of Islamism or Salafism. It appears that this wording troubled the Head of the Department for Education's Due Diligence and Counter Extremism Group, Hardip Begol. The 16-year-old girl's phone was confiscated by the teacher during a Sunday event and then taken to a shop for its passcode to be broken, and its contents were then examined by the school. [126], Akmal said that jailing gay people and adulterers was a "moral position to hold" and that they should be exiled from the community. In addition, Park View had been designated a National Healthy School for its approach to Personal, Social and Health Education. Additionally, the inspection stated that "there are too few books about the world's major religions other than Islam". [2], In January 2022, The New York Times released an investigative podcast about the Trojan Horse scandal which characterized it as an "Islamophobic hoax" and compared it to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a historical antisemitic hoax. He announced proposals to send Ofsted to any s It described a "madrassa curriculum" and reported that "posters were written in Quranic Arabic in most of the classrooms visited. Unlike the teachers, the lawyers involved in serious impropriety were not subject to professional misconduct charges despite the cost of the hearings. Her credibility was called into question by the NCTL Panel when discontinuing the case. [104], In May, David Blunkett announced that if in government again, the Labour Party would appoint an 'Independent Director of School Standards' with the power to monitor academies: "In April 2014, the alleged Operation Trojan Horse in Birmingham demonstrated the difficulties that have arisen from this 'absence of transparency'". [2], The leaked letter on the alleged plot was reported by media including the BBC on 7 March 2014. The Trojan Horse Affair presents a one-sided account that minimises child protection concerns, misogyny and homophobia in order to exonerate the podcasts hero, a The drawn out nature of the cases meant that there were no journalists present to report the detailed rebuttal of claims indicated above, for example of banning Christmas celebrations, or teacher handouts promoting the obligations on wives to consent to sex with their husbands. Books available to the children included one which advocated parents hitting children if they did not pray by the age of 10 and another which praised individuals who "loved death more than life in their pursuit of righteous and true religion". A mysterious letter detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. [22] He announced proposals to send Ofsted to any school without warning, saying that the schools in question had been able to stage a "cover-up" previously. Ofsted said it had found evidence of an organised campaign to target certain schools by Islamists and that head teachers had been "marginalised or forced out of their jobs". In 2012, head teacher Chris Robinson resigned, having felt that her reputation, integrity and leadership were being questioned by governors. [91] Another participant in the discussion said that "JEWS" (emphasis in original) were making websites with false information on the Quran, while Abdul Malik, Deputy Head of Golden Hillock in Bradford wrote "Al-Islam will prevail over all other ways of life. This evidence would come to light when the NCTL misconduct case against senior teachers at PVET collapsed because the prosecution had failed to disclose material from the Clarke Report that it had had in its possession since the start of the proceedings. At paragraph 37 of his judgement, he writes that. [18] The council's Chief Executive, Mark Rogers, said that there was no plot, but that "new communities" had raised "legitimate questions and challenges" to the "liberal education system". [58] Ofsted found that "the governing body has removed some subjects, such as music, from the timetable". [58], The Education Funding Agency (EFA) found that the school lacked a balanced and broad curriculum and saw several subjects marginalised. [31], Of the schools mentioned by the letter, the account of Adderley Primary School was the more detailed, alleging that an employment dispute at Adderley was part of the Islamic plot's attempt to unseat the head teacher and install a conspirator with the same radical Islamification goals as the letter writers. A detailed discussion of the evidence presented in the NCTL case is provided in chapter 9 of John Holmwood and Therese O'Toole's book on the Trojan Horse affair. The decision to discontinue disciplinary proceedings was based on procedural grounds not on a shortage of evidence". He asked for publication to be delayed pending "clarification". Additionally, students were expected to fast during the month of Ramadan. [30], The Times described the letter as "a crude forgery", noting that "The document appears to show that the conspirators were working to remove a primary school headmistress who was actually dismissed 20 years ago". Mark Walters, who testified that he saw Rizvana Darr open the teaching assistants' resignation letters, seems A sixth school was labelled inadequate for its poor educational standards and twelve schools were found needing of improvements. The latter piece concluded that in the present system, the schools investigated could have registered themselves as faith schools and been allowed to teach Islamic values with permission from the state. With the apparent agreement of the Chair of the Panel, the decisions were amended prior to publication so as to state that the allegations were "in no way concerned with violent extremism". Share. [43], Two anonymous members of staff at Park View School told BBC Radio 4 that school assemblies had praised Anwar al-Awlaki. [29] It encouraged parents to complain about the school's leadership with false accusations of sex education, forced Christian prayer and mixed physical education, with the aim of obtaining a new leadership of Islamists. It interviewed Mohammed Zabar, a Muslim parent who wrote to the Prime Minister in December 2013 about the lack of cultural balance in the curriculum at his daughter's school, Oldknow. The charge of failure to disclose documents from the main hearing against senior teachers in other hearings, however, indicated a possibility of a similar failure on the part of NCTL to fulfil its obligations of disclosure in the hearing against senior leaders. [12], On 14 April, the City Council confirmed that it had received over 200 reports from parents and staff at 25 schools in Birmingham. [1][11] The allegations against the teachers were set out in the press and in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports. [62] A former staff member said that one teacher had handed out a worksheet stating that women "must obey their husbands", and told his class that wives were forbidden from refusing their husbands sex. [17], Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw accused Birmingham City Council of a "serious failure" in supporting schools in protecting children from extremism. In its separatist assertions and attempts to subvert normal processes it amounts to what is often described as Islamism. He said some of the witnesses had been very nervous and anxious. Case hearings in July and August 2015 took place to establish the nature of the charges to be put and evidence to be submitted (in the case of the senior teachers at PVET, the evidence file expanded from around 1,000 pages to 6,000 pages between the two meetings). The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Instead, the report concluded, the council was focused on community cohesion. These questions have been left unanswered She has not been held to account. Posters were found in the classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer, one saying: "If you do not pray, you are worse than a kafir", and staff reported that loudspeakers were set up in the school to broadcast a call to prayer. Now the audio game-changer has made a divisive UK story the focus of a new eight-part series, its first overseas outing. Ofsted subsequently expanded their investigation into schools in the north and south-east of England. Creationism was taught as fact in school assemblies and science lessons at both Park View and Golden Hillock. [5], Ofsted expressed concerns about an exclusively Muslim culture in non-faith schools and children not being taught to "develop tolerant attitudes towards other faiths". "This is a reminder that this is a serious issue and something that is not going to be solved overnight. Agent: Mark Walters - (772)-201-5650. Following a forensic report by a handwriting expert for the tribunal that strongly suggested the signatures were fraudulent, Birmingham City Council advised Adderley's leadership not to fight the claims and withdrew the usual indemnity granted to council-run schools. A sixth school was labelled inadequate for its poor educational standards and twelve schools were found needing of improvements. [29] Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, said that "wider, more comprehensive action" was needed and appointed Peter Clarke, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer and ex-head of the Counter Terrorism Command. The school had a determination from the local SACRE to provide Islamic collective worship since 1996. The school was one of those identified in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports, but no information about it was provided. The teachers were barred from responding to the allegations due to confidentiality orders as part of their employment contracts that were binding also after the suspension. "Ofsted in second snap inspection at Birmingham school as 'Trojan Horse' probe continues", "Trojan Horse: how we revealed the truth behind the plot", "Muslim extremists, and a worrying lesson for us all", "Trojan Horse report finds 'aggressive Islamist ethos' in schools", "Pupils at 'Trojan Horse' school shown extremist jihadi promotional video, MPs told", "Trojan Horse: Reaction to council and government reports", "Birmingham schools Trojan Horse probe: PM David Cameron backing Ofsted", "Trojan Horse plot driven by same 'warped' Islamic extremism as Boko Haram, says Tony Blair", "Guidance on the duty to promote community cohesion", "Governors of new academies and free schools told to abide by 'British values', "Nick Clegg: Teaching 'British values' in schools could upset moderate Muslims", "MPs unite in call for 'school plot' inquiry", "Birmingham Muslim MP Khalid Mahmood says city schools are being targeted by Islamic fundamentalists", "C4 Dispatches questions the role of faith communities in schools", "Birmingham schools 'feel like the Balkans', says Labour", "Labour education plan aimed at stopping further Trojan Horse controversies", "Tower Hamlets council has been 'targeted in Trojan Horse-style Islamist infiltration plot', "Salma Yaqoob brands Ofsted probe into Trojan Horse schools as 'politically motivated", "Five things you need to know about Theresa May's row with Michael Gove", "Furious Cameron slaps down Gove and May over 'Islamic extremism' row", "Michael Gove apologises over 'Trojan Horse' row with Theresa May", "Trojan Horse probe: Teachers union demands review of academies as Birmingham schools are investigated", "Trojan Horse: how The Guardian ignored and misrepresented evidence of Islamism in schools", "Birmingham schools 'Islam plot' letter 'is defamatory', "Trojan Horse probe at Birmingham schools: Academy hits out at 'witch-hunt', "Trojan Horse letter 'used to target Muslim schools', axed governor claims", "Park View Academy hits back in Trojan horse row", "Saltley school governors resign en masse in wake of 'Trojan horse' inquiry", "Islamism in Birmingham schools: how the BBC is selectively reporting the 'Trojan horse' plot", "Birmingham 'Trojan Horse plot' raises questions about school accountability", "Forget these 'Trojan horses' the real issue is faith schools", "Michael Gove book offers clue to Trojan horse row and his views on Islamism", "The Trojan Horse affair: Islamophobia scholar on the long shadow cast by the scandal", "Trojan Horse school chief exposed as bigot who wants adulterers and gays sent into exile", "Calls to reinstate Birmingham Trojan Horse head teachers", "Alarm at move to reveal identity of whistleblowers who exposed Trojan Horse scandal", "Monzoor Hussain, Hardeep Saini, Arshad Hussain, Razwan Faraz, Lyndsey Clark Professional conduct panel outcome Panel decision and reasons on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education in respect of applications for the proceedings to be discontinued", "Trojan Horse affair: remaining disciplinary proceedings dropped", "Investigate the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair", Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, "Trojan Horse: 'If anyone is still in any doubt that the practices uncovered were inappropriate, just listen to the pupils', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trojan_Horse_scandal&oldid=1129364340, Conspiracy theories in the United Kingdom, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from December 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Articles with incomplete citations from February 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Vague or ambiguous time from February 2022, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2019, Articles lacking reliable references from February 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. 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