[41] Concerns have also been raised by the National Association of Head Teachers about schools in parts of East London and other "large cities around the country". "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=1158487507. But according to these bodies, a small cluster of Birmingham schools, including three run by an academy trust chaired by Alam, suffered from a range of issues: poor governance, including a lack of child protection safeguards; people in leadership positions who espoused or failed to challenge extremist views; cultures in which homophobia and misogyny, including from teachers, were allowed to flourish and young people were encouraged to become intolerant of diversity. Trojan horse: the real story behind the fake 'Islamic plot' to take The Trojan Horse Affair on Apple Podcasts The Trojan Horse affair: Islamophobia scholar on the long shadow cast by the scandal. [60], It was alleged that the sexes were segregated in the classrooms and boys and girls suspected of being too friendly towards each other were disciplined. Indeed, in presenting his charges, Clarke commented that "it is only fair to point out that the Trust disputed most, if not all, of the allegations". [105], The Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, Jim Fitzpatrick, warned of a 'Trojan Horse'-style Islamist plot to infiltrate councils in London. I'm Fed Up With Investigative Podcasts That Fail to Find Answers - Gawker [24] In the wake of the findings, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, announced that all schools in the country will have to promote British values of tolerance and fairness and said that teachers will be banned from the profession if they allow extremists into schools. [29] The letter described pressure being put on the head teacher at Regents Park school, a school judged to be outstanding and "planting the seed of her cheating". 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. [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. Nor did Clarke report any interviews with schools improvement officers at the local authority of the Department for Education. 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". [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. What happened in Birmingham in 2014 is a story of two parts. [citation needed], After resisting attempts by governors to impose an Islamic ethos, teachers were suspended and its principal, Jennifer McIntosh, and her deputy, faced attempts to oust them. A history of the Trojan Horse scandal | The Week UK They investigated schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community. [58], The Education Funding Agency (EFA) found that the school lacked a balanced and broad curriculum and saw several subjects marginalised. There was no organised plot. [79] For three years running non-Muslim pupils and staff were excluded from these trips. But his claim that multiple agencies and individuals exaggerated their findings for nefarious reasons has been dismissed as conspiracy thinking by the courts. [42] The general secretary of the headteachers' union, Russell Hobby, said the union has found "concerted efforts" by hardliners to infiltrate Birmingham schools, and that it was working with 30 of its members in 12 schools and had "serious concerns" about some of them. [48] Reverend Ray claimed that in the 1990s, when John Major was Prime Minister, he made the government aware of Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir becoming involved at his school. Alam remains[when?] Another teacher told the children that were "lucky to be Muslims and not ignorant like Christians and Jews". [58] Ofsted stated that the school had failed to protect students from "the risks of radicalisation and extremism". Its first season, a true-crime whodunnit that became an instant hit. The Trojan Horse Affair - TopPodcast.com The headteacher and deputy headteacher were subsequently found guilty at an NCTL hearing of falsifying SATS tests. [53], In July 2014, after the reports had been published, Bore apologised and admitted that the council had ignored Operation Trojan Horse due to "fear of being accused of racism". [27] As Holmwood and O'Toole show, neither the Kershaw Report nor the Clarke Report gave any attention to the schools improvement policies of Birmingham City Council or the Department for Education. Reed secured an interview with two whistleblowers independently assessed as credible and fair. [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. [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. [7] Mahmood told Channel 4 that he did not believe that the investigation was Islamophobic, stating "Over 200 people complaining to the local authority about what's gone on and you can't really claim that it's a witch-hunt". In 2013, a strange letter appeared on a city. [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. [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". [68][69] Two other senior teachers were also suspended. Community cohesion and PREVENT: how have schools responded? 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. [64] The Ofsted report stated that "students' understanding of other religions is scant as the religious education curriculum focuses primarily on the study of Islam"[65] and said there was a "perceived unfairness and lack of transparency" over appointments to the school and that female members of staff had felt intimidated. [4], Figures in the group included Park View Headmaster Mozz Hussain, Deputy Head of Nansen Primary Razwan Faraz and Shahid Akmal, the Chairman of Governors at Nansen. [95], After the reports were published, Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, said that cultural division in Birmingham had been caused by the rhetoric of the government, and "[Birmingham]'s school system is so fragmented it feels at times likes the Balkans". [71], As of September 2015, Golden Hillock School was rebranded Ark Boulton Academy after being taken over by the Ark Academy Chain. The hearings were expected to be concluded quickly, but continued through until May 2017. One teacher implicated in the sex education lesson was later convicted for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl he referred to as his wife. Long-form podcasts have more blockbuster potential than straight-up reporting, but are laced with danger: the temptation to cherry-pick facts in service of a gripping story. [96] 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. Part 3: Sir Albert and the Missing "H". [7] Pupils and teachers from Park View School denied this version of the story, saying that after this assertion had been raised by a boy during a presentation on sexual education teachers organised an assembly where they explained that "marital rape was legally and morally wrong". [45], In May 2014, the BBC reported that Tim Boyes, the former headteacher of Queensbridge School, had written anonymously to Birmingham City Council in 2010 to try to expose Operation Trojan Horse,[46] and in June a former prospective school governor said that he had informed authorities of the conspiracy in 2008. 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. Sun 20 Feb 2022 03.00 EST Last modified on Thu 22 Jun 2023 11.29 EDT S erial is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world. 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]. Brian Reed and Hamza Syed investigate a letter in 'The Trojan Horse Affair' Part two is the story of what was subsequently uncovered by several Ofsted reports, an Education Funding Agency review, two separate inquiries by the Department for Education and Birmingham council, and multiple court judgments. From Serial Productions and The New York Times, "The Trojan Horse Affair," an investigation that became bigger than we ever imagined. All rights reserved. Thompson had no forewarning of the forensic questions about events that happened years ago, and was hazy on detail in the interview, but the Observer has seen correspondence in which he made clear to the presenters before the podcast aired that the Humanists independently corroborated the whistleblower accounts with other sources before publication. The annual sports event for boys and girls was scheduled in different days. [53] Birmingham City Council was already under investigation by Sir Bob Kerslake over problems of governance associated with financial management, looked after children, waste services and issues of equal pay for work of equal value. Altogether the documents that were deemed to be relevant amounted to about 1600 pages. This grossly understates the risks children were exposed to, with real consequences. It said that "manipulative" governors had been determined to introduce "unacceptable" practices and to deny students a broad and balanced education. [85] The governors of the school were sacked in April because of inappropriate interference in the running of the school. [1][11] The allegations against the teachers were set out in the press and in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports. Instead, Reed and Syed subjected them to a seven-hour interrogation on their testimony that they have described in a complaint to the New York Times as torture, leaving them feeling beaten into submission, held hostage in our own home. Yet, "eight weeks after the letter was received there was no systematic attempt to deal with the issue". Powerful men and institutions are adept at throwing around accusations of racism or anti-faith bigotry to undermine the credibility of people speaking up about child protection: see the treatment of those who tried to flag child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, or the Rotherham inquirys finding that nervousness about cultural sensitivities impeded the exposure of child sexual abuse by predominantly Asian grooming gangs. The event hashtag was #TrojanHoax. 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. It said evidence pointed to a group of "British male governors and teachers, predominantly of Pakistani heritage". [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". Connecting to Apple Music. The Trojan Horse Affair Is a Twisty Thrill - Vulture [42] Senior Department for Education sources have also been reported as claiming that coordinated attempts to undermine and supplant head teachers have occurred in Bradford, Manchester, and the London boroughs of Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets. The letter was indeed used as justification to drive controversial reforms in counter-terrorism policy. The NYT's 'Trojan Horse Affair' podcast portrays a city . [23] The government terminated its funding arrangement with three of the schools. Syeds apparent determination to make the facts fit his precooked narrative is paired with Reeds meditations on race, which seem to use Syeds experience of racism to excuse his questionable approach to journalism: the soft bigotry of low expectations. They included:[3][4], The report found there had been changes made to the curriculum and education plans, including increasing the faith component. What has happened has brought the integrity of the process into disrepute". Responsibility for determinations for academy schools passed to the Department for Education, but they put in place no measures for renewing determinations. [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". The Trojan Horse Affair | iHeart [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. The Panel had been ready to announce its decision in the case on 23 December 2016, but an urgent application for disclosure, relating, in part, to transcripts associated with the Clarke Report, was made by defence lawyers on 24 November 2016. Ultimately, one false narrative that there was a problem of violent extremism in these schools is never improved by another: that beyond Islamophobia there was nothing much to see here at all. [24], Members of Parliament of all three major parties in Birmingham wrote a joint letter for an inquiry. 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. "Operation Trojan Horse," as the letter referred to it, would systematically push non-Muslim school administrators out of power and replace them with people who would operate the schools. "[57], At Park View School, Ofsted reported that "students are not taught citizenship well enough or prepared properly for life in a multi-cultural and diverse society". Some staff at the school expressed fear that neither eating nor drinking amid high temperatures during the 18 hours of daylight in the months of June and July would compromise pupils' health and their ability to learn. This document allegedly contained Islamic extremists' plans to infiltrate schools. The 'Trojan Horse affair' explained Stay informed with MEE's newsletters starting with Turkey Unpacked Though Zinoviev issued a denial in the Communist Review two days before the elections,. [125], An undercover reporter working for the Daily Mirror posed as a wealthy businessman and potential client of the training firm Exquisitus, a firm owned by Shahid Akmal, the chairman of governors at Nansen Primary School. [citation needed], During the inspection at Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College in Bradford, a mainly Muslim secondary school,[85] pupils were forced to revise for their GCSE exams outside in the street as staff did not want them to have an opportunity to speak to inspectors. Trojan Horse affair: We need the truth. Only the New York Times has [19], At Nansen School, Islamic religious assemblies were introduced and Christmas and Diwali celebrations were cancelled. The Trojan Horse Affair: how Serial podcast got it so wrong That has not stopped Serials presenter duo running with a similar story. ", "Trojan Horse row Q&A: What is the 'Muslim plot' all about and why is it so important? [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. Creationism was taught as fact in school assemblies and science lessons at both Park View and Golden Hillock. "[49], In Bradford, teachers reported instances of governors imposing an Islamic ethos. For example, the co-head of the security and extremism unit at Policy Exchange (the conservative think tank that had advised Michael Gove's schools programme), Hannah Stuart, and its head of education, John David Blake, proposed that, "non-disclosure of anonymous witness statements from the Clarke inquiry was described as an 'abuse of process', and that is deeply unfortunate, but this falls short of an exoneration. He denied all allegations against him.[27]. [43], Two anonymous members of staff at Park View School told BBC Radio 4 that school assemblies had praised Anwar al-Awlaki. [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. The Trojan Horse Affair. External speakers were improperly vetted. Ofsted subsequently expanded their investigation into schools in the north and south-east of England. However, what was at issue also included other documents outside the Clarke Report that had potentially been relevant to the case. The Trojan Horse Affair - Wikipedia The findings were quashed on grounds of serious procedural irregularities. [2], The leaked letter on the alleged plot was reported by media including the BBC on 7 March 2014. [20] After the Trojan Horse affair, this[clarification needed] was replaced by a new duty to promote "fundamental British values". [34] The Guardian and The Independent both stated that the letter is "widely regarded as a fake". [84] The school was rated "inadequate". Syed and the US journalist Brian Reed quickly land on a suspect . But they fail to reveal pertinent information about the sources which raises serious questions about their credibility. Trailer Jan 27 2022 A mysterious letter detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. [112] The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has also expressed concerns about the scope of the problem in other major cities, whilst advising that there was no "cause for panic". The story soon explodes in the news and kicks off a national panic. [22] Pupils and staff stayed in luxury five-star hotels. [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". [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. It was entitled Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. Across eight episodes, journalists Brian Reed and Hamza Syed sought to discover the author of the anonymous letter that triggered the scandal. The Truth about the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair (2017). Children were banned from playing musical instruments and drama lessons were dropped from the schedule. "[4] Tahir Alam is presented by the podcast as a hero. Senior leaders did not ensure "balanced views of the world" were taught and that "contact with different cultures, faiths and traditions is too limited to promote tolerance and respect for the views, lifestyles and customs of other people". A strange letter appears on a city councillor's desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the city's schools. In 2012, head teacher Chris Robinson resigned, having felt that her reputation, integrity and leadership were being questioned by governors. Others were challenged in court before the case against the senior teachers was discontinued. "[4] He conducted no interviews with governors or teachers who were accused of misconduct, with the exception of Tahir Alam. [58] Governors at the school banned any discussions regarding sexual orientation and intimacy. Staff wishing to discuss LGBT matters were lambasted by governors. It was a photocopy of a letter, which seemed to be part of a correspondence between Muslims conspiring to take over local schools and run them according to strict Islamic principles. [101] Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Perry Barr, said that the City Council may have known of previous plots, but not acted due to fears of being seen as anti-Islamic. In doing so, it breaches the standards the public have the right to expect of journalists, with cruel consequences for those it uses and abuses along the way. [75] The school's curriculum was deemed inadequate because it did not promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions. Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures. Andrew Gilligan of The Daily Telegraph wrote extensively on the episode. It said that there was never a serious effort to ascertain what was happening in school governing bodies, and that council's approach had been described as one of "appeasement and a failure in their duty of care towards their employees". ", "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.

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