UK Schools Watchdog Ignores Bullying of Christian Students

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: July 30, 2015


Colin Hart, director of the Christian Institute, has said Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE) have given “inadequate attention” to the “bullying of Christian pupils”.

Quoted from the Christian Institute's press release:http://www.christian.org.uk/press-releases/anti-christian-bullying-ignored-by-ofsted/ "Official reports of Christians being derided as ‘ignorant’ and ‘liars’ as part of an anti-Christian campaign in several Birmingham schools have been ignored by Ofsted, The Christian Institute has told Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. Institute Director Colin Hart writes: “It is striking that, while the official reports by Peter Clarke and Ian Kershaw listed a number of examples of explicitly anti-Christian intolerance in several of the ‘Trojan Horse’ schools, not one of these are noted in the Ofsted reports on those schools.” The press release goes on to say: "[Hart] said: “Ofsted’s system for detecting intolerance is clearly inadequate if it is not picking up on anti-Christian sentiment. In fact, Ofsted may be part of the problem. “Whilst guidance from your department says there is no obligation on schools to promote gay marriage, there have been Ofsted inspections in several parts of the country where Ofsted inspectors have implied via questioning of pupils that they ought to accept gay marriage. We are aware of several cases of this approach being taken with primary age pupils, some as young as six. “Ofsted inspectors also seem to take a heavy-handed approach on the issue of transsexualism. In one school a girl reported that she was asked by inspectors if she knew any girls who felt ‘trapped in the wrong body’. The girl assumed inspectors were referring to her. No professional should leave a pupil with that impression.” The letter concludes by stating that Ofsted “must learn that the mistreatment of Christian pupils is a problem that deserves its attention.”