Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish school blacked out bare wrists and Picasso pictures in textbooks, Ofsted inspectors find
An Orthodox Jewish school censored bare wrists and ankles in its textbooks, Ofsted inspectors found as they downgraded it to “inadequate”.
Teachers at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in Hackney, east London also redacted passages from texts including Sherlock Holmes and a historical book titled Elizabethan England.
The state school, which has been put into special measures following a damning Ofsted report, blacked out paintings by Picasso and pictures where men and women appeared together.
Inspectors said that the redactions were “detrimental to pupils’ learning” and meant they were disadvantaged compared to their peers at other schools.
The school’s safeguarding record was also criticised, as helpline numbers – meant for students seeking independent confidential advice - had been redacted from books. Sex and relationship education was also not provided by the school, and most of the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons were taught through a religious curriculum, inspectors said.
Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School, which educates girls from the ultra-Orthodox Charedi community in Stamford Hill, does not prepare pupils adequately for life in modern Britain, Ofsted found.
Staff had "systematically gone through every book to blank out any bare skin on ankles, wrists or necks", inspectors said.
After inspecting the school in March, Ofsted found that: “Governors and the principal have enforced a policy of redacting texts, which limits pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
“For example, the majority of pictures in books on major artists such as Picasso had been blanked out. Photographs portraying men and women on the same page, for instance in a crowd, had been redacted.
“Paragraphs in English comprehension passages had been redacted. Whole chapters in some texts had been stuck together.
"For instance, in a text on Elizabethan England, leaders had redacted sections relating to the queen’s supremacy and the Puritan challenge."
Theo Bibelman, the chair of governors at the school, has accused Ofsted of “downplaying” the school’s academic achievements showing a “clear disrespect” for the Orthodox Jewish community.
“This report says more about Ofsted than it does about our school. Just a few months ago the Hackney Learning Trust, judged the school to be outstanding and praised us for many of the aspects now deemed by Ofsted to be below standard,” he said.
“We were appalled at the way the Ofsted Inspectors treated our staff and students and we have made that clear to the relevant Government authorities.”
Mr Bibelman also claimed that Ofsted is pursuing a “secularist agenda” and is using “unfettered powers to force faith schools to comply with their agenda or fail”.
“It seems that unless we agree with secularist agenda of Ofsted London then we cannot comply with their inspection criteria,” he said.
“We are always striving to improve our school, and we continue to do so, but the nature of this inspection and the resulting report has led to us feeling part of a secularist plot.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/06/26/ultra-orthodox-jewish-school-redacted-bare-wrists-ankles-textbooks/
Teachers at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in Hackney, east London also redacted passages from texts including Sherlock Holmes and a historical book titled Elizabethan England.
The state school, which has been put into special measures following a damning Ofsted report, blacked out paintings by Picasso and pictures where men and women appeared together.
Inspectors said that the redactions were “detrimental to pupils’ learning” and meant they were disadvantaged compared to their peers at other schools.
The school’s safeguarding record was also criticised, as helpline numbers – meant for students seeking independent confidential advice - had been redacted from books. Sex and relationship education was also not provided by the school, and most of the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons were taught through a religious curriculum, inspectors said.
Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School, which educates girls from the ultra-Orthodox Charedi community in Stamford Hill, does not prepare pupils adequately for life in modern Britain, Ofsted found.
Staff had "systematically gone through every book to blank out any bare skin on ankles, wrists or necks", inspectors said.
After inspecting the school in March, Ofsted found that: “Governors and the principal have enforced a policy of redacting texts, which limits pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
“For example, the majority of pictures in books on major artists such as Picasso had been blanked out. Photographs portraying men and women on the same page, for instance in a crowd, had been redacted.
“Paragraphs in English comprehension passages had been redacted. Whole chapters in some texts had been stuck together.
"For instance, in a text on Elizabethan England, leaders had redacted sections relating to the queen’s supremacy and the Puritan challenge."
Theo Bibelman, the chair of governors at the school, has accused Ofsted of “downplaying” the school’s academic achievements showing a “clear disrespect” for the Orthodox Jewish community.
“This report says more about Ofsted than it does about our school. Just a few months ago the Hackney Learning Trust, judged the school to be outstanding and praised us for many of the aspects now deemed by Ofsted to be below standard,” he said.
“We were appalled at the way the Ofsted Inspectors treated our staff and students and we have made that clear to the relevant Government authorities.”
Mr Bibelman also claimed that Ofsted is pursuing a “secularist agenda” and is using “unfettered powers to force faith schools to comply with their agenda or fail”.
“It seems that unless we agree with secularist agenda of Ofsted London then we cannot comply with their inspection criteria,” he said.
“We are always striving to improve our school, and we continue to do so, but the nature of this inspection and the resulting report has led to us feeling part of a secularist plot.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/06/26/ultra-orthodox-jewish-school-redacted-bare-wrists-ankles-textbooks/
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