Please tell me that this is just the DM making up stuff as usual

[nickymanchester]

I was recently having a chat with a friend and she claimed that some schools were segregating children based on sex.

I said that, ok, they may do this for games and PE but nothing else. But she insisted that there were schools that did this in all lessons and quoted the Daily Mail as her source.

I immediately thought but later went to try and find what she was talking about. It turns out that the DM are claiming that in some Islamic schools in Birmingham that:-

One need not read far into the so-called Trojan Horse ‘conspiracy’ before coming across the name Tahir Alam. Alam was once the chairman of governors at Park View school, where Department of Education inspectors found that girls were made to sit at the back of the class.

I haven't been able to find this report so I just wondered if anybody could point me in the direction so I can see if it's true or not. I really cannot believe that in any school in this country:-

girls were made to sit at the back of the class

I've also asked this question in Education as well

I'm on the move so don't have time to research properly but I thiiiink this was a school that was placed immediately into special measures once they found out about this and other issues, and is now under different leadership.

Basically I think this did happen but not in the sense that it's being done widely or even at all, or that it's seen as acceptable. So a bit of both, to answer your question.

Here is the report on the Park View trust. It states "The Trust must ensure that any inappropriate gender segregation is eliminated."

Particular mention is made of girls being made to sit at the back or sides of the class as being uncompliant with the Equality Act.

So yes, your friend is correct that it did happen but it was not accepted as reasonable.

What Shaska said - iirc it did happen but was stopped. That's not to say it's not still going on on the quiet in a small number of faith schools.

OK, thanks everyone, it's nice to know that it was just a one off and not recently.

But even so, I'm amazed that even one school would allow this to happen.

tribpot Thanks for the link to the actual report

Well, they didn't so much 'allow' it to happen as enforce a particular style of faith-based teaching that was not compatible with their funding status. It wasn't one rogue teacher, this was policy. Bloody disgraceful.

There were students and teachers at the school who said that the allegations were incorrect- as there were at John Cass in London.

While it is completely not on, it's not so much that there was a hostile takeover or some kind of dictatorship at play I don't think- more that this was a school where many people were probably not completely against this sort of thing. I'm sure it happens a lot on a lesser scale- schools and institutions with a large majority of people with certain beliefs making an atmosphere that others might not agree with. In this case it was illegal and depending on whose story you believe quite shocking, but I don't think it needs to be feared in an 'it could happen to you' way. More that it's a complex situation that was hopefully dealt with properly and will continue to be as I'm sure it's not the only place where this sort of thing happens.

My dh did some work as a visitor in various schools including a couple in Birmingham where not he but others produced lessons/workshop/performance including dance.
They were certainly segregated for this and the girls were restricted from certain moves.
He felt it was a shame they didn't get the full advantage of the experience.
He didn't comment on their belief but thought the school could have saved their money and spent it on something more fitting for them.
They were integrated for the music side of things.

These are probably the same schools that are producing students who believe in intelligent design. Richard Dawkins featured one on a documentary he did against faith schools. I have come across a couple of Muslim students who don't believe in evolution while teaching biology at a Russell Group university.

It is not unusual for classes to be segregated. Every now and then there is experimentation on whether single sex classes do better than mixed, in subjects like English, maths, etc. it goes in cycles.

Some school like to separate students for science as they believe boys 'over power' girls voices and it makes them think science is a male space and they are less likely to do as well. I have not seen any search to suggest if it makes any difference or not.

This idiocy is what happens when the state allows schools to be run by god botherers of any persuasion. Or worse still, funds them. The main religions are patriarchal and homophobic.

This school and probably some other Muslim schools were separating girls on Sky Fairy grounds, not for the educational benefit of the girls.
They didn't even split the genders into left and right side of the classroom, but put the supposedly inferior gender at the back, further away from the teacher, because girls' education is less important.

They believed girls should be "modest" in dress and not take part in unladylike sports that might reveal they possess arms & legs.
They are not teaching about LGBT rights.

Some Muslim and Evangelican Christian fanatics running schools are teaching the creationist fairy tale as science.
Some Evangelical and also extreme Catholic schools are bombarding kids with emotional pictures of aborted foetuses and doctored videos.
They are not giving proper information about contraception or LGBT issues either.

The state should only fund secular schools and must continually check that these remain completely secular.
Parents shouldn't have to pretend to believe in virgin leprechauns, to avoid their kids having to travel a much longer distance to school. Kids shouldn't be taught by schools that the virgin leprechauns is real.