Teaching British values will just cause pupils to rebel, warns top head

they are taught. He admitted there is a re al problem with schoolchildren becoming “gripped by distorted ideals” but said schools are already dealing with this under existing requirements to promote “spiritual, moral, social and cultural development”.

He said: “We all know that feeling from our own time at school. The feeling in an assembly where the manner in which a teacher is talking to us, especially if they are being very strident, gives rise to a rebellious tendency.

“It can encourage people to get further into their niche beliefs, whatever they are. The existing provisions and requirements were already strong enough. If people had concerns about what is happening in any one school they could already act on it. We now have an extra distorting layer.”

Delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference were today set to debate Dr Bevan’s points in Liverpool.

Dr Bevan said: “There is a very big body of study in relation to what works in promoting young people’s values. We know what really doesn’t work is telling them what they must believe. That actually promotes dissent.”

ATL members were set to vote today on whether to monitor how Ofsted judges the teaching of British values.

It comes after Ofsted was criticised for downgrading a number of schools, in largely white, rural areas, following the introduction of new rules.

Dr Bevan said Ofsted is guilt y of “microfascism” in its approach to examining the beliefs and values that are being promoted in school. He said: “Asking students what they think and believe has Big Brother characteristics.”

He added: “The risk you run is the inspector talks to students, discovers they hold values that are at variance with the fundamental British values model and says the school is doing something wrong.”

Dr Bevan said: “There is a real problem where we see within our country a small number of young people who are becoming gripped by distorted ideals, and although the examples at the top of the list are people going to fight for IS, there is no doubt we can find other examples.

“However, it’s a highly localised problem. In all the schools and colleges in the country we are talking about it being an issue that’s relevant to at most maybe 10 institutions. The Government’s response is completely the wrong scale.”