A senior governor of a Birmingham school which was under investigation after the “Trojan Horse plot” says that they did not receive “a single complaint about extremism or radicalism” in 15 years.
Here is the open letter written by Dave Hughes who is the Director and Governor of Park View School and Trustee and Vice Chair of Park View Education Trust.
“As a Park View Trustee and Governor at Park View School for over 15 years who is a white, practising Anglican Christian, I am writing this open letter to all those people who appear to have joined in the witch hunt against the most successful school in England in in its kind of neighbourhood – one of the most deprived in England: 72% of our pupils are eligible for Free School Meals – under the pretext of concerns about extremism and threats to the education of pupils. Contrary to what Khalid Mahmood MP would have people believe we governors are not Salifists or Wahabis, in my case, not even Muslim. But really, how could we expect Mr Mahmood to have an accurate picture of what happens in governors’ meetings? He’s never attended one, nor ever even visited the school as far as I can recall.
In all my time as a Governor we have not received a single complaint about ‘extremism’ or ‘radicalism’. If we had we would have investigated it openly and thoroughly.
Up until this point the attention and support we have appreciated from Ofsted – who judged the school as outstanding in all categories 18 months ago, the Department for Education and numerous well-respected school improvement partners such as Teach First and Future Leaders has focused on how we are making a difference to our students when they come from such disadvantaged areas. In 2013 75% of pupil s gained 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths; 81% of pupils attained a grade C or above in English and 83% attained a grade C or above in Maths.
So how have we done this? As you would expect,through hard work and dedication; through attention to detail; through a relentless focus on driving up standards of teaching and ensuring that everyone who works with us and for us has the same high expectations of our pupils that we have.
Fifteen years ago when I first became a Governor the school was a much different place. Less than 20 per cent of pupils were gaining 5A*-Cs and in one year just one out of 90 pupils gained a grade C or above in Maths. Just one! Governors found that completely unacceptable and made it our business to make a concerted, sustainable change.
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Unfortunately some of those former staff members who are now sharing fictitious allegations with the media are the very same staff whose performance and expectations of pupils proved that they weren’t along for the journey. If they had shown the same enthusiasm for making sure their pupils got a good education as they have for smearing the school in the media, Park View would have been a much different place. They’re trading on their supposed ‘insider’ status and hoping that no-one can remember that far back to actually challenge their accounts.
Well, I chaired the Disciplinary Panel that recommended the dismissal of Michael White for his unprofessional behaviour as a senior teacher. At no time either during that panel, or subsequently, has he made allegations of a ‘Muslim plot’, until now.
Equally Mr Sloan, who claimed in a Sunday newspaper this weekend that he saw ‘anti-American assemblies’ in the late 1990s that were ‘mind-blowing’,made no complaints at the time and has not done so since, until now.
Mr Sloan was suspended from Park View while complaints from parents that he had referred to their children during lessons in the most derogatory terms could be investigated, not simply because (as he alleges) he made a comment about the wearing of a headscarf. He resigned before a full investigation could be conducted.
Similarly, as well as remaining anonymous, the staff complainants who allege that ‘a senior colleague’ had endorsed the views of Anwar-al-Awlaki when addressing pupils have not given any specific details of when and where this happened or named any witnesses to the allegation, which the school strongly denies.
And let’s not forget, while the school has been the subject of numerous inspections, media queries and speculation our teachers are still working hard towards this year’s GCSEs. We’re aiming high again and we’re confident that our pupils will achieve good qualifications, which will allow them to move onto sixth form or college and from there to university and work.
The school is ticking two of Michael Gove’s most important boxes – closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils and preparing them to become economically active citizens. And yet the media is full of bitter accounts from disgruntled ex-members of staff rather than the current, hard-working talented teachers who are making this possible.
I am immensely proud of what has been achieved in the past 10 years by pupils, staff, should be equally proud.
When I started as a governor here over 15 years ago no recognition was given to the fact that over 90% of the children were Muslim. In fact it was resisted sometimes in the strongest terms:
– no Halal food served
– there were no facilities or arrangements for student prayer, for those who wanted it
– girls who wanted to wear headscarves were not allowed to
– and the school refused to apply for a religious part-determination to allow its collective act of worship to be Islamic in nature.
All these things are now in place. I am immensely proud of the fact that Park View honours, respects and supports the cultural and religious background of all our children – who are still predominantly (99%) but not exclusively Muslim – while preparing them to be part of 21st century multi-cultural Britain.
Finally, the Ofsted inspections and Education Funding Agency review. I am appalled that whilst Park View governors and trustees have respected confidentiality, others clearly haven’t and alleged outcomes have been leaked to the media.
Are there areas to improve at the school? Yes of course, as there are at most schools. The governors had hoped that the report from the initial inspection would support us with these. However, I strongly suspect that is now very unlike ly. The revisit of the inspection team gave every indication of having no wish other than to condemn the school – even the outstanding features.
The vision of the Park View Education Trust is to enable the pursuit of excellence, recognition of abilities and talent, and the realisation of ambitions for all of our learners. In so doing, we aspire to break the link between demographics, deprivation and destiny. And we are achieving that in Park View Academy, and starting to in Golden Hillock and Nansen Academies. That work has been, and continues to be, seriously threatened by these specious and unfounded attacks whose impact is so socially divisive and dangerous for a settled, stable, multi-cultural Birmingham.”
