Extent of extremism in schools revealed as teachers flag hundreds of incidents to Department of Education chiefs
HUNDREDS of terror alerts have been flagged to government chiefs from inside Britain’s schools.
Shock figures uncovered by a Sun on Sunday investigation show teachers and staff have made 288 warnings amid fears of extremist elements getting into the classroom.
Chillingly, in two months an average of more than one alert a day was being called in to Department for Education chiefs.
They covered fears of policies in schools, extremist behaviour by staff, pupils being extremist and bullying and intimidation.
And it appears the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 innocent people in November 2015 prompted a rise in worrying behaviour.
In the month of the IS massacres at the Bataclan music venue and across the city, the highest amount so far were called in.
The information comes as so far 800 Brits have fled to Syria, with around half still there. Authoritites say they have stopped a further 600.
At least 60 British women and girls are believed to have left Britain to join IS. Among them are 18 teenagers, with five said to have been aged between 15 and 16.
UK kids hooked on evil IS plots
BRITISH schools have been rocked by a series of extremism scandals.
Pupils have fled to terror-gripped countries and there have been UK plots.
Four schoolgirls radicalised in East London left Britain to join IS just months before the Government helplines were set up.
Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, vanished in February, 2015, after an unnamed friend, also 15, made the journey three months earlier.
The girls, from Bethnal Green Academy, went on to marry men approved by the terror group once they arrived in Syria. But in August this year it was reported that Kadiza had been killed in Raqqa.
The Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham in 2014 was sparked by a letter claiming Muslims were trying to get reps on governing bodies to oust head teachers
Five West Midlands schools were put into special measures by Ofsted.
In October 2015 a schoolboy from Blackburn, Lancs, was jailed for life for inciting Aussie jihadist Sevdet Besim, 19, to terror. He had been referred to the Government’s deradicalisation programme but without success.
Rupert Sutton, domestic extremism expert at think tank The Henry Jackson Society, said: “It’s interesting to see the numbers.
“It suggests teachers are concerned about pupils and are trying to get the right help.
“Now teachers must be vigilant about those who have decided to stay at home and commit an offence in their own country.
“They will probably show the same signs in terms of potential radicalisation but the shift is that instead of travelling they might commit an offence at home.
“The Paris month, I think, is probably more about people seeing it on the news rather than there being more plots or behaviour.”
Further fears were raised after the January 2015 attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 were killed.
Mr Sutton said: “There were concerns in the UK about pupils who said the killers should be praised or that maybe the cartoonists had brought it on themselves.
“It could be partly pupils have said concerning things or written concerning things on notepads that teachers have seen and haven’t really known how to deal with it — so have called that helpline.
“It shows teachers are becoming aware of the issue and the system the Government has put in place to tackle it.”
All of the alerts were made to the counter-extremism helpline and mailbox run by the Education Department. The figures are from when the facility was set up in March 2015 until last month.
In total 115 reports were made to the Government by email, with 173 phone calls. The most alerts, 41, came in November 2015, from four emails and 37 phone calls.
In 2016, January was the busiest month with 32 concerns raised, via 12 messages and 20 calls.
The helplines are described as being run to “prevent extremism in schools and children’s services”.
They were set up ahead of the Government’s advice on how teachers and staff understand the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015.
That ruling made it law that authorities had to stop people from being drawn into terrorism.
Teachers were told they could use the helpline and mailbox to raise concerns directly. It stressed that messages about kids at immediate risk should be directed to the normal emergency procedures, meaning the true figures could be higher.
The Department for Education said it acted on every alert.
A spokesman added: “Extremism and intolerance have no place in our society.
“That’s why we established a telephone and email helpline to provide advice and guidance to people with concerns relating to extremism.
“Where concerns are raised we will investigate further and take appropriate action.”
Teachers need more support to prevent extremism, says former Schools Minister JIM KNIGHT
SCHOOLS are precious places of safety for our children. But even in the classroom we need to look out for signs of extremism.
This new evidence that teachers are being vigilant is therefore as welcome as it is worrying.
In 2015, four teenage girls from East London went to Syria to join extremist fighters. Last August, one of those girls, Kadiza Sultana, died in a Russian air strike.
Vigilance is vital to protect us, but also to protect youngsters from making catastrophic decisions.
We need everyone working with children to share information. Which raises questions about how well-trained our teachers are on this issue.
For some, the only training they have had was to sit and watch a government video. I don’t think that is good enough.
We need the Government to give teachers the support they need.