News 8th Oct 2015

“Trojan Horse” Cases: 2 Hare Court Team Commence the First NCTL Hearings

On Monday 12th October 2015 the first of the five “Trojan Horse” cases examining alleged undue religious influence in Birmingham state schools will be heard before a panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the regulatory body of the teaching profession.

The investigation began after letter was leaked to the BBC in March 2017. In it, Islam extremists claimed responsibility for installing a new headteacher at four schools in Birmingham, and highlighted 12 others in the city which would be easy targets due to large Muslim attendance and poor inspection reports. It encouraged parents to complain about the school’s leadership with false accusations of sex education, forced Christian prayer and mixed physical education, with the aim of obtaining a new leadership of Islamists. It was also encouraged to attain Acamedy status for successfully infiltrated schools, so as to have a curriculum independent of the Local Education Authority. The letter was alleged to have been written from Birmingham and sent to a contact in Bradford to expand the operation into that city

Ofsted and the Education Funding Authority in 21 schools in Birmingham said it had found evidence of an organised campaign to target certain schools by Islamists and that head teachers had been “marginalised or forced out of their jobs”

The cases will all be presented on behalf of the NCTL by members of 2 Hare Court’s Professional Discipline team: Andrew Colman, Christopher Geering, Christopher Gillespie, and James Buchanan instructed by Rachel Cooper of Nabarro LLP.


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