Credit: This story was first seen on The Independent
A number of Christian fundamentalist schools have been downgraded by government inspectors following an investigation by The Independent which revealed children at some schools that follow the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum are taught that LGBT people are inferior and girls must submit to men.
The investigation also uncovered historic allegations of corporal punishment, exorcisms being performed on children and schoolgirls being “groomed” for marriage to much older men, The Independent reports.
Inspectors say they fear “children are at risk” at some schools after finding in some ACE institutions safeguarding plans to be flawed or non-existent and that staff who come into contact with children sometimes have not undergone background checks to see if they are safe to work with children.
The Independent previously revealed allegations by former pupils that children were subject to serious mistreatment at some of the schools, which are operated by fundamentalist Christian communities and teach more than a thousand pupils at 26 different ACE schools in the UK.
Former pupils of some schools said the insular nature of the communities and pressure to not speak out meant the abuse had been hidden for decades.
One warned: “No one outside the schools knows about what happens inside them, that’s why they’ve been able to go on like this for so long.”
Following The Independent’s investigation, 10 ACE schools were visited by Ofsted inspectors in October and nine of the schools have now been downgraded from ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.
In inspection reports seen by The Independent, the watchdog raises serious concerns about child protection failures, warning they are failing to meet official safeguarding regulations to protect children.
A damning report of one of the schools concludes that ‘children are at risk’.
However, former pupils have told The Independent that the reports do not go far enough and say the government must be held to account for allowing the schools to operate for so long.
They have called for a government inquiry into how ‘generations of children were failed’.
ACE originates from an education system developed in southern Baptist states in the US that has developed offshoots around the world, including in Britain.
Between 20 and 60 pupils aged between four and 18 attend each one.
There are 26 ACE schools registered in the UK. The claims relate to some of the schools and there is no suggestion that the allegations of mistreatment relate to all of them, including those inspected by Ofsted.
Following a strictly fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity, children at ACE schools spend most of the school day teaching themselves by reading textbooks in silence, while facing the classroom walls in specially designed booths, which mean they cannot see children around them or interact with them.
Former pupils say this is due to the schools’ belief in individualistic self-salvation, whereby people must actively accept God’s salvation to enter heaven.
By extension, it is believed that children must teach themselves in order to get closer to God.
Children are therefore expected to spend the first half of each school day teaching themselves by reading textbooks in silence, while facing the classroom walls in specially designed booths, which mean they cannot see children around them or interact with them.
Adults are there to guide them and instil discipline, but no formal teachers are present.
Pupils said the learning style meant some children received a poor education and often felt socially isolated.