The school had a determination from the local SACRE to provide Islamic collective worship since 1996. an "issue of education management", or appeasement. Yet, "eight weeks after the letter was received there was no systematic attempt to deal with the issue". 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. [3][4] Birmingham City Council imposed a temporary freeze on the appointment of school governors after probes into Operation Trojan Horse were announced. [20] After the Trojan Horse affair, this[clarification needed] was replaced by a new duty to promote "fundamental British values". The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as " Operation Trojan Horse " or the Trojan Horse affair, refers to a scandal involving claims of an alleged conspiracy that there was an organised attempt by some individuals to introduce an Islamist or Salafist ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. WebThe Trojan Horse Affair raises a serious question that requires an answer. "[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. For the ufology book, see, Saltley School and Specialist Science College, Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College, Political row between Home Office and Department for Education, National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) hearings, Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, "Trojan horse: the real story behind the fake 'Islamic plot' to take over schools", Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the 'Trojan Horse' letter, "Trojan horse inquiry: 'A coordinated agenda to impose hardline Sunni Islam', "Trojan Horse: Ofsted says schools were targeted", "Birmingham City Council receives 'hundreds' of allegations after Trojan Horse claims", "Guide to school Islamisation, by 'ringleader' of Trojan Horse plot", "Investigation Report: Trojan Horse Letter (The Kershaw Report)", "Banned school governor Tahir Alam fights gay equality lessons", "High court overturns lifetime bans for Trojan horse teachers", https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The-Trojan-Horse-Affair.pdf, "Michael Gove calls New York Times 'useful idiots' for Trojan horse podcast", "Islamist plot: six schools face Ofsted special measures", "Police arrest four former teaching assistants from 'Trojan Horse' school", "Trojan Horse: Ofsted probe widens to Luton and London", "Trojan Horse: Birmingham council 'accepts' Ofsted reports", "Christians lie and wives must have sex or go to hell, Trojan Horse pupils told", "Birmingham council freezes appointment of school governors following Trojan Horse probe", "Guidance on promoting British values in schools published", "PM threatens snap Ofsted inspections over 'Trojan Horse' affair", "Trojan Horse: Three schools to lose funding", "Trojan horse report: All schoolchildren to be taught British values from September, says Michael Gove", "Education and Muslims: End this Witch-Hunt of British Muslims", "Education experts voice fury over Ofsted's 'Trojan Horse' schools inquiry", "Jihadist plot to take over Birmingham schools", "Shamed head and deputy banned from teaching over SATs tests cheating", "Alleged Islamic plot to take over Birmingham schools may be hoax", "Trojan Horse affair: Midlands student behind controversial podcast", "Is the Trojan horse row just a witch hunt triggered by a hoax? [90] Nasim Awan, a governor at Springfield, said that the "first agenda item" should be to apply for Islamic assemblies at the secular school. [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". [5] Its leader, Sir Albert Bore, said that the Council accepted the Ofsted findings that schools in the city were failing pupils. 163-183. The annual sports event for boys and girls was scheduled in different days. The case against the senior leaders was discontinued, as were the remaining two cases in July 2017. [87], The report outlined instances of Islamism or Salafism found in the schools. The inspection said that "too little is done to keep students safe from the risks associated with extremist views". 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". However, she admitted that senior staff had warned her not to let pupils dance to pop or Bollywood music. [3][4][5] The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. [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'". Book Sport Policy and Politics in an Era of Austerity. The show also found evidence of unregistered Haredi Jewish schools in London, which an ex-pupil claimed were not teaching a balanced curriculum. He said "man-made" British laws were "very confusing", unlike those "given by God", which were fair. The two inquiries shared evidence, with the Kershaw inquiry deferring matters of extremism to the Clarke inquiry. Michael and Ruth Haephrati were well-educated people with He claims he was pressured to ban sex education and the teaching of non-Muslim religions, and was dismissed in 2003 after he told prospective teachers to question the governors. [19] Like Peter Clarke, Kershaw seemed unaware that all schools had a duty to promote community cohesion. They investigated schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community. [137], The academic scholar John Holmwood, who served as an expert witness in the professional misconduct case brought against the senior teachers at Park View Educational Trust, wrote a book with scholar Therese O'Toole about the Trojan Horse affair, Countering Extremism in British Schools? [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. [99], Harriet Harman, the shadow Culture Secretary, urged the Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, to protect music from being dropped from school curriculums after learning this had taken place at one of the investigated schools. [18] Birmingham City Council commissioned Ian Kershaw of Northern Education Trust in Newcastle to review the evidence. 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 [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. Neither report addressed this, nor did they report any interviews with those officials and the minutes of the meetings that took place among senior leaders at the various schools. A three-year-old in a nursery said that his family were poor because the Jews and Zionists had all the money. However, because some of the schools were academies under the responsibility of the Department for Education, the then Secretary of State, Michael Gove, commissioned a separate report by Peter Clarke, the former head of the Metropolitan police's counterterrorism command. [58] Governors at the school banned any discussions regarding sexual orientation and intimacy. 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". It said that "manipulative" governors had been determined to introduce "unacceptable" practices and to deny students a broad and balanced education. WebThe Trojan Horse is one of historys most famous tricks. 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. Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures. He noted that in Tower Hamlets, a borough in which 32 per cent of the population is Bangladeshi, the Tower Hamlets First Party, of which the Mayor was a member, had 18 councillors who were all Bangladeshi, and 17 of them were men. He said some of the witnesses had been very nervous and anxious. [72][73][74], Ofsted found that a small group of governors were "endeavouring to promote a particular and narrow faith-based ideology in what is a maintained and non-faith academy". [4], The investigation found that at Anderton Park Primary School, after a white child joined the school, a Muslim parent instructed staff: "get a white chair and white desk and put the white kid in a white corner with a white teacher and keep him away from the others. [2] They described the Trojan Horse affair as a "false narrative" spread by a hostile British press which led to "a serious miscarriage of justice" against the teachers, drawing comparisons to the Hillsborough affair. The art curriculum was altered to "remove full faces or immodest images, such as paintings by Gustav Klimt". [86], The investigation found there to be "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 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". Park View was more compliant than would be the case for other schools. 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". "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. "This is a reminder that this is a serious issue and something that is not going to be solved overnight. [9] Its intentions are clearly set out in the introduction where it states "its purpose is to promote greater understanding of the faith, religious and cultural needs of Muslim pupils and how they can be accommodated within schools. From Serial Productions and The New York Times, The Trojan Horse Although the school describes itself as "multi-faith", there are claims that the Islamic call to prayer is broadcast to the entire school. [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. He said that the overview report on the matter could trigger "some kind of bloody firestorm" and "may well lead to significant structural proposals" for the city council. 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