In 2014, the Trojan Horse affair rocked Birmingham. It cast a long shadow over the city’s schools which reverberates in 2022. Earlier this year, a podcast about Trojan Horse produced by two journalists for the New York Times attracted global audiences. It was a whodunnit seeking to nail the source of the original letter which was the catalyst leading to 21 Ofsted inspections, Department for Education intervention, wholesale changes at Birmingham City Council and the introduction of national legislation on safeguarding in 2015 (see timeline, below).
The anonymous Trojan Horse letter described how schools in Birmingham with Muslim majority populations could be infiltrated by governors sympathetic to an Islamic, socially conservative form of education. Once installed, they would target the head teacher and bombard Ofsted with complaints about the performance of the school. The letter stated that such tactics had been successful in the east end of Birmingham and could be used in other English cities with large Muslim populations.
Contrasting narratives
Trojan Horse divides the room. For some, the letter was a hoax and on Michael Gove’s watch as Secretary of State for Education it was used to whip up an Islamophobic witch hunt. For others, the letter exposed activities that had been going on for decades in Birmingham’s schools and they asked why it had taken so long for anyone to pay attention. There are elements of truth in both interpretations.
In July 2014, the leader of Birmingham City Council, Sir Albert Bore, apologised for not having acted earlier. He stated that the council shied away from tackling the problem due to a misguided fear of being accused of racism. Sir Albert, like many councillors and head teachers, knew there was substance to the core narrative of the Trojan Horse letter.
Fortunately, all such “entryism” behaviour ceased in 2014 once it had been exposed and the key propagators departed from school governance.
Outside the school gates there was a re-emergence of attacks on school leaders in 2019 in the name of disagreeing with the mandatory introduction of health, relationships and sex education in primary schools. However, inside schools, the stable door had been bolted.
Lessons to learn
What was the impact of the Trojan Horse affair on the children and young people in the east end of the city? How did it affect their attainment? Did they become safer at school? What lessons have been learned and what positives have emerged from this painful episode?
When I wrote and edited The Birmingham Book: Lessons in urban education leadership and policy from the Trojan Horse affair all of the contributors agreed that we must draw out the lessons for those serving complex multi-ethnic, multi-faith inner-city communities characterised by high levels of socio-economic deprivation. Here are some of the top lines.
SAFEGUARDING
A group of pupils at Park View school asked their new head teacher in autumn term 2014: “Why didn’t anyone ask us how we were feeling or what we thought about things?” They had been caught in the crossfire of Ofsted inspections and national media attention while their parents were utterly confused by events in what had been judged to be an “outstanding” school previously.
That conversation led to a fundamental re-think about what safeguarding meant. The conventional child protection channels were not sufficient to address the deeper questions that these young people had about their identity and place in society. The Prevent Duty was all about compliance and referring on concerns rather than improving things in school and didn’t add value.
Birmingham City Council adopted the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools Award as the vehicle to address the issue. Founded in the Children’s Rights Charter, it is now used in more than 200 Birmingham schools to enable pupils to discuss those deep questions and talk about the balance between rights and responsibilities in their lives. From nursery schools to sixth forms, the Rights Respecting Schools Award is an unalloyed success.
RADICALISATION
The influence of social media with young people spending more time with smartphones, particularly during the pandemic, has resulted in “online being the front line” for radicalisation. Trojan Horse was never about pupils being radicalised at school and tilted towards violent extremism.
In the wider community, there are now specialist council, Ofsted and police teams who constantly assess the risk of families being radicalised. The bigger risks lie outside state schools in the unregulated sector where children are together, including madrassas. The government is yet to grasp the nettle and introduce some form of regulation.
COMMUNITY ROOTS
All school leaders who wrote about their improvement journeys in the book have emphasised the importance of digging deep into the community so that there is strong trust between families and teachers.
There will inevitably be dissonance at times. What’s taught at school won’t always sit easy with cultural or religious values at home. When those difficult conversations are needed, they are likely to have a positive outcome if families feel listened to and understood. Azita Zohhadi’s leadership at Nelson Mandela school exemplifies the importance of building trust. Sir Mufti Hamid Patel’s Star Academies schools in the city go the extra mile every week to reach out into the community and help the disadvantaged.
PUPIL ATTAINMENT
Analysis of a decade of performance in Birmingham’s schools including the Trojan Horse episode revealed stark inequalities. Overwhelmingly, the biggest factor associated with poor outcomes at school is socio-economic disadvantage. That includes all of the Trojan Horse schools.
However, the picture becomes more complex when you look at the performance of ethnic groups. British Pakistani pupils had begun to show progress against national norms from a low baseline. Of greatest concern and going unnoticed, the black communities, both Afro-Caribbean and African, were flatlining from Key Stage 1 to sixth form.
Birmingham’s inner-city schools, including those at the centre of the Trojan Horse affair, have improved outcomes since 2014 but there is no silver bullet or short-term, drop-down curriculum magic here as the Department for Education would have us believe. The best schools have adopted a wide range of teaching and learning strategies. Some, like Harper Bell Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, have produced curriculum materials that really engage with the predominantly black pupils’ culture and history with powerful results.
GOVERNANCE
Trojan Horse, at its heart, was a failure of school governance at local level which was not challenged by the local authority over the years. Then academisation was used by some governors to pursue their own ends in a way that was way beyond conventional English education norms.
Changes were brought in immediately by the local authority to improve the quality of governance and restrict the number of governorships that individuals could hold. At national level, similar protocols were introduced for academies and free schools. The fragmented academy landscape now makes it harder to keep an overview of governance in all communities.
In conclusion, Trojan Horse was a painful and damaging episode. However, there are positives that emerged and children are now better educated and safer as a result. The lessons are there for everyone including those working in schools through to policy makers in Whitehall. A “one size fits all” national approach patently doesn’t work. Place and community are critically important in shaping our schools’ curriculum.
-
Colin Diamond is professor of educational leadership at the University of Birmingham and the author of The Birmingham Book: Lessons in urban education leadership and policy from the Trojan Horse affair by Crown House Publishing crownhouse.co.uk/the-birmingham-book
Timeline the Trojan Horse affair
November 2013
- Trojan Horse letter sent to the leader of Birmingham City Council, with reports the following February of the letter being sent to 14 schools in the city
March 2014
- First major media reports of the letter. Ofsted mobilised to undertake 21 inspections by Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove
April 2014
- Outstanding academy Park View judged to require special measures by Ofsted, plus three more academies and one maintained school.
- DfE investigates and commissions former Met Police head of counter-terrorism Peter Clarke to investigate
- Birmingham City Council appoints Northern Education Associates (led by Ian Kershaw) to conduct its own investigation into what happened
- Sir Bob Kerslake commissioned to undertake independent review of the governance and organisational capabilities of the council
July 2014
- Clarke and Kershaw report their findings. There are many parallels Park View Educational Trust members resign
August 2014
- Sir Mike Tomlinson appointed as education commissioner for Birmingham. Colin Diamond is appointed as his deputy. Birmingham City Council in formal DfE intervention
January 2015
- Birmingham City Council’s improvement plan approved by the Education Secretary
August 2016
- DfE intervention ends and the education commissioner is stood down. Trojan Horse activity had ceased following the implementation of the improvement plan and national changes to the governance of academies and free schools made by the DfE
