Gang violence could increase in Tower Hamlets if plans to shake up youth clubs go ahead, a headteacher has warned.What the hell are they planning to do!?
The council is set to take charge of all youth clubs in the borough, which are currently run by three schools and two affordable housing groups. But the head of one of the schools said the decision will ruin all the work that has been done to combat racism and gang violence in the area.Really? What, the council will install the Ku Klux Klan as governing body?
Kenny Frederick, principal of George Green’s school in the Isle of Dogs, said when she took over running the clubs they were segregated along racial lines and girls did not attend, and she fears this will happen again.Just who is this Kenny Frederick? Well, as stated above, she’s the ‘principal’ (Yuck!) of George Green’s school. And she’s an inveterate commenter on educational and political matters.
In fact, she seems to be the go-to gal for a hell of a lot of reporters.
Here she is in the ‘Guardian’, whinging about the new Chief Inspector of Schools:
Six miles away, on the Isle of Dogs, Kenny Frederick, principal of George Green's school, visibly bristles at Wilshaw's name. This week's league tables will show her school to be well behind Mossbourne on raw results – but they won't show what she's up against: the "contextual value-added" measure, which used to measure a school's performance against social factors such as the numbers of pupils on free school meals, has been dropped.Which was a problem for her, given the location of her school and its catchment area:
Sometimes, Frederick says, her staff have to pick the nits from their pupils' hair before they even try to teach them. She recently handed out dozens of alarm clocks to children who often need to leave for school before their unemployed parents have woken up. It's not about excuses, she says. When ministers visit Mossbourne they talk as if it's in a tough, tough area, but compared with the Isle of Dogs, Hackney's actually pretty well-heeled. A third of the pupils at Mossbourne take free school meals – twice the national average – but that's half the number at George Green's.
"We want the best for our youngsters, but there are excuses," Frederick says. "I have large numbers who would otherwise be in a special school – other schools won't take them, and I think that's morally wrong. I'm not going to refer to Mr Wilshaw's school, though I used to work in that area …" she hesitates, clearly holding back. "Some areas, the children could be left out on the lawn and they'd do equally well because the parents will bring in tutors and so on."Yes, it’s all about money, isn’t it?
Yet I bet the households that have no bottles of Hedrin Treat & Go in the medicine cabinet have 52” flatscreen TVs and all the booze and fags you could want….
And here she is again in the ‘Mail’, whinging about the government’s efforts to help failing pupils:
Kenny Frederick, principal of George Green's School in East London, said: 'It's a bit insulting for someone to send us a letter to say these are your most talented children as if we didn't know that.'Make up your mind, love, are they ‘talented’ or nit-ridden problem children?
It’s a wonder she can run the school AND the clubs and yet still find time for all these interviews, isn’t it?
A Tower Hamlets council spokeswoman said nobody using the youth clubs would notice any differences because the changes would happen at management level.One to watch.
5 comments:
It seems to me that people like Ms Kenny are part of the problem in our education system, not the solution and the quicker such people are removed from positions of authority over our children and replaced by proper teachers the better. There were far too many 'Ms Kenny's' promoted beyond their ability during the Labour years, people who have no idea how to bring out the best in children, but who know how to tick the right diversity policy boxes and talk bullshit.
I'm coming to the sad conclusion that when an education establishment advertises itself as in its mission statement (like the College of North London in Tottenham) as Respect, Diversity, Achievement then you just know that it's a shit establishment with rubbish teaching.
We do have far too low an expectation of our schools. Katherine Birbalsingh writing in the latest issue of Standpoint magazine contrasts the abject failure of many British state schools with the dynamic academy type schools which have been set up in New York where pupils learn Shakespeare from 5 years old and the quality of the work produced appears to be streets ahead of that produced in UK schools.
As to the danger of racial divisions in youth clubs in the area then that may be because Christian or Jewish or atheist kids feel uncomfortable and possibly threatened in youth clubs where there is an Islamic majority. Our politicians have set out to ride the multiculti wind but are instead reaping the sectarian whirlwind.
Isn't sharia working there then ?
ranter said...
Isn't sharia working there then ?
It looks like it may well be. After all no young women are turning up for the youth clubs.
When I was at school, Kenny was a boy's name.
I know I'm being sexist and horribly exhibiting my white male privilege but if one of our female teachers had been called "Kenny" then she'd have had real discipline problems.
"It seems to me that people like Ms Kenny are part of the problem in our education system, not the solution..."
Yup! Spot on. And there's more of them than you ever thought.
"ranter said...
Isn't sharia working there then ?
It looks like it may well be. After all no young women are turning up for the youth clubs."
:D
"I know I'm being sexist and horribly exhibiting my white male privilege but if one of our female teachers had been called "Kenny" then she'd have had real discipline problems."
I wonder what it's short for?
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