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AMS Chairman Dr Mohamed Mukadam also delivered one of the key note addresses, an extract of which can be found overleaf.
LONDON AMS UK Shura members at-tended the Keeping Faith in the System Conference in November with Mufti Hamid Patel of Tauheedul Islam Girls School, Blackburn delivering an enthusiastically received workshop on Community Cohesion. To further emphasise the point that Muslim Schools along with other faith schools are preparing children and young adults for life in the UK key-note speaker Ed Balls, Secre-tary of State for Children, Schools and Families said;
“...the vibrancy, dyna-mism and success of schools with a religious character has never been stronger. I’ve seen for myself how faith schools
are using their unique ethos to develop well-rounded young people who have a strong sense of community and re-spect for others – includ-ing those of different faiths and backgrounds.”
BIRMINGHAM
The teacher training Inset for Community Cohesion took place on Monday 2nd November at Birchfield Independent Girls School (BIGS) in Birmingham. The main speakers at the event were Ghulam Abbas, Assistant Director for Community Cohesion at the DCSF and Maurice Coles, Project Director of the Islam & Citizenship Education (ICE) project. The Inset was well attended with teaching staff, governors and headteachers of various schools around the
country in atten-dance.
Also speaking at the Inset were Angie Kotler from the Schools Linking Net-work and Nargis Rashid from the Bir-mingham LA.
A full guide on Insets for all the hubs is on the Bulletin Board section of this news-letter.
AMS Chairman Dr Mohamed Mukadam at Faith in the System.
KEEPING FAITH IN THE SYSTEM
COMMUNITY COHESION
2 5 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 W I N T E R T E R M
F E A TUR E S
ISLAMIC GIRLS’
SCHOOL LEADS THE
WAY
Jack Straw MP
writes about Tau-
heedul Islam Girls
School in Blackburn.
IMPORTANCE OF A
FAITH BASED ETHOS
Dr Mohamed Muka-
dam’s speech at
Faith in the System.
INSETS
Teacher training on
Community Cohe-
sion and Classroom
Management.
The Community Cohesion Inset
www.ams-uk.org
R EG UL AR S
Chairman’s Notes 2
Hub Activity 2
Bulletin Board 4
The School Linking
Programme at
Tawhid Boys School
For more visit the
Community Cohe-
sion section at
www.ams-uk.org
P A G E 2
The issue of faith schools and in particular Muslim Schools is
never far from the headlines, especially nearing a general
election, and so it was again as David Cameron sought to link
two schools in the South East to extremism. After a media frenzy
in which it transpired that Mr Cameron got his facts wrong and
both schools were exonerated, we must all take a moment to
reflect upon the trials that Allah Almighty puts us through and
how we should react. The attacks and slurs that Muslim schools face are from those
wishing to sow discord amongst the communities of the UK and we must all show the patience,
grace and perseverance that was taught to us by our beloved Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, his family
and followers.
Chairman’s Notes
AN ISLAMIC GIRLS’ SCHOOL
TOP OF THE TABLES?
BLACKBURN
You might expect Priory Academy, Lincoln, or Wat-ford Grammar School for Boys to be top of the tree for their exam results. But Tauheedul Islam Girls High School, Blackburn? Third-best in the country with 98 per cent of pupils getting five or more good GCSEs including maths and Eng-lish. What’s going on? The school is not in a leafy sub-urb, but in confined prem-ises in the heart of Black-burn’s inner-urban mill ter-races. Tauheedul began as a private school 25 years ago and did well. But I had argued for years in opposi-tion that if the country had Catholic, Anglican and Jewish faith schools then we either had to get rid of them all (bad idea) or to allow schools from all faiths to become state aided, provided they met the same criteria. Tauheedul became a state-funded voluntary-aided school three years ago — and it has really taken off. What’s
its secret? There is no secret. Instead, as its chairman of governors, Kam Kothia, puts it, it has “a perfect combi-nation — committed par-ents, committed students and, crucially, personalised learning.”
So all students are assessed when they arrive in Year Seven and a strategy is established to help them to achieve the best results possible. Yes, the faith of the school does makes a big difference. An Ofsted report in 2006 praised not
only its outstanding academic achievement but its spiritual and moral ethos. “The com-mitment to excellence and the values of Islam, which are at the heart of the school, shine out in many ways,” it said.
Jack Straw is Justice Sec-retary and Labour MP for Blackburn
Extracted from The Times Online
A L - M A D A R I S
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatulaahi Wa Barakatuku “
Wassalam
Dr Mohamed Mukadam Chairman, AMS UK
“
Mufti Hamid Patel (left) is Principal of Tauheedul Islam Girls High School.
If you wish to contact Tauheedul Islam Girls High School, please email [email protected]
HUB ACTIVITY MIDLANDS Since September the West Midlands has held INSETS on Classroom Management, Commu-nity Cohesion and Gifted and Talented Pupils: Strategies for Delivery The following Insets are to be held on: 21st January Outstanding Leadership 1st February Islam and Citizenship 2nd February First Aid 22nd February Special Education Needs 19th April Teaching Outstanding Lessons TBC Child Protection Pupil conferences for GCSE English and Mathematics, (Foundation and Higher Tier) also planned. Dates to be confirmed.
An at a glance look at the
local AMS hubs
If you are interested in attending any of these INSETS please email [email protected]
The Justice Secretary writes about Tauheedul Islam Girls High School
IMPORTANCE OF A FAITH
BASED ETHOS
P A G E 3 W I N T E R T E R M
“I would like to posit that the faith-based ethos must be understood as a means towards an end and not an end in itself. It is a means through which young people from faith back-grounds could be effectively helped to de-velop important characteristics. Characteristics which stand to benefit the individuals, their families, the wider community and society and also to the environment. In short characteristics that would help them to become good citi-zens. The importance of responsible citizens was re-iterated by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the recent party conferences. They spoke passionately about the importance of family life – “the fierce sense of loyalty, the un-conditional love that is given and re-ceived, the need to bring children up in this world in a responsible manner. They spoke of duties towards our community to build a cohesive society of making Britain, a fair, safer, more responsible, more prosperous country. They spoke of responsibilities towards protecting our environment, the need to conserve and preserve the fast depleting resources of our planet’s scarce resources. We as a society would willingly accept and sign up to these important responsibilities re-gardless of our political affiliation, our faith tra-ditions our ethnic or geographical back-grounds.
cohesion.. This is precisely what we promote through the faith-based ethos of our schools. More and more young peo-ple graduating from our schools, particularly our girls, are now pursuing further and higher education. These young people - most of them who come from humble economic back-grounds, are now able to break through the barriers, the cycle of depravation, and take the small but concrete steps towards fulfilling their aspirations and a better future. Like every other good school we want our students to achieve and attain, to develop to their full potential, to play a full part in the wider society, to contribute, not just to the eco-nomical prosperity, but also to the social and political wellbeing of the society. We as providers of a faith-based education, need to continue to reach out and share with other pro-viders some of our good practices that are helping young people to develop in this important area of human development.”
Dr Mohamed Mukadam
As providers of faith-based edu-cation, we believe and it is certainly our collective experience, that a God-centred approach is far likelier to develop a more a profound and sustain-able sense of accepting and discharging these responsibilities. In other words, a faith-based ethos is the most effec-tive way, since a vast majority of the students come from homes where
faith in God is the central, most important part of their lives. As British citizens, most of us, cele-brate the fact that Britain is a na-tion of many different faiths, of
many ethnicities, of differ-ent languages and yes of different cultures. But whilst the rich tapestry of our society is something to rejoice, there is in some people’s mind, a concern of how a society of such diversity, could cohere as one nation. Many theories and mod-els have been postulated to examine the relation-ships between bonding and bridging, and how these affect community
“Whilst the rich tapestry of our
society is something to
rejoice, there is in some people’s mind, a concern of how a society of such diversity, could cohere as
one nation.”
Dr Mukadam takes centre stage at the conference.
Veronica Birkett - with schools dividing their staff between the two to maxi-mise learning within each hall.
The PowerPoint presentation by Veronica Birkett can be downloaded from the AMS website: www.ams-uk.org.
BIRMINGHAM
Birchfield Inde-pendent Girls School was the venue for the Classroom Management Inset on the 30th November 2009. AMS had a record turnout with 120 people reg-istering to attend. Two Insets were held simultaneously - one taken by Bernard Abrams and the other by
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Veronica Birkett delivers her Inset
Bernard Abrams
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E
GCSE Results 2008/09
School Hub Pupils % A* - C
Islamia Girls' High School London/South East 13 100%
Al-Burhan Grammar School Midlands 11 100%
Brondesbury College London/South East 11 100%
Tauheedul Islam Girls High School Lancashire 60 98%
Tayyibah Girls' School London/South East 26 95%
Jameah Girls Academy Midlands 18 94%
MA Institute Yorkshire 13 93%
Manchester Islamic High School for Girls Lancashire 39 92%
Al-Khair School London/South East 12 92%
Jamiatul Ilm wal Huda Lancashire 29 86%
Congratulations to all the schools for their GCSE results for the last academic year. Listed below are the top ten performing schools for percentage of pupils earning 5 or more A* to C grades (including Maths and English).
Nb. Not all schools’ results were available at the time of print. Please look out on the AMS website (www.ams-uk.org) in the future where a full list will be published soon, Insha’Allah
PO Box 14109
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PUBLISHING & PRINTING PrintXpress [www.printxpress.net] Pictures courtesy of CES The spring term issue of al-madaris is due out in May 2010. © Copyright 2010 The Association of Muslim Schools
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