Girls been forced to sit at the back of the class

[Wannabestepfordwife]

Apologies that I can't link but has anyone else seen recent stories on the Al-Madinah school in derby.

Not only are female staff required to wear a headscarf regardless of religion and having their contracts changed to reflect this.

But female students are being forced to sit at the back of the class and have to give up their place in the dinner queue for male pupils.

Now I'm not what you would call an active feminist but I'm absolutely disgusted by this. A free and equal education for everyone regardless of sex, creed, race is one of the best things about this country IMO.

Does anyone know what powers the government have over free schools or can they basically do what they want?

Surprise surprise, the letter says nothing about forcing teachers to wear the hijab or making girls sit at the back.

No, because that isn't important. Sweatshirts, on the other hand...

They are obviously using some of the other allegations (that poor quality uniform was being sold at high prices, and that not all staff were qualified) as a smoke screen to hide the actual issues.

Is the thing about it taking 7 years to close the school true?

"it would take seven years to shut the school."
Surely tgat is utter shite

I find it worrying that the Head seems to arrogantly suggest it would take seven years to close the school. Does anyone know if that is true?

Now I get that Gove has moved fast to say this school will have its inspection brought forward. But what if there was a situation like this in a free school but the parents and the staff were all happy with what was happening? How quickly would Ofsted spot it and what powers do they hold to do something about it immediately? And in the current political climate would Gove et al want it covered up?

I think we need to divorce the fact it is a Muslim school (or apparently not a Muslim school but one which follows a Muslim ethos ) from the story and let it highlight the problem with Free Schools falling into any kind of extremist group (as opposed to religious group) operating outside the 'norms' of the country's society, but also falling outside LEA control. If it wasn't for the headscarf issue, I would hope the other issues would be caught eventually, but how quickly?

7 years presumably means if there was no external, legal reasons to shut them down, no enforced closure.
7 years is the time it would take a reception child to make it through to Y6.
Unsatisfactory schools have been closed down in less than 7 months.

Silver Is that the same for free schools do you know? They seem shrouded in so much mystery.

And what's the betting on Ofsted day they make sure the girls aren't at the back?

Not got a clue, Growlithe.
I think once you stop having national expectations and legal backup to ensure the basics of what constitutes a civilised society, then there is too much scope for customisation.

This school is painting itself as a 'pioneering school'. But it has been opened within a new (and as yet unproven) system. An environment has been created for this sort of thing to happen.

All at the time when we've been bitten on the bum and supposedly learned our lesson regarding the deregulation of the banking system. But this is worse because it's even more directly affecting people's lives.

I think it would be very interesting to see the percentage of pupils who are non-Muslim.

Many of the comments I have heard and read about (not on this thread) the school seem to be that parents know what they are getting when they send a child there, and that most parents who chose it will be more traditional anyway. At the very least, School should be an impartial safe haven for these girls, not somewhere else for them to be treated as second class.

I hope parents vote with their feet.

Exactly Growlithe.

They are obviously using some of the other allegations (that poor quality uniform was being sold at high prices, and that not all staff were qualified) as a smoke screen to hide the actual issues.

yes - and also the parts about rumours of the school closing or charging - from one of the links to the local paper there's a piece by the editor who points out that they never mentioned such things.

'Al-Madinah has prioritised learning and teaching' well whoopee doo, its a school FFS what else should it prioritise? Except there seems to be some question about what it is prioritising to teach.

Growlithe, I am no fan of faith schools, but it's important to remember that this school is in contravention of legislation (specifically The Equalty Act 2010) they are not exempt from it, so have not been 'deregulated' in that sense.

I do agree with your point as a wider issue, though.

I hear you there tethersend, and I know no Free School will be above the actual law. I also recognise that they would have been inspected eventually and hopefully the issues would have been picked up then.

Just wondering, because I don't know enough about free schools (who does?), how long it would actually take for the issues to be picked up if noone was actually complaining - i.e. if all the parents, staff and governing body were all in agreement? How soon would Ofsted have inspected and what would the next steps have been?

This head's statement about how it would take seven years to close them down got to me - because he sounds so very sure of himself.

This is all disgusting, and, I would imagine, against the law (Equalities act)

I do hope that not all free schools get tarred with the same brush though. There are a couple of free schools being set up specifically with children with ASD and related SEN which will cater to their needs. It would be a great shame if they had to go back into the more usual education system, given that mainstream is 'best for everyone' and the children being catered for in these new free schools might be in jeopardy.

I hope that it would be possible to get rid of schools which break the law without also getting rid of free schools which have been set up to help children who are set up to fail by our present educational set up

I'm sure there are some excellent free schools which will stay that way. What's needed is (a) sufficient scrutiny and (b) means of addressing problems if they arise - which good schools shouldn't have any problem with.

I still can't get around being a parent and still thinking your daughter is inferior. I thought your job as a parent is to give your child the best start you possibly can

I still can't get around being a parent and still thinking your daughter is inferior. I thought your job as a parent is to give your child the best start you possibly can

Unfortunately, it happens - there are many misogynistic cultures. China and India (to name but two non-Islamic examples) have skewed sex ratios because parents don't even think a girl is worth having.

All the more reason to vigorously challenge sexism here!

CC, I can't see any free school set up to meet the needs of children on the spectrum crossing the lines of discrimination either on racial or gender grounds, and I'm sure they'd be open to inspection without question.

I'm local to this story, it's been in our news for several weeks now, the teachers have been vital in bringing this all to light to the wider community and protesting it. They seem to be working quite hard to return the school to the promises that were made when it was given the original okay - it was to be a school with Muslim ethos (like other community schools with Christian ethos) that gave optional extra Islamic teaching in an area that needed more school places that also has a high Muslim population. It seems to be changes from an administration level that people are trying to fight rather than other teachers or families, it's been portrayed as very top-down with little discussion (as is obvious in that letter they wrote).

As it is a free school, it could be worth pushing a campaign towards MPs/Gove towards the issue of how to handle free school administration that change things so much after getting cleared. The process is obviously flawed.

Thanks for that Spork. So it would appear that there is an issue and people (Muslim and non-Muslim) are dealing with it. Good.

FFS, people talking about nationwide veil bans, do you know what life is like for Muslim women in France?

Do you not realise the third most popular party there is the National Front? Did you not hear about a pregnant Muslim being physically attacked and suffering a miscarriage?

Do you realise that every time there is one of these "debates" about Muslims, (which tend to feature Muslim women being spoken about rather then spoken to), attacks on Muslims, particularly Muslim women increase?

Too much tolerance? When this year has seen this many attacks on mosques in the UK:
maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209838309277789756669.0004ddefdf328805d9d8d&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=52.683043,-2.614746&spn=6.396147,14.0625&z=6&source=embed

The people who indulge in this "The Moozlims have too much freedom" rhetoric every time there is a negative story about Muslims in the media are part of the problem, not any kind of solution.

Spork - yes - it seems like the sort of issue that needs a well thought out petition and letters to MPs. It probably needs someone knowledgeable about current legislation and the education system to get it right though.

Moozlims????

GoshAnne - excellent post.