The Sunday Times – the newspaper responsible for presenting the transparently forged “Trojan horse” letter as genuine – has published an article by its political editor Tim Shipman based on a leaked report by the Education Funding Agency on the Oldknow Academy primary school in Birmingham.
Oldknow Academy has issued a point-by-point rebuttal of what they call a “vindictive and hate spreading article”. It states: “The contents of the article are wholly inaccurate, sensationalised and inflammatory and aimed at scaremongering the public.”
You can read the statement here.
Muslim teacher spoke of ‘white prostitutes’ to children in assembly
By Tim Shipman
CHILDREN as young as six were told that white women were “prostitutes” and urged to join in anti-Christian chants at a school embroiled in the Trojan Horse controversy.
A report by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) into the Oldknow Academy primary school in Birmingham, obtained by The Sunday Times, says the school is “taking on the practices of an Islamic faith school and in this regard is not promoting community cohesion”.
The document reveals that non-Muslim staff were banned from taking Friday assemblies so that pupils could be “preached at”.
Staff told inspectors “that during Friday assembly occasionally words have been used such as ‘white prostitute’ and ‘hellfire’ which they felt were inappropriate for young children”.
Despite being judged “outstanding” by Ofsted last year, the new report also concluded that the school “does not offer a balanced and broadly based curriculum” with many subjects “marginalised” from the curriculum.
The report singles out the “Arabic and maths teacher”, named on the school’s website as Asif Khan, for presiding over segregated classes with boys at the front and girls at the back. It adds: “Every girl had her head covered.”
The report says Khan “was also reported to have told a Muslim member of staff that she was not sufficiently covered up”.
The EFA, an executive agency of the Department for Education, which manages £54bn of funding to the state sector, records how the same man led two assemblies before Christmas last year. During them he made statements such as “We don’t celebrate Christmas, do we?” to which “the children were expected to reply ‘no’.”
The report said Khan “denied this [claim] when interviewed”.
The document says that Oldknow upset pupils by stopping a “summer pantomime, a Diwali production, a Christmas card design competition, Christmas parties and a Christmas tree”.
It adds that the Arabic teacher refused to shake the hand of the EFA’s female education adviser, which left her feeling “threatened”.
The report concluded that Khan’s “outward behaviour, some of his statements and alleged activities suggest he is not preparing young people for life in a multicultural, multifaith Britain”.
On another occasion, the report says the same teacher “covered his ears all the way through a music lesson, leaving pupils confused”, as a result of his strict interpretation of the Koran under which listening to musical instruments is not allowed. Music is compulsory in the national curriculum.
The report details concerns among staff that children were “put under pressure” during rehearsals for a production of the Wizard of Oz and “told their teachers that they were not allowed to sing because it was Ramadan”.
Muslim pupils no longer take part in an exchange programme with a local Catholic school, the report says, but Oldknow has run three trips to Saudi Arabia solely for Muslim pupils.
The most recent cost £50,000, of which the school paid £32,000. Staff and pupils stayed in five-star hotels and spent £800 on tips alone. The EFA document describes the trips as an “extravagant use of public funds”.
The report details how the school tried to hide the Islamist infiltration. “Staff told us they had been instructed to add Christianity to learning because of our visit” with an assembly on the story of Jesus “put on especially for our benefit”, it says.
A lawyer representing the school said it was considering a legal challenge to the inspection process.