Phil Mackie · @philmackie
8th Jun 2014 from TwitLonger
#trojanhorse More on that draft EFA report which BBC news is reporting tonight
The draft document, which is 60 pages long, is marked sensitive and was compiled by the Education Funding Agency which went into the three Park View Eedcation Trust schools, Park View Academy, Golden Hillock and Nansen following the Ofsted inspections in March. The final version is due to be published tomorrow alongside the Ofsted reports into 21 schools. The Trust hopes that its strongly worded rejection will mean significant changes to the final version.
The draft version was sent out in April and was leaked to some of the newspapers at the time. It says some aspects of the curriculum at the 3 schools "are restricted to a conservative Islamic perspective". There are also examples, it says, of segregation which "could constitute less favourable treatment of girls".
It's easy to see why, after April, concern about radicalisation became the focus of Westminster attention and not the allegations of poor governance, bullying and intimidation, which had, until then been at the heart of the Trojan Horse story.
Much of the report does focus on poor governance, management and financial control. It says recruitment guidelines were broken and governors are rude to and "dismissive" of the input of female staff, no matter who, or how senior. The Trust's financial arrangements come in for much criticism for being opaque and not properly documented.
It also raises concerns about the vetting procedures for external speakers after Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman, who it says was sympathetic to Al-Qaeda and was known to "extol extremist views" including the stoning of homosexuals, spoke during an assembly.
There was not any evidence to suggest, as has been reported, that a strict Islamic dress code was being enforced. But teachers were described as "evasive' when asked if boys and girls were being deliberately segregated.
At Nansen it says the curriculum isn't balanced. At Park View it says lessons in Personal Social and Health Education, Biology and Sex and Relationship Education "had been restricted to comply with a conservative Islamic teaching". At Golden Hillock senior staff said governors had banned them from discussing sexual orientation and intimacy.
Critically, it doesn't talk about specific evidence of radicalisation or extremism.
The Trust has sent lengthy responses to each of the findings and strongly rejects the EFA report. It says that excellent exam results for both boys and girls prove it doesn't discriminate in the classroom. It denies promoting an Islamic ethos, but adds that it has to accommodate a student population which is 98% Muslim. Sheikh Shady A-Suleiman, it says, came to tell children to about positive values and urge them to study hard. It says that all the schools in the Trust engage with wider British society and schools and organisations from other parts of the city.
It's no secret that the three schools will be placed into special measures tomorrow.
There is a long list of draft recommendations in which the Trust is told to review its governance, curriculum, financial administration, as well set up a vetting procedure for external speakers. They need to do more to "encourage pupils to respect fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs".
Whether the final version changes remains to be seen