To think Park View Academy, must be doing something right ( looking at their statistics)

[smokepole]

I have just looked at the Park View Academy's statistics and have been amazed. I expected to see appalling statistics, yet the statistics are fantastic!

92.5% of pupils English as a second language 59.8% of pupils on FSM yet achieves 75% 5 A*-C Maths and English.

There might be a problem with some religious zealots there, but clearly the school is achieving fantastic results. The school is giving its pupils an education far beyond, what the raw statistics say it should be doing.

The problems should have been dealt with in an efficient and quiet way, it should not have come to the media attention. The school deserves to be looked on as beacon of excellence for its outstanding results.

puzzled- I mentioned Al Hijrah before you did...

DP is HT of a CoE school and it is attended by children of all religions (well all the main ones) and none.

Christianity is not promoted as better.
It does not affect the curriculum
Christians are not treated differently than anyone else
they celebrate Diwali, Eid, Chinese new year etc.

I don't see why a religious school of any type should be allowed to promote anything other than understanding and tolerance of people who have every right to disagree with you.

school is for an education. not indoctrination.

NB: I personally don't care what someone wears or how often they pray, its what they are taught to think of others is the important bit.

At last two calm and sensible posts on this subject. It depresses me when threads like this one descend into cries of racism and name-calling.
We can recognise that there is racism on both sides and yet still have a sensible discussion.
I think what is needed is a review of the way schools are governed and the way that governance is monitored. From personal experience I know it's difficult to get enough governors and once you have them, to get them to go on training courses.

Well to be honest it depresses me when a Muslim poster is ganged up on and accused of all sorts just because she is Muslim.

Sometimes accusations of racism are necessary.

And yes I know Muslim is not a race. But two posters ganging up on GoshAnne saying "you Muslims do this and that" is out of order.

but both (all?) side put people in massive groups and blame people for the actions of others.

e.g. I would not want to be an American walking alone in areas of many Arabic countries even though they personally are not responsible for any American actions in Muslim countries.

for all these imagined differences, people are surprisingly similar the world over.

Well I am not putting anyone in a group.

But when I see prejudiced bullying on here I will say something.

I don't expect every single individual Catholic to apologise though

No reason why you should, gordy ... if they're not personally responsible or genuinely didn't know about it, apologies are hardly appropriate. It's good to see many Catholics condemning the abuse though, although disturbingly some have claimed that all the fuss was just an anti-Catholic plot - again, utterly incredible

Fram you're quite right, you did mention Al Hijrah before me; you said it appeared on the verge of closure, which could well happen. What I was looking forwrd to comments on, though, was the action of parents who've refused entry to the new governing body appointed to sort out the school's issues ...

the parents I have heard interviewed regarding TH all seem very defensive.

and can see why. every day there is the Bad Muslims story, Boko Haram, the secret trial (?), ISIS, TH... and so on.

if you are catholic, there isn't the same type of news coverage.

exactly Youare (Owen Paul ...there's a blast from the past!)

Rather like being a Catholic in 1534! You are the enemy

"the parents I have heard interviewed regarding TH all seem very defensive."

Many parents are defensive when their children's school goes into special measures. A complete and utter sense of disbelief is often common. Sometimes there is a complete and utter denial that a school that a parent lovingly chose for their child can be so awful.

My daughter attends a failing school and it is an awful position to be in. I expect that the parents at Nansen Primary probably feel the same way that I do. There is such a shortage of school places that its not easy to switch your child's school and even then your child may have friends at a particular school.

I suspect that good muslims don't make interesting news. Comparing your average muslim to Al Qaeka is as unreasonable as comparing the average white person to the Ku Klux Klan.

Most of the victims of the Trojan Horse Scandel have been muslim children. Children only have one childhood.

I believe its extremely likely that a very brave muslim was responsible for highlighting the Trojan Horse Scandel. Undestandably they have choosen to remain anomynous.

I can see where you're coming from, youare - but what's the answer to that? To have some sort of news blackout on stories which stand even the slightest chance of offending Muslims? It's hard to see how that would help ...

Nobody pretends our western ways are perfect; certainly there are faults but there are many good things too, though admittedly they're not helped by the few maniacs who'd prefer every Muslim to live somewhere else - even the decent ones and those who've lived here since Noah was a lad

Many of us, however, just prefer to get on with living our lives together - which is why some don't always appreciate reluctance to intergrate, don't admire the encouragement of a victim mentality and certainly don't want children to be brainwashed into a mindset which could push integration even further back

Excellent post, ReallyTired - especially the bit about the Muslim children being the real victims of all this

As you so rightly said, they only have one childhood; to me, it doesn't seem too much to ask that it should be free of all forms of extremist thought

Watch this video if you think that muslims have a monopoly on extremism in schools.

My daughter's community school has become incredibly religious.

I feel that the level of freedom that head teachers and govenors have to decide the religious character of school without discussion with parents is frightening.

I do not want fundermentalist christians running schools anymore than fundermentalist muslims.

Yes, I'm familiar with that edition of Dispatches, ReallyTired - like you, I certainly don't want Christian fundamentalism in schools either. Actually I'd prefer not to see any religious teaching (or religious influence by governors) in schools, but that's a whole other subject

Interestingly, though, I don't recall any widespread objection to the programme actually being shown, or numerous claims that it was somehow an attack on Christians themselves ...

This link is truely scary. This little boy went to the Victory School in Bath which closed in 2000.

Again, utterly appalling - and I must confess I wasn't aware of that one, Reallytired

I suppose some would say that with it being an independent school, the parents must have had a pretty good idea what they were buying into. That still doesn't make it right, though - in fact it makes it worse, to think that some would actually pay for that kind of brainwashing

we need to mix children up in schools in so far as possible. I think the States used to bus children around.

you cannot have children going to a school that is 100% white or 95% Asian because neither option prepares a child for live in the UK.

I agree the children involved are victims here: of nepotism, corruption, rampant egos, sexism etc etc.

Link here, YouAre ... apologies for it being Wiki as I know they're not always reliable, but this one seems pretty good on the whole

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation_busing

I have been thinking about this. I do think that there are parallels between Trojan horse and the child abuse scandels of the catholic/ church of england church.

The perperators of the abuse/ extremism were respected figures in their local community. Parents trusted these people and it was hard for anyone to speak out and be believed.

It took 30 years for people to speak out against abuse that happened to them as children. Even then in the early days some people were not believed and the catholic church just moved the priest to a different parish.

I feel its deeply unfair to blame Muslim families for what happened with Trojan horse. Its tantamount to blaming a child for being a victim of sexual abuse.

Rather than Daily mail style Islamophobia we need to think about how we can help these schools move forward and help the children get the childhood they deserve.

in both cases, the religious/community leaders weren't serving the poorest and most vulnerable.

really - do you think busing children around would help? I cannot see a better solution than mixing.

I find comparing these schools to child abuse to be disgusting.

I'm also still waiting for a definition of what extremism is.

the comparison is in abuse of power via religion not that a sex crime is equal to teaching racism and sexism.

to me any religion is extremist when it stops respecting that other people have different views about the right way of living.