I want to thank you so much for Sonia Sodha’s article (“The Trojan Horse Affair: how Serial podcast got it so wrong”, Focus). I was dismayed and depressed to listen to this New York Times podcast, which is one-sided, misleading and, in many instances, wrong.
As a senior leader in one of the schools involved, I saw first hand the damage inflicted by, in our case, several rogue members on our governing body working with others beyond the school to undermine the curriculum, the leadership team and the social cohesion the school had cultivated so carefully and successfully. What they did had a catastrophic effect on the health and career of one senior colleague, caused anxiety and division among the staff, alarm and worry to pupils and their parents and the school, previously rated “good”, was eventually put into special measures. At least it meant the governing body had to go and we could begin to recover.
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