The Left are at it again

I'm afraid to say that, yet again, the troublesome Left is at it again and upsetting innocent people.

This time, the rabidly Left-wing Ofsted, the government body for regulating schools, has denied a school in Market Rasen in Lincolnshire top grades.

But what did it deny the school top grades for? Is there not enough discipline in the school and the children are running riot? Are the teachers not up to their jobs in teaching the pupils properly?

No, the school's crime is that, despite it being in England, it is "too English". So it seems - rather DISTURBINGLY - English schools can now be denied top grades not because they aren't teaching pupils properly, but because they aren't "ethinically diverse" enough, even if those schools are in areas (like Market Rasen) which are themselves not very "ethnically diverse."

Rural school is denied top grade by Ofsted inspectors because it's 'too English' and not diverse enough

Report said pupils at Middle Rasen Primary School in Lincolnshire lacked 'first-hand experience' of modern British society

Said pupils should interact with 'counterparts from different backgrounds'

But parents criticised 'bizarre' decision because small town is 97% white

'Very few' at the 104-pupil school are from ethnic groups, report says

Headteacher believes comments are reaction to so-called Trojan Horse plot

By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline
19 November 2014
Daily Mail


A high-achieving rural school was denied the top rating by Ofsted after being criticised for being 'too English'.

Inspectors who visited Middle Rasen Primary School in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, penalised the school for not being multicultural enough - despite 97 per cent of the town being white.

Elsewhere, the small 104-pupil school had been highly praised in the report for its management and teaching, plus its well-behaved, courteous and enthusiastic pupils.


Look away now if you find this picture distressing!: Middle Rasen Primary School in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, has missed out on an 'outstanding' rating from Ofsted because it is 'too English'. Pictured: Headteacher Melonie Brunton (back middle) with pupils


Inspectors penalised the 104-pupil school for not being multicultural enough, despite 97 per cent of the town being white. Rather shockingly (if you're an Ofsted inspector) every pupil has English as his or her first language.

But the report said the school, situated in a picturesque small town, was graded as 'good' instead of 'outstanding' because pupils lacked 'first-hand experience of the diverse make up of modern British society'.

The inspector suggested the school works to have 'first-hand interaction with their counterparts from different backgrounds beyond the immediate locality' - but did not specify how this could happen.

The majority of pupils are white British, with 'very few' from ethnic group. Every pupil has English as his or her first language.

The report says: 'Pupils learn about different people's social and ethnic backgrounds, customs and beliefs.

'However, opportunities for them to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of modern British society by interacting at first hand with their counterparts from different cultural background beyond the immediate locality are underdeveloped.'

Pupils being given too hard or easy work, as well as insufficient opportunities for teachers to progress, were also deemed as reasons for why the school was not given the top rating.


Head Melonie Brunton (left) said Ofsted's comments were a backlash against the so-called Trojan Horse plot, while Rev Charles Patrick (right), former head of governors, said town did not have many non-white residents

After the report was published, headteacher Melonie Brunton said the school would look to develop pupils' understanding of multicultural issues.

But she suggested the Ofsted comments were a backlash from the so-called Trojan Horse scandal, in which investigations were conducted into an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to seize control of school governing boards in Birmingham.

Tory MP for Gainsborough Sir Edward Leigh also branded the decision 'political correctness gone mad'.

Meanwhile, angry parents criticised the 'bizarre decision' to 'punish the school for being too English'.

Mother-of-two Kirsty Egen, 29, said: 'I think it's ridiculous. It's a brilliant school.

'I have no doubt that if there were non-white children attending they would make sure they were accommodated and the children interacted.


Elsewhere, the small school had been highly praised in the report for its management and teaching, plus its well-behaved, courteous and enthusiastic pupils

'But they can't force people to come. Why would the school spend time on trying to teach the children how to integrate with people who aren't even there?

'I think the school has been victimised, it seems very vindictive to just mark them down for something they cannot change.'

Jodie Miller, 35, whose six-year-old daughter Dylann attends the school, added: 'I don't think this should be a reason to mark a school down.

'We are a small rural community in Lincolnshire, there just aren't many children here from different backgrounds.

'The staff can't just wander the streets forcing people to come and attend. There are only around 100 pupils in the school overall, you can't expect there to be that many from minorities in that number.

'The school does a lot to try and teach them about other cultures without there being children from other cultures there. It's bizarre to punish them for being too English.'


The town (pictured) is believed to be made up of about 97 per cent white residents, but the school was told that pupils should be more exposed to a range of different backgrounds

Part time administrator Julia Weeks, 47, who has a 10-year-old son at the school said: 'To mark a school down for something they cannot control is crackers.

'They do plenty about other cultures, they learn about them, they are all taught Spanish, it's not like the school has closed off to them.

'If there were more people from ethnic minorities around then maybe you could have a complaint, but there just aren't.'

Another parent Tina Green added: 'The school is excellent, my five-year-old son is autistic and he has come on leaps and bounds since he went there.

'It's not even like the school is entirely white. There are ethnic pupils here, it's just that not many ethnic people live around here, but that is an entirely different matter.

'There really is nothing the school could have done about that, and it doesn't seem fair not to give them an outstanding rating because of this.'


Jodie Miller, pictured with daughter Dylann, said it was 'bizarre' for Ofsted to 'punish' the school for being 'too English'


Father-of-one Benjamin Bannan, 33, added: 'Its outrageous that a British school can be punished for being too British. It just doesn't make sense at all.

'We would welcome people from different cultures with open arms I'm sure - but there just aren't any ethnic minorities around here.'



THE DEMOGRAPHIC OF MARKET RASEN, ACCORDING TO LATEST CENSUS

According to the Office for National Statistics, the latest Census from 2011 shows the demographic of the 5,417 people living in Market Rasen is chiefly White British.

Under the country of birth, the statistics show 5,165 were born in the UK. There were 90 people born in EU countries, with 29 born in Africa and 62 born in the Middle East and Asia.

There were just 30 people born in the Americas and the Caribbean, while nine were born in Oceania.

Under the category entitled 'ethnic group', 5,200 people were White British, while 23 were White Irish. There were 76 people under the category of White Other.

There were just 16 residents of mixed white and black ethnicity, with 16 of mixed white and Asian ethnicity.

There were 17 of Indian ethnicity and 19 of Chinese ethnicity. There were 22 of Black, African, Caribbean or Black British origin.

In terms of main languages spoken, there were 5,246 people who classed English as their first language.

Just 24 had another European language as their first language - including Romanian, Lithuanian, Greek, Swedish and Danish - while another 27 had their first language marked as an East Asian language.

Richard Littlejohn announces the winner of the 2014 Here We Go Looby Loo Award....

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Warped values, zealots and a school that's 'too English'


By Richard Littlejohn for the Daily Mail
21 November 2014
Daily Mail


Lyn Corderoy, the Essex primary school teacher who has taken a month of leave to go and help teach children in Ghana

Please note that from today this column will no longer be accepting any further entries for the 2014 Here We Go Looby Loo Award.

The bookmakers have advised me they are already paying out on the odds-on favourite, Essex school teacher Lyn Corderoy.

Our judges have decided unanimously that Miss Corderoy should be the recipient of this year’s prestigious trophy, in recognition of her outstanding commitment to furthering the noble cause of celebrating diversity in our education system.

Miss Corderoy has taken a month’s leave of absence from her day job, headmistress of a primary school in Wickford, to fly to Ghana to teach children there how to read.

In a newsletter to parents, the school explains that her trip will be ‘beneficial’ for the pupils she has left behind, because it will help them ‘understand, respect and learn about other cultures’.

The governors at Grange Primary maintain: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to share our school’s phonic learning skills.’

So that’s all right, then.

You might also have thought that Miss Corderoy would be better employed sharing her phonic learning skills with the children she is paid to teach in Essex.

And that if she did feel compelled to do missionary work in Africa, she could have done so during the school holidays.

After all, as I observed recently in the case of the striking teachers in Haringey, taking your children out of school during term time is a criminal offence.

In Essex, 500 parents have been fined in the past year for taking their children on holiday when they should have been in class. As one mother said: ‘How is the head teacher allowed to go away for so long during term time?’

Especially as Grange Primary has been criticised by Ofsted because its teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar is not as ‘effective’ as it should be.

Pupils achieved only a 65 per cent pass rate, compared to the national average of 74 per cent. (It would help if Lyn could spell ‘corduroy’ properly. And ‘Lynne’ come to that.)

But, then again, teaching children to read and write comes a distant second these days to ensuring that they celebrate diversity at all times.

Perhaps Miss Corderoy felt her school is ‘hideously white’, as the then director-general Greg Dyke once described the BBC, and she was consumed with guilt about not sharing her phonic learning skills with children from other races.

Even so, jetting off to Ghana seems a bit drastic, not to mention a tad patronising. Ghana’s domestic education system is, by all accounts, one of the best in Africa.

Maybe she feared that unless she made a very public demonstration of her commitment to diversity, her school might be closed down.


Pupils at Middle Rasen Primary which was denied an outstanding rating by Ofsted for being 'too white'

While Ofsted has a pretty relaxed approach to literacy standards, it comes down like a Stuka dive-bomber on any educational establishment which is considered to be an affront to our new, zealously enforced state religion.

In Lincolnshire, a high-performing school has been denied an ‘outstanding’ rating by Ofsted because it is ‘too English’.

Inspectors decided Middle Rasen Primary, in Market Rasen, was failing to do enough to ensure that pupils understand the ‘cultural diversity of modern British society’ and experience ‘first hand interaction with counterparts from different backgrounds’.

An official report said: ‘The large majority of pupils are white British. Very few are from other ethnic groups and currently no pupils speak English as an additional language.’

And that’s a bad thing?

Earlier this month, the head of Ofsted himself drew attention to the problems being caused by migrant children starting school without being able to speak English.

In some parts of the country, three-quarters of all pupils speak English as a second language.

Lincolnshire has seen a large influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, especially Poland. But somehow Market Rasen has missed out on the exciting advantages of this tidal wave of newcomers.

Jodie Miller, whose daughter attends Middle Rasen, said: ‘We are a small rural community. There just aren’t many children here from different backgrounds.’

Julia Weeks, another parent, remarked: ‘If there were more people from ethnic minorities around maybe you could have a complaint, but there just aren’t.

'To mark a school down for something it can’t control is crackers.’

Can you imagine a Muslim school being punished if it didn’t invite C of E vicars to lead prayers at morning assembly, or being forced to send children on a sleep-over at a Catholic boarding school?

It may be crackers, Julia, but it is simply a reflection of the warped mindset of the education establishment, which gives every impression of being in the advanced stages of mental illness.

Why else would they insist that children in ‘white’ rural areas are forced to go on compulsory visits to mosques, rather than going on nature rambles?

A church school in Reading was downgraded by Ofsted because it had failed to invite imams from a local mosque to lecture pupils.

Another rural primary, Payhembury in Devon, was also denied an ‘outstanding’ rating because all 68 children at the school are white.

Parents were told that they would have to pay £35 a head to send their sons and daughters on a sleep-over at a school in Isleworth, West London, where 75 per cent of pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Before the usual suspects start bouncing up and down screaming ‘racist’, let me say that I’m all in favour of children learning about other cultures.

But I abhor the element of compulsion, the demonising of those accused of not genuflecting at the altar of diversity.

When it comes to enforcement, it’s a one-way street. Can you imagine a Muslim school being punished if it didn’t invite C of E vicars to lead prayers at morning assembly, or being forced to send children on a sleep-over at a Catholic boarding school?

Of course not.

We have experienced dramatic demographic upheaval in Britain as a result of Labour’s cynical decision to encourage mass immigration, in the hope it would reap electoral reward by changing the face of the nation for ever.

But despite that, at least 85 per cent of those who live here can still be described as ‘white British’. And, outside the big cities, that’s bound to be reflected in the make-up of school classes.

Not that you’d know it from watching the BBC. Every time BBC News covers an education story, it runs footage of an inner-city classroom, where 90 per cent of children are from the ethnic minorities and almost all of the girls are wearing Muslim headscarves.

Not much diversity, there, then. At least, not if you’re part of the ‘white British’ majority.

And when they’re not banging on about race, the education police are going all out to expose ‘homophobia’ in schools.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I brought you news of a village school in Cumbria which now has six members of staff but no pupils after being branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.


Inspectors decided Middle Rasen Primary, in Market Rasen, was failing to do enough to ensure that pupils understand the ‘cultural diversity of modern British society’

Parents withdrew their children from Ravenstonedale Primary when it was put into special measures by inspectors who claimed to have uncovered ‘racist and homophobic bullying’ — which turned out to have been one child calling another ‘gay’ in the playground.

The Government, rather than telling Ofsted to grow up and stop being so preposterous, reacted by announcing it was to spend £2 million of public money investigating alleged anti-gay and anti-transgender activity in schools.

Oh, for heaven’s sake.

When I wrote about the Devon primary school being forcibly ‘twinned’ with one in West London, the headline read, only half in jest: So when will being ‘white British’ become a crime?

The idiocy and intolerance of the educational establishment is merely a symptom of the broader mentality of our rotten, perverse political class who delight in imposing their bien pensant obsessions on an unwilling public. Indoctrination always trumps education.

So skewed have their priorities become that a headmistress now thinks it is more important for her to fly to Ghana during term time to pass on her phonic learning skills to black African children than do the job she’s actually paid for — teaching children in Essex.

Here we go Looby Loo . . .