Crest Academy principal looks forward to mixed classes in September and puts forward the school's '3 pillars' for success

 "I am the principal of a secular, non-denominational school that has a large majority of Muslim students. This does not make the school a Muslim school where segregation of gender should be pursued."

With Crest Academy due to switch to mixed aged classes in September the principal, Mohsen Ojja, has taken to the pages of the Times Education Supplement LINK to justify the change.

Some parents had protested at this decision and organised an on-line petition against it when it was annonunced in July.  LINK . However they do not appear to have gathered much support over the school summer holiday. 219 people had signed the petition bu July 10th and the total stands at 227 today. LINK

This is part ofwhat Mohsen Ojja wrote in TES last week:

Interestingly, whereas students and staff have been overwhelmingly supportive of the change to a co-educational model, parents have needed more reassurance and support. Many recognise that the move will help to ensure that our teaching and learning is of better quality and will provide a better education as a result. Others fully accept the importance of boys and girls learning and socialising together, so that they are properly prepared and have confidence when they leave us – be that for university, for work, or further training.

But there are some who feel the change is not what they signed up to: single-sex education. The onus is, of course, on us to work with the parents who have reservations about a co-educational model, and to be open and transparent about what the changes mean in practice, and how we transition to this new system.

I am proud to say that after a successful induction process, where we planned every aspect of the transition, the feedback from students and staff has been outstanding. And in a couple of weeks’ time, induction days in September will see us revisit our vision and values and start to work together.

With these measures in place, I am confident that we will be able to win over the vast majority of parents, and all the more so as the impact starts to flow through our results and enhances our students’ life chances.

For me, the status quo was simply not sustainable. Running two schools in parallel, split by gender, was tantamount to unhealthy segregation. The move to a single, multi-faith, proudly diverse school is the first important step to integration. Moreover, I am the principal of a secular, non-denominational school that has a large majority of Muslim students. This does not make the school a Muslim school where segregation of gender should be pursued. I have had to remind many parents that, in Islam, segregation of gender in education is not essential. Indeed, the large majority of schools in the Muslim world operate a co-educational model.

The most challenging part of this integration process is communicating to some parents that although parental choice plays an important part in children’s education, in isolation it does not always result in genuine educational value. In future, everything we do will be defined by three pillars: the improvement of student outcomes; the improvement of teaching and learning; and preparing our students to be successful in their lives beyond school and university.

Critics of the concept of British values complain that it is too amorphous and lacking in precision. It defies a tick-box approach, and is undoubtedly not something that the consultants can rack up billing-hours for (though I am sure they will try). Ultimately, the concept of British values is about a set of positive behaviours that celebrate the cultural richness of this country. With our structural changes in place we can now start living and breathing those behaviours at the Crest Academy. We will then, hand on heart, be able to say that we are educating our young people to the very best of our ability, in the broadest sense.