Popular in Professional

Human Rights Law

Human Rights and Corruption: Problems and Potential of Individualising a Systemic Problem

Max Planck Institute Anne Peters

Law

A statistical approach to law school citation rankings

University of Virginia Joshua Fischman

Education

High school change

Boston College Andrew Hargreaves

Constitutional Law

What is constitutional ideology?

University of Oxford Nick Barber

Civil Procedure Law

Politics, Identity, and Class Certification on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

University of Pennsylvania Sean Farhang

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Education

The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality

University of Southern California Pedro A. Noguera

The Birmingham Book

View more insights in Professional - Education - Educational Leadership

View more figures from University of Birmingham

View the page of Colin Diamond

Read the Study

Next in Education

Still going… sometimes in the dark”: Reflections of a woman of color educator

Yolanda Abel | Johns Hopkins University

High school change

Andrew Hargreaves | Boston College

Colin Diamond discusses lessons learned in urban education leadership and policy from the Trojan Horse affair and shares informed insights into how its exposure made Birmingham’s schools (and the nation’s) better and safer.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 21, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video video outlines the speaker's experiences beginning in 2014, when they were tasked by the UK Department for Education to investigate the "Trojan Horse" affair in Birmingham, which involved allegations of extremist influence in schools. The speaker was to lead a team to assess the situation but ended up remaining in Birmingham for ten years, working with the city council and the University of Birmingham to address the deeper issues that led to the controversy.

Initially focused on the Trojan Horse inquiry, the speaker's work evolved into establishing an educational leadership academy. Through ethnographic research, they studied the dynamics between the British Pakistani community and educational authorities. They worked closely with Muslim educators to understand the situation and gathered evidence regarding governance in schools, examining issues of poor leadership and community relations.

The speaker highlights that governance problems were not new but had existed for decades before the Trojan Horse letter surfaced. The situation escalated into a national media story, prompting a series of inspections due to concerns over school governance and the performance of academy schools in Birmingham.

The speaker emphasizes the need for community engagement and a focus on improving the life chances of students, particularly from working-class backgrounds. They share success stories from various school leaders who implemented positive changes in their institutions, leveraging community engagement and partnerships to enhance educational experiences.

The overarching message is one of optimism, stressing that despite the dark events of the past, progress is being made in Birmingham's educational landscape, with many students from marginalized backgrounds now achieving success in various professional fields, including healthcare. The speaker concludes with a call to recognize and build upon this progress moving forward.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.385 --> 00:03.565
In 2014, I was working for the Department

00:03.565 --> 00:05.125
for Education in London.

00:06.005 --> 00:09.485
I had responsibility to lead a team

00:10.105 --> 00:12.525
who were responsible for quality assurance

00:13.345 --> 00:17.085
in the new academies, the new multi Acade Trust, which

00:17.805 --> 00:20.525
emerging free schools and so on.

00:22.155 --> 00:25.915
I was asked to go to Birmingham for about six weeks

00:26.615 --> 00:28.915
by the Secretary of State, Michael Gold,

00:29.295 --> 00:32.635
and one of his ministers, Lord Nash, to find out

00:32.905 --> 00:36.515
what was really going on under this sort

00:36.515 --> 00:38.515
of national media firestorm

00:38.625 --> 00:40.635
that everyone knows is Trojan Horse.

00:41.255 --> 00:44.355
Um, please find, please, please put a team together,

00:44.465 --> 00:48.155
your best advisors, find out what's going on, report back

00:48.155 --> 00:49.715
to HQ in White Hall,

00:49.775 --> 00:52.375
and that will give us an idea of how to

00:53.125 --> 00:54.655
move forward from here.

00:55.235 --> 00:58.545
So that's meant to be six weeks, 10 years on.

00:58.895 --> 01:00.745
Here we are, I'm still in Birmingham.

01:00.965 --> 01:03.065
Um, I worked for the Department

01:03.065 --> 01:06.545
of Education initially purely on Trojan Horse.

01:08.205 --> 01:11.575
That then led to my being invited to work

01:11.575 --> 01:14.535
for Birmingham City Council to try

01:14.715 --> 01:17.375
and sort out some of the issues,

01:18.585 --> 01:23.125
the real deep causal issues that led to it being possible

01:23.185 --> 01:24.765
for Trojan Wars to occur.

01:25.785 --> 01:30.605
And then in 2018, I was invited to come to University

01:30.905 --> 01:34.285
of Birmingham as what's called the Professor of practice.

01:34.545 --> 01:37.605
I'm not a career academic, to,

01:37.825 --> 01:40.885
to set up an educational leadership academy,

01:41.135 --> 01:42.285
which essentially is

01:42.305 --> 01:44.405
for leaders in Birmingham and the black country.

01:45.185 --> 01:49.885
Um, so having been pitched into the middle of the horse,

01:50.425 --> 01:54.565
when I got to university, I had time to draw breath

01:55.405 --> 01:59.705
and, and, and start to really think things through,

02:00.245 --> 02:03.145
and assemble evidence as to what, well,

02:03.145 --> 02:06.825
what had really gone on here, how did we get out of it,

02:06.895 --> 02:09.185
that that was where it all, that was my motivation

02:09.185 --> 02:12.065
to make sense of a very fast,

02:12.975 --> 02:17.185
rapidly occurring chain, chain of events in 2014 and 2015.

02:17.525 --> 02:21.075
My research, given the nature of the topic,

02:21.205 --> 02:22.755
which is highly sensitive,

02:23.255 --> 02:26.475
we are talking about relationships primarily

02:26.825 --> 02:30.875
between the British Pakistani Me community

02:31.655 --> 02:35.035
in Birmingham, not exclusively so, but mainly so,

02:35.815 --> 02:39.355
and the city educational authorities,

02:39.495 --> 02:43.515
and then ultimately the National Department for Education.

02:44.135 --> 02:49.035
Um, I needed to take an approach, which first of all,

02:50.165 --> 02:53.405
gathered evidence from a number of the actors,

02:54.285 --> 02:57.525
critically including half a dozen Muslim colleagues,

02:58.105 --> 02:59.405
school leaders, school leaders,

02:59.405 --> 03:00.925
and academics who were involved.

03:00.945 --> 03:04.485
It would be wrong for a, a white guy like me to be judge

03:04.485 --> 03:07.005
and jury about what had happened in, in, in Birmingham.

03:07.665 --> 03:09.765
Um, secondly,

03:10.425 --> 03:14.005
my specialism really is in urban leadership research

03:14.585 --> 03:15.805
in urban education.

03:15.945 --> 03:18.725
I'm a the boy from tox in Liverpool.

03:19.385 --> 03:21.085
Uh, my, my my reason

03:21.145 --> 03:23.245
for coming into the profession was all about

03:23.265 --> 03:25.205
how we can improve the life chances

03:25.465 --> 03:27.605
of working class kids in the inner cities.

03:28.065 --> 03:29.085
So I wanted to know

03:30.455 --> 03:35.025
what made those conditions possible whereby we could really

03:35.135 --> 03:38.025
improve, the situation

03:38.025 --> 03:39.785
that we find ourselves in, in Birmingham.

03:40.045 --> 03:43.625
So it, the research methodology in academic language

03:44.005 --> 03:45.385
is, is ethnographic.

03:45.735 --> 03:47.105
It's very close to the ground.

03:47.375 --> 03:50.065
However, we did have one major piece

03:50.165 --> 03:52.105
of quantitative research.

03:52.685 --> 03:56.225
We got right into the heart of the, national

03:56.735 --> 03:57.825
data base.

03:58.405 --> 04:00.545
And we, colleague of mine, Dr.

04:00.805 --> 04:02.865
Tom Perry, looked at

04:03.045 --> 04:06.065
how Birmingham children had done from 2004

04:06.125 --> 04:08.465
to 2014 when all this broke

04:08.725 --> 04:13.145
and compare, looked at them via, ethnicity, gender,

04:13.685 --> 04:17.145
social class, and so forth, how Birmingham did

04:17.215 --> 04:18.265
with the rest of the country.

04:18.725 --> 04:20.185
So it was mixed methodology.

04:20.565 --> 04:23.385
Uh, if I was marking my students on this, I'd say, yes,

04:23.415 --> 04:25.865
there's qualitative and there's quantitative.

04:26.845 --> 04:30.045
I did not attempt to work with everybody involved.

04:30.045 --> 04:31.285
That would've been impossible.

04:32.405 --> 04:34.685
Somebody asked me the other day, did I work

04:34.715 --> 04:36.005
with some colleagues

04:36.025 --> 04:38.845
who are actually barred from governance and teaching?

04:39.425 --> 04:41.765
No, I did not. I had very good reasons

04:42.025 --> 04:43.045
not to work with them.

04:43.395 --> 04:45.885
They have their own voices, they have their own channels,

04:45.885 --> 04:47.285
and it's people will have to come

04:47.285 --> 04:50.045
to their own conclusion about these events.

04:50.315 --> 04:54.995
When November 13, a letter began to circulate

04:55.105 --> 04:56.595
amongst head teachers

04:57.055 --> 04:59.155
and governors in a few of the,

04:59.425 --> 05:02.595
what I call East End downtown schools, those principally

05:02.595 --> 05:03.715
with Muslim majorities.

05:05.045 --> 05:08.105
The gist of the letter was that there was a group

05:08.105 --> 05:12.105
of activists who were successfully

05:12.975 --> 05:16.665
undermining governance and leadership in the schools.

05:16.775 --> 05:19.585
They targeted by,

05:19.695 --> 05:22.225
putting unreasonable demands on her teachers

05:22.805 --> 05:26.465
by making anonymous complaints to sted by

05:27.495 --> 05:29.825
jamming up the wor the, the wheels

05:29.825 --> 05:33.985
of governance in the schools by getting their friends

05:34.805 --> 05:35.905
to become cliques.

05:36.245 --> 05:38.145
So there was no balanced governance.

05:38.415 --> 05:39.505
That was the thrust of it.

05:39.505 --> 05:41.785
They were saying, look, we're doing this in Birmingham

05:42.045 --> 05:46.105
and we are about to, move it to Manchester and Bradford.

05:46.765 --> 05:49.425
So all of that sounds a little bit outlandish.

05:49.605 --> 05:50.945
And indeed, the letter itself,

05:51.005 --> 05:53.025
the language is somewhat theatrical.

05:54.035 --> 05:56.935
The question was, well, is this real? Were

05:57.125 --> 05:58.125
These things going on?

05:58.355 --> 06:01.085
What, what had been happening in, in Birmingham?

06:02.945 --> 06:05.405
So different reactions.

06:06.355 --> 06:09.325
What I discovered subsequently was that

06:10.985 --> 06:13.095
activities of that nature

06:14.235 --> 06:18.295
had been going on quite number 20 years in the city.

06:18.955 --> 06:21.255
And one question many head teachers asked me,

06:21.405 --> 06:23.135
many governors asked me in Birmingham,

06:23.605 --> 06:25.775
many local authority asked, staff asked,

06:26.325 --> 06:30.055
what took the department for education so long to get here?

06:30.085 --> 06:32.175
Because you had had warnings about this.

06:32.715 --> 06:34.935
One of the Birmingham heads back

06:35.095 --> 06:39.335
around 20 12 13 had been to see the minister,

06:39.445 --> 06:42.135
Lord Hill himself, and warned about the activities

06:42.135 --> 06:44.295
of certain people, and the department

06:44.605 --> 06:45.975
ignored him at that time.

06:46.195 --> 06:47.335
It was inconvenient.

06:47.875 --> 06:50.655
So many people say, well, look, the letter was a hoax.

06:50.755 --> 06:52.175
And indeed it burlesque.

06:52.195 --> 06:56.815
It was theatrical, it was designed to draw attention to it.

06:57.195 --> 07:01.495
Um, was the core, were the core facts inaccurate?

07:02.315 --> 07:06.375
No, because as Ian Kershaw, who was commissioned

07:06.375 --> 07:10.015
by Birmingham City Council, he was commissioned

07:10.085 --> 07:11.535
through Northern Education.

07:11.565 --> 07:13.655
This was the council's own investigation.

07:13.965 --> 07:15.055
They found this kind

07:15.055 --> 07:18.735
of activity had been going on in over 20 schools in the area

07:18.915 --> 07:22.175
for a long time, and sometimes with disastrous consequences

07:22.835 --> 07:25.255
for school leaders and school governance.

07:25.595 --> 07:28.295
So there was, there was truth to it.

07:28.435 --> 07:33.175
So that's, that's what surfaced late 2013,

07:33.475 --> 07:37.535
became a national media story early in 14 to Michael Gove,

07:37.835 --> 07:40.575
who has very odd views, shall we say,

07:40.705 --> 07:44.295
about Islam having published his book Celsius seven seven,

07:44.295 --> 07:48.595
when he was a journalist, this, as it were,

07:49.825 --> 07:53.435
drew attention to something he appeared to be scared of.

07:53.485 --> 07:55.595
Let's call him Islamophobic for this purpose.

07:56.215 --> 07:59.635
In other words, there was Islamic incursions

08:00.185 --> 08:02.355
into Birmingham's schools,

08:03.335 --> 08:05.355
and we'd had a, I sometimes call it

08:05.395 --> 08:06.475
a dress rehearsal for this.

08:06.645 --> 08:10.315
There had been a preschool in Darby Al Medina free school

08:10.585 --> 08:14.915
that had been undermined by its governors earlier in 2013.

08:15.055 --> 08:18.155
So, my God, it's happened in this one free school now.

08:18.155 --> 08:20.275
It looks to have been happening, burning for a long time.

08:20.575 --> 08:22.275
What's happening to my academy's policy,

08:22.415 --> 08:26.515
my free school's policy, and what do we do about it?

08:26.775 --> 08:29.235
So his response was to trigger

08:30.415 --> 08:35.275
21 snap inspections of schools in Birmingham,

08:35.785 --> 08:37.995
some of which were at the center of this, some

08:37.995 --> 08:41.275
of which never needed inspection, some of which some

08:41.275 --> 08:43.275
of the ones that should have inspected weren't inspected,

08:43.275 --> 08:45.395
but they, they captured the essence of it,

08:45.695 --> 08:49.675
and they found indeed that, governance was,

08:49.735 --> 08:51.395
was very poor in some schools.

08:51.545 --> 08:53.475
Some of these schools leadership was very poor.

08:54.755 --> 08:58.045
All, all above one of these schools were academies.

08:58.185 --> 09:01.805
So that raised big questions about academization setting up

09:01.805 --> 09:02.805
for academy trusts.

09:02.955 --> 09:05.165
Some of these schools have been asked

09:05.185 --> 09:06.565
to take over other schools.

09:06.865 --> 09:09.405
So we had a bit of a national education crisis on our hands.

09:09.765 --> 09:11.965
I was asked that question when I was in the department

09:11.965 --> 09:14.725
for education by ministers, by lawyers, by everybody.

09:15.105 --> 09:19.125
Um, the facts are that this kind

09:19.125 --> 09:21.285
of activity had been going on

09:21.385 --> 09:24.845
for 20 years beforehand in various ways.

09:26.735 --> 09:30.505
What happened with a small number of these schools was

09:30.505 --> 09:34.425
that when they became academies, this gave them license

09:35.325 --> 09:37.745
to behave more badly.

09:38.215 --> 09:41.225
That was the phrase that the late great sit in Brickhouse

09:41.225 --> 09:42.705
used about governors in Birmingham.

09:42.855 --> 09:44.905
They do behave badly, periodically,

09:45.045 --> 09:47.465
and it's the local authorities' job to keep them in line.

09:47.495 --> 09:48.585
It's the nature of it.

09:48.975 --> 09:52.225
Once they were academies responsible directly

09:52.225 --> 09:55.065
to the Secretary of State with precious little between them,

09:55.335 --> 09:56.825
they could more or less do what they wanted

09:57.165 --> 09:58.945
and did so in a number of cases.

09:59.445 --> 10:02.545
So Academization was not the root of this.

10:02.775 --> 10:05.825
However, it did permit behaviors

10:05.845 --> 10:08.105
and introduced behaviors which went

10:08.655 --> 10:10.305
much further beyond the pale.

10:10.565 --> 10:13.585
As one school leader said, who took over three

10:13.585 --> 10:14.905
of these schools at one time,

10:15.375 --> 10:17.585
they didn't just pick up the Ballers academies,

10:17.585 --> 10:18.665
they ran over the hill with it.

10:18.665 --> 10:20.185
They stole it in the book.

10:20.295 --> 10:25.065
Part two of the book is written by school leaders

10:25.565 --> 10:30.545
who were called in by the Department of Education to,

10:30.885 --> 10:33.945
deliver the improvements that were necessary

10:34.685 --> 10:35.985
in these schools.

10:36.845 --> 10:41.635
Um, some particularly stand out

10:41.845 --> 10:43.755
given your, your, your, your question.

10:44.255 --> 10:47.595
So for example, in one school that had been underperforming

10:47.655 --> 10:50.275
for many years, it was known as Golden Hillock.

10:50.975 --> 10:54.115
Uh, it became part of the Arc Academy chain.

10:54.495 --> 10:58.475
And Arc introduced a new principle called her Chan.

10:58.845 --> 11:01.515
She's written her story in the book,

11:02.135 --> 11:03.355
and I'm allowed to say this.

11:03.415 --> 11:05.675
She gives, she is, allowed me to say this.

11:06.175 --> 11:10.195
Her leadership style is a mixture, is based on her own faith

11:10.415 --> 11:14.715
as a devout Sikh colleague, mixed with the, some

11:14.715 --> 11:17.115
of my phrasing here, some of the socialist values

11:17.185 --> 11:18.675
that are part of Sikhism,

11:19.375 --> 11:21.315
and she is your consummate servant leader.

11:21.615 --> 11:25.475
She recognized instantly how let down the community felt,

11:26.015 --> 11:27.195
how stuck it felt.

11:27.695 --> 11:30.155
And she spent a huge amount of time in the first couple

11:30.155 --> 11:32.495
of years drinking tea

11:32.795 --> 11:34.615
and simply listening mainly

11:34.635 --> 11:36.735
to the mums about what are your hopes?

11:36.885 --> 11:38.415
What are your fears? What's gone wrong?

11:38.555 --> 11:40.255
How can we put it right together?

11:40.685 --> 11:44.135
That to me is harnessing, harnessing social capital.

11:44.635 --> 11:46.015
She did that brilliantly.

11:47.115 --> 11:50.085
Another example is how,

11:50.425 --> 11:54.165
the Star Academy chain led by Hamid Patel,

11:54.475 --> 11:56.845
they've established a number of schools in the city,

11:57.185 --> 12:00.805
and they, whilst they weren't running schools at the right,

12:00.825 --> 12:04.855
at a particular time, Hamid's chapter looks very,

12:04.855 --> 12:07.495
very carefully at how governance had gone wrong

12:07.755 --> 12:09.375
and how it had become run

12:09.395 --> 12:12.495
by some rather narrow single-minded cliques.

12:12.915 --> 12:15.095
And what Hamid realized was that the schools,

12:15.365 --> 12:16.695
whether they're faith schools

12:16.755 --> 12:20.335
or not faith schools in the city, to be truly successful,

12:20.565 --> 12:22.975
they need to be deeply rooted in the community.

12:23.555 --> 12:26.415
So the students at these schools, you'll find them.

12:27.035 --> 12:29.975
An example I often quote is that they, they're,

12:29.975 --> 12:34.175
they're very good at fundraising for disadvantaged members

12:34.235 --> 12:35.415
of local communities.

12:35.415 --> 12:38.935
Whether these are people with no cash, people

12:38.955 --> 12:41.295
who are homeless, they do a huge amount

12:41.295 --> 12:42.655
of work in local community.

12:43.115 --> 12:44.655
Uh, so having recognized that

12:44.715 --> 12:46.095
to shift things, you need that.

12:46.445 --> 12:50.895
Another example such will are za, he found himself invited

12:51.075 --> 12:52.735
to turn around the primary school

12:52.735 --> 12:53.975
that he'd been to as a boy.

12:54.005 --> 12:57.375
Well, what an opportunity. It'd never been rated good.

12:57.715 --> 12:59.695
It bumped along the bottom for a long time.

13:00.765 --> 13:02.335
What sad said is, look, you know,

13:02.335 --> 13:04.575
school improvement in Birmingham, it's,

13:04.605 --> 13:06.775
it's the same core ingredients

13:07.115 --> 13:10.375
as any school in the country in terms of clarity of vision

13:10.435 --> 13:14.335
and mission, investing in your staff,

13:14.395 --> 13:17.495
making sure schools are safe, safe places to learn,

13:17.645 --> 13:21.135
safe places to teach, improve the resourcing,

13:21.245 --> 13:22.695
improve the environments.

13:23.235 --> 13:26.615
Be very clear on your pedagogies, not in an ideological way,

13:26.675 --> 13:29.095
but in a way that suits your schools.

13:29.315 --> 13:31.375
One, one feature of Birmingham is there is

13:31.935 --> 13:34.915
pretty much an ideology free zone when it comes to

13:34.975 --> 13:36.075
how to teach in schools.

13:36.075 --> 13:39.435
There's so much disinformation about that around the place.

13:39.615 --> 13:43.595
So Satch said, look, it's a basic formula, but onto that,

13:43.935 --> 13:47.635
and this is the essence of being an urban school leader,

13:47.935 --> 13:50.315
you have to also provide for the students things

13:50.315 --> 13:53.555
that imagine these children were paying

13:53.615 --> 13:54.675
for a private education.

13:54.675 --> 13:57.515
Their families are paying, paying for a private education,

13:57.815 --> 14:01.235
the opportunities in the arts, the sports that is

14:01.335 --> 14:04.075
so important for them in terms of building

14:04.605 --> 14:07.675
their worldly view, their confidence and experience.

14:08.015 --> 14:11.875
So, another leader, for example, who took over three

14:11.875 --> 14:15.115
of the schools initially, he got huge emphasis on

14:15.115 --> 14:16.675
partnerships with arts organizations,

14:16.675 --> 14:17.835
sporting organizations.

14:18.215 --> 14:22.315
So you'll find pupils from his school,

14:22.855 --> 14:24.315
down at Wimbledon.

14:24.655 --> 14:26.875
Now, that would never have happened in the past.

14:27.385 --> 14:29.555
Similarly, you'll find his peoples on stage.

14:29.945 --> 14:32.475
They, they work with the Holocaust Education Trust

14:33.025 --> 14:34.435
that he was told

14:35.435 --> 14:38.665
these people very patronizing in the east end of Birmingham,

14:38.815 --> 14:40.745
they won't be interested in the Holocaust,

14:40.745 --> 14:42.345
Holocaust survivors and so on.

14:42.565 --> 14:44.385
Oh my goodness, they absolutely are.

14:44.685 --> 14:48.385
So it's about broadening out the agenda whilst digging deep

14:48.405 --> 14:50.865
social roots in the community. I think that's the

14:50.865 --> 14:51.865
Formula.

14:51.925 --> 14:55.475
I hope that by reading part one, they will

14:56.105 --> 14:59.155
gain a deeper understanding of why these events happened.

14:59.575 --> 15:02.075
Now, it did. They did happen on Birmingham City Council

15:02.205 --> 15:04.515
Watch and Birmingham lost grip

15:04.515 --> 15:07.875
of its education following the departure of sit

15:08.055 --> 15:10.875
to Timbering house and his amazing team.

15:11.295 --> 15:15.145
So understand the provenance, understand the kind

15:15.145 --> 15:17.545
of preconditions whereby for many decades,

15:18.075 --> 15:19.945
these children are talking about these British,

15:20.245 --> 15:21.625
reporting.

15:21.825 --> 15:23.305
Pakistani children, our children,

15:23.405 --> 15:25.225
our Birmingham children were left down

15:25.225 --> 15:29.105
by the education system, the performance at school.

15:29.495 --> 15:32.865
Well, the expectations were low. Aspirations were low.

15:33.305 --> 15:36.385
A lot of teachers, I afraid, you know, you,

15:36.385 --> 15:38.105
you may have heard the expression at school,

15:38.415 --> 15:40.065
what can we expect of these kids?

15:40.725 --> 15:45.545
One of the mums in Golden Hill, said, look,

15:45.825 --> 15:48.385
I don't want my daughter to turn out like me.

15:48.965 --> 15:52.065
One of the dads said, all I was offered at careers evening

15:52.605 --> 15:55.065
was be a taxi driver or cookie bats.

15:55.285 --> 15:56.625
And it sounds outrageous

15:56.895 --> 15:58.985
that these things were said, but they were said.

15:59.245 --> 16:01.625
So we have to understand that the future, you know,

16:01.765 --> 16:05.585
we were needed to harness that aspiration, not sit on it,

16:05.725 --> 16:07.825
not squash on it, and squash it.

16:07.825 --> 16:08.985
And that's what's been happening.

16:09.205 --> 16:12.305
And by the way, some of these schools involved here, some

16:12.305 --> 16:13.545
of 'em had very good results.

16:13.565 --> 16:16.865
Indeed. It would be wrong to to to miss that out.

16:16.865 --> 16:20.785
There's just other issues about them. So that's part one.

16:20.815 --> 16:25.005
Part two amazing thing is, you know, Sam,

16:25.395 --> 16:28.165
when I asked these half dozen school leaders,

16:28.165 --> 16:31.405
incredibly successful people to write about their journey,

16:31.455 --> 16:32.525
their story, I said,

16:32.525 --> 16:35.885
imagine we're in the calf in a hub wherever we are.

16:36.395 --> 16:37.765
Just tell me how you did it.

16:37.765 --> 16:39.125
And they said, you are the Colin.

16:39.125 --> 16:41.125
You're the first person to ever ask us to do that.

16:41.605 --> 16:42.725
I thought, well, that's wrong.

16:43.065 --> 16:45.565
We need to capture all the institutional

16:45.565 --> 16:47.125
memory, all of the learnings.

16:47.225 --> 16:48.885
So at the end of each chapter, in the middle,

16:49.055 --> 16:50.605
there are takeaways for school leaders.

16:50.785 --> 16:52.885
If you're walking into their jobs now, this is

16:53.065 --> 16:54.805
how they would pass on their wisdom to you.

16:55.265 --> 16:59.325
And then the third section of the book is a wider review

16:59.585 --> 17:01.405
of education policy.

17:02.235 --> 17:06.765
What really works in urban education situations, the kind

17:06.765 --> 17:08.885
of policy that I feel we need for the future.

17:09.185 --> 17:11.525
And there's some great writers in there as well.

17:12.105 --> 17:14.845
So that's it. And it ends on a very optimistic note.

17:14.845 --> 17:17.445
Basically one of my favorite schools in the city about

17:17.585 --> 17:21.485
how it's a girls school, Muslim school, 99% Muslim.

17:22.075 --> 17:26.005
Just how brilliantly they have captured,

17:26.675 --> 17:27.845
success in that school.

17:28.625 --> 17:31.965
The tremendous sense of value

17:32.705 --> 17:34.005
of love for education.

17:34.265 --> 17:35.485
And these girls who are second,

17:35.485 --> 17:38.925
third generation in Birmingham are now forming the

17:39.085 --> 17:40.245
backbone of the NHS.

17:40.355 --> 17:44.445
Everybody from doctors, dentists, physios, nurses,

17:44.635 --> 17:45.805
everybody,

17:46.185 --> 17:48.565
and many other occupations as well, of course.

17:48.905 --> 17:50.925
So, let's be positive.

17:51.065 --> 17:52.925
Uh, this was a terrible episode

17:52.925 --> 17:54.845
for Birmingham and the country.

17:55.585 --> 17:59.085
Um, but things are now moving forward. It'll take a.

Examining the Trojan Horse Controversy in Birmingham

00:00:00 - In 2014, I was working for the Department for Education in London. I had responsibility to lead a team who were responsible for quality assurance in the new academies, the new multi Acade Trust, which emerging free schools and so on. I was asked to go to Birmingham for about six weeks by the Secretary of State, Michael Gold, and one of his ministers, Lord Nash, to find out
00:00:36 - of national media firestorm that everyone knows is Trojan Horse. please find, please, please put a team together, your best advisors, find out what's going on, report back to HQ in White Hall, and that will give us an idea of how to move forward from here. So that's meant to be six weeks, 10 years on. Here we are, I'm still in Birmingham. I worked for the Department
00:01:08 - That then led to my being invited to work for Birmingham City Council to try and sort out some of the issues, the real deep causal issues that led to it being possible for Trojan Wars to occur. And then in 2018, I was invited to come to University of Birmingham as what's called the Professor of practice.
00:01:37 - to set up an educational leadership academy, which essentially is for leaders in Birmingham and the black country. so having been pitched into the middle of the horse, when I got to university, I had time to draw breath and, and, and start to really think things through, and assemble evidence as to what, well, what had really gone on here, how did we get out of it,
00:02:09 - to make sense of a very fast, rapidly occurring chain, chain of events in 2014 and 2015. My research, given the nature of the topic, which is highly sensitive, we are talking about relationships primarily between the British Pakistani Me community in Birmingham, not exclusively so, but mainly so, and the city educational authorities,
00:02:44 - I needed to take an approach, which first of all, gathered evidence from a number of the actors, critically including half a dozen Muslim colleagues, school leaders, school leaders, and academics who were involved. It would be wrong for a, a white guy like me to be judge and jury about what had happened in, in, in Birmingham. secondly,

Improving Urban Education: Challenges and Insights

00:03:14 - in urban education. I'm a the boy from tox in Liverpool. my, my my reason for coming into the profession was all about how we can improve the life chances of working class kids in the inner cities. So I wanted to know what made those conditions possible whereby we could really improve, the situation that we find ourselves in, in Birmingham. So it, the research methodology in academic language
00:03:45 - It's very close to the ground. However, we did have one major piece of quantitative research. We got right into the heart of the, national data base. And we, colleague of mine, Dr. Tom Perry, looked at how Birmingham children had done from 2004 to 2014 when all this broke and compare, looked at them via, ethnicity, gender, social class, and so forth, how Birmingham did
00:04:18 - So it was mixed methodology. if I was marking my students on this, I'd say, yes, there's qualitative and there's quantitative. I did not attempt to work with everybody involved. That would've been impossible. Somebody asked me the other day, did I work with some colleagues who are actually barred from governance and teaching? No, I did not. I had very good reasons not to work with them. They have their own voices, they have their own channels, and it's people will have to come
00:04:50 - When November 13, a letter began to circulate amongst head teachers and governors in a few of the, what I call East End downtown schools, those principally with Muslim majorities. The gist of the letter was that there was a group of activists who were successfully undermining governance and leadership in the schools. They targeted by,
00:05:22 - by making anonymous complaints to sted by jamming up the wor the, the wheels of governance in the schools by getting their friends to become cliques. So there was no balanced governance. That was the thrust of it. They were saying, look, we're doing this in Birmingham and we are about to, move it to Manchester and Bradford. So all of that sounds a little bit outlandish. And indeed, the letter itself,
00:05:54 - The question was, well, is this real? Were These things going on? What, what had been happening in, in Birmingham? So different reactions. What I discovered subsequently was that activities of that nature had been going on quite number 20 years in the city. And one question many head teachers asked me,

Delayed Response to Birmingham's Educational Crisis

00:06:23 - many local authority asked, staff asked, what took the department for education so long to get here? Because you had had warnings about this. One of the Birmingham heads back around 20 12 13 had been to see the minister, Lord Hill himself, and warned about the activities of certain people, and the department ignored him at that time. It was inconvenient. So many people say, well, look, the letter was a hoax. And indeed it burlesque.
00:06:57 - was the core, were the core facts inaccurate? No, because as Ian Kershaw, who was commissioned by Birmingham City Council, he was commissioned through Northern Education. This was the council's own investigation. They found this kind of activity had been going on in over 20 schools in the area for a long time, and sometimes with disastrous consequences
00:07:25 - So there was, there was truth to it. So that's, that's what surfaced late 2013, became a national media story early in 14 to Michael Gove, who has very odd views, shall we say, about Islam having published his book Celsius seven seven, when he was a journalist, this, as it were, drew attention to something he appeared to be scared of.
00:07:56 - In other words, there was Islamic incursions into Birmingham's schools, and we'd had a, I sometimes call it a dress rehearsal for this. There had been a preschool in Darby Al Medina free school that had been undermined by its governors earlier in 2013. So, my God, it's happened in this one free school now. It looks to have been happening, burning for a long time. What's happening to my academy's policy, my free school's policy, and what do we do about it?
00:08:30 - 21 snap inspections of schools in Birmingham, some of which were at the center of this, some of which never needed inspection, some of which some of the ones that should have inspected weren't inspected, but they, they captured the essence of it, and they found indeed that, governance was, was very poor in some schools. Some of these schools leadership was very poor. All, all above one of these schools were academies.
00:09:01 - for academy trusts. Some of these schools have been asked to take over other schools. So we had a bit of a national education crisis on our hands. I was asked that question when I was in the department for education by ministers, by lawyers, by everybody. the facts are that this kind of activity had been going on for 20 years beforehand in various ways. What happened with a small number of these schools was

Governance Challenges in Birmingham Schools

00:09:35 - to behave more badly. That was the phrase that the late great sit in Brickhouse used about governors in Birmingham. They do behave badly, periodically, and it's the local authorities' job to keep them in line. It's the nature of it. Once they were academies responsible directly to the Secretary of State with precious little between them, they could more or less do what they wanted and did so in a number of cases. So Academization was not the root of this.
00:10:05 - and introduced behaviors which went much further beyond the pale. As one school leader said, who took over three of these schools at one time, they didn't just pick up the Ballers academies, they ran over the hill with it. They stole it in the book. Part two of the book is written by school leaders who were called in by the Department of Education to, deliver the improvements that were necessary
00:10:36 - some particularly stand out given your, your, your, your question. So for example, in one school that had been underperforming for many years, it was known as Golden Hillock. it became part of the Arc Academy chain. And Arc introduced a new principle called her Chan. She's written her story in the book, and I'm allowed to say this. She gives, she is, allowed me to say this.
00:11:10 - as a devout Sikh colleague, mixed with the, some of my phrasing here, some of the socialist values that are part of Sikhism, and she is your consummate servant leader. She recognized instantly how let down the community felt, how stuck it felt. And she spent a huge amount of time in the first couple of years drinking tea and simply listening mainly to the mums about what are your hopes?
00:11:38 - How can we put it right together? That to me is harnessing, harnessing social capital. She did that brilliantly. Another example is how, the Star Academy chain led by Hamid Patel, they've established a number of schools in the city, and they, whilst they weren't running schools at the right, at a particular time, Hamid's chapter looks very, very carefully at how governance had gone wrong
00:12:09 - by some rather narrow single-minded cliques. And what Hamid realized was that the schools, whether they're faith schools or not faith schools in the city, to be truly successful, they need to be deeply rooted in the community. So the students at these schools, you'll find them. An example I often quote is that they, they're, they're very good at fundraising for disadvantaged members of local communities. Whether these are people with no cash, people

Revitalizing Education in Birmingham's Schools

00:12:41 - of work in local community. so having recognized that to shift things, you need that. Another example such will are za, he found himself invited to turn around the primary school that he'd been to as a boy. Well, what an opportunity. It'd never been rated good. It bumped along the bottom for a long time. What sad said is, look, you know, school improvement in Birmingham, it's, it's the same core ingredients as any school in the country in terms of clarity of vision
00:13:14 - making sure schools are safe, safe places to learn, safe places to teach, improve the resourcing, improve the environments. Be very clear on your pedagogies, not in an ideological way, but in a way that suits your schools. One, one feature of Birmingham is there is pretty much an ideology free zone when it comes to how to teach in schools. There's so much disinformation about that around the place. So Satch said, look, it's a basic formula, but onto that,
00:13:47 - you have to also provide for the students things that imagine these children were paying for a private education. Their families are paying, paying for a private education, the opportunities in the arts, the sports that is so important for them in terms of building their worldly view, their confidence and experience. So, another leader, for example, who took over three of the schools initially, he got huge emphasis on
00:14:16 - sporting organizations. So you'll find pupils from his school, down at Wimbledon. Now, that would never have happened in the past. Similarly, you'll find his peoples on stage. They, they work with the Holocaust Education Trust that he was told these people very patronizing in the east end of Birmingham, they won't be interested in the Holocaust, Holocaust survivors and so on. my goodness, they absolutely are. So it's about broadening out the agenda whilst digging deep
00:14:50 - Formula. I hope that by reading part one, they will gain a deeper understanding of why these events happened. Now, it did. They did happen on Birmingham City Council Watch and Birmingham lost grip of its education following the departure of sit to Timbering house and his amazing team. So understand the provenance, understand the kind of preconditions whereby for many decades, these children are talking about these British,
00:15:21 - Pakistani children, our children, our Birmingham children were left down by the education system, the performance at school. Well, the expectations were low. Aspirations were low. A lot of teachers, I afraid, you know, you, you may have heard the expression at school, what can we expect of these kids? One of the mums in Golden Hill, said, look, I don't want my daughter to turn out like me. One of the dads said, all I was offered at careers evening

Harnessing Aspiration in Urban Education

00:15:55 - And it sounds outrageous that these things were said, but they were said. So we have to understand that the future, you know, we were needed to harness that aspiration, not sit on it, not squash on it, and squash it. And that's what's been happening. And by the way, some of these schools involved here, some of 'em had very good results. Indeed. It would be wrong to to to miss that out. There's just other issues about them. So that's part one. Part two amazing thing is, you know, Sam,
00:16:28 - incredibly successful people to write about their journey, their story, I said, imagine we're in the calf in a hub wherever we are. Just tell me how you did it. And they said, you are the Colin. You're the first person to ever ask us to do that. I thought, well, that's wrong. We need to capture all the institutional memory, all of the learnings. So at the end of each chapter, in the middle, there are takeaways for school leaders. If you're walking into their jobs now, this is how they would pass on their wisdom to you. And then the third section of the book is a wider review
00:17:02 - What really works in urban education situations, the kind of policy that I feel we need for the future. And there's some great writers in there as well. So that's it. And it ends on a very optimistic note. Basically one of my favorite schools in the city about how it's a girls school, Muslim school, 99% Muslim. Just how brilliantly they have captured, success in that school. The tremendous sense of value
00:17:55 - And these girls who are second, third generation in Birmingham are now forming the backbone of the NHS. Everybody from doctors, dentists, physios, nurses, everybody, and many other occupations as well, of course. So, let's be positive. this was a terrible episode for Birmingham and the country. but things are now moving forward. It'll take a.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Faculti

Popular in Professional

Human Rights and Corruption: Problems and Potential of Individualising a Systemic Problem

A statistical approach to law school citation rankings

High school change

What is constitutional ideology?

Politics, Identity, and Class Certification on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality

The Birmingham Book

Next in Education

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Page Structure

Popular in Professional

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Accessibility Options

Contrast Adjustment

Text Size Adjustment

Text Spacing Adjustment

Line Height Adjustment

Cursor Size Adjustment

Page Structure Options

Page Structure