Recommendations by Ian Kershaw & Eversheds
Recommendation 1
BCC should work with its schools, academies and partners to agree and establish a vision, strategic direction and policy for working together to provide high standards of education in Birmingham and which explicitly sets out BCC’s statutory responsibilities in respect of all schools, including academies and free schools (See Section 13 of the Education Act 1996). Such a strategy should:
- address governor and head teacher relationship issues;
- demonstrate how BCC complies with statutory obligations in respect of school improvement for maintained schools;
- include information sharing agreements with other stakeholders, including academy trusts, academy sponsors, and the Education Funding Agency;
- be built on soft as well as hard intelligence – not just Ofsted inspections and performance data;
- be owned by the schools’ community to maximise buy in; and
- be underpinned by a systematic gathering and analysis of relevant data and information from a range of sources in order that an accurate risk assessment can be made around each school and academy.
Critique of recommendations by Kershaw & Eversheds
Recommendation 1
Is Ian Kershaw for real? For the last seven decades the state has struggled to deliver high quality education for all. Furthermore, BCC does not have the expertise, resources or motivation to provide high standards of education, particularly to pupils from disadvantaged communities. Instead it will come up with millions and billions of excuses for poor performance and claim that it is doing better than other core cities. BCC would rather appoint a retired head teacher Thelma Probert OBE with a risible track record for attainment as a School Improvement Partner for six schools.
BCC has a culture of organisational disobedience and simply is not interested in complying with statutory requirements or enforcing the writ of the state, particularly in schools that practice religious discrimination, contrary to parliamentary legislation.
BCC does not wish to engage with parents because it does not wish to listen to them or their concerns, let alone empower them or meet their aspirations. The Education Commissioner appointed by the DfE, Sir Mike Tomlinson has met with headteachers but he is yet to meet with parents and school governors. It is highly unlikely that he will do so. Parents and the communities that Birmingham schools serve are being marginalised.
Recommendation 2
BCC must provide its senior corporate team with the support and capacity to create a climate and culture in which all staff working with schools are encouraged and supported in the process of securing good governance for all its schools. All staff should be expected to confront any malpractice by individual governors, groups of governors or a board of governors, and be
held accountable when they fail to do so.
Recommendation 2
Is Ian Kershaw for real? How exactly can staff secure good governance? How did staff at Moseley School confront the climate of fear created by Highly Respected Headteacher (HRH) Tim Boyes when Reverend Jackie Hughes - Head of School Ineffectiveness at Birmingham City Circus - backed him to the hilt? And what about malpractice by Highly Respected Headteacher (HRH) Tim Boyes such as financial mismanagement, unlawful appointment of Deputy Headteachers at Moseley School without following due process (Jobs for the Boyes), religious discrimination, consulting parents to become a foundation school school on the day of a major religious festival for many parents? What mechanisms does BCC have in place to enable concerned parents and governors to complain about dreadful performance, malpractice and unlawful practices that are contrary to parliamentary legislation?
Recommendation 3
BCC should establish a strategic position on cultural issues affecting curriculum, for example, insisting on access to the teaching of music and sports, and access to comprehensive sex and relationship education, and address existing concerns of failure to deliver the curriculum. The strategy should recognise the need for such issues to be addressed, and seek to implement a change of culture to ensure that instances of bad practice are not misinterpreted as race / faith issues. To achieve this BCC needs to have a strong understanding of the difference between issues of culture / tradition, and those of faith / race.
Recommendation 3
Is the statutory daily act of collective worship part of the curriculum? Are the statutory breaches happening in Birmingham schools because of culture / tradition / race / faith / secular state school system or organisational disobedience rooted in plain old-fashioned bigotry?
Is Ian Kershaw aware what European Human Rights Legislation has to say about the rights of parents and the legal position on SRE? Is Ian Kershaw for real or just a cowboy?
Recommendation 20
BCC, with its partners, should consider leading a debate about the requirements of secular schools to provide a daily act of collective worship in schools which must be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.”
This is one of the most ridiculous recommendations made by Ian Kershaw and Eversheds and is part of a secular agenda to undermine and downplay England's Christian roots, foundations and traditions to the detriment of people of faith and those of no faith. If the assertion is true that Birmingham City Council paid Ian Kershaw and Eversheds £500,000 for their medieval style investigation then he who pays the piper calls the tune definitely rings true.
Ian Kershaw and Eversheds should bear in mind what a discussion group in 1947 said:
Our country is not Christian either in its faith or its actions. The majority of Englishmen do not believe ... in the divinity of Christ nor do we truly love our neighbours as ourselves. On the other hand, England is not a nation of atheists. We have for the most part given up going to church. There is a great deal of ignorance about the Christian religion and much indifference...Nevertheless Christian values are woven into the fabric of English social life.
Source: Page 2 of Teaching Religion - New Updated Edition - Sixty years of religious education in England and Wales by Terence Copley.