'Illegal' school 'teaches children that I'm A Celebrity is a Bill Gates-inspired plot to prepare population to eat cockroaches after The Great Reset'
- Universallkidz in Stockport, Greater Manchester, teaches children conspiracies
An 'illegal' school is teaching children conspiracy theories which include I'm a Celebrity being a Bill Gates-inspired plot to prepare the public to eat cockroaches after 'The Great Reset', an undercover investigation has found.
Ladan Ratcliffe, 60, the founder of Universallkidz, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, reportedly convinces parents to take their children out of mainstream education tell the council they are being homeschooled.
But in reality they send their children, aged eight to 14, to a dilapidated Victorian mansion, a former nightclub, to be taught that by a 'shaman' called Phil that crystals can heal any illness or injury.
Tom Ball, an undercover reporter for The Times worked as a teacher at the school for nearly a month, and said that his colleagues believed that viruses are fake, plane 'chemtrails' cause dementia and that dinosaurs did not exist.
One teacher, Justine, taught the children they would be eating cockroaches in the future if 'Klaus [Schwab, head of the WEF] and [Bill] Gates have their way' and that I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here had been broadcast to 'get us all into it' when 'it's time you all start eating cockroach'.
![Shaman Phil teaches children that crystals can be used to heal any illness or injury at Universallkidz, in Stockport, Greater Manchester](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/26/10/84122829-13352977-image-m-5_1714123225814.jpg)
Shaman Phil teaches children that crystals can be used to heal any illness or injury at Universallkidz, in Stockport, Greater Manchester
![Ladan Ratcliffe, 60, the founder of Universallkidz](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/26/10/84122819-13352977-image-a-8_1714123253462.jpg)
Ladan Ratcliffe, 60, the founder of Universallkidz
The history teacher taught the pupils about Holocaust victim Anne Frank's diaries but questioned the truth of them, a common antisemitic conspiracy, when speaking to another teacher.
Lessons were held in the mansion, in a community centre in Stockport, and online, The Times reported.
Conspiracy theory leaflets were dotted around the hallways of the mansion, which claimed that Covid vaccines, climate science and 5G mobile internet were methods the government used to control the public.
The Times claimed that Universallkidz 'goes to great lengths to conceal its activities'. The school's website says it offers 'holistic alternative education' to provide an 'innovative approach to supporting parents who are home schooling'.
Ladan Ratcliffe, a former teacher, founded the school more than three years ago.
Following the undercover investigation by The Times, Ofsted has begun an urgent investigation into Universallkidz, the paper reports.
Illegal school, which offer full-time education but are not registered with the government, take advantage of the lack of regulation regarding homeschooled children under the law.
The pupils at Universalkidz are officially homeschooled. Ratcliffe told the undercover Times reporter that she assists parents in taking their children out of the state system and says they should lie to the local council about sending them to the school, which costs £30 a day.
![Ratcliffe pictured in the school playground in undercover footage from The Times](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/26/10/84122827-13352977-Ratcliffe_pictured_in_the_school_playground_in_undercover_footag-m-10_1714123334063.jpg)
Ratcliffe pictured in the school playground in undercover footage from The Times
Rising concerns about illegal schools led Ofsted to create a task force to tackle them in 2016. Inspectors thought only 24 existed at the time, but now it is believed that hundreds exist.
Most illegal schools prosecuted by Ofsted have been run by extremist Jewish and Christian groups, but in the wake of the pandemic, more non-religious illegal schools set up by conspiracy theorists.
At the time the reporter was working at the school, in January this year, 13 pupils were there, but he had been told that there had been 28 at times.
The school runs four days a week from 10am to 3.30pm but not every pupil goes in every day, with most going in three days a week, The Times reported.
Two children who attended four days a week had special educational needs.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said the findings of The Times investigation were 'highly alarming, but sadly not surprising'.
He told the paper: 'Over the last eight years, we have found hundreds of unregistered schools, operating in unsafe premises, led by unsuitable people, teaching children very little. We are urgently investigating this shocking case, but weaknesses in the current legal system continue to hamper our efforts to deal with unregistered schools.
'The 2022 Schools Bill would have given us additional powers to investigate and close down illegal schools, but that legislation was dropped. Without those powers, I remain concerned that thousands of children across England are still attending illegal schools.'
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told The Times it was 'frankly shocking that this school has been operating with impunity for so long and poisoning the minds of these young people'.
And a spokeswoman for the Department for Education said it was 'committed to improving powers to investigate and take action against these schools'.
Ratcliffe denied to The Times that Universallkidz was a school and said it 'only operates around 11 hours a week', and said it was 'a parent-child community initiative'.
She denied to the paper that the school was teaching conspiracy theories, saying that 'the learning experiences we provide are based on natural law of the universe and ancient knowledge that has been omitted from mainstream education'.
MailOnline has contacted Universallkidz for further comment.