Head of Ofsted reveals she faces 'personal attacks' from 'extremists' trying to intimidate the watchdog over crackdown on illegal Muslim schools

The head of Ofsted says she faces personal attacks as extremists try to intimidate the watchdog over a crackdown on illegal Muslim schools. Chief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman received an email saying: ‘We know where you live and we can get you any time we want to,’ after a court case against an Islamic school that separated girls and boys.

Her home address has had to be removed from the internet , while inspectors in one of Ofsted’s regional offices have been sent extreme Islamic literature and forced to take security measures as they are targeted by extremists. Mrs Spielman said that confronting unregistered faith schools has been the toughest part of her role, which she took on in January this year. Investigating illegal schools, inspectors found some children had not been taught English and teachers had told them British values were ‘meaningless’, she told The Times.

In one incident at an unregistered East London Islamic school, Ofsted inspectors were called ‘Britain First paedophiles’ before being accused of performing sex acts in order to get their jobs. A head teacher at another faith school phoned parents during an Ofsted visit to say inspectors were asking the children if they were gay. The head then asked whether the inspection should proceed after telling inspectors that angry parents were lining up outside the school.

Mrs Spielman has now called for a change in the law that requires children to be registered if they are home schooled or attend an independent faith school. She said: ‘I’m not easily bruised. I don’t fall over when I see a load of nasty tweets pointed at me but there has been some pretty venomous stuff.’

It comes after Mrs Spielman warned earlier this week that in some cases, Islamic faith schools were still indoctrinating children with an extreme, narrow view of society. Some allow youngsters to view material that encourages domestic violence and the ‘subjugation of women’, or deny the existence of gay people, she warned.

And last month, books that claim Hell is mostly full of women because they are ‘ungrateful to their husbands’ were found in Islamic schools.

Two months ago, Mrs Spielman also went to court to successfully defend the move to place the Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham into special measures for segregating boys and girls from the age of nine.

Ofsted said: ‘Amanda Spielman is determined to root out unregistered schools wherever they may be operating. Illegal schools pose a real a risk to pupils’ safety and leaves them vulnerable to radicalisation.

‘That is why, where we find them, we do everything possible to make sure they are closed and that the children are quickly transferred to registered schools.’



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5185287/Head-Ofsted-reveals-faces-attacks-extremists.html#ixzz51OZOgIiB
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook