Britain’s Christian Institute has criticised the government’s school inspectorate, Ofsted, for having ‘twisted priorities’ after it closed a Christian school for ‘discriminatory views’.
Established just 18 months ago on Christian principles, Durham Free was ordered to close following a damning Ofsted report. In part that report was based on the answers given by pupils to inspectors on a range of questions around other faiths. Inspectors reported that some children displayed “discriminatory views” of people of other faiths, while school governors were criticised for prioritising the “religious credentials” of candidates for teaching posts.
Ofsted, meanwhile, placed a second scool near Durham Free, Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland into what is termed ‘special measures’ after inspectors were reportedly unhappy with the answers received from 10-year-olds on questions about lesbians. Staff at Grindon Hall expressed shock at the judgement handed down by Ofsted as their school had been seen to be otherwise performing well. Principal Chris Gray accused Ofsted of a “hostile and negative” examination.
“It is now well known that the manner in which inspectors questioned our pupils was hostile, inappropriate and raises serious safeguarding issues,” he said. “Ofsted’s approach to us was negative at every stage, as if the data collected had to fit a predetermined outcome.”
According to Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute, the judgements against both schools demonstrated the skewed thinking now governing Ofsted’s work as it seeks to meet Government aims against extremism in schools in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal in Birmingham which saw Muslim faith schools infiltrated by fundamentalists.
“The Government’s British values regime is twisting Ofsted’s priorities out of all proportion,” Calvert charged. “Inspectors are asking all kinds of invasive questions and then issuing reports that the parents whose children attend the school don’t recognise.’
Durham Free is expected to close this Easter following a government announcement that its funding is to end, a decision based on the Ofsted report.