PURPOSE AND PERFORMANCE OF OFSTED

Early day motion 555, tabled 26 November 2014 by George Galloway (Respect). Signed by 2 members.

That this House believes that Ofsted has been drafted into the Government's anti-terror strategy, a role which it is singularly ill-equipped to fulfil; is appalled that the organisation is now the arbiter of what are, and what are not, supposed to be British values, a role for which its inspectors are not trained; notes that Ofsted has no working definition of extremism and no idea of how the Government's Prevent strategy might be implemented in schools; further believes that the whole notion of British values, as opposed to universal human values, is a nonsense; further notes that Ofsted head Sir Michael Wilshaw has judged that in six Tower Hamlets faith schools pupils may be vulnerable to extremist influences, without providing a scintilla of evidence and without Ofsted being able to define what extremism is; and is firmly of the view that schools should not be compelled to promote anything other than a balanced and comprehensive education for all pupils whatever their ethnic background.

Signatures by party: Labour 1, Respect 1.