Rt Hon Damian Hinds, HM Secretary of State for Education, has declared war on parents
Rt Hon Damian Hinds, HM Secretary of State for Education, has declared war on parents
The Guardian reports that Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Education has written to a head teachers’ union. It was prompted by a row which started in Birmingham over schools teaching homosexuality to primary-age children. The row is mentioned in his letter, available right here: Letter 190409 to NAHT from Damian Hinds
No Outsiders
At Parkfield Community School, Muslim parents objected to a programme called ‘No Outsiders’ ‘No Outsiders’ was developed by a gay activist at that very primary school to promote sodomy and lesbianism. The man, Andrew Moffat, has a history of producing pro-sodomy propaganda for schools. A previous work of his was called ‘Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools’. No Outsiders was taught under ‘Relationships Education’. This enables the school to say they are not teaching homosexuality in Sex Education. Clever, eh?
Three successive Thursday morning protests outside the school failed to moved them. In the event, it took two days of mass truancy for Parkfield to back down. The parents kept 540 to 600 pupils off school out of 740 on the roll on successive Fridays. As a consequence, CEO Hazel Pulley is no longer teaching ‘No Outsiders’. She said: ‘Until a resolution has been reached, No Outsiders lessons will not be taught at Parkfield and we hope that children will not be removed from school to take part in protests.’
Nevertheless, an ex-chief of Ofsted and gay activists want the lessons to resume. That report is here.
In the letter, Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP declares what amounts to a religious war on parents. He said it was right that parents were consulted. They should be ‘involved in developing how schools deliver relationships education’. Nevertheless, he insisted “what is taught, and how, is ultimately a decision for the school.”
Equality Act
The letter was written to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT). It was made public yesterday. Mr Hinds expresses concern at reports of teachers feeling intimidated. “Dedicated public servants faithfully discharging their duty have an absolute right to feel confident and safe.”
Paul Whiteman, pro-gay NAHT general secretary, welcomed Hinds’ intervention: “We are pleased to see the secretary of state making his views known and reaffirming the expectations that the Equality Act places on schools.
“Schools should be a place of safety and calm, and everyone in the community has a responsibility to maintain that atmosphere. Protests do nothing to help schools achieve their public duty or create the conditions children need to learn.” That’s more establishment arrogance. We care nothing for this apparent ‘public duty’ of schools to advance homosexuality. But protests can create exactly the conditions parents want their children to learn in. As in, LGBT-free.
On the issue of what is taught, Mr Hinds continued: “We want schools to consult parents, listen to their views, and make reasonable decisions about how to proceed.”
No parental veto
Nevertheless, Mr Hinds went to say schools could ride roughshod over parental views. “I want to reassure you and the members you represent that consultation does not provide a parental veto on curriculum content. “We want schools to consult parents, listen to their views, and make reasonable decisions about how to proceed (including through consideration of their wider duties) – and we will support them in this.”
Elsewhere in his letter, Mr Hinds says LGBT content is optional for primary schools. They do not actually have to teach it. ‘We have been clear that pupils should receive teaching on LGBT relationships during their school years -we expect secondary schools to include LGBT content. Primary schools are enabled and encouraged to cover LGBT content if they consider it age appropriate to do so.’
Moreover, schools will cite the ‘Public Sector Equality Duty’ to advance homosexuality and transgenderism.
In September 2020 new Guidelines on RSE will make it compulsory for schools to consult parents. At the moment consultation is only a ‘should’.
The new Guidelines say:
‘13. All schools must have in place a written policy for Relationships Education and RSE. Schools must consult parents in developing and reviewing their policy. Schools should ensure that the policy meets the needs of pupils and parents and reflects the community they serve.
‘14. There are many excellent examples in which schools have established clear sex education policies in consultation with parents, governors and the wider community, and where they are already delivering effective programmes. Schools should build on that good work in adapting to these new requirements.’
The Guidance goes on: ‘24. Schools should also ensure that, when they consult with parents, they provide examples of the resources that they plan to use as this can be reassuring for parents and enables them to continue the conversations started in class at home.’
A nod to parents
In his letter, Mr Hinds makes a nod to parents and their fundamental role: ‘Parents and carers are the primary educators of their children, and it is right that they are involved in developing how schools deliver relationships education.’
Indeed, the Bible says, regarding the ways of the Lord:
Deut 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
There were teachers in Bible times. Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul still makes clear teaching their children is down to parents:
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
But Mr Hinds says after schools have ‘consulted’ parents they can do what they want. ‘We trust school leaders and teachers to make the right professional choices and act reasonably when considering consultation feedback,’ he says
British Values
Three times in his letter, Damian Hinds uses coded language for softening up children with LGBT ideas. The code is couched in terms firstly of children ‘understanding’ ‘the world around them’. Secondly they should be ‘prepared’ for adult life in modern Britain. This code is becoming popular in education circles. Amanda Spielman, chief of Ofsted employs it as well. In connection with home schooling, the BBC reports her speaking about children ‘receiving an education that prepares them for adult life’.:
For Damian Hinds, it goes like this:
‘… want all children to leave school prepared for life in modern, diverse Britain.’
‘A core part of preparing children for life in modern Britain is ensuring they understand the world in which they are growing up.’
‘… contribute to children’s understanding of the world around them and foster their respect of people who seem different from them.’
Moreover, his letter even boasts about requiring schools to teach ‘British values’ in 2014. These, in case you had forgotten, are not the Ten Commandments. They are: ‘democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.’
Naturally, if there is a conflict between religious faith and LGBT belief, LGBT wins.
This says: Protocol 1, Article 2: Right to education ‘No person shall be denied a right to an education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.’
Human rights group Liberty says:
‘When it first agreed to be bound by this Article the UK entered a reservation to it to say that it accepts the need to respect parents’ religious and philosophical convictions but that it would do so only so far as it is compatible with providing efficient instruction and training and unreasonable public expenditure was avoided.’ So the UK made no reservations about making RSE parent-compliant.
Another Human Rights website claims: ‘Although parents have a right to ensure their religious or philosophical beliefs are respected during their children’s education, this is not an absolute right. As long as these beliefs are properly considered, an education authority can depart from them provided there are good reasons and it is done objectively, critically and caters for a diversity of beliefs and world views.’
However, they give no case law supporting that position. According to one blog, none of the case law appears to have addressed the point of schools trying to indoctrinate pupils with views and beliefs contrary to those of their parents.
Parents must protest
Parents can of course go to the High Court and seek judicial review on the matter. However, that will take years and cost money. Furthermore, there is no guarantee of success in the present climate.
Try something in Parliament? We were pleased to see the launch of ‘Parent Power’ in Westminster, but the House of Commons passed the new RSE Guidelines overwhelmingly in Parliament last month. 538 MPs voted in favour of them. Only twenty-one voted against. One of them, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, helped launch Parent Power. The Guidelines have yet to be approved in the House of Lords, but it’s a formality.
So protests outside school gates and keeping children off school seem to be the only course of action.
Above all, it is important for Christian parents to start to become aware of the challenge from RSE. This author will happily address a meeting in your church on the topic.
Neh 4:14 … Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
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Today, MP’s embark on another set of ‘Indicative Votes’. They will start debating at 3.30 pm and vote at around 8.00 pm. The result will be known at 9.30pm. Here is what they will be voting on.
Staying in the EU’s Customs Union is favourite to win. Its proposer is Ken Clarke MP.
Yet Mr Clarke, and all the other Conservative MPs who voted for it last Wednesday, stood for Parliament on the Conservative 2017 Manifesto. which said on page 36: ‘As we leave the European Union, we will no longer be members of the single market or customs union … ‘ Even Labour’s 2017 Manifesto only wanted, ‘the benefits of the Single Market and the Customs Union’ on page 24, not the actuality of either.
Leavers on last Friday’s walk.
A second referendum is also gaining ground. Its proposers in one form are Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson and in another, Labour’s Graham Jones and Tory Dominic Grieve, who lost a confidence vote in his constituency last Friday.
And yet the 2017 Labour Manifesto said ‘Labour accepts the referendum result.’ (Page 24.) The Conservatives said: ‘Following the historic referendum on 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union.’ (Page 36).
The Bible says:
Psalm 15:1 LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. … 4b He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
Eccl 5:4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Matt 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
So pray the MPs will keep their word, reject the Customs Union and the Second Referendum. Pray the Government stay firm and pray the UK will leave the Revived Roman Empire on 12th April 2019.
Meanwhile:
Rt Hon Liz Truss MP
The Daily Express reports Eurocrats salivating over the ‘Customs Union’ prospect and hoping they can corner the UK inot the status of a vassal state post-Brexit.
In the Guardian, Cabinet Minister Liz Truss makes the obvious point that being part of the EU Customs Union would rob the UK of any power over our future trade policy. She will support No Deal, she says.
Martin Howe says ‘It is far better to risk extending Article 50 than to accept May’s bad deal.’
The Guardian reports Brexit supporters blocked roads around Westminster that day.
While Conservative activists – the ones the Party needs to walk the streets and bring their vote out on 2nd May in the local elections, let alone if Euro elections happen on 23rd May, are overwhelmingly pro- ‘No Deal’.
Matthew Grech preparing to appear on Maltese X-Factor
Matthew Grech preparing to appear on Maltese X-FactorA singer who appeared on the Maltese version of X-Factor has refiuted the idea that ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’ helped him leave the homosexual lifestyle.
A few weeks ago, a screening of his film in a Belfast church led to protests.
Matthew Grech, a singer and vocal coach, appeared on X-Factor in October 2018. The programme was aired by Malta’s national broadcaster TVM.
Mr Grech spoke about how he had been gay but then ‘found God’. But what raised the ire of Maltese gay activists was his reference to a ‘homosexual lifestyle’ and denial of ‘orientation’..
Townsend Street Presbyterian
The film about his life: ‘Once Gay: Matthew And Friends’ was shown at Townsend Street Presbyterian Church. Here is its Facebook page. The Minister is Rev Jack Lamb. This author has found Pastor Jack to be a man of God, gentle, civilised and full of courage and compassion.
The film was produced by a Ballynahinch-based Christian group Core Issues Trust. Last year protesters picketed its film ‘Voices Of The Silenced’ at Ballynahinch Baptist Church. The film gives a voice to a number of people who have left the homosexual lifestyle. All of them bear witness to the power of the Gospel. Core Issues Trust leader Mike Davidson says Matthew Grech ‘left homosexuality as part of his Christian testimony’.
Flowers and sweets
The Belfast Telegraph reported: ‘Around 40 protesters gathered outside Townsend Street Presbyterian Church last night, chanting “L-G-B-T-Q! We are just as good as you”. A similar number of people entered the building to watch the film.’
Outside the church, Mr Grech offered flowers and sweets to the protesters which they refused. He said: ‘We were not expecting such an atmosphere tonight. My heart is very grieved, because we would really like to create a safe environment of just being able to love one another and speak out and share our lives together. But this has been refused.’
Protestors exaggerate
The protest was organised by John Doherty of something called ‘Rainbow Project’. He said the event was ‘sending out a message that it’s not OK to be gay.’
‘That is a message which has cost lives in our community,’ Mr Doherty contended. Warming to his theme, he then ascended heights of hyperbole. ‘It is a message that destroys families and destroys communities,’ he ventured.
Danielle Roberts of HERe NI (?) agreed: ‘So-called gay conversion therapy is damaging to LGBT+ people as it suggests that sexual orientation is something that is a choice, or something to be “cured”.’
We say however someone came to be homosexual, staying that way definitely is a choice. Furthermore, the abiliy to form an emotional and physical relationship with a person of the opposite sex is God’s gift to human beings. Some have not yet found that gift. And we believe they can and will find healing in Jesus Christ if they seek him with their whole heart..
Maltese Government
Back in Malta, even the Government became involved. The local Independent newspaper reported the views of Government whip Byron Camilleri. He said he ‘personally knew youths who had suffered because their families had not accepted them because they were gay.’
The Government even released a statement. This condemned any ‘homophobic’ comment. It said the broadcast of such a clip ‘did great damage’. It ‘put at risk many youths who are vulnerable for gay conversion practices.’
The statement continued by blundering into theology. ‘LGBTIQ persons don’t need any form of healing or forgiveness’, it said. Homosexuality ‘makes up an integral part of their personality.’ ‘Sexual orientation is not a lifestyle’, the statement said. Parents who are finding it difficult to accept their children ‘coming out’ should ‘seek support’. Not from ‘homophobes’, presumably..
Mr Camilleri continued by objecting to somebody trying to ‘sell’ the idea that a person can ‘convert by finding God’. And on ‘the national broadcaster’!
Matthew Grech Testimony
Nevertheless, this is precisiely the testimony of Matthew Grech. According to Newsletter.co.uk, it all began in London. He was in a relationship with a man. But a woman invited him to a prayer gathering. ‘I absolutely loved it,’ says Matthew. ‘These people had something that I wanted – joy, love and peace.’
He became a Christian and started to read the Bible, where he gained the perspective that homosexuality is ‘not about your feelings or sexual orientation … in the Bible it is a practise, it is an act … if I stopped practising homosexuality then I would not be homosexual in God’s eyes.’
He says it was all the power of the word of God. ‘I wasn’t preached to. I didn’t go through some kind of therapy.’ He added: ‘I am on my journey. Personally I have not yet experienced sexual attraction to a woman. But I am open.’
He is aware of criticism that his message could cause distress to some. Despite this, he is standing firm. ‘But there are also others who have unwanted same-sex desires. Many people have contacted me and said, “Wow! I felt so encouraged by your story”.’
Rivers of Love
Matthew Grech is now a member of what has been described as ‘controversial, anti-gay movement’ River of Love. River of Love is a Maltese movement founded by pastor Gordon-John Manché. Pastor Manché has led opposition to gay rights in Malta, including to civil unions in 2014. The papers allege River of Love has also been carrying out what they call ‘gay conversion therapies’. The promotion of such therapy became illegal in Malta in 2016.
Happily, Malta has been unable to outlaw the impact of the Holy Spirit.
As to the wider issue: ‘There can be love between two men and two women, yes – but only friendship love. Everything else is a sin’, Grech said in the clip shown before his audition.
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We became interested in the Global Teacher Prize when a homosexual activist in the UK made the short-list of ten. Andrew Moffat is assistant head at Parkfield Community School in Birmingham. There he developed a homosexual propaganda programme called ‘No Outsiders.’ The programme encourages primary-age children to read campaigning books such as ‘King and king’ and ‘Two dads’. To raise the numbers of children deciding they are ‘trapped in the wrong body’, Moffat also recommends ‘My Princess Boy’.
Previously Moffat wrote a homosexual activist tool called ‘Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools’ or ‘CHIPS’. So he was always a gay activist first and teacher a long way second. Many of our members made that point to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. So did many of the parents of children at Parkfield School. HH is UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and also Ruler of Dubai. It was he who presented the prize.
This writer also emailed selected members of the 210-member judging panel, or ‘academy’ as Sunny Varkey calls it. The prize criteria look for achievements. I was able to show them Mr Moffat’s greatest achievement has been uniting the local community – against him.
Nine real teachers
In truth, any of the nine real teachers could have won the prize. For example, Debora Garofalo is another science teacher this time from São Paulo, Brazil. She has helped over 2,000 students learn electronics and robotics while turning junk into usable items.
Martin Salvetti teaches in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there he set up a weekend football club involving students and staff. Next, he secured funding from an arts programme organised by a group of charities. This supported a radio & cinema project and a band. In 2007, Salvetti and his students won a national competition for their work. They invested the prize in broadcasting equipment and their station now broadcasts around the clock.
Stopped Child Labour
In Gujarat, India, Swaroop Rawal teaches at Lavad Primary School. She also reaches children on the streets and in rural communities. Her pupils helped put a stop to child labour in the diamond polishing industry and facilitated children’s return to school.
Vladimer Apkhazava from Georgia is another teacher who has raised funds for the children in his school. Eonomic pressures are high, with some pupils coming to school hungry. There are also problems of child labour in the region, which Vladimer has made it his mission to oppose. He won Georgia’s National Teacher Award in 2017.
Prayer for Peter Tabichi
Nevertheless, in our house Peter Tabichi stood out and Judy and I prayed he might win. Firstly, obviously, he is from Kenya. Naturally, Judy circulated the prayer request around her praying Kenyan friends.
Secondly, the man’s achievements are astonishing and challenging. Brother Peter gives away 80% of his income some of which helps the poorest students at the school. The school, like other Kenyan secondary schools, is fee-paying. Nevertheless, many parents can only just afford the modest fees, let alone uniforms and books. This is where Peter Tabichi steps in. Some students can walk 4 miles to school. Moreover, they will make it despite rainy season floods or dry season scorching heat.
The Prize page says: ‘Peter has dedicated his life to helping others. He gives 80% of his teaching salary to local community projects, including education, sustainable agriculture and peace-building.
‘He’s changed the lives of his students in many ways, including the introduction of science clubs and the promotion of peace between different ethnic groups and religions. He has also helped to address food insecurity among the wider community in the famine-prone Rift Valley.’
National Competitions
Despite only having one computer, a poor internet connection and a student-teacher ratio of 58:1, Tabichi started a ‘talent nurturing club’ and expanded the school’s science club, helping pupils design research projects of such quality that many now qualify for national competitions.
His students have taken part in international science competitions and won an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry after harnessing local plant life to generate electricity.
The Guardian reported Tabichi and four colleagues also give struggling pupils one-to-one tuition in maths and science, visiting students’ homes and meeting their families to identify the challenges they face.
Enrolment at the school has doubled to 400 over three years and girls’ achievement in particular has been boosted. Here’s a video on YouTube about Peter Tabichi. It opens, like all our links, in a new tab.
The Tau Symbol
Peter Tabichi, in a photo from the Global Teachers Prize short list, wearing the Franciscan ‘Tau’ cross.
In the short-list photos, although he was always pictured in casual dress, one feature grabbed my attention. Mr Tabichi was often wearing a curious wooden ‘T’ symbol around his neck. Realising it must have religious significance, I spent an hour researching it. I’ll share what I learned in the hope it may challenge and inspire somebody.
It turned out the symbol marks the order of the Franciscan Friars. It is the Greek form of the letter ‘Tau’. Tau is also the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the root of the ‘mark’ of Ezekiel:
Ezek 9:4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Franciscans
The Tau cross was adopted by St Francis of Assisi. The order he founded lived a rule of chastity, poverty and obedience. The characteristic grey or brown habit was of undyed woollen fabric, identifying with the poor amongst whom they moved. Franciscans, says one of their websites, do not live in monasteries. They are not monks, but friars, or brothers:
‘For the monk poverty was the mark of his detachment from things, while the abbey inevitably grew rich, for the Friar the whole Order was poor and held on to nothing. For the monk his abbey, originally at least, was remote from men, although in the course of time inevitably a whole town might well grow around it, for the Friar his dwelling was right among men, among the poorest people of society, in the poorest parts of the existing towns. The monk fled the company of ordinary folk, the Friar lived among them and preached to them.’
That might be unfair to the monasteries, many of which supported the poor around them. And of course the Franciscans also lived communally in Friaries, like the one which existed near this writer in Carmarthen. Nevertheless, our churches could take note lest we become ‘holy clubs’. This ministry loves to see churches which are outgoing with good works and prophetic words to our leaders while preaching the Gospel in the community.
The Prize-Giving
In all the pre-prize publicity Peter Tabichi was dressed in ordinary clothes. For the prize-giving, he turned up in his full Franciscan habit. What a picture when His Highness, in his Arabic attire, presents the prize to Brother Peter, in his Franciscan habit, with the LGBT secularist Moffat looking on.
The Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said in a video message: ‘Peter, your story is the story of Africa, a young continent bursting with talent.’ Here’s his video tribute.
The $1m of prize money could have ended up in the pocket of a homosexual activist. Instead, it has gone to a man of faith helping his community. We give God the glory, and our members who prayed and all who emailed His Highness can take pleasure in answered prayer and an outcome beyond our dreams.
Psalm 66:19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Prayer:
Thank God for this outcome. Pray for Peter Tabichi, that he will give glory to God and use the money to benefit his community and advance the Kingdom of God.
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Amanda Spielman Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) at Ofsted
Amanda Spielman Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) at Ofsted
Parents at Parkfield School in Birmingham have demonstrated overwhelming solidarity in their battle to oust a campaigning homosexual teacher. The parents took between 540 and 600 children out of school on Friday 1st March 2019. That’s out of a total roll of 740, as the Birmingham Mail reports.
The ‘No Outsiders’ project has been developed by one Andrew Moffat. The campaigning homosexual acts as ‘assistant head teacher’ at the school. No Outsiders has figured books such as ‘Mommy, Mama and Me’, ‘My Princess Boy’ and ‘King & king’ – stories about same-sex relationships and transgenderism.
No protests, please!
The head of the education inspection agency supports gay lessons. A defiant Amanda Spielman, ‘Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’ (HMCI) at Ofsted, explained it is ‘vital’ children know about ‘families that have two mummies or two daddies’. To a decadent society, sodomy is ‘vital’.
She condemned parental protests and called for ‘sane, rational discussion’. If a policy was ‘not working well enough’ then ‘it’s proper conversation that will change it, not protests,’ she sniffed.
But protests work …
It’s breathtaking establishment arrogance. Funnily enough, the Guardian told us on Monday that Parkfield School has now stopped gay lessons, for now. In a face-saving letter to parents, the school said: ‘Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE).’ So protests work!
But in a defiant tone, the letter went on: ‘Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.’
The parents are telling Christian Voice that no child will attend any assembly or class conducted by Andrew Moffat. Here is our earlier report of their protests, which we attended.
Ofsted: ‘Outside influence’
Parkfield Community School, where gay activist Andrew Moffat has been promoting No Outsiders
Astonishingly, Ofsted later confirmed Parkfield was re-inspected after receiving a number of complaints. However, a spokesperson said: ‘We support the right of school leaders to determine the curriculum as they see fit and in the interests of their pupils – free from hostile outside influence.’ That’ll be parents, no doubt.
The ‘spokesperson’ went on: ‘All schools have a responsibility to prepare children for life in modern Britain and that includes encouraging respect for those who are different, for instance LGBT people or those of different faiths.’ And parents have a responsibility to defend and inoculate their children from gay propaganda:
Deut 6:7 And thou shalt teach (God’s words) diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Conference in Cumbria
In an interesting development, Amanda Spielman is the headline act at an education conference in Cumbria on Monday 18th March. HMCI will speak at the Cumbrian Leading Learning research conference at West Lakes Academy in Egremont.
The conference starts at 8.30am and runs until 4.00pm. We are talking to local Christians and may hold a witness which would start from 8.00am sharp if we have enough support.
Psa 94:16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Conference in Birmingham
However, the weekend before, Education Secretary Damian Hinds is speaking on Friday 15th and Amanda Spielman on Saturday 16th March at the Association of School and College Leaders 2019 Annual Conference. It is being held in, of all places, Birmingham. Lord, how do you do that? the venue is the International Convention Centre (ICC) B1 2EA.
We’ll witness with leafleting at 8.00am on both days and also aim to be there from 4.00pm to 5.30pm for people leaving the venue.
Psa 20:5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
This event is heaven-sent for a big witness! If you can, come. If not, pray!
Spielman controversies
Controversy appears to dog Amanda Spielman. An accountant with no teaching experience, never having placed her children in a state school, her appointment was roundly condemned by the Education Select Committee. Despite that, then Education Secretary Nicky Morgan MP appointed her anyway.
Luke Tryl. The gay Tory activist has enjoyed a meteoric rise.
And here’s a twist. Nicky Morgan’s education advisor at the time, gay activist and Tory Party 1hack Luke Tryl, fresh from a stint at Stonewall, went on to become head of policy, no less, at Ofsted.
SchoolsWeek says he’s just left the corrupt watchdog to become head of the New Schools Network, a Government-funded charity which advises on setting up Free Schools.
Psa 73:3 For I was envious … when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. … 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. … 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
The hijab crusade
This time last year, the Amanda went on a crusade – as it were- against hijabs when Neena Lall, head of St Stephen’s, an east London primary school, banned girls under eight from wearing them. She even sent inspectors to the school to show solidarity. “School leaders,” she said subsequently, “must have the right to set school uniform policies … to promote cohesion … Ofsted will always back heads who take tough decisions in their pupils’ interests.” Parents and Muslim community leaders forced the ban’s reversal anyway.
Ms Spielman pointedly called on “others in government” to give similar backing. “Muscular liberalism”, she said, was needed “to tackle those who actively undermine fundamental British values”.
That’ll be ‘fundamental British values’ like accepting sodomy. This Amanda is heading for a fall.
Prov 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
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Andrew Moffat, author of No Outsiders and assistant head at Parkfield is in line for the Global Teacher Prize
Andrew Moffat, author of No Outsiders and assistant head at Parkfield is in line for the Global Teacher Prize
The Guardian reports a homosexual activist under fire for pushing gay propaganda in a school in Birmingham is up for a £1m prize.
Andrew Moffat has made the shortlist of ten for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize.
The prize is the brainchild of Indian businessman Sunny Varkey, who is based in the United Arab Emirates. It will be awarded in a ceremony in Dubai on Sunday 24th March 2019.
The prize will be presented by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. HH is UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and also Ruler of Dubai.
The members of the ‘academy’ which will choose the winner are teachers and entrepreneurs and are listed on the Varkey Foundation website. The names of the committee who chose the ten finalists are rather more shadowy.
Propaganda
Around 200 parents gathered in front of Parkfield school.
Andrew Moffat is infamous for his homosexual propaganda. He started off at Chilwell Croft Primary School in Birmingham. There he developed a homosexual activist tool called ‘Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools’ or ‘CHIPS’. He was forced to resign from Chilwell Croft in December 2013. Both Christian and Muslim parents complained they did not want their children ‘learning it’s OK to be gay’.
Undaunted, Moffat skipped across town to Parkfield Community School. The head teacher, or ‘CEO’, one Hazel Pulley, says plainly she wanted him to try out his activism there.
At Parkfield he developed ‘No Outsiders’. It sounds inclusive, but what it amounts to is yet more homosexual propaganda. The programme encourages primary-age children to read campaigning books such as ‘King and king’ and ‘Two dads’. To raise the numbers of children deciding they are ‘trapped in the wrong body’, Moffat also recommends ‘My Princess Boy’.
‘In light of the new guidance published today, I am afraid that “No Outsiders” will have to be comprehensively overhauled and refreshed … I hope that today the Minister will guarantee that the three basic rights of parents—the right to have their voice heard, the right to have their role respected and, crucially, their right of choice—will be protected as the school reworks its teaching over the months ahead.’
We must particularly commend the speeches by MPs Sammy Wilson, Chris Green, Fiona Bruce, and Jim Shannon. John Howell, Shaban Mahmood, Imran Hussain, Paul Scully, Faisal Rashid and Mohammad Yasin also made valuable points. A number of them are Muslim Labour MPs representing partly-Muslim constituencies, yet they spoke up for parental rights in the face of the ‘orthodoxy’ of propagandists like Moffat.
Human Rights Act
Parkfield Community School, where gay activist Andrew Moffat has been promoting No Outsiders
In the Human Rights Act 1998, First Protocol, Article 2: Right to Education, the Act states:
‘… In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.’
Both ‘CHIPS’ and ‘No Outsiders’ are contrary to the parents’ deeply-held religious convictions.
Hazel Pulley recognises that No Outsiders is contrary to Islam, Christianity and other faith positions. However, she says: ‘it’s lovely that the children will hear both views.’ On the contrary, children will be confused by hearing views expressed by authority figures in school at odds with their parents’ religious and philosophical convictions.
Ludicrous claim
Moffat makes a ludicrous claim on the Varkey Foundation website. He says his ‘No Outsiders’ can be ‘a tool to reduce the potential for radicalisation’. How a teaching resource promoting homosexuality could possibly reduce the impact of radical recruiters he does not say.
In reality, 98% of the children at Parkfield Community School are Muslim. At best, ‘No Outsiders’ will give their parents and older siblings the impression that the United Kingdom is decadent and depraved.
Not really a teacher
Moreover, in stark contrast with the nine others shortlisted for the prize, Andrew Moffat is not really a teacher. He has all the certificates of course. However, he is actually a gay activist posing as a teacher. Moffat does not even teach a class. So much for ‘Achieving demonstrable student learning outcomes in the classroom,’ one of the prize criteria.
Indeed, the prize application form asks applicants to ‘highlight some of the measurable outcomes that are the result of your teaching practices.’ It asks for ‘specific examples of how your teaching has produced excellent results in terms of student outcomes.’ Moffat cannot point to anything specific.
Another Global Teachers Prize criterion is : ‘Achievements (or impact) in the community beyond the classroom that provide unique and distinguished models of excellence for the teaching profession and others.’
Andrew Moffat has certainly made an impact. However, his highest achievement in the community around Chilwell Croft and Parkfield has been to unite parents against him and demand his resignation. Is ‘excellence for the teaching profession’ illustrated by a refusal to meet parents alarmed and distressed by his teaching? If so, Moffat has it.
Not replicable
Another criterion is ‘Employing effective instructional practices that are replicable and scalable to influence the quality of education globally.’ ‘No Outsiders’ was drawn up to advance homosexuality and transgenderism specifically in the UK. These are indeed ‘protected characteristics’ under UK law. The project is not applicable to the majority of countries around the world which do not promote such practices in their laws.
In particular, across the Middle and Far East and Africa, where over three quarters of the world’s population live, such practices are viewed as deviant and anathema. On top of that, as we saw above, Liam Byrne, the local MP, has criticised ‘No Outsiders’ in Parliament and observed it does not strike any balance with parents human rights or even comply with the law.
Challenges
Yet another criterion is ‘Employing innovative instructional practices that address the particular challenges of the school, community or country and which have shown sufficient evidence to suggest they could be effective in addressing such challenges in a new way.’
Deeply-help religious and philosophical beliefs that view homosexual practice and changing gender should be seen as a given. But let’s just suppose they may be viewed by someone who hates them as ‘a challenge’. Then Moffat’s innovations have addressed them in the sense of trampling all over them contrary to human rights laws.
As to ‘effective’, there is little evidence that Moffat’s bulldozer approach is remotely ‘effective’. He has alienated local opinion and stirred up religious antipathy.
Global citizens
The fifth criterion is ‘Helping children become global citizens through providing them with a values based education that equips them for a world where they will potentially live, work and socialise with people from many different nationalities, cultures and
religions.’
All ‘No Outsiders’ does is advance the ‘protected characteristics’ of homosexuality and transgenderism. Those are its values and they are highly UK-specific. Anything else, such as the UK’s ‘protected characteristics’ of race and religion, disability and age, are dealt with by mature teachers in normal course anyway. But here they pad out the package. For a gay activist teacher, who has already shown ‘form’ with his ‘Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools’, the emphasis is clear.
Recognition
The final criterion is ‘Teacher recognition from governments, national teaching organisations, head-teachers, colleagues, members of the wider community or pupils.
Andrew Moffat has indeed received an MBE in the Her Majesty the Queen’s 2017 Birthday Honours List for ‘services to Equality and Diversity in Education’.
It is important to realise that such honours can be highly politicised in the UK. A committee of the elite sits and draws up the list. Some honours are awarded to distinguished sportsmen, musicians, entrepreneurs and those working selflessly in the community. Others are given to politicians and their helpers. But some are dished out to those viewed as advancing a politically correct agenda.
Moffat’s award falls into the latter category. He will receive plaudits from teachers’ organisations for the same reason, and be appointed by partisan heads like Hazel Pully, CEO at his Parkfield, his current school.
However, when it comes to the ‘wider community’, support for this activist falls away. He record above he had to resign from his previous school, Chilwell Croft, while parents at Parkfield are now campaigning for him to leave there as well.
The real teachers contesting the Global Teacher Prize
Peter Tabichi: inspiring science teacher from Kenya.
For example, there is Peter Tabichi. The science teacher in rural Kenya gives away 80% of his monthly income to help the poor. He constantly leads his poorly-resourced school to victory in national science competitions.
Debora Garofalo is another science teacher this time from São Paulo, Brazil. She has helped over 2,000 students learn electronics and robotics while turning junk into usable items.
Martin Salvetti teaches in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there he set up a weekend football club involving students and staff. Next, he secured funding from an arts programme organised by a group of charities. This supported a radio & cinema project and a band. In 2007, Salvetti and his students won a national competition for their work. They invested the prize in broadcasting equipment and their station now broadcasts around the clock.
Stopped Child Labour
Hidekazu Shoto from Kyoto, Japan has created methods of teaching fluency in English without needing foreign travel or study abroad.
In Gujarat, India, Swaroop Rawal teaches at Lavad Primary School also reaches children on the streets and in rural communities. Her pupils helped put a stop to child labour in the diamond polishing industry and facilitated children’s return to school.
Vladimer Apkhazava from Georgia is another teacher who has raised funds for the children in his school. Eonomic pressures are high, with some pupils coming to school hungry. There are also problems of child labour in the region, which Vladimer has made it his mission to oppose. He won Georgia’s National Teacher Award in 2017.
Not campaigning
Melissa Salguero has already won a Grammy award for her work as a music teacher.
Yasodai Selvakumaran was born in Sri Lanka but teaches in Australia. She has won a string of awards for actual, real teaching.
Daisy Mertens from the Netherlands is another real teacher. She works in a large community primary school. In contrast to Moffat, Daisy is actually teaching. Nor is rubbing parents up the worng way with blatant self-interested campaigning.
Lastly, Melissa Salguero in New York’s Bronx, USA, did a real-life ‘School of Rock’ – and other genres. Coming into a school with no music, no instruments and no resources, she raised the money and formed a band. In 2013, Melissa was named the Big Apple Awards & Lincoln Center Arts Teacher of the Year for her contribution.
The UK competition
And what of the UK teachers Moffat beat to the short-list?
Emma Russo teaches physics at South Hampstead High School. That’s an independent day school, part of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust. Not surprisingly, Miss Russo’s focus is on opportunities for girls in physics and engineering. Pushing girls towards science, technology, engineering and maths is fashionable today.
Like New York’s Melissa, Jimmy Rotheram at Feversham Primary Academy in Bradford teaches music. Furthermore, he has developed an approach stressing the importance of music for developing brains. In contrast to Hampstead, Bradford Moor is financially impoverished. 60% of households there are unemployed or in low-skilled manual work.
Both Emma Russo and Jimmy Rotheram are real teachers making innovations easily on a par with the the other nine shortlisted. Furthermore, they are not riding roughshod over parents’ convictions along the way.
Embarrassment
If Moffat is chosen as the ‘Global Teacher’, all the talk will be about him and his gay indoctrination, not about excellence in teaching. The whole awards process will become a laughing stock. It will prove a severe embarrassment both to Sunny Varkey and to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed. A shameless homosexual activist at an awards ceremony in Dubai hosted by HH in the presence of other national leaders?
It is clear no risk analysis was done about the embarrassment his presence on the list would cause the Foundation and His Highness.
It is not beyond the imagination that a prize ‘academy’ could be politically-correct enough to splash £100k a year for ten years at the Moffat to spread his poison around the community. All over the world, in Africa, in the Far East, in Muslim countries, the message will go out: ‘If you aren’t a gay activist, don’t bother applying for the Global Teacher Prize.’
Charles Darwin was born on ‘Darwin Day’!Tuesday 12th February was Darwin Day, not that anyone noticed.
31% don’t believe Darwin any more
Except Jeremy Vine. He reported on his television show yesterday how many people simply do not believe his Theory of Evolution any more. That’s Darwin’s Theory, not Jeremy’s. Apparently, says the Daily Mirror, 31% of the UK population do not believe all we see ‘just evolved’ Another 7% think Charles Darwin wrote ‘The Da Vince Code’.
And in 2009 the Daily Telegraph reported a clear majority of Brits, 51% to 40%, ‘agreed with the statement that “evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things, so the intervention of a designer is needed at key stages”.’
Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury on 12th February 1809 and died on 19th April 1882. This year on‘Darwin Day’ he would have been 209. He published ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ in 1859. Even that is 159 years ago.
Sciences like Genetics, Molecular Biology and Information Theory were unknown in Darwin’s day. We don’t do chronological snobbery here. We don’t think we are the cleverest people ever to have walked God’s earth. Nevertheless, Darwin’s tome really does look its age these days.
Musical dropped
Meanwhile, a few days before, the BBC reported on a school which has ‘axed a musical on evolution over its suggestive lyrics and portrayal of Christian views.’
Darwin Rocks, about the scientist Charles Darwin, was due to be performed by about 90 pupils at Hartford Manor Primary School, Cheshire, next month. The school said there had been six ‘expressions of concern’ by parents.
The musical’s publishers Musicline said it was written by a Christian, adding “we can’t ever recall having courted controversy before”.
According to its website, the production is a ‘light-hearted look’ at the work of Darwin.
Head teacher Simon Kidwell told the BBC that the school, in Hartford near Northwich, received the complaints over lyrics that refer to ‘bump and grind’ – a sexually suggestive dance move.
‘There were concerns about caricature,’ he said, adding the complainants, who include a science teacher from another school, felt its representation of Christian views on science ‘wasn’t accurate’.
Who is anti-science?
It has become fashionable to characterise the Christian or Biblical view that God created all there is as anti-science.
But in truth, as we find out more about the natural world, it’s not that simple. Those who hold the evolutionist view really do see it as a matter of faith. And more and more problems are arising. We reported a couple of years ago on the bio-energeticists who discovered that bacteria would never find the power to evolve into cells with a nucleus.
Evolutionists hold that bacteria were the first forms of life to evolve. But cells with a nucleus, ‘eukaryotic’ cells, are the building blocks of life. The poor bio-energeticists had to resort to contending some external force must have intervened. But that is ‘Deus ex machina’ by another name.
Nature is inter-connected
Creationists have long shown that certain animals, or even processes, have ‘irreducible complexity’. In other words, they simply could not evolve. Why have a stomach without a mouth and a means of evacuating waste? How did the bombardier beetle possibly evolve its extraordinary defence system? What happened to all the eggs while swallows were evolving the construction of their mud nests?
For this author, the complexity of nature and all the interconnecting strands and food chains say it all had to be in place at the same time. Flowers and their pollinators are just one obvious example. So to this engineer, a six-day creation makes sense.
Too many jobs in the biological sciences depend on the evolutionary faith-view for it to be dumped over-night. ‘Darwin Day’ might endure for a while longer. But a day is coming when those scientists will be found asking: ‘Lord, how did you Do that?’
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