Ofsted will crackdown on extremism and promote 'British values', Amanda Spielman vows

Schools must do more to stop terrorism by properly promoting British values and not just putting up “pictures of the Queen," the head of Ofsted has said.

Speaking at The Telegraph Festival of Education at Wellington College on Friday, Amanda Spielman said that the recent spate of terrorist atrocities across London and Manchester had brought into “stark relief” the ongoing threat posed by extremism.

Vowing to crackdown on extremism in schools, she added that schoolchildren needed to be equipped with the “knowledge and resilience” required to combat the violent rhetoric “peddled” by hate preachers who “put hatred in their hearts and poison in their minds”.  

"Of course, the curriculum doesn’t just mean a set of national curriculum or GCSE subjects, important as these are. It also means what is snappily titled: spiritual, moral, social and cultural development,” she said.

“One area where there is room to improve is the active promotion of fundamental British values in our schools. Recent attacks in Westminster, London Bridge, Manchester and Finsbury Park have brought into stark relief the threats that we face.

“In the coming months, I am sure we will see heated debates about how to improve our security without impinging on the liberties that are central to our British way of life.

“But just as important as our physical safety is making sure that young people have the knowledge and resilience they need to resist extremism of the sort peddled by those who, as our former Prime Minister David Cameron said, seek “to put hatred in their hearts and poison in their minds.”

“This goes back to what I’ve said about civilisation, and making sure we leave the country in a better place than we found it.”

Ms Spielman also called on schools to do more than just employing “superficial passive displays” to build a sense of patriotism among their pupils, adding that children needed to receive a “real civic education” in “liberalism, tolerance and fairness to the rest of the world.”

“Teaching the young about British values is critical to developing that resilience. And by that, I do not mean superficial passive displays or tick box exercises. We’ve all seen it: the Union Jack in the corridor, the pictures of the Queen.”

Asked how Ofsted would monitor schools and how they promote British values, Ms Spielman said it came down to an “inspector’s judgment” and asking the “right type of questions” to “find out what is being done…rather than just paying lip service.”

“At the end of the day it’s about an inspector’s judgment. As soon as you say particular things it becomes a tick list, then they’ve done it. That’s exactly why I’m not producing a list of examples. It’s Government policy, but there isn’t a prescribed translation of it, so schools will have to work it out.”

On illegal and unregistered schools, Ms Spielman said that Ofsted would “do everything we can” to search out and close them down with the same “zeal and passion,” as her predecessor, Sir Michael Wilshaw.

It comes two years after Ofsted warned that it had uncovered unregistered Islamic madrassas across the UK, raising fears large numbers of children were at risk of being “abused and radicalised” in them.

“Those children are very highly segregated from the British mainstream, so of course it must be a concern about what is happening in those segregated worlds,” Ms Spielman added.