title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi played in her first WTA Tour clay-court tournament of the year at Charleston. Seeded 19th for qualifying, she made it to the main draw defeating Grace Min and 12th seed Chan Yung-jan. In the first round, she lost to Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. Giorgi fell in the final round of qualifying at the French Open to Heidi El Tabakh, in three sets.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi qualified for the Wimbledon Championships for the second year in a row defeating Emily Webley-Smith, Olivia Rogowska, and Alexa Glatch. In the first round, she beat 16th seed and compatriot Flavia Pennetta. Then she defeated Anna Tatishvili 6–3, 6–1, and in the third round 20th seed Nadia Petrova, 6–3, 7–6, to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. However, Giorgi's Wimbledon run came to an end when she lost in the fourth round to third seed and eventual finalist, Agnieszka Radwańska, 2–6, 3–6.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In June, it was reported that Giorgi was considering immigrating to Israel to play on the Israel Federation Cup team. Raphael Gellar of Israel Sports Radio said that "based on her ranking ... [she] would automatically ... [be] second on the team following Shahar Pe'er."


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi began US Open Series by playing at the Carlsbad Open. As the top seed in qualifying, she lost in the first round to Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. Giorgi then received a wildcard to compete at the Washington Open. She was defeated in the first round by Irina Falconi, in three sets. Playing as a wildcard at the Cincinnati Open, Giorgi beat 14th seed and compatriot Francesca Schiavone in the first round, 6–1, 6–3. In the second round, she lost to wildcard Sloane Stephens, in straight sets.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: While ailing from a shoulder injury, Giorgi lost in the first round in Brisbane, Sydney, and at the Australian Open. Her first win came in April in Charleston, where she reached the second round but lost in straight sets to Serena Williams. Giorgi qualified for the main draw in Madrid, but lost in the first round to Nadia Petrova, in three sets. Two weeks later, Giorgi stunned world No. 13, Marion Bartoli, in the first round in Strasbourg, but lost in the second round to Eugenie Bouchard.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the French Open, Giorgi lost again in the first round. Former top-15 player Peng Shuai defeated her in two sets. At Wimbledon, Giorgi got to the third round, beating British wildcard Samantha Murray, in straight sets, and then-Romanian No. 1, Sorana Cîrstea. However, she lost in straight sets in the third round to eventual champion Marion Bartoli.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the US Open, Giorgi had one of the biggest upsets of her career, defeating former world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, in three sets. She subsequently lost to compatriot Roberta Vinci in the fourth round.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi competed at the Australian Open, where she reached for the first time the second round beating Australian wildcard Storm Sanders, in three sets. She lost in the next round to Alizé Cornet, despite a 4–1 lead in the deciding set. In February, Giorgi competed for the first time in the Fed Cup. She defeated Madison Keys, and Italy went on to defeat the US team 3–1.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In March, Giorgi qualified for the main draw in Indian Wells where she beat Andrea Petkovic, Sorana Cîrstea, and former world No. 1, Maria Sharapova. With this victory, she improved her record to 3–2 lifetime against top-10 opponents. She lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Flavia Pennetta.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In April at the Katowice Open, she defeated defending champion Roberta Vinci, Shahar Pe'er, and Carla Suárez Navarro to reach the final, which she lost to Alizé Cornet in three sets, after holding a match point at 5–4 in the third. In Rome, Giorgi defeated top-10 player Dominika Cibulková in the first round but lost to Christina McHale, after winning the first set. Giorgi finally beat Alizé Cornet who was the second seed in Strasbourg, after losing two significant matches to her. At the French Open, Giorgi defeated Bojana Jovanovski in the first round but lost to 2009 champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the second.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi competed in Eastbourne, beating Victoria Azarenka in the first round before going down to Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, she lost in the second round to Alison Riske. She reached the quarterfinals in Bad Gastein and then lost in the first round at the following three tournaments. Giorgi made a good run in New Haven, defeating Wozniacki who would finish summer hard-court season with 19–4 and Garbiñe Muguruza, before losing in the semifinal to Magdaléna Rybáriková. She was upset early in the US Open, however, losing to a ranked 221 in the world, Anastasia Rodionova, after serving for the match in the second set.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi lost in the opening rounds in Wuhan and Beijing to Elina Svitolina and Lucie Šafářová, respectively. She broke her series of losses in Linz defeating Andrea Petkovic for the third time in the season. Then she advanced to her second WTA career final without losing a set, but lost to Karolína Plíšková in three sets, again after holding a match point on the opponent's serve. The Italian ended the season reaching the quarterfinals in Moscow where she defeated the third seed Flavia Pennetta for the second time in her career before losing to Kateřina Siniaková in over three hours. Giorgi finished the season with 8–3 record against top-20 players and reached a career-high ranking of No. 31 before the US Open.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi started 2015 by playing at the Hobart International. Seeded third, she reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Kurumi Nara. At the Australian Open, she upset 12th seed Flavia Pennetta in the first round. She ended up getting defeated in the third round by 18th seed Venus Williams, despite serving for the match in the second set.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Playing in the Fed Cup tie against France, Giorgi beat Alizé Cornet to give Italy a 2–0 lead against France, however, she lost her second match to Caroline Garcia. Italy later lost the tie being the first-ever team to lose after a 2–0 lead at the World Group stage. At the Diamond Games, she was defeated in the first round by fifth seed and eventual finalist, Carla Suárez Navarro. In Dubai, she lost her second-round match to 13th seed Carla Suárez Navarro. Seeded 29th at the Indian Wells Masters, she was defeated in the second round by Heather Watson. Seeded 30th at the Miami Open, she made it to the third round where she lost to third seed Simona Halep. Seeded third at the Katowice Open, she reached her second consecutive final by defeating top seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the semifinals. In the final, however, she fell to eighth seed Anna Karolína Schmiedlová.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Playing in the Fed Cup tie for Italy against the USA, Giorgi played one rubber and lost to Serena Williams. Despite the loss, Italy still beat the USA 3-2. Seeded eighth at the J&T Banka Prague Open, she was defeated in the first round by Yanina Wickmayer. In Madrid, she lost in the first round to Tsvetana Pironkova. At the Italian Open, she was defeated in her first-round match by 16th seed and two-time champion, Jelena Janković. She lost in the second round at the French Open to 21st seed Garbiñe Muguruza.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi returned to form at the start of the grass-court season, claiming her first WTA Tour title at the Topshelf Open in Rosmalen, defeating Irina Falconi, Dutch wildcard Michaëlla Krajicek, Yaroslava Shvedova in the quarterfinals where Giorgi saved three match points in the final set tie-break, home favorite Kiki Bertens in the semifinals and Belinda Bencic in the final. At the Wimbledon Championships, Giorgi was the No. 31 seed and defeated Teliana Pereira and Lara Arruabarrena in the first and second rounds, respectively, then lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the third round.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi kicked off season at the Brisbane International where she lost in the first round to fourth seed and eventual finalist, Angelique Kerber. Seeded second at the Hobart International, she reached the quarterfinals where she was defeated by eventual finalist, Eugenie Bouchard. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round to top seed Serena Williams.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi began the 2017 season at the Shenzhen Open. She made it to the semifinals where she lost to eighth seed, last year finalist, and eventual finalist, Alison Riske. At the Australian Open, she was defeated in the first round by 12th seed Timea Bacsinszky.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi retired during her final round of qualifying match at the Qatar Open to Lauren Davis. In March, she played at the Indian Wells Masters. She lost in the opening round to Johanna Larsson.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Starting her clay-court season at the first edition of the Ladies Open Biel Bienne, Giorgi made it to the quarterfinals where she was defeated by qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. In Stuttgart, she fell in the first round of qualifying to Dinah Pfizenmaier. At the J&T Banka Prague Open, Giorgi upset top seed and 2015 champion Karolína Plíšková in the first round. She ended up losing in the quarterfinals to qualifier and eventual champion Mona Barthel. Getting past qualifying at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, she was defeated in the second round by fellow qualifier Ashleigh Barty. Giorgi lost in the first round of the French Open to Océane Dodin.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Competing in s-Hertogenbosch, Giorgi was defeated in the second round by Carina Witthöft. Making it past qualifying at the Aegon Classic, she upset second seed Elina Svitolina in the second round. She retired in her quarterfinals match against Ashleigh Barty due to a right thigh injury. At the Wimbledon, Giorgi reached the third round where she lost to 13th seed and French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In Washington D.C., Giorgi was defeated in the first round by Canadian wildcard Bianca Andreescu. At the Rogers Cup, she lost in the final round of qualifying to Sorana Cîrstea. Getting past qualifying in Cincinnati, she reached the third round where she fell to top seed and defending champion, Karolína Plíšková. At the US Open, she was defeated in the first round by 31st seed Magdaléna Rybáriková.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the Shenzhen Open, she lost in the first round to Ana Bogdan. Getting through qualifying at the Sydney International, she reached the semifinal where she was defeated by eventual champion Angelique Kerber. At the Australian Open, Giorgi lost in the second round to 18th seed Ashleigh Barty.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In Dubai, she retired from her second round of qualifying match against Sofya Zhuk due to a left thigh injury. Giorgi returned to action in March at the Miami Open. She was defeated in the first round by Donna Vekić.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi began clay-court season at the Charleston Open where she lost in the third round to seventh seed Madison Keys. At the Ladies Open Lugano, she was defeated in her third-round match by eventual finalist Aryna Sabalenka. In Prague, Giorgi made it to the semifinals where she lost to eventual finalist Mihaela Buzărnescu. Playing in Rome, she was defeated in the final round of qualifying by Danielle Collins. At the French Open, Giorgi reached the third round where she lost to tenth seed and eventual finalist, Sloane Stephens.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Starting grass-court season seeded eighth at the Nottingham Open, Giorgi was defeated in the first round by Dalila Jakupović. At the Birmingham Classic, she lost in the second round of qualifying to Océane Dodin. In Eastbourne, she was defeated in the second round by top seed, last year finalist, and eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki. At the Wimbledon Championships, Giorgi advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in her career where she lost to former world No. 1, six-time Wimbledon champion, and eventual finalist Serena Williams.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In August, Giorgi competed at the Cincinnati Open. Despite falling in the final round of qualifying to Viktória Kužmová, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser. She reached the second round where she was defeated by 13th seed Madison Keys. Getting through qualifying at the Connecticut Open, Giorgi lost in the second round to lucky loser Belinda Bencic. At the US Open, she was defeated in the second round by 16th seed and two-time US Open champion, Venus Williams.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: The week of September 17 saw Giorgi playing at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She stunned top seed and two-time defending champion Caroline Wozniacki in her second-round match. She ended up losing in the semifinals to third seed and eventual finalist, Naomi Osaka. In Wuhan, Giorgi was defeated in the first round by Aleksandra Krunić. Seeded fifth at the Linz Open, Giorgi won her second WTA career title beating qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final. Her final tournament of the season was supposed to be at the Luxembourg Open, but she withdrew due to a right foot injury.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi was supposed to start her season in Brisbane, but she pulled out of the tournament. Instead, her year began at Sydney. Despite reaching the semifinals last year, she lost in the second round to second seed and defending champion, Angelique Kerber. Seeded 27th at the Australian Open, she was defeated in the third round by seventh seed Karolína Plíšková.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Playing in the Fed Cup tie versus Switzerland, Giorgi lost both of her rubbers to Viktorija Golubic and Belinda Bencic. Switzerland won the tie 3-1 over Italy. At the Qatar Open, she was defeated in the first round by fifth seed Kiki Bertens. She missed the Dubai Championships and the Indian Wells Open due to injury. She returned to action at the Miami Open. Seeded 29th, she lost in the second round to Tatjana Maria.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi missed the clay-court season including the French Open due to unknown circumstances. She returned to the tour in June at the Eastbourne International where she was defeated in the first round by Hsieh Su-wei. At Wimbledon, she lost in the first round to Dayana Yastremska.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Two weeks after Wimbledon, Giorgi played at the Washington Open where she reached the final and was defeated by Jessica Pegula. At the Rogers Cup, she lost in the first round to Victoria Azarenka. Playing in Cincinnati, she was defeated in the first round by Maria Sakkari.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the first edition of the Bronx Open, she reached her second final of the season where she lost to qualifier Magda Linette. At the US Open, she suffered a first-round defeat again at the hands of 30th seed Maria Sakkari.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In Tokyo, Giorgi advanced to the quarterfinals where she lost to ninth seed Elise Mertens. At the Wuhan Open, she retired from her first-round match against lucky loser Rebecca Peterson due to a right wrist injury. Seeded sixth at the Luxembourg Open, she was defeated in the first round by Andrea Petkovic. She competed in her final tournament of the year at the Open de Limoges where she lost in the first round to Liudmila Samsonova.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi began the season at the Auckland Open. Getting through the qualifying rounds, she lost in the first round to top seed and eventual champion, Serena Williams. At the Hobart International, she was defeated in the final round of qualifying by Kateryna Kozlova.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In Melbourne, she reached the third round for a second year in a row where she lost to 17th seed and 2016 champion, Angelique Kerber.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: During the Fed Cup tie versus Croatia, Giorgi played one rubber and defeated Jana Fett. Italy won the tie 2-0. Playing in Dubai, she was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Julia Görges. At Doha, she lost in the final round of qualifying to Bernarda Pera. Competing at the first edition of the Lyon Open, Giorgi made it to the quarterfinals where she fell to seventh seed Daria Kasatkina.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: The WTA Tour suspended and canceled tournaments from the rest of March through July, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the tour resumed tournaments in August, Giorgi competed at the Internazionali di Palermo. She reached the semifinals where she was defeated by Fiona Ferro. In Prague, she lost in the second round to third seed and eventual finalist Elise Mertens. Giorgi was defeated in the second round of the US Open by fourth seed, 2018 champion, and eventual champion, Naomi Osaka.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: After the US Open, Giorgi played at the Italian Open. She lost in the first round to Dayana Yastremska. At the French Open, she retired during her first-round match against qualifier and compatriot Martina Trevisan. Her final tournament of the year was the Linz Open where she was defeated in the second round by sixth seed Nadia Podoroska.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi started her year off at the first edition of the Yarra Valley Classic. However, she retired during her second-round match against second seed Sofia Kenin due to a left thigh injury. At the Australian Open, she lost in the second round to 15th seed Iga Świątek.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: In March, Giorgi competed at the Lyon Open. She reached the quarterfinals where she was defeated by qualifier and eventual champion, Clara Tauson. At the Miami Open, she lost in the first round to qualifier Liudmila Samsonova.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi withdrew from the Charleston Open, and the Fed Cup tie against Romania due to testing positive for Covid-19. She returned to action in May by playing at the Italian Open. She was defeated in a 3-hour and 51-minute first-round match by Sara Sorribes Tormo. At the first edition of the Emilia-Romagna Open, she lost in the second round to third seed and eventual champion, Coco Gauff. At the French Open, she beat 22nd seed Petra Martić in the first round. She was defeated in the second round by Varvara Gracheva.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Starting her grass-court season at the Birmingham Classic, Giorgi lost in the second round to third seed Donna Vekić. Getting past qualifying at the Eastbourne International, she upset fifth seed and 2019 champion, Karolína Plíšková, in the first round. She then stunned top seed and 2018 finalist, Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals. She retired during her semifinal match against Anett Kontaveit due to a left thigh injury. At Wimbledon, she was defeated in the second round by 19th seed Karolína Muchová. Seeded fourth at the Ladies Open Lausanne, Giorgi lost in the second round to Zarina Diyas.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Representing Italy at the Tokyo Olympics, she beat fifth seed Karolína Plíšková for the second time this year in the third round. She was defeated in the quarterfinals by fourth seed and eventual bronze medalist, Elina Svitolina.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the Canada Masters in Montreal, she reached unseeded her first WTA 1000 and biggest final of her career having never passed previously beyond the fourth round at any tournament at this level. She eliminated three top-25 players en route, No. 9 seed Elise Mertens in the first round, No. 7 seed Petra Kvitova in the round of 16, No. 15 seed Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals, and Jessica Pegula in the semifinals. In the final, she defeated world No. 6, Karolína Plíšková, to win her first WTA 1000 title, the biggest title of her career, becoming the lowest-ranked champion in Canada since No. 80-ranked Serena Williams took the title in 2011. With this successful run she returned to the top 40 in the WTA singles rankings, raising close to 40 spots in the rankings from 71 to world No. 33, on 16 August 2021.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: She returned to the top 30 in the rankings on 31 January 2022, following a third round showing for the fourth time in her career at the 2022 Australian Open, where she lost to top seed and eventual champion Ash Barty.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the 2022 French Open she defeated 7th seed Aryna Sabalenka to reach the fourth round for the first time at this Major. She won five of her last seven matches against top-10 players.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: At the 2022 Eastbourne International she reached back-to-back quarterfinals having done so at the 2022 Birmingham Classic the previous week, defeating 5th seed Garbine Muguruza for her 15th top-10 win and second of 2022 after Sabalenka.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi is a baseline player, who has a highly aggressive playing style. She likes to take the ball early on the rise, and possesses powerful, flat groundstrokes. Her strongest groundstroke is her two-handed backhand, with which she can hit winners from any position on the court. She hits the ball with relentless power, and is known to be one of the hardest hitters on the tour. She frequently utilizes aggressive serve-forehand combinations to finish points quickly. Giorgi aims to generate extreme angles with both her forehand and backhand, to surprise baseline opponents and hit winners with ease. She is known for her tendency to aim for the lines, which means that she accumulates significant numbers of both winners and unforced errors in any match. Unlike the rest of her game, her serve is known for its inconsistency: she has a tendency to take risks on her second serve, leading to a relatively high double fault count. In 2015, Giorgi served the most double faults recorded in WTA history, at 458. She regularly hits deep returns, and takes the ball early while receiving, allowing her to hit a significant number of return winners. In an article for "LiveTennis.com", Nicholas Walz commented on Giorgi's game, saying: "Her play is often too erratic – she followed her result in Indian Wells [defeating No. 4 seed, Maria Sharapova] by losing in the Miami Open qualifying [two weeks later] to Zarina Diyas." Her preferred surfaces are fast hard and grass courts.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: Giorgi wears custom-made clothes, designed by her mother (brand: Giomila). Up to 2021, Giorgi used Babolat racquets, specifically using the Pure Storm model, and later the Pure Strike model. In 2021, Giorgi switched companies and began to use the Yonex VCORE 100.


title: Camila Giorgi

text: "Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup, and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records."


title: Camila Giorgi

text: "Giorgi's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10. Active players are in boldface."


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexican Spanish () is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in any other country in the world. Spanish is spoken by just over 99.2% of the population, being the mother tongue of 93.8% and the second language of 5.4%.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The territory of contemporary Mexico is not coextensive with what might be termed Mexican Spanish. The Spanish spoken in the southernmost state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, resembles the variety of Central American Spanish spoken in that country, where is used. Meanwhile, to the north, many Mexicans stayed in Texas after its independence from Mexico. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo many Mexicans remained in the territory ceded to the U.S., and their descendants have continued to speak Spanish within their communities in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. In addition, the waves of 19th- and 20th-century migration from Mexico to the United States (mostly to the formerly Mexican area of the Southwest) have contributed greatly to making Mexican Spanish the most widely spoken variety of Spanish in the United States. The Spanish spoken in the Gulf coastal areas of Veracruz and Tabasco and in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo exhibits more Caribbean phonetic traits than that spoken in the rest of Mexico. And the Spanish of the Yucatán Peninsula is distinct from all other forms in its intonation and in the incorporation of Mayan words.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The First Mexican Empire comprised what is present-day El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, aside from the mentioned present states of United States; thus dialects of Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Honduran, New Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran Spanish were originally included in the dialects of Mexican Spanish.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Regarding the evolution of the Spanish spoken in Mexico, the Swedish linguist points out that in Central Mexican Spanish—unlike most varieties in the other Spanish-speaking countries—the vowels lose strength, while consonants are fully pronounced. Malmberg attributes this to a Nahuatl substratum, as part of a broader cultural phenomenon that preserves aspects of indigenous culture through place names of Nahuatl origin, statues that commemorate Aztec rulers, etc. The Mexican linguist , however, finds similar weakening of vowels in regions of several other Spanish-speaking countries; he also finds no similarity between the vowel behavior of Nahuatl and that of Central Mexican Spanish; and thirdly, he finds Nahuatl syllable structure no more complex than that of Spanish. Furthermore, Nahuatl is not alone as a possible influence, as there are currently more than 90 native languages spoken in Mexico, and they all contribute to the diversity of accents found throughout the country. For example, the intonation of some varieties of Mexican Spanish is said to be influenced by that of indigenous languages, including some which are tone languages (e.g. Zapotec). The tonal patterns and overlengthening of the vowels in some forms of Mexican Spanish were particularly strong among mestizos who spoke one of the native Mexican languages as their first language and Spanish as a second language, and it continues so today.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Due to influence from indigenous languages, such as Nahuatl, Mexican Spanish has incorporated many words containing the sequences and , corresponding to the voiceless alveolar affricate and the voiceless alveolar "lateral" affricate , present in many indigenous languages of Mexico, as in the words ('hardware store') and ('from [the city of] Coatzacoalcos').


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexican Spanish always pronounces the and in such a sequence in the same syllable, a trait shared with the Spanish of the rest of Latin America, that of the Canary Islands, and the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, including Bilbao and Galicia. This includes words of Greek and Latin origin with such as and . In contrast, in most of Spain, the would form part of the previous syllable's coda, and be subject to weakening, as in , .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Some claim that in Mexican Spanish, the sequence is really a single phoneme, the same as the lateral affricate of Nahuatl. On the other hand, José Ignacio Hualde and Patricio Carrasco argue that is best analyzed as an onset cluster on the basis that Mexicans take the same amount of time to pronounce as they do to pronounce and . They predicted that if were a single segmented, it would have been pronounced quicker than the other clusters.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: In addition to the usual voiceless fricatives of other American Spanish dialects (, , ), Mexican Spanish also has the palatal sibilant , mostly in words from indigenous languages—especially place names. The , represented orthographically as , is commonly found in words of Nahuatl or Mayan origin, such as (a station in the Mexico City Metro). The spelling can additionally represent the phoneme (also mostly in place names), as in itself (); or , as in the place name Xochimilco—as well as the sequence (in words of Greco-Latin origin, such as ), which is common to all varieties of Spanish. In many Nahuatl words in which originally represented , the pronunciation has changed to (or )—e.g. .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Regarding the pronunciation of the phoneme , the articulation in most of Mexico is velar , as in ('box'). However, in some (but not all) dialects of southern Mexico, the normal articulation is glottal (as it is in most dialects of the Caribbean, the Pacific Coast, the Canary Islands, and most of Andalusia and Extremadura in Spain). Thus, in these dialects, , and are respectively pronounced , , and . In dialects of Oaxaca, much of Chiapas and the southern Highland and interior regions, the pronunciation of is uvular . This is identical to the Mayan pronunciation of the dorsal fricative which, unlike the Spanish romanization , in Mayan languages is commonly represented orthographically by . (In Spanish spelling before the 16th century, the letter represented ; historical shifts have moved this articulation to the back of the mouth in all varieties of the language except Judaeo-Spanish.)


title: Mexican Spanish

text: In Northern Western Mexican Spanish, Peninsular Oriental, Oaxaqueño, rural Michoacano and in eastern variants influenced by Mayan languages, , represented by , tends to be deaffricated to , a phonetic feature typical of both Mayan languages and southwestern Andalusian Spanish dialects.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: All varieties of Mexican Spanish are characterized by yeísmo: the letters and correspond to the same phoneme, . That phoneme, in most variants of Mexican Spanish, is pronounced as either a palatal fricative or an approximant in most cases, although after a pause it is instead realized as an affricate .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: In the north and in rural Michoacan, is consistently rendered as an approximant and may even be elided when between vowels and in contact with or , as in 'hen', 'chair, 'seal'.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: As in all American dialects of Spanish, Mexican Spanish has seseo ( is not distinguished from ). Thus, 'house' and 'hunt' are homophones.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Also present in most of the interior of Mexico is the preservation (absence of debuccalization) of syllable-final ; this, combined with frequent unstressed vowel reduction, gives the sibilant a special prominence. This situation contrasts with that in the coastal areas, on both the Pacific and the Gulf Coastal sides, where the weakening or debuccalization of syllable-final is a sociolinguistic marker, reflecting the tension between the Mexico City norm and the historical tendency towards consonantal weakening characteristic of coastal areas in Spanish America. Dialects of both the Pacific and the Gulf Coast have received more influences from Andalusian and Canarian Spanish dialects.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Despite the general lack of s-aspiration, is often elided before or in the interior of Mexico. In rural Chihuahua, Sonora, and Sinaloa, aspiration of syllable-initial /s/ occurs.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: There is a set of voiced obstruents—, , , and sometimes —which alternate between approximant and plosive allophones depending on the environment.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Speakers from the Yucatan, especially men or those who are older, often pronounce the voiceless stops with aspiration.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Like most Spanish dialects and varieties, Mexican Spanish has five vowels: close unrounded front , close rounded back , mid unrounded front , mid rounded back , and open unrounded .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: A striking feature of Mexican Spanish, particularly that of central Mexico, is the high rate of reduction and even elision of unstressed vowels, as in (, 'cooking utensils'). This process is most frequent when a vowel is in contact with the phoneme , so that + vowel + is the construction when the vowel is most frequently affected. It can be the case that the words , , and are pronounced the same . The vowels are slightly less frequently reduced or eliminated in the constructions + vowel + , so that the words , , and may also be pronounced the same .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexican Spanish is a form of the language (i.e. using and its traditional verb forms for the familiar second person singular). The traditional familiar second person "plural" pronoun —in colloquial use only in Spain—is found in Mexico only in certain archaic texts and ceremonial language. However, since it is used in many Spanish-language Bibles throughout the country, most Mexicans are familiar with the form and understand it. An instance of it is found in the national anthem, which all Mexicans learn to sing: .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexicans tend to use the polite personal pronoun in the majority of social situations, especially in Northern Mexico. In the north, children even address their parents with .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Central Mexico is noted for the frequent use of diminutive suffixes with many nouns, adverbs, and adjectives, even where no semantic diminution of size or intensity is implied. Most frequent is the suffix, which replaces the final vowel on words that have one. Words ending with "-n" use the suffix . Use of the diminutive does not necessarily denote small size, but rather often implies an affectionate attitude; thus one may speak of "" ('a nice, big house').


title: Mexican Spanish

text: When the diminutive suffix is applied to an adjective, often a near-equivalent idea can be expressed in English by "nice and [adjective]". So, for example, a mattress () described as might be "nice and soft", while calling it might be heard to mean "too soft".


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Frequent use of the diminutive is found across all socioeconomic classes, but its "excessive" use is commonly associated with lower-class speech.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: In rural areas of Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Tlaxcala, many people use a number of distinct non-standard morphological forms: 2nd person preterite verb forms ending in , imperfect forms such as instead of 'brought, believed', a merger of and verb conjugations such that 'we live' is instead of , verb roots other than with non-standard such as 'I believe' for , an accent shift in the first person plural subjunctive forms instead of 'we go', and a shift from to in proparoxytonic third person singular verb forms ( instead of 'we sing').


title: Mexican Spanish

text: These same verb forms are also found in the traditional Spanish of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: In some regions of Mexico, the diminutive suffix is also used to form affectives to express politeness or submission (, literally "little coffee"; , literally "little head"; "little boy"), and is attached to names (, from ; , from —cf. Eng. ) denoting affection. In the northern parts of the country, the suffix is often replaced in informal situations by (, , , ).


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The augmentative suffix is typically used in Mexico to make nouns larger, more powerful, etc. For example, the word , in Mexico, means ; the suffixed form means "big or long bus". It can be repeated just as in the case of the suffixes and ; therefore means .


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The suffix or and its feminine counterparts and respectively, are used as a disparaging form of a noun; for example, the word , meaning "house", can be modified with that suffix () to change the word's meaning to make it disparaging, and sometimes offensive; so the word often refers to a shanty, hut or hovel. The word ("wood") can take the suffix () to mean "rotten, ugly wood".


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Other suffixes include, but are not limited to: as in , which refers to a very impressive car () such as a Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz; , for example , meaning "big-nosed" ( = "nose"), or , a female with large feet ().


title: Mexican Spanish

text: It is common to replace with to form diminutives, e.g. → , → "Chema", ("beer") → , , → , ("without molars") → ("toothless"). This is common in, but not exclusive to, Mexican Spanish.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Typical of Mexican Spanish is an ellipsis of the negative particle in a main clause introduced by an adverbial clause with :


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexico shares with many other areas of Spanish America the use of interrogative in conjunction with the quantifier :


title: Mexican Spanish

text: It has been suggested that there is influence of indigenous languages on the syntax of Mexican Spanish (as well as that of other areas in the Americas), manifested, for example, in the redundant use of verbal clitics, particularly . This is more common among bilinguals or in isolated rural areas.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexican Spanish, like that of many other parts of the Americas, prefers the preposition in expressions of time spans, as in


title: Mexican Spanish

text: A more or less recent phenomenon in the speech of central Mexico, having its apparent origin in the State of Mexico, is the use of negation in an unmarked yes/no question. Thus, in place of "" (Would you like...?), there is a tendency to ask "" (Wouldn't you like...?).


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Also, there are a number of words widely used in Mexico which have Nahuatl, Mayan or other native origins, in particular names for flora, fauna and toponyms. Some of these words are used in most, or all, Spanish-speaking countries, like and ("avocado"), and some are only used in Mexico. The latter include "turkey" < Nahuatl (although is also used, as in other Spanish-speaking countries); "kite" < Nahuatl "butterfly"; and "tomato" < Nahuatl . For a more complete list see List of Spanish words of Nahuatl origin.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Most of the words above are considered informal (e.g. , , , etc.), rude (, , , etc.) or vulgar (e.g. , , ) and are limited to slang use among friends or in informal settings; foreigners need to exercise caution in their use. In 2009, at an audience for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Mexico and the Netherlands, the then Crown Prince of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, made a statement to the audience with a word which, in Mexican Spanish, is considered very vulgar. Evidently oblivious to the word's different connotations in different countries, the prince's Argentine interpreter used the word as the ending to the familiar Mexican proverb "" (A sleeping shrimp is carried away by the tide), without realizing the vulgarity associated with the word in Mexico. The prince, also unaware of the differences, proceeded to say the word, to the bemusement and offense of some of the attendees.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: New Mexico Spanish has many similarities with an older version of Mexican Spanish, and can be considered part of a Mexican Spanish "macro-dialect".


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The small amount of Spanish spoken in the Philippines has traditionally been influenced by Mexican Spanish. (The territory was initially administered for the Spanish crown by Mexico City and later directly from Madrid.) Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language in the Philippines, is based on Mexican Spanish. To outsiders, the accents of nearby Spanish-speaking countries in northern Central America, such as El Salvador and Guatemala, might sound similar to those spoken in Mexico, especially in central and southern Mexico.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The Spanish of Mexico has had various indigenous languages as a linguistic substrate. Particularly significant has been the influence of Nahuatl, especially in the lexicon. However, while in the vocabulary its influence is undeniable, it is hardly felt in the grammar field. In the lexicon, in addition to the words that originated from Mexico with which the Spanish language has been enriched, such as "tomato," "rubber," "chalk," "chocolate," "coyote," "flask," et cetera; the Spanish of Mexico has many Nahuatlismos that confer a lexical personality of its own. It can happen that the Nahuatl word coexists with the Spanish word, as in the cases of "buddy" and "friend," "turkey" and "turkey," "kid" and "boy," "rope" and "rope," etc. On other occasions, the indigenous word differs slightly from the Spanish, as in the case of , which is another type of sandal; , hardware store, , a stone mortar, etc. Other times, the Nahuatl word has almost completely displaced the Spanish, "owl," "cornflour drink," "straw," "cornfield," "green bean," "shack," "kite," etc. There are many "words of indigenous origin" who designate Mexican realities for which there is no Spanish word; "mesquite," "sapota," "jicama," "ixtle," "mockingbird," "husk," , , "crate," "hotplate," "embroidered blouse," "stone for grinding," etc. The strength of the Nahuatl substrate influence is felt less each day, since there are no new contributions.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The influence of Nahuatl on phonology seems restricted to the monosyllabic pronunciation of digraphs -tz- and -tl- (Mexico: / Spain : ), and to the various pronunciations of the letter -x-, coming to represent the sounds ', ', ', ' and . In the grammar, one can cite as influence of Nahuatl the extensive use of diminutives: The most common Spanish diminutive suffix is . English examples are –y in doggy or -let in booklet. It can also be cited as influence of Nahuatl the use of the suffix -Le to give an emphatic character to the imperative. For example: "jump" -> "jump," "eat" -> "eat," "go/proceed" -> "go/proceed," etc. This suffix is considered to be a crossover of the Spanish indirect object pronoun -le with the Nahua excitable interjections, such as "strain." However, this suffix is not a real pronoun of indirect object, since it is still used in non-verbal constructions, such as "son" -> "damn," "now" -> "wow,""" "what's up?" -> "how's it going?," etc.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Although the suffix -le hypothesis as influence of Nahuatl has been widely questioned; Navarro Ibarra (2009) finds another explanation about -le intensifying character. The author warns that it is a defective dative clitic; instead of working as an indirect object pronoun, it modifies the verb. An effect of the modification is the intransitive of the transitive verbs that appear with this -le defective (ex. "to move" it is not "to move something for someone" but "to make the action of moving"). This intensifier use is a particular grammatical feature of the Mexican Spanish variant. In any case, it should not be confused the use of -le as verbal modifier, with the different uses of the pronouns of indirect object (dative) in the classical Spanish, as these are thoroughly used to indicate in particular the case genitive and the ethical dative. In what is considered one of the founding documents of the Spanish language, the poem of Mio Cid written around the year 1200, you can already find various examples of dative possessive or ethical.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: Mexico has a border of more than 2,500 kilometers with the United States, and receives major influxes of American and Canadian tourists every year. More than 63% of the 57 million Latinos in the United States are assumed as of Mexican origin. English is the most studied foreign language in Mexico, and the third most spoken after Spanish and the native languages taken together. Given these circumstances, anglicisms in Mexican Spanish are continuously increasing (as they are also in the rest of the Americas and Spain), including "to film", "baseball", "club", "cocktail", "leader", "check", "sandwich", etc. Mexican Spanish also uses other anglicisms that are not used in all Spanish-speaking countries, including , , , , "to check", "folder", "overalls", "referee", "lunch bag", "closet", "maple syrup", , etc.


title: Mexican Spanish

text: The center of Hispanic Linguistics of UNAM carried out a number of surveys in the project of coordinated study of the cultured linguistic norms of major cities of Ibero-America and of the Iberian Peninsula. The total number of anglicisms was about 4% among Mexican speakers of urban norms. However, this figure includes anglicisms that permeated general Spanish long ago and which are not particular to Mexico, such as buffete, "nylon", "dollar", hockey, , "rum", "railroad car", "buffer", and others.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, involves claims of an alleged conspiracy that there was an organised attempt to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Tahir Alam, former chairman of the Park View Educational Trust which ran three schools in Birmingham, was alleged to have written a 72-page document for the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007 detailing a blueprint for the "Islamisation" of secular state schools, a claim that has been widely debunked. This document provided guidance about the religious needs and practices of Muslim parents and pupils that would facilitate their integration into schools. It was entitled "Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. Information and Guidance for Schools" and is available as an appendix to the Kershaw Report. The introduction of the document states that the "purpose is to promote greater understanding of the faith, religious and cultural needs of Muslim pupils and how they can be accommodated within schools. It also provides useful information and guidance and features of good practice in meeting those needs."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The government's Department for Education initially responded to the scandal by banning Alam and 14 other teachers from the teaching profession for life in 2015. Alam remains banned from any involvement with schools, while the bans against 14 other teachers were eventually overturned, dropped and/or dismissed in courts between 2016 and 2017. The allegations against the teachers were set out in the press and in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports. The teachers were barred from responding to the allegations due to confidentiality orders as part of their employment contracts that were binding also after the suspension. The first opportunity to put their case came when professional misconduct cases were brought against them by the National College of Teaching and Learning (an independent agency of the Department for Education, now replaced by the Teaching Regulation Agency) in October 2015 and May 2017 when the case against the senior teachers collapsed because of "serious improprieties" by the legal team acting for the NCTL.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In January 2022, "The New York Times" released an investigative podcast about the Trojan Horse scandal which characterized it as an "Islamophobic hoax" and compared it to "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a historical antisemitic hoax. In the podcast, the link between the Trojan Horse letter and the Headteacher of Adderley Primary School in Birmingham, Rizwana Darr, is explored and it is alleged that Darr is the real author of the Trojan Horse letter.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In December 2022 a politicised report from the right wing and conservative Policy Exchange think tank challenged the findings of the New York Times podcast and suggested that various reports into the matter had uncovered real causes for concern. The report does not offer any evidence to support this claim.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted inspections were undertaken into 21 schools in Birmingham, with the Education Funding Agency (responsible for academy schools) also investigating Park View Education Trust and Oldknow Academy. Ofsted said it had found evidence of an organised campaign to target certain schools by Islamists and that head teachers had been "marginalised or forced out of their jobs". Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School, Park View School – all run by the Park View Educational Trust – Oldknow Academy and Saltley School were placed in special measures after inspectors found systemic failings including the schools having failed to take adequate steps to safeguard pupils against extremism. Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures. A sixth school was labelled inadequate for its poor educational standards and twelve schools were found needing of improvements. Three schools were commended. Ofsted subsequently expanded their investigation into schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw accused Birmingham City Council of a "serious failure" in supporting schools in protecting children from extremism. Its leader, Sir Albert Bore, said that the Council accepted the Ofsted findings that schools in the city were failing pupils. Birmingham City Council commissioned Ian Kershaw of Northern Education Trust in Newcastle to review the evidence. However, because some of the schools were academies under the responsibility of the Department for Education, the then Secretary of State, Michael Gove, commissioned a separate report by Peter Clarke, the former head of the Metropolitan police's counterterrorism command. The two inquiries shared evidence, with the Kershaw inquiry deferring matters of extremism to the Clarke inquiry. The latter found that there is "no evidence to suggest that there is a problem with governance generally" nor any "evidence of terrorism, radicalisation or violent extremism in the schools of concern in Birmingham", but said that there was "evidence that there are a number of people, associated with each other and in positions of influence in schools and governing bodies, who espouse, sympathise with or fail to challenge extremist views", and that there had been "co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained" attempts "by a number of associated individuals, to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos" into "a few schools in Birmingham". The report found that senior council officials and elected members were apparently aware of these issues, but dealt with them on a case-by-case basis rather than making "any serious attempt to see if there was a pattern", though it is not clear whether this was due to "community cohesion",


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: an "issue of education management", or appeasement. Birmingham City Council imposed a temporary freeze on the appointment of school governors after probes into Operation Trojan Horse were announced. After the Trojan Horse affair, this was replaced by a new duty to promote "fundamental British values".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that "protecting our children [was] one of the first duties of government" and convened an emergency meeting of the Extremism Taskforce and a ministerial meeting to discuss the affair. He announced proposals to send Ofsted to any school without warning, saying that the schools in question had been able to stage a "cover-up" previously. The government terminated its funding arrangement with three of the schools. In the wake of the findings, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, announced that all schools in the country will have to promote British values of tolerance and fairness and said that teachers will be banned from the profession if they allow extremists into schools.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: A number of governors and the Muslim Council of Britain dubbed the reaction of authorities to the plot a "witch-hunt". In protest of the investigations, Tahir Alam and several governors of affected schools resigned. As Holmwood and O'Toole show, neither the Kershaw Report nor the Clarke Report gave any attention to the schools improvement policies of Birmingham City Council or the Department for Education. This had been initiated by Sir Tim Brighouse, who had been Chief Education Officer in Birmingham between 1993 and 2002, and was highly critical of the 2014 Ofsted reports and the subsequent inquiries. This included a special concern with the achievement of pupils of Asian heritage, as set out in its "Asian heritage achievement action plan" of 19 December 2003. Indeed, neither the Kershaw Report, nor the Clarke Report asked the question of how a school could be taken over by governors and teachers. Under the academy schools programme, it could only be done with the active involvement of officials in the local authority (including over the transfer of assets to the new trust) and at the Department for Education and it would require an academically successful school to be the sponsor of 'failing' schools. Neither report addressed this, nor did they report any interviews with those officials and the minutes of the meetings that took place among senior leaders at the various schools.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The leaked letter on the alleged plot was reported by media including the BBC on 7 March 2014. The letter was alleged to have been written from Birmingham and sent to a contact in Bradford to expand the operation into that city. Its author described the plan as "totally invisible to the naked eye and [allowing] us to operate under the radar". In it, responsibility was claimed for installing a new headteacher at four schools in Birmingham, and it highlighted 12 others in the city which would be easy targets due to large Muslim attendance and poor inspection reports. It encouraged parents to complain about the school's leadership with false accusations of sex education, forced Christian prayer and mixed physical education, with the aim of obtaining a new leadership of Islamists. The letter described pressure being put on the head teacher at Regents Park school, a school judged to be outstanding and "planting the seed of her cheating". The school was one of those identified in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports, but no information about it was provided. The headteacher and deputy headteacher were subsequently found guilty at an NCTL hearing of falsifying SATS tests.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Of the schools mentioned by the letter, the account of Adderley Primary School was the more detailed, alleging that an employment dispute at Adderley was part of the Islamic plot's attempt to unseat the head teacher and install a conspirator with the same radical Islamification goals as the letter writers. West Midlands Police and the city council investigated whether the letter was a hoax and the plot had been concocted to support Adderley's school case at the employment tribunal. Four teacher assistants were suing the school for unfair dismissal after being forced out of the school with fake resignation letters signed in their names. Following a forensic report by a handwriting expert for the tribunal that strongly suggested the signatures were fraudulent, Birmingham City Council advised Adderley's leadership not to fight the claims and withdrew the usual indemnity granted to council-run schools. This audit report was later reportedly retracted by the council following the Trojan Horse letter, and has never been published. The New York Times podcast "The Trojan Horse Affair" uncovered this secret document that disproves one of the central allegations of the Trojan Horse letter, that there was a conspiracy against the headteacher of Adderley primary school.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The letter also encouraged getting academy status for successfully infiltrated schools, so as to have a curriculum independent of the local education authority.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: "The Times" described the letter as "a crude forgery", noting that "The document appears to show that the conspirators were working to remove a primary school headmistress who was actually dismissed 20 years ago". "The Guardian" and "The Independent" both stated that the letter is "widely regarded as a fake". However, both the Kershaw Report and the Clarke Report organised their inquiries in terms of the 5-step plan described in the letter and following the publication of their reports, Birmingham City's education commissioner Sir Mike Tomlinson stated his belief that what the letter described was happening "without a shadow of doubt".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The controversy started with a disclosure by a former teacher from Park View School, who was later named as Michael White. His complaints were published on 24 February 2014, whereas the 'trojan horse' letter was not sent to the press until 2 March 2014.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Based on interview and research in "The New York Times" podcast "Serial", the producers argue that most levels of government did not prioritise the identification of the letter's author. They say that the letter had disproportionate emphasis on events at Adderley Primary School and the letter's timing proved a boon to Adderley's head teacher, Rizwana Darr, in Adderley's contemporaneous employment dispute immediately after an internal audit report had referred the dispute at Adderley to the police, specifically recommending Darr be investigated.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: On 14 April, the City Council confirmed that it had received over 200 reports from parents and staff at 25 schools in Birmingham. Council leader Sir Albert Bore stated that his council had spoken to authorities in Bradford and Manchester, and said that there are "certainly issues in Bradford which have similarities with the issues being spoken about in Birmingham". Concerns have also been raised by the National Association of Head Teachers about schools in parts of East London and other "large cities around the country". Senior Department for Education sources have also been reported as claiming that coordinated attempts to undermine and supplant head teachers have occurred in Bradford, Manchester, and the London boroughs of Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Two anonymous members of staff at Park View School told BBC Radio 4 that school assemblies had praised Anwar al-Awlaki. Although the school describes itself as "multi-faith", there are claims that the Islamic call to prayer is broadcast to the entire school. A senior teacher told inspectors that the solution to all problems would be a global Caliphate under Sharia law.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Michael White, a former teacher at Park View School which was mentioned in the letter, told the BBC that the school's governing board had been "taken over by a Muslim sect" in 1993. He claims he was pressured to ban sex education and the teaching of non-Muslim religions, and was dismissed in 2003 after he told prospective teachers to question the governors.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In May 2014, the BBC reported that Tim Boyes, the former headteacher of Queensbridge School, had written anonymously to Birmingham City Council in 2010 to try to expose Operation Trojan Horse, and in June a former prospective school governor said that he had informed authorities of the conspiracy in 2008.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Reverend John Ray, OBE, and ex-head teacher of a school in Pakistan, resigned as a governor of Golden Hillock School after 25 years. He raised concerns about the governance of Golden Hillock 20 years ago stating that the Trojan horse plot "reveals something, something that is true". Reverend Ray claimed that in the 1990s, when John Major was Prime Minister, he made the government aware of Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir becoming involved at his school.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Bhupinder Kondal, principal at Oldknow Academy, stated in July 2014 after the publishing of the reports that she recognised the steps illustrated in the letter and that governors had been trying to undermine her since 2009, although the Local Education Authority would not support her. She also said, "It is not just an academy problem, this was happening before we became an academy."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In Bradford, teachers reported instances of governors imposing an Islamic ethos. The BBC reported on gender segregation at a state secondary school, Carlton Bolling College, during trips and after-school workshops, as well as boys-only school trips. The school has a largely Muslim governing body. In 2012, head teacher Chris Robinson resigned, having felt that her reputation, integrity and leadership were being questioned by governors.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The Educational Funding Authority, Ofsted, and Birmingham City Council agreed to investigate the letter, although West Midlands Police decided that it was not a matter for them. Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, said that "wider, more comprehensive action" was needed and appointed Peter Clarke, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer and ex-head of the Counter Terrorism Command. to lead the Department for Education analysis of "evidence of extremist infiltration in both academies and council-run schools".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted investigated in 21 schools in Birmingham in March 2014. The Education Funding Authority conducted a parallel investigation. Ofsted subsequently expanded their investigation into schools in the north and south-east of England. They investigated schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Birmingham City Council announced an investigation into the allegations, estimated to last six months. Ian Kershaw, Head of Northern Education Trust in Newcastle, was named as its full-time special adviser.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In May, Mark Rogers, Birmingham City Council's Chief Executive, had a meeting with head teachers of affected schools. Despite calling for secrecy, a hidden recording was sent to "The Daily Telegraph", in which Rogers criticised the approach to the conspiracy by Education Secretary Michael Gove and Chief Schools Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw. He said that the overview report on the matter could trigger "some kind of bloody firestorm" and "may well lead to significant structural proposals" for the city council. Birmingham City Council was already under investigation by Sir Bob Kerslake over problems of governance associated with financial management, looked after children, waste services and issues of equal pay for work of equal value. Kerslake deferred issues of education to the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, but an appendix to his Report provided contextual data on poverty, adult education attainment, unemployment and school performance across comparator cities and for England as a whole. This showed Birmingham to be performing badly on most indicators, but outperforming other cities and the national average for its school results and the proportion of schools graded outstanding. The Kershaw and Clarke Reports provided no data on school performance in Birmingham or of the schools improvement programme which had shaken up schools following Sir Tim Brighouse's appointment.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: As noted above, governors and teachers accused in the various investigations were given no opportunity to respond to the allegations and the claims made in the various reports were not subject to independent scrutiny until misconduct charges were brought by the NCTL against teachers associated with Park View Education Trust. Of 21 schools investigated by Ofsted, and 14 schools investigated by the Clarke Report, charges were brought against teachers at just 4 schools. Richard Kerbaj and Sian Griffiths, writing in "The Sunday Times", reported that over 100 teachers would be charged with professional misconduct. In the event, just 12 teachers were subject to NCTL hearings, in which they were accused of "undue religious influence", not Islamist extremism. Most of the allegations presented in the Ofsted and EFA reports were not part of the cases against the teachers because they were not believed to be credible by NCTL lawyers. Others were challenged in court before the case against the senior teachers was discontinued. One EFA inspector went on to become educational adviser to Peter Clarke. Her credibility was called into question by the NCTL Panel when discontinuing the case. A detailed discussion of the evidence presented in the NCTL case is provided in chapter 9 of John Holmwood and Therese O'Toole's book on the Trojan Horse affair.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School, Park View Academy – all run by the Park View Educational Trust – Oldknow Academy and Saltley School were placed in special measures after inspectors found systemic failings including the schools having failed to take adequate steps to safeguard pupils against extremism. Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures. A sixth school was labelled inadequate for its poor educational standards and twelve schools were found needing of improvements. Three schools were commended.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted expressed concerns about an exclusively Muslim culture in non-faith schools and children not being taught to "develop tolerant attitudes towards other faiths". The inspections found that head teachers have been "marginalised or forced out of their jobs". Ofsted found that the curriculum was being narrowed to reflect the "personal views of a few governors". Teachers reported unfair treatment because of their gender or religious beliefs. Ofsted found a breakdown of trust between governors and staff and that family members had been appointed to unadvertised senior leadership posts


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Park View Education Trust were found to be in breach of the Education Funding Agreement by failing to promote social cohesion, failing to promote the social, moral, spiritual, and cultural development of pupils, failing to promote balanced political treatment of issues, and failure to comply fully with safeguarding issues concerning criminal records checks.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Park View academy had been identified as outstanding in a 2012 Ofsted report, the first school to be inspected under a tougher new inspection regime introduced by then Secretary of State. Michael Gove. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Chief Inspector at Ofsted, had commented at a national conference that "All schools should be like this and there's no reason why they shouldn't be."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: At Park View School, Ofsted reported that "students are not taught citizenship well enough or prepared properly for life in a multi-cultural and diverse society".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The EFA inspection found a classroom culture which was not welcoming to non-Muslim pupils. It described a "madrassa curriculum" and reported that "posters were written in Quranic Arabic in most of the classrooms visited. Posters were found in the classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer, one saying: "If you do not pray, you are worse than a kafir", and staff reported that loudspeakers were set up in the school to broadcast a call to prayer. The few pupils that elected to study a Christianity unit as part of the Religious Studies GCSE course had to "teach themselves", because the teacher focused on Islamic studies which the majority were studying. The school staff defended the measures stating that the loudspeakers were put up to make announcements in general, not only the Islamic prayer call and that every school in Britain is legally required to provide a collective act of worship, which is usually Christian in nature but in their case was Islamic for which they applied for and received permission.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Year 11 pupils about to sit their GCSEs at the school were instructed to partake in an Islamic fast, taking neither food nor drink, to place them in the right "spiritual frame of mind" for the exams. Additionally, students were expected to fast during the month of Ramadan. Some staff at the school expressed fear that neither eating nor drinking amid high temperatures during the 18 hours of daylight in the months of June and July would compromise pupils' health and their ability to learn.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: It was alleged that the sexes were segregated in the classrooms and boys and girls suspected of being too friendly towards each other were disciplined. The Department for Education inspection found the seating arrangements "often with boys sitting towards the front of the class and girls at the back or around the sides". The annual sports event for boys and girls was scheduled in different days. Girls claimed to have been discriminated against and said some were sent home from a tennis tournament because their dress was too "revealing".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Subjects such as Personal, Social and Health Education, Biology and Sex and Relationships Education were bowdlerised to conform with a conservative Islamic teaching. Pupils studying biology were not taught the section of the syllabus about reproduction and the teacher stated when briefly outlining evolution that "this is not what we believe". A former staff member said that one teacher had handed out a worksheet stating that women "must obey their husbands", and told his class that wives were forbidden from refusing their husbands sex. Pupils and teachers from Park View School denied this version of the story, saying that after this assertion had been raised by a boy during a presentation on sexual education teachers organised an assembly where they explained that "marital rape was legally and morally wrong".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: A former teacher at the school reported that the current head teacher, Monzoor Hussain, expressed "mind-blowing" anti-American views at school assemblies, describing the US as the "source of all evil in the world". In school assemblies, former staff alleged that a senior teacher frequently praised Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda recruiter that had been involved with at least three major terror attacks, and referred to non-Muslims as "kuffar", an insulting term for "infidel". The teacher also used school facilities to copy Osama bin Laden DVDs. External speakers were improperly vetted. An extended Islamic assembly for its Year 10 and 11 pupils was arranged with Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman, an extremist preacher who has called on God to "destroy the enemies of Islam", "give victory to all the Mujahideen all over the world" and to "prepare us for the jihad".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: A teacher from Park View School was reported to the police after he broke into a female pupil's mobile telephone to prove she was having a "forbidden" relationship with a boy. The 16-year-old girl's phone was confiscated by the teacher during a Sunday event and then taken to a shop for its passcode to be broken, and its contents were then examined by the school. Texts and images of the girl with a boy, a fellow Year 11 pupil at Park View, were used to justify the girl's suspension weeks before her GCSE exams.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Golden Hillock School in Sparkhill, Birmingham, was put under special measures by Ofsted on 5 June 2014, after being rated "inadequate" in all categories. The inspection said that "too little is done to keep students safe from the risks associated with extremist views". The Ofsted report stated that "students' understanding of other religions is scant as the religious education curriculum focuses primarily on the study of Islam" and said there was a "perceived unfairness and lack of transparency" over appointments to the school and that female members of staff had felt intimidated. Governors at the school banned any discussions regarding sexual orientation and intimacy. This affected the teaching of English, Art, Religious Education and Personal, Social and Health Education. Staff were prevented from teaching Sex and Relationships Advice freely as well as aspects of Safeguarding and Child Protection.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Forced segregation of the genders was observed in some classes at Golden Hillock and was mandated in some departmental policy documents.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: On 9 June 2014, Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for schools, wrote to Tahir Alam concerning the OFSTED and EFA reports and outlined the actions required by the school.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In August 2014, the Principal Hardeep Saini was replaced by an interim principal. Two other senior teachers were also suspended.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: At the tribunal held in October and November 2015, Mr Saini was accused of advising a teacher who had been arrested for having extreme pornography to throw his mobile phone into the canal to make sure there was no problem.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: As of September 2015, Golden Hillock School was rebranded Ark Boulton Academy after being taken over by the Ark Academy Chain.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted found that a small group of governors were "endeavouring to promote a particular and narrow faith-based ideology in what is a maintained and non-faith academy". Staff were afraid to speak out about the significant changes. Ofsted stated that the school had failed to protect students from "the risks of radicalisation and extremism". The school's curriculum was deemed inadequate because it did not promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The Education Funding Agency (EFA) found that the school lacked a balanced and broad curriculum and saw several subjects marginalised. It found that non-Muslim staff were banned from assemblies in which the children were preached at and told that white women were "prostitutes". Children were urged to join in anti-Christian chants. Exchange visits with nearby churches had been curtailed. The EFA team concluded: "We saw evidence that Oldknow academy is acting as a faith school and is not making active efforts to make the academy attractive to all faith denominations including pupils of no faith."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Segregation was found in one classroom with girls sitting at the back with their heads covered. The school had spent £50,000 on three subsidised trips to Saudi Arabia so that pupils could visit the cities of Mecca and Medina in what the EFA described as "an extravagant use of public funds". Pupils and staff stayed in luxury five-star hotels. The contracts for the taxpayer-funded school trips never underwent a formal tender process, and instead a travel firm was used with close links to a current teacher and former director of the school. For three years running non-Muslim pupils and staff were excluded from these trips. Christmas events were cancelled and raffles and tombolas were banned at a recent school fete because they were considered un-Islamic. The summer play was criticised by staff for its "use of musical instruments" and a teacher was observed covering his ears during his music lesson. Some staff members admonished girls not to partake in school extracurricular visits and activities.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: During the tribunal it emerged that a photo of a white person was shown to students as an example of what Christians look like. Students were also told that it is un-Islamic to have a pet dog.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Pupils had limited knowledge of any religion apart from Islam. Effective strategies were not in place to deal with extremism and "governance, safety, pupils' cultural development, equal opportunities and the teaching of religious education are all inadequate". Ofsted found that "the governing body has removed some subjects, such as music, from the timetable". Inspectors found that no humanities, arts or music was taught in Year 6 and only "limited" teaching of these subjects in Year 5. The deputy head of Nansen Primary School, Razwan Faraz, leads a group called the "Educational Activists" which he says introduces an "Islamising agenda" in Birmingham state schools. He worked for a charity believed by the US to have links with terrorist organisations.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ofsted found that the governing body interfered with the running of Saltley School and undermined the work of its senior leaders. It criticised the spending of the school's budget on paying private investigators to investigate the emails of senior staff and paying for meals in restaurants.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The government ordered an inspection of the Olive Tree school following comments by its head, Abdul Qadeer Baksh, that in an ideal Islamic state, homosexuality would be punishable by death.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: An Ofsted inspection found that the Islamic school, which shares its premises with a mosque, had books in its library with content that had "no place in British society". The books contained fundamentalist views and promoted executions, stoning and lashing as appropriate punishments. Books available to the children included one which advocated parents hitting children if they did not pray by the age of 10 and another which praised individuals who "loved death more than life in their pursuit of righteous and true religion". Additionally, the inspection stated that "there are too few books about the world's major religions other than Islam". Senior leaders did not ensure "balanced views of the world" were taught and that "contact with different cultures, faiths and traditions is too limited to promote tolerance and respect for the views, lifestyles and customs of other people". The school was rated "inadequate".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: During the inspection at Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College in Bradford, a mainly Muslim secondary school, pupils were forced to revise for their GCSE exams outside in the street as staff did not want them to have an opportunity to speak to inspectors.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: After resisting attempts by governors to impose an Islamic ethos, teachers were suspended and its principal, Jennifer McIntosh, and her deputy, faced attempts to oust them. It was alleged by teachers that the governors sought to hire the Trojan Horse "ringleader" Tahir Alam and model the school on his Park View School in Birmingham. The governors of the school were sacked in April because of inappropriate interference in the running of the school.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: An investigation ordered by the government found a "sustained, co-ordinated agenda to impose segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline, politicised strain of Sunni Islam" in several Birmingham schools. However, the report interviewed none of the teachers or governors against whom allegations were made with the single exception of Tahir Alam. It also did not report any interviews with members of Birmingham Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) responsible for the agreed curriculum on religious education taught in local authority schools in Birmingham, and also responsible for approving deterninations of daily acts of collective worship for other than Christian worship. Nor did Clarke report any interviews with schools improvement officers at the local authority of the Department for Education. Indeed, in presenting his charges, Clarke commented that "it is only fair to point out that the Trust disputed most, if not all, of the allegations".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The investigation found there to be "no evidence to suggest that there is a problem with governance generally" nor any "evidence of terrorism, radicalisation or violent extremism in the schools of concern in Birmingham", but said there was "evidence that there are a number of people, associated with each other and in positions of influence in schools and governing bodies, who espouse, sympathise with or fail to challenge extremist views". It found that a number of governors and senior teachers had been promoting a form of Islamism or Salafism. The report identified the Muslim Council of Britain and the Association of Muslim Schools as organisations "[stemming] from an international movement to increase the role of Islam in education". This reflects the views of the neo-conservative Henry Jackson Society and included the description of a document intended to provide guidance about the needs of Muslim pupils in state schools as a "blueprint for Islamisation". It was entitled "Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. Information and Guidance for Schools" and is available as an appendix to the Kershaw Report. Its intentions are clearly set out in the introduction where it states "its purpose is to promote greater understanding of the faith, religious and cultural needs of Muslim pupils and how they can be accommodated within schools. It also provides useful information and guidance and features of good practice in meeting those needs."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Peter Clarke, former counterterrorism chief, conducted the investigation which gathered and examined 2,000 documents and generated 2,000 pages of interview transcripts from 50 witnesses, including former headteachers, teachers, council staff and school governors. He said some of the witnesses had been very nervous and anxious. He found "very clear evidence" that young people were encouraged to "accept unquestionably a particular hardline strand of Sunni Islam that raises concerns about their vulnerability to radicalisation in the future". It described the ideology being promoted as "an intolerant and politicised form of extreme social conservatism that claims to represent and ultimately seeks to control all Muslims. In its separatist assertions and attempts to subvert normal processes it amounts to what is often described as Islamism." He conducted no interviews with governors or teachers who were accused of misconduct, with the exception of Tahir Alam. Nor did he report any evidence provided by school improvement officers at Birmingham City Council or the department for Education. Nor did he report the evidence of the secretary to Birmingham Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) that the scheme of Islamic collective worship at Park View had been in place since 1996 and had been regularly reviewed since then, and that the school was teaching the agreed local curriculum on religious education, despite not being required to do so as academies. This evidence would come to light when the NCTL misconduct case against senior teachers at PVET collapsed because the prosecution had failed to disclose material from the Clarke Report that it had had in its possession since the start of the proceedings.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The report found there had been changes made to the curriculum and education plans, including increasing the faith component. The choice of modern language teaching had been restricted to the study of Arabic or Urdu at several schools. At Park View, Golden Hillock, Nansen and Oldknow academy, it is alleged that teachers were instructed not to use images in any subject which displayed even slight intimacy between sexes. The investigation found that "terms such as condom, the pill and so forth have been banned" and that governors had insisted on an Islamic approach to subjects, such as Personal, Social and Health Education, science, religious education, and sex and relationships education. Governors also restricted teaching topics which were part of the Department for Education's Prevent strategy, such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation. No evidence was provided to substantiate these claims. Creationism was taught as fact in school assemblies and science lessons at both Park View and Golden Hillock. Children were banned from playing musical instruments and drama lessons were dropped from the schedule. The art curriculum was altered to "remove full faces or immodest images, such as paintings by Gustav Klimt".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: These claims by witnesses were unsubstantiated. The educational advisers to the Clarke Report did not set out the guidelines applying to religious education and collective worship in schools and no information was provided about the locally agreed SACRE curriculum which continued to be taught in the schools. The school had a determination from the local SACRE to provide Islamic collective worship since 1996. Responsibility for determinations for academy schools passed to the Department for Education, but they put in place no measures for renewing determinations. The Department for Education had also commissioned a report by Ipsos Mori in 2010 into how schools understood their duties with regard to Community Cohesions and Prevent. This showed that most schools conflated the two and did not have teachers trained in the Prevent duty. Park View was more compliant than would be the case for other schools. In addition, Park View had been designated a National Healthy School for its approach to Personal, Social and Health Education.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The report found evidence of intolerance at several schools toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people, and said that governors and staff exhibited openly homophobic behaviour. Staff wishing to discuss LGBT matters were lambasted by governors.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The investigation found that at Anderton Park Primary School, after a white child joined the school, a Muslim parent instructed staff: "get a white chair and white desk and put the white kid in a white corner with a white teacher and keep him away from the others. If that fails get rid of the white kid." A three-year-old in a nursery said that his family were poor because the Jews and Zionists had all the money.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Student ambassadors, known as "religious police" by some staff, are appointed at Park View to report "the names of staff or students who exhibit behaviours deemed unacceptable by conservative Muslims".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The investigation obtained 3,000 messages, spanning 130 pages of transcripts, of a private WhatsApp discussion between a group of teachers at Park View School called the Park View Brotherhood. The report stated the messages evidenced that the group had "either promoted, or failed to challenge, views that are grossly intolerant of beliefs and practices other than their own".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The discussions contained: "Explicit homophobia, highly offensive comments about British service personnel, a stated ambition to increase segregation at the school, disparagement of Muslims in sectors other than their own, scepticism about the truth of reports of the murder of Lee Rigby and the Boston Marathon bombing and a constant undercurrent of anti-western, anti-America and anti-Israel sentiment."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The group promoted links to extremist speakers that betrayed "an Islamist approach that denied the validity of alternative belief", and some group members who believed that the murder of Lee Rigby was staged, encouraged other members to promulgate this view.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Figures in the group included Park View Headmaster Mozz Hussain, Deputy Head of Nansen Primary Razwan Faraz and Shahid Akmal, the Chairman of Governors at Nansen. In a discussion on 5 February 2014, a teacher at Oldknow and governor at Small Heath School, revealed that the group's favoured candidate had become the head teacher at Small Heath. Nasim Awan, a governor at Springfield, said that the "first agenda item" should be to apply for Islamic assemblies at the secular school. Faraz replied by saying that the new head "has to establish herself with minimum controversy for first six months", also referring to starting an eventual "Islamising agenda", but at the same time ensuring that the new head does not become a "coconut" in the process. Another participant in the discussion said that "JEWS" (emphasis in original) were making websites with false information on the Quran, while Abdul Malik, Deputy Head of Golden Hillock in Bradford wrote "Al-Islam will prevail over all other ways of life. Look at how [the] Muslim population is increasing in the UK."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The report concluded that based on the examination of emails and correspondence: "There is incontrovertible evidence that both senior officials and elected members of Birmingham council were aware of activities that bear a striking resemblance to those described in the Trojan horse letter many months before it surfaced."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: It said that the council had been aware of the extremist activities as early as the end of 2012, and that discussions had taken place between officials as early as July 2013, half a year before the emergence of the Trojan Horse letter. Yet, "eight weeks after the letter was received there was no systematic attempt to deal with the issue". Instead, the report concluded, the council was focused on community cohesion. It said that there was never a serious effort to ascertain what was happening in school governing bodies, and that council's approach had been described as one of "appeasement and a failure in their duty of care towards their employees".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: These claims by witnesses were unsubstantiated. The educational advisers to the Clarke Report did not set out the guidelines applying to religious education and collective worship in schools and no information was provided about the locally agreed SACRE curriculum which continued to be taught in the schools. The school had a determination from the local SACRE to provide Islamic collective worship since 1996. Responsibility for determinations for academy schools passed to the Department for Education, but they put in place no measures for renewing determinations. The Department for Education had also commissioned a report by Ipso Mori in 2010 into how schools understood their duties with regard to Community Cohesions and Prevent. This showed that most schools conflated the two and did not have teachers trained in the Prevent duty. Park View was more compliant than would be the case for other schools. In addition, Park View had been designated a National Healthy School for its approach to Personal, Social and Health Education.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The report commissioned by Birmingham City Council and compiled by former head teacher, Ian Kershaw, concluded that school governors and teachers had tried to promote and enforce radical Islamic values and found evidence of extremism in 13 schools. It said that "manipulative" governors had been determined to introduce "unacceptable" practices and to deny students a broad and balanced education. It found evidence that the "five steps" to destabilise a school's leadership, as outlined in the original Trojan Horse letter, were "present in a large number of the schools considered part of the investigation". It said evidence pointed to a group of "British male governors and teachers, predominantly of Pakistani heritage".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The investigation, however, did not find evidence of a "conspiracy" to promote "violent extremism or radicalisation" values.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Mr Kershaw stated that the council had been "slow to respond" to allegations in the letter and said there was "culture within of not wanting to address difficult issues and problems with school governance" for risk of incurring accusations of racism or Islamophobia. The report said that the extremism went unchallenged as the council prioritised community cohesion over "doing what is right". Like Peter Clarke, Kershaw seemed unaware that all schools had a duty to promote community cohesion.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The report found that attempts were made to introduce Sharia law in schools. There were posters in schools warning the children that if they did not pray, they would "go to hell". Girls were taught they could not refuse sex with their husbands, and would be "punished" by angels "from dusk to dawn" if they did. Teachers taught the children at Park View Academy that "good" Muslim women must wear a hijab and tie up their hair.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In an incident that was referred to counter-terrorism police, a teacher told the pupils at the Golden Hillock school "not to listen to Christians as they were all liars". Another teacher told the children that were "lucky to be Muslims and not ignorant like Christians and Jews".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: At Nansen School, Islamic religious assemblies were introduced and Christmas and Diwali celebrations were cancelled. The study of French was replaced by Arabic. At the Oldknow academy, children were asked whether they believed in Christmas and encouraged to chant "no we don't" in response. The pupils were told at an assembly not to send Christmas cards and that Mary was not the mother of Jesus.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Kershaw revealed to MPs at the Commons select committee on education in September 2014 that at one school "a film about violent extremism" was shown to the children. In fact, this film was a BBC "Panorama" programme, a copy of which had been made at the request of West Midlands Police, to show at a session they were providing for the school on the dangers of radicalisation.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said the organisation could not fully endorse the report. He said that its conclusions did not reflect the full reality in schools, and that discrepancies between this and the governmental report were "regrettable and unhelpful". He said that Birmingham City Council had limited its process and terms of reference "in a way which excludes critical evidence", that it had employed "too narrow a definition of extremism" and that the governmental report had reached a very different set of conclusions by accessing a different evidence base.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Prime Minister David Cameron, on a visit to Birmingham, praised his government's swift action in investigating the conspiracy. He said that "protecting our children" was "one of the first duties of government" and convened an emergency meeting of the Extremism Taskforce and a ministerial meeting to discuss the affair. He announced proposals to send Ofsted to any school without warning, saying that the schools in question had been able to stage a "cover-up" previously.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the Trojan Horse plot was driven by the same Islamic extremism as that of Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist group. He said that the efforts to instil fundamentalist practices into Birmingham classrooms were based on a "warped and abusive view of the religion".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Michael Gove, the Education secretary, announced that all of England's schools would have to promote "British values" of tolerance and fairness and that teachers would be banned from the profession if they allowed extremists into schools. This would be so despite the fact that the previous duty on schools to promote community cohesion had included an emphasis on 'shared values' which were exactly the same values espoused in the new duty. New clauses were added into funding agreements for academies, stating that the Secretary for Education could close schools whose governors do not comply with "fundamental British values".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Harriet Harman, the shadow Culture Secretary, urged the Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, to protect music from being dropped from school curriculums after learning this had taken place at one of the investigated schools.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg also backed the investigation, stating that schools should not become "silos of segregation". Later, he was critical of the Conservatives' plan to teach "British values", claiming that it would alienate moderate Muslims.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In a letter to Park View Trust chairman Tahir Alam, Education Minister Lord Nash criticised its running of the schools, saying he was "deeply mindful of the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations". He said the government would be terminating its funding arrangement with three of the schools.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Members of Parliament of all three major parties in Birmingham wrote a joint letter for an inquiry. Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Perry Barr, said that the City Council may have known of previous plots, but not acted due to fears of being seen as anti-Islamic. Mahmood, said that he felt that it was certain that "Salafists" were attempting to change the school's secular nature and "split young people away from their parents". He accused Tahir Alam, chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, of "planning this for 15 years" and honing in Birmingham tactics that he had drafted in his 72-page document, published by the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007, on how to subvert schools to fundamentalist Islam. Mahmood told Channel 4 that he did not believe that the investigation was Islamophobic, stating "Over 200 people complaining to the local authority about what's gone on and you can't really claim that it's a witch-hunt". When the reports were published, Mahmood said that scepticism of the original letter could be "put in the bin", but some people still had "their heads buried in the sand".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: After the reports were published, Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, said that cultural division in Birmingham had been caused by the rhetoric of the government, and "[Birmingham]'s school system is so fragmented it feels at times likes the Balkans".