Daily Mail
March 25, 2014
A school at the centre of an alleged takeover plot by Islamist hardliners could now face strict government sanctions following a snap Ofsted inspection.
Park View Academy in Birmingham has been condemned in recent weeks for increasing ‘Islamisation’, hosting extremist preachers during assemblies and apparently encouraging girls to cover their hair.
Yesterday it emerged that the Education Funding Agency had launched a separate probe into the school over the misuse of public funds to pay £70,000 for playground loudspeakers to summon pupils to Islamic prayers.
Whistleblowing teachers have claimed the school is in the hands of a group of extremists who infiltrated the governing body, forcing non-Muslims out and replacing them with hardliners.
Earlier this month a letter was circulated referring to a ‘Trojan Horse’ plot for Muslim extremists to take over the running of schools. The authenticity of the letter is unclear but its very existence led to a flood of allegations from staff at schools in the city.
Following the Ofsted inspection, Park View – previously rated ‘outstanding’ – will be downgraded to ‘inadequate’. This enables Ofsted to place the school, in the inner-city suburb of Alum Rock, in special measures, giving the watchdog the power to remove the governing body.
Meanwhile, according to the Sunday Telegraph, pupils at Oldknow Primary in Small Heath were led in anti-Christian chanting by a teacher in assembly.
Oldknow, which like Park View has many Muslim pupils and its own madrasa – or Islamic school – has organised at least three trips to the holy city of Mecca, subsidised from public funds, and requires all pupils to learn Arabic.
Its respected non-Muslim head-teacher, Bhupinder Kondal, recently left her post for resisting this increasingly radical agenda, according to fellow teachers. Mrs Kondal is among four of the school’s six-strong senior management team who have left in the past six months.