UK's strictest headteacher tells Tory parents to take kids out of 'woke' schools
Tory-supporting parents should take their children out of schools which are "too woke", the UK's 'strictest headteacher' has fumed.
Katharine Birbalsingh - who quit as social mobility tsar in January - warned right-wingers at a conference in London that conservatives "will lose our country" in a bizarre rant.
She urged them to "stand up and be counted" as she said her staff are ostracised for not being liberal minded.
Outspoken Ms Birbalsingh, head of Michaela Community School in Wembley, quoted Russel Crowe's character in Gladiator as she urged the audience to "hold the line".
She claimed that children are "leading" schools and claimed that private schools are the most "woke" of all.
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The headteacher channelled Russell Crowe in 2000 movie Gladiator (Getty Images)Ms Birbalsingh also claimed that youngsters are allowed to wear ears and tails because they "identify as cats". It is unclear where this was referring to, but in January a school in Scotland was forced to deny it was happening there following misleading internet rumours.
She told an audience at the National Conservatism Conference - which today had Tory MPs Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger among its speakers: "Well I'm asking, how much do you love your country?
"How much do you love the values that you claim to defend?
"Do you love them enough to tweet under your own name? Do you love them enough to change your child's school to one that's less woke and ignore the impact on your social status?
"Do you love them enough to do more than simply chat to your friends who already agree with you at dinner parties?
"For heaven's sake man, stand up and be counted. As Russell Crowe says in the film Gladiator - a clip I regularly play to my staff: 'Hold the line, stay with me, what we do in life echoes in eternity."
Ms Birbalsingh added that it was not enough for conservatives to turn to private schools to instil their values.
She said: "What you don't get is that the private schools are just like the state schools in terms of culture. In fact, in many ways, they're worse.
Ms Birbalsingh quit as social mobility tsar in January (S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)"If you don't like the woke agenda, then you had better avoid private schools like the plague.
"As sure as night follows day, the more privileged the space, the more woke it is."
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She continued: "Right now I'm in a room filled in the main with white middle class people. Yet none of you or your friends sends your child to my school...
"Isn't it interesting that the white middle class attend these conferences, go to dinner parties and talk about their love of small c conservative values, but given the choice they send their children to private schools that have none of these conservative values and are often the worst for woke culture."
Ms Birbalsingh has long been an outspoken critic of the education system and in January stepped down as chairwoman of the Social Mobility Commission so she could continue to speak out.
She also claimed that supporting England in the World Cup had come to be seen as "bizarre, especially in areas with large numbers of ethnic minorities or immigrants".
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