The head of Ofsted has received threats and abuse after accusing private faith schools run by religious conservatives of deliberately resisting British values and equalities law.
Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, said she had received some “pretty venomous stuff” from what she believed to be a “mixture of Islamic extremists and the hard left”.
In an interview with the Times on Saturday she said: “I’m not easily bruised. I don’t fall over when I see a load of nasty tweets pointed at me, but there has been some pretty venomous stuff.
“I had an email, which was the most threatening one, which was along the lines of: ‘We know where you live and we can get you any time we want to.’”
In the inspectorate’s annual report published earlier this week, Spielman highlighted disturbing policies and literature used by private faith schools, and called for school inspectors to be given new powers to seize evidence during visits.
She said inspectors had found texts that encouraged domestic violence, the subjugation of women and homophobia at schools run religious conservatives.
Despite the backlash, which also reportedly led to extra security staff being drafted in at one of Ofsted’s regional offices after inspectors were sent extreme Islamic literature, Spielman said she would not stay quiet.
“If we let ourselves be intimidated out of discussing these issues, it’s children who will suffer.”
Her report said schools were deliberately choosing not to meet standards because of the tensions between legal requirements and community expectations.
Current powers were inadequate to tackle unregistered schools, which were being set up to avoid teaching in accordance with the law, she said.
A Department for Education spokeswoman previously said it had changed the law and the requirements of schools “so that they have to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and the mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”.
The spokeswoman added: “It is absolutely right that Ofsted reports on schools that fail to protect children or fail in any other way to meet the standards we expect, so that we can take action to ensure they adhere to the law.”
