A head teachers’ union revealed in early March that it is supporting members with a ‘variety of apparent Trojan Horse issues.’*
Head teacher Trish O’Donnell, of Clarksfield Primary School, emailed Oldham council in December, saying that she had ‘very strong reasons to believe that … a “Trojan Horse” agenda [is] being played out.’ She claimed that she had been subjected to a campaign involving ‘death threats’, ‘threats to blow up her car’, and ‘aggressive verbal abuse’.
A confidential report into the allegations says that the head teacher had even been physically attacked by one parent.
Allegations
The report refers to a parent governor, Nasim Ashraf, who hosted ‘Islamic teaching sessions’ on the school premises. He and his wife organised a parents’ petition against the head teacher and are believed to have been intimidating school staff and engaging in activities to ‘undermine the head teacher’ and ‘secure changes at the school to reflect their interpretation of Islam’. The report describes their activity as ‘extremely problematic’ in mobilising parents against the head teacher.
The council’s report concludes that these activities at Clarksfield Primary School did not constitute a Trojan Horse-style plot, because it found that Ashraf was not an extremist and was ‘not part of any wider conspiracy’. There is no suggestion that he or his wife were involved in the threats of violence. The Department for Education is also investigating the allegations, and has said that the investigation has nothing to do with extremism and ‘shouldn’t be referenced as Trojan Horse’. Nevertheless, it is reported that counter-terrorism police are investigating the claims.
A ‘senior national figure in national counter-extremism’ said there is a ‘significant problem’ of Islamist infiltration in Oldham. Other schools have hosted questionable speakers.
Since becoming head in 2006, Mrs O’Donnell has taken the school Ofsted rating from ‘needing improvement’ to ‘good’. She now feels her position is untenable because of the pressure from Muslim parents to change the school from within.
