BNP teachers will not be banned

Mr Balls said he wanted to know if the current situation struck "the right balance between allowing independent schools autonomy, operating in accordance with their ethos and values, and protecting the young people attending those schools from teachers displaying racist or intolerant views or behaviours that could be harmful".

He said there was "no place for racism in our schools" but that the report made it clear that incidences of teachers promoting racism were "extremely rare".

Mr Balls said last year he wanted this review to see if there were sufficient powers available "to keep racism and BNP activity out of schools".

British National Party leader Nick Griffin said at the time his members were victims of "political oppression".

Racist remarks

The NASUWT union, which has campaigned to have BNP members banned from schools, said it was disappointed by the review's findings.

General secretary Chris Keates said the report was "an opportunity that's been missed" to bring teachers into line with police and prison officers.

"The idea that a person who signs up to membership of the BNP can simply leave these beliefs at the school gate and behave as a 'professional' when they walk into school is risible, " said Ms Keates.

"The report is woefully inadequate and littered with contradictions."

She said too much attention was paid to the number of incidents in schools, saying "one incident is one too many".

Only six incidences of BNP membership by members of the teaching profession or governors were brought to the attention of the Department for Children, Schools and Families in six years, the report said.

It also found only nine incidents where teachers making racist remarks or holding racist materials had been referred to the General Teaching Council for England.

But the Association of School and College Leaders welcomed the findings.

Its general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "Of course people with racist views should not be working with young people in schools. However, it is much less clear that there should be a blanket regulation on the issue.

"The aim should be genuinely to challenge young people to think for themselves and to form their own opinions rather than to promote a particular ideology."

The review into independent schools will report in September.

BBC NEWS

Parents' anger after class of seven-year-olds is shown 'graphic sex cartoon' at school

Students have reportedly been mimicking the actions from the video in the classroom

A mother has taken her seven-year-old daughter out of school after she was made to watch a cartoon showing a couple chasing each other around a bed and having sex.

Seven and eight-year-old pupils watched the controversial Channel 4 sex education DVD, Living and Growing, during a lesson at their village primary school.

The DVD shows the cartoon sex while a voice-over describes it as 'exciting'.

Lisa Bullivant, from Legbourne, Lincolnshire, was so upset by the 'graphic' content that she has taken her daughter out of East Wold Primary School and placed her with another school.

Mrs Bullivant said: 'The cartoon was very graphic. My daughter was frightened and children have unfortunately been copying what they have seen.

'Parents should have been given the decision of whether the video should have been shown or not.

'Seven to nine-year-olds should not possess this knowledge. There is no educational or psychological benefit or need to for children of this age to have full knowledge of what sexual intercourse actually entails.'

The school sent parents a letter saying they could view the film before it was shown to pupils, but Mrs Bullivant and some other mothers and fathers were unable to attend the screening.

She said: 'We had no reason to think we needed to see it. You never think in a million years that would be taught to seven-year-olds.

'We had faith in the headteacher and the school that all they would be learning would be basic puberty. It should have said in the letter children would learn how to have sexual intercourse.'

Mrs Bullivant says the school should have followed the Government's Learning and Skills Act 2000 which states when sex education is given to pupils 'they are protected from teaching and materials which are inappropriate having regard to the age'.

She has complained to the headteacher Lesley Thornes and the school's governors about the decision to show the DVD, and has requested a meeting with the director of education at Lincolnshire county council.

Mail Online

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Hilarious School Answering Machine - Watch more Funny Videos

Union threat to ban BNP school governors

A TEACHING union is threatening to take Stoke-on-Trent City Council to court unless it bans BNP councillors from serving as school governors.

The NASUWT says the move would help protect children and school staff from the far-right party's "pernicious agenda for hatred and discrimination".

Now it has written to all local education authorities, including Stoke-on-Trent, to urge them to review whether they are complying with the Race Relations Act.

The union says it is "fully prepared to file for judicial review" if councils do not offer "appropriate advice or take appropriate action" to stop BNP members being appointed as governors.

There are already six BNP councillors in the Potteries who sit on governing bodies and they could be forced to step down if any legal action is successful. All of them were appointed by the council.

Today, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, told The Sentinel: "We will be looking very carefully at the governing bodies in Stoke-on-Trent."

She said the campaign to prevent party members becoming governors was triggered by an East Midlands case, where a BNP councillor could become vice-chairman of governors at a primary school.

But she added: "Stoke-on-Trent is a deep concern to the NASUWT, because of the number of BNP councillors."

The union represents thousands of classroom teachers across the city, although it's not clear how many members work in schools which have BNP governors.

The BNP today branded the NASUWT's stance as discrimination and vowed to fight any attempt to introduce a ban.

Alby Walker, BNP group leader on the city council, said: "The teaching union would be best keeping out of politics. They are trying to politicise the role of school governors.

"My councillors all do a good job as school governors. They do it because they want the best for the children."

In a statement, the city council said: "All city councillors are democratically elected and their nomination and election to panels and committees follow due council process.

"All city councillors are required to sign up to the members' code of conduct, under which they undertake to do nothing in their official capacity which will cause the council to breach the equality laws."

The Sentinel


THE END OF DEMOCRACY

It comes as no surprise to me that it is a teachers' union that is opposing the rights of BNP members from acting as school governors.

This is a group who have peddled left wing anti-establishment propaganda for years, long before the BNP was formed. If they are able to use legal means from stopping democratically elected people from office the end of democracy is in sight.

A recent report in the press said that three quarters of the teaching profession believed teaching patriotism was brainwashing our children.

I have no doubt that some smart Alec will come up with Samuel Johnson's quote that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". I believe that he was referring to politicians – or maybe even teachers.

If they believe that, I challenge them to meet the families of our soldiers coming home in Union Flag draped coffins and tell them they are scoundrels.

A few years later Johnson also said: "A man thinks meanly of himself for not being a soldier or been at sea," a change of heart maybe.

Our rights are being whittled away day by day by officialdom. Some members of all the other main political parties say the BNP should be banned, that meetings should be boycotted and disrupted. I have never heard a member of the BNP say that of other parties, on the contrary, they want open debate with all parties.

Are the others afraid they might lose the argument?

Fascism can come from either extreme of the political spectrum. Hitler banned any party that opposed him and had the dissenters imprisoned and in many cases executed. Stalin did the same in Russia but these men had ideas that were politically opposite.

Today's politics is based on lies and deceit but they don't call it that they call it spin. I remember Screaming Lord Sutch and his Monster Raving Looney Party, of course with his barmy ideas he never stood a chance of getting elected, and this is where the spin doctors triumphed. They changed the name and their leader and bingo, in 1997 they were elected and have been in power ever since.

I am not a supporter of the BNP or of any other political party. I will leave you with this on which I base my argument, "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire.

GRAHAM LENCH - THE SENTINEL

Race slurs by muslim children as young as 8

Nicholas Kafouris, teacher at racist Bigland Green Primary school in East London

A teacher claims he has been sacked for reprimanding pupils who made racist remarks about his being a Christian.

Nicholas Kafouris said he lost his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'openly racist' behaviour of pupils as young as eight.

He said the predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class, and hailed the September 11 terrorists as 'heroes and martyrs'.

Greek-born Mr Kafouris, 40, taught for more than ten years at Bigland Green Primary in Tower Hamlets, East London, where according to the most recent Ofsted report 'almost all' the 465 pupils are from ethnic minorities and a vast proportion do not speak English as a first language.

He is taking the school, its headmistress and assistant head to an employment tribunal where he will claim he was forced out after highlighting the rise in racism among pupils.

In 2006, said Mr Kafouris, he brushed against a boy while giving him a book.

'He said rather brusquely to me, "Don't touch me, you're a Christian". I found this very offensive.'

Later that year, he said children aged eight and nine in his class praised the suicide bombers in the 9/11 attacks.

'In late November and December 2006, many various unacceptable and openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian remarks were being made by many and various children in Year 4,' he said.

'These included, "We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up", "the Twin Towers bombers are heroes and martyrs", "we hate the Jews" and "we hate the Christians".'

And in January 2007, he claims some pupils 'expressed delight' that a child had died when a wall collapsed on him in London.

When asked why, he said one of the children replied: 'Because he's English.' The following month, during a religious education lesson about Jonah and the whale, he claims one of the pupils asked if Jonah was a Jew, before shouting: 'I hate the Jews, they're our enemies.'

Mr Kafouris says he completed 'Racist Incident Reporting Sheets' and notified headmistress Jill Hankey in writing about each incident.

But he claims his concerns were ignored because she wanted to maintain the school's 'good' Ofsted rating.

Mr Kafouris, who is unmarried and has no children, was also reprimanded for handling a discussion about religion with a child 'inappropriately', which he denies.

He says assistant head Margaret Coleman accused him of shouting at pupils and telling them Muslims had produced suicide bombers - claims he rejects.

'I believe after I complained to the head about the racist and religious discrimination incidents, I suffered victimisation,' he says.

'I also suffered less favourable treatment and incurred harassment by the head and assistant head.

'The two people above created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, threatening, humiliating and offensive environment for me at my work.'

Mr Kafouris says the way he was treated brought on stress and depression, and that he was forced to take time off work. He was finally dismissed because of his absence, on April 30 this year.

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets Council, on behalf of the school, said: 'The governing body stands by its decision and we believe all the correct procedures were followed.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200489/Christian-teacher-tells-race-slurs-pupils-aged-8.html#ixzz0LbLxMeSO

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Teacher Charged With Attempted Murder

I wrote an article a few days ago about the youth of today and my experience of disruption, ignorance and vandalism at a local college. Only a few days later the news came of a teacher who battered one of his pupils so badly that he has been charged with attempted murder.

The attack which happened at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on Wednesday morning after a schoolgirl swore at him and tore up a textbook. In retaliation Mr. Harvey is alleged to have kicked her bag, telling her: 'If you damage school property, school will damage your property.' As she fled to reception, Mr. Harvey’s class is reported to have started singing 'I'm staring at the psycho in the mirror’; a take on Michael Jackson’s hit Man In The Mirror.

Mr. Harvey, an experienced teacher who recently returned to work following a stress related stroke, snapped after 14 year old Jack Waterhouse swore at him. He dragged the boy into a storeroom and hit him with a 2kg metal weight from a set of scales. Waterhouse is said to be in a serious condition at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham with head injuries.

According to many children at All Saints, past and present, Mr. Harvey was an outstanding teacher.

A current pupil said 'Mr. Harvey was an amazing guy and an outstanding form tutor.'

Former pupil Tom Blythe, 19, said Mr. Harvey's bald head and beer belly - accompanied sometimes by a beard or 'wacky' moustache - made him look like 'a kind of Nutty Professor'. But he added: 'I never saw him lose his rag. He'd shout at you but never got physical.'





We all expect our children to be safe at school and never expect a thing like this to happen but there are a few points to consider.

Firstly, was Mr. Harvey fit to go back to work? Is there a procedure in place to make sure someone is fit to return, especially if someone suffers from stress? Mr. Harvey was allegedly seen talking to himself in the school corridors and shaking in lessons.

Secondly, we all know there is no respect for teachers these days. It is impossible to chastise pupils without the fear of losing your job, being taken to court, or both. Some children use this to their advantage and terrorise teachers because they know they will get away with it. Will those in power now put measures in place to teach children the valuable lesson of respecting others, especially their elders? Will those in power help us to teach children that the teacher is the one on charge and not the children?

I doubt it very much. I hate to say it, but under present legislation this type of incident is likely to become more frequent.

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