Head warns of 'farcical' handling of potential extremism

A school headteacher who warned the Government about potential extremism in schools before the Trojan Horse scandal has described the Department for Education's (DfE) handling of the issue as "farcical".

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Head claims government has 'dodged responsibility'

A headteacher has claimed that the government has 'dodged responsibility' over tackling extremism in schools.

It's farcical that central government can dodge responsibility when it wants to, that ministers feel that such stark warnings could be ignored and neither immediate action nor policy change needs to take place.

Because I didn't say, 'You must intervene in this way', they are letting themselves off the hook. As a headteacher without jurisdiction to make decisions about what to do next, I don't know what more I can do than lay out a clearly evidenced picture.

I went into a room (where) people acknowledged something needs to happen. The assumption it didn't because I didn't tell them what to do, is unreasonable.

– Tim Boyes, head of Queensfield School, Birmingham,

Head warns of 'farcical' handling of potential extremism

A school headteacher who warned the Government about potential extremism in schools before the Trojan Horse scandal has described the Department for Education's (DfE) handling of the issue as "farcical".

Head warns of 'farcical' handling of potential extremism. Credit: PA

An internal review found no instances of the DfE ignoring "specific warnings" of extremism in schools but it "lacked inquisitiveness" on the issue in the past.

But Tim Boyes, head of Queensfield School, Birmingham, said he met a minister and officials twice in 2010 to discuss Muslim hardliners infiltrating schools, but no action was taken.

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