02 October 2017

New teacher disciplinary procedures to deal with 'Trojan Horse' attempts to infiltrate schools

The Department for Education is to reform disciplinary procedures for teachers to deal with any repeat of Birmingham’s Trojan Horse scandal.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said the Trojan Horse affair, when teachers and others attempted to introduce an “intolerant” religious ethos into Birmingham schools, was “a shocking wake-up call”.

But speaking to the Birmingham Mail, she warned that existing disciplinary procedures for teachers accused of misconduct may not be suitable for dealing with complex cases such as those seen in Trojan Horse.

A plot by hard-line Islamists to take over some Birmingham schools was revealed by the Birmingham Mail in March 2014.

An inquiry commissioned by the Government found in 2014 that Birmingham was targeted by a “co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained” campaign to introduce “an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools”.

And Government adviser Dame Louise Casey, who published a major review on community integration across Britain, warned earlier this year that similar incidents were happening elsewhere. [Birmingham Mail] Read more