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What the Birmingham schools investigation can tell us about bog-standard comprehensives What the Birmingham schools probe can tell us about bog-standard comps
(35 minutes later)
When the Department for Education launches an investigation into a plot called Operation Trojan Horse, it's perhaps not immediately clear what's going on. The horse in question, it is alleged, contained Muslim extremism – brought to state schools by stealth, by governor bodies launching subtle pincer movements, to remove the kind of pesky teachers who might object to the segregation of pupils by sex, or a refusal to stick to the syllabus.When the Department for Education launches an investigation into a plot called Operation Trojan Horse, it's perhaps not immediately clear what's going on. The horse in question, it is alleged, contained Muslim extremism – brought to state schools by stealth, by governor bodies launching subtle pincer movements, to remove the kind of pesky teachers who might object to the segregation of pupils by sex, or a refusal to stick to the syllabus.
The leader of Birmingham city council, Sir Albert Bore, partly blamed academies – that's where the allegations started, he said, "and that for us was a bit of a problem because academy schools are of course accountable to the DfE, not to ourselves". Accord Coalition (a campaign for inclusive education, which spends a lot of time pointing out the unfair admissions of faith schools) directs us to "the error in 2012 of the current government in dropping the requirement for Ofsted to inspect upon school's contribution towards community cohesion". The leader of Birmingham city council, Sir Albert Bore, partly blamed academies – that's where the allegations started, he said, "and that for us was a bit of a problem because academy schools are of course accountable to the DfE, not to ourselves". Accord Coalition (a campaign for inclusive education, which spends a lot of time pointing out the unfair admissions of faith schools) directs us to "the error in 2012 of the current government in dropping the requirement for Ofsted to inspect upon school's contribution towards community cohesion".
A Telegraph reader blamed far-left radicals who are intent on taking this country in a Marxist direction; but most of those blaming the left were using that flank only instrumentally to explain how the UK had become, de facto, a Muslim country. This is broadly how I see the debate going: an explosion of anti-Islamic sentiment, countered by the argument that this is an unusual situation, which simply needs better regulation. The right-thinking liberal will find him or herself surrounded, racists on one side, faith-schoolers on the other, disagreeing to a greater or lesser degree of violence with all of them. Even though the problem is authoritarianism, and its fundamental incompatibility with the principles of learning, it's progressives who end up trapped in the rhetorical no man's land. A Telegraph reader blamed far-left radicals who are intent on taking this country in a Marxist direction; but most of those blaming the left were using that flank only instrumentally to explain how the UK had become, de facto, a Muslim country. This is broadly how I see the debate going: an explosion of anti-Islamic sentiment, countered by the argument that this is an unusual situation, which simply needs better regulation. The right-thinking liberal will find him or herself surrounded, racists on one side, faith-schoolers on the other, disagreeing to a greater or lesser degree of violence with all of them. Even though the problem is authoritarianism, and its fundamental incompatibility with the principles of learning, it's progressives who end up trapped in the rhetorical no man's land.
In 2012, I was in St Alban's Academy, a secondary school in Birmingham, making a radio documentary about the Ark chain; I spoke to a teacher there who had been forced out of her previous school in exactly one of these governing-body manoeuvres that are part of the Trojan Horse investigation, where dissent from the staff is basically bullied out. I realised, with a sinking, solipsistic spirit, that I was doing the wrong story; the Ark academy was brilliant in terms of its results (it achieved an outstanding rating from Ofsted the year before), but more to the point, in terms of how it came by them. The headmaster had been there for 20 years; he collaborated with the local authority, the emphasis was on potential combined with continuity, there was really nothing dramatic about it, except that it defied the terms we tacitly accept in the debate about education: that, in order to achieve excellence, you have to somehow game the system, make sure your intake is from this or that constituency, bring in arcane requirements that are really a test of wealth.In 2012, I was in St Alban's Academy, a secondary school in Birmingham, making a radio documentary about the Ark chain; I spoke to a teacher there who had been forced out of her previous school in exactly one of these governing-body manoeuvres that are part of the Trojan Horse investigation, where dissent from the staff is basically bullied out. I realised, with a sinking, solipsistic spirit, that I was doing the wrong story; the Ark academy was brilliant in terms of its results (it achieved an outstanding rating from Ofsted the year before), but more to the point, in terms of how it came by them. The headmaster had been there for 20 years; he collaborated with the local authority, the emphasis was on potential combined with continuity, there was really nothing dramatic about it, except that it defied the terms we tacitly accept in the debate about education: that, in order to achieve excellence, you have to somehow game the system, make sure your intake is from this or that constituency, bring in arcane requirements that are really a test of wealth.
The phrase "bog-standard comprehensive" did more than justify this government's bizarre decision to effectively excise local authorities – holders of decades of experience and expertise – from the process of providing education. It brought with it the suggestion that if you're not trying to differentiate yourself from your neighbouring school, if you're not in competition with them, trying to draw the best pupils from the local pool, to become more and more sought after, which will only boost your ability to pick the best – well, then you're bog standard. Excellence comes at a price, one that will be paid by the person whose best isn't quite good enough. It fits well the government's own narrative, where the state will provide you with so much, but after that, you make your own luck; and it moves so fast that only every now and then does an incident happen – like the radicalisation investigation – that brings it into focus.The phrase "bog-standard comprehensive" did more than justify this government's bizarre decision to effectively excise local authorities – holders of decades of experience and expertise – from the process of providing education. It brought with it the suggestion that if you're not trying to differentiate yourself from your neighbouring school, if you're not in competition with them, trying to draw the best pupils from the local pool, to become more and more sought after, which will only boost your ability to pick the best – well, then you're bog standard. Excellence comes at a price, one that will be paid by the person whose best isn't quite good enough. It fits well the government's own narrative, where the state will provide you with so much, but after that, you make your own luck; and it moves so fast that only every now and then does an incident happen – like the radicalisation investigation – that brings it into focus.
Whatever the results of the investigation, we already know there are children whose education has been criminally disrupted, sometimes by religious extremism, other times by plain incompetence, all of it traceable to the free school/academisation agenda. The education department seeks to offset these bad headlines with good ones – schools that were only satisfactory when they were council-run are now outstanding – and they will always be able to do that. Some academies will, inevitably, be really good. And this is when the wider conversation about educational policy flounders in the complexity; at exactly the point when it should make the complexity its business.Whatever the results of the investigation, we already know there are children whose education has been criminally disrupted, sometimes by religious extremism, other times by plain incompetence, all of it traceable to the free school/academisation agenda. The education department seeks to offset these bad headlines with good ones – schools that were only satisfactory when they were council-run are now outstanding – and they will always be able to do that. Some academies will, inevitably, be really good. And this is when the wider conversation about educational policy flounders in the complexity; at exactly the point when it should make the complexity its business.
Instead of rejecting the term bog standard, we should embrace it (maybe removing the word bog, which has little meaning in this context). That was the point of a community school: to set a standard that the whole community could expect, to maintain it, to share practice between one school and another, to try to ensure there weren't huge variations between establishments. Michael Gove's new radicals present this as holding excellence back by its heels but, in fact, that isn't remotely what it means.Instead of rejecting the term bog standard, we should embrace it (maybe removing the word bog, which has little meaning in this context). That was the point of a community school: to set a standard that the whole community could expect, to maintain it, to share practice between one school and another, to try to ensure there weren't huge variations between establishments. Michael Gove's new radicals present this as holding excellence back by its heels but, in fact, that isn't remotely what it means.
You don't foster achievement within your family by setting up the kids in a league table. Why not? The best one will still excel (probably… unless the toxic atmosphere drives them to cannabis). They may even get farther, with their extra confidence. The answer is, of course, self-evident – if you care about people equally, then the price of some dropping away, having had interrupted, poor or discriminatory education is simply too high. That is what we have lost, in the shape of local authorities; not the rule-bound inflexibility for which they're famed, but the familial refusal to see them divided into lucky and unlucky.You don't foster achievement within your family by setting up the kids in a league table. Why not? The best one will still excel (probably… unless the toxic atmosphere drives them to cannabis). They may even get farther, with their extra confidence. The answer is, of course, self-evident – if you care about people equally, then the price of some dropping away, having had interrupted, poor or discriminatory education is simply too high. That is what we have lost, in the shape of local authorities; not the rule-bound inflexibility for which they're famed, but the familial refusal to see them divided into lucky and unlucky.
Twitter: @zoesqwilliamsTwitter: @zoesqwilliams