Unregistered schools (9 Viewers)

[Otis]

Just saw a shocking piece in the BBC Six o'clock news tonight.

So many unregistered schools and Offsted have been going in to schools making recommendations and nothing has been done about it. Apparently been going on now for 10 years, so successive governments.

Offsted apparently only have the powers to recommend and have none to close down.

They showed footage of an ultra orthodox Jewish school who were clearly teaching for longer than allowed by law and you can also see two boys being hit by teachers in the footage. They both seem very scared and one boy cowers away when the teacher enters the classroom. Within seconds the teacher slaps him hard.

There are also lots of Muslim schools and the conditions within the places are that of squalor. Poor hygiene and dangerous.

They uncovered a book used to teach children in a Muslim school in Birmingham which taught that homosexuals should be killed, that a wife should not deny her husband sex and that a woman who wore perfume was an adulterer.

For God's sake shut them down and shut them down now! There's the next generation of home grown terrorists in the offing right there!

There's 300 unregistered schools Offsted know about and so far they have only been able to check 150 of them.

Politicians of all parties need to be held accountable.

 

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[Ian1779]

This is the problem with the free school model - championed by Bliar's Labour as well as the Tories. No accountability, no way to measure performance. Just throw some money about and ask no questions.

 

[shmmeee]

Shut them down. They won’t because “CofE schools are oversubscribed”. It’s worth the collateral damage, shut down all non secular schools.

 

[shmmeee]

This is the problem with the free school model - championed by Bliar's Labour as well as the Tories. No accountability, no way to measure performance. Just throw some money about and ask no questions.

Kids shouldn’t be educated in old office blocks. Regardless of all the other issues around free schools.

 

[Ian1779]

Kids shouldn’t be educated in old office blocks. Regardless of all the other issues around free schools.

Totally agree - its an absolute shambles this is allowed to occur.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Just saw a shocking piece in the BBC Six o'clock news tonight.

So many unregistered schools and Offsted have been going in to schools making recommendations and nothing has been done about it. Apparently been going on now for 10 years, so successive governments.

Offsted apparently only have the powers to recommend and have none to close down.

They showed footage of an ultra orthodox Jewish school who were clearly teaching for longer than allowed by law and you can also see two boys being hit by teachers in the footage. They both seem very scared and one boy cowers away when the teacher enters the classroom. Within seconds the teacher slaps him hard.

There are also lots of Muslim schools and the conditions within the places are that of squalor. Poor hygiene and dangerous.

They uncovered a book used to teach children in a Muslim school in Birmingham which taught that homosexuals should be killed, that a wife should not deny her husband sex and that a woman who wore perfume was an adulterer.

For God's sake shut them down and shut them down now! There's the next generation of home grown terrorists in the offing right there!

There's 300 unregistered schools Offsted know about and so far they have only been able to check 150 of them.

Politicians of all parties need to be held accountable.

The ultimate power rests with the Education Secretary I believe, but education is so low in the government's priorities at the moment it will be a while before much action is taken. Free schools aren't far off this lack of scrutiny because the government is desperate for a free market approach to succeed. Any old sod can found a school and run it how s/he pleases with taxpayer support. Then when the inevitable problems arise, they're out of their depth and we end up with declining standards. The schools you refer to would at the very least be put in special measures by Ofsted were they an ordinary comprehensive. The teachers, were they registered, would be struck off.

But this is what happens when regulation is relaxed.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Shut them down. They won’t because “CofE schools are oversubscribed”. It’s worth the collateral damage, shut down all non secular schools.

Let's suppose we did that in Cov, you would close:

Ullathorne
Cardinal Newman + Wiseman
Blue Coat
Seva

That's 6-7,000 children-with increasing numbers already, where would you school them?

 

[Johnnythespider]

Yes I saw this report also, very worrying. We talk of living in a forward thinking society but these "schools" are allowed to teach this outdated nonsense unchecked. There should he an inquiry into why these Ofsted reports are simply gathering dust somewhere.

 

[Otis]

Yes I saw this report also, very worrying. We talk of living in a forward thinking society but these "schools" are allowed to teach this outdated nonsense unchecked. There should he an inquiry into why these Ofsted reports are simply gathering dust somewhere.

Exactly. As soon as one of these reports comes in urgent action should take place. Either that or give Ofsted more power. They are not even allowed to take any literature from these schools, only report upon it.

Ridiculous!

 

[Nick]

Kids shouldn’t be educated in old office blocks. Regardless of all the other issues around free schools.

There's that one in walsgrave, where do they play and do pe?

 

[CJ_covblaze]

There's that one in walsgrave, where do they play and do pe?

That’s one of mine. All the PE is done on the playground. Their attitude to sports is pretty good. They put a good proportion of the budget (higher than most other schools) towards it.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Shut them down. They won’t because “CofE schools are oversubscribed”. It’s worth the collateral damage, shut down all non secular schools.

Despite being educated at Catholic schools, I agree. No place for religiously driven education in this day and age.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Yes I saw this report also, very worrying. We talk of living in a forward thinking society but these "schools" are allowed to teach this outdated nonsense unchecked. There should he an inquiry into why these Ofsted reports are simply gathering dust somewhere.

Ofsted don't have any enforcement powers as far as I'm aware. They're an inspector but it's up to the SoS or LEA what they do with a Grade 4.

 

[Otis]

Despite being educated at Catholic schools, I agree. No place for religiously driven education in this day and age.

Typical case in point, our neighbours were devout Christians and always at church. They went to bible studies and Sunday school and taught their children at home too.

I'm sure any religious family does the same. If you are religious you teach your children at home anyway.

Why do you then need to also send your child to a Islamic school, or a Catholic school, or a CofE school?

School should just teach about what each religion stands for and of tolerance of religions.

I don't see any need for faith schools.

It's worrying in the US too, because there you have schools teaching Creationism and nowt else.

 

[Otis]

Ofsted don't have any enforcement powers as far as I'm aware. They're an inspector but it's up to the SoS or LEA what they do with a Grade 4.

Nope. No power. That is exactly what they were saying tonight. The only power they have is to inspect and be granted access to carry out their inspection.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Typical case in point, our neighbours were devout Christians and always at church. They went to bible studies and Sunday school and taught their children at home too.

I'm sure any religious family does the same. If you are religious you teach your children at home anyway.

Why do you then need to also send your child to a Islamic school, or a Catholic school, or a CofE school?

School should just teach about what each religion stands for and of tolerance of religions.

I don't see any need for faith schools.

It's worrying in the US too, because there you have schools teaching Creationism and nowt else.

In CofE schools the religious input is infrequent, barring the odd communion service or trip to the Cathedral. The schools are more about promoting a general Christian ethos than imposing Biblical doctrine on everyone. This is a little different to Catholic schools, who are entitled to make staff appointments on the basis of religion than merit, which in nearly every other sector I can think of would be illegal. This is again different to Islamic faith schools, where it's odd for a pupil or teacher not to be a Muslim.