\n<\/p>\n
Ofsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.<\/p>\n
Inspectors arrived at the school on Thursday morning after revelations that its leaders had called off a visit by Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, after opposition from a pro-Palestine group and members of staff belonging to the National Education Union.<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer told MPs on Wednesday: \u201cWe will be holding to account those who prevented this visit to this school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted\u2019s chief inspector of schools in England, said he was \u201cconcerned\u201d that the school \u2013 managed by the Cabot Learning Federation \u2013 was intimidated into cancelling the visit by the Jewish MP.<\/p>\n
Oliver said: \u201cI am troubled by the message this sends to children \u2013 especially children from the Jewish community. Those of us privileged enough to be working in education have a professional and moral duty to stand against discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast weekend, I tasked inspectors to consider the evidence, speak with the school and determine whether further action was needed. They have concluded the threshold for an inspection was met and they are at the school today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school was informed this morning and I am very grateful to them for their openness in engaging with the inspectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egan\u2019s visit, to speak to pupils about democracy and the role of MPs, was meant to have taken place last September but the school called off the event after it learned of plans for a protest.<\/p>\n
The cancellation was first revealed by Steve Reed, the communities secretary, who told a Jewish Labour Movement conference on Sunday: \u201cI have a colleague who is Jewish, who has been banned from visiting a school and refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency, in case his presence inflames the teachers. That is an absolute outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue was raised at Westminster during prime minister\u2019s questions on Wednesday, with Starmer telling MPs: \u201cIt is very serious, very concerning, and all members of parliament should be able to visit anywhere in their constituency, schools or other places, without any fear of antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestine activists and NEU members said they opposed the visit because of Israel\u2019s military operations in Gaza. The Bristol NEU branch claimed on social media: \u201cWe celebrate this cancellation as a win for safeguarding, solidarity, and for the power of the NEU trade union staff group, parents, and campaigners standing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week a spokesperson for the academy said: \u201cWe have remained in contact with Mr Egan, and an alternative date for his visit was arranged some time ago. We have also been in contact with the police and followed their advice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ofsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Inspectors arrived at the school on Thursday morning after revelations that its leaders had called off a visit by Damien Egan, the Labour MP for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[4847,7920,4422,1372,2660,334,1774],"class_list":{"0":"post-41767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-cancelling","9":"tag-criticised","10":"tag-inspection","11":"tag-launches","12":"tag-ofsted","13":"tag-school","14":"tag-visit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}