Daily Mail

Head convicted of running illegal Islamic school vows: I’m keeping it open

- By Eleanor Harding Education Editor

One of the first heads to be convicted of running an illegal islamic school has vowed to keep it open – despite being accused of risking children’s safety.

nadia ali, 38, ran ambassador­s high until it was raided by Ofsted inspectors, who discovered that staff had not had criminal record checks.

they also found books in the staff room that said wives had no right to deny their husbands and encouraged parents to hit their children if they did not pray.

the school in Streatham, south london, had not been registered with the authoritie­s, which is illegal.

last month, miss ali and her father arshad, 73 – the school’s proprietor – were found guilty in only the second prosecutio­n of its kind after inspectors found they ‘wilfully neglected’ safeguardi­ng.

miss ali was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work, fined £1,000 and told to pay an £85 victim surcharge. arshad ali and the company behind the school were each fined £100 and ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge.

Yesterday, she told the today programme on BBC radio 4 and the Victoria Derbyshire show on BBC two that it would remain open and she would apply for registrati­on. She said: ‘Children need a different approach and that’s what we’re trying to do at ambassador­s. We’ve seen a lot of results. they’re happy learners.’

for years, very conservati­ve muslims who did not want their children to be influenced by Western culture could get around the law by registerin­g them as homeschool­ed, while sending them to illegal schools. Ofsted is cracking down on such schools to tackle extremism and isolation in some communitie­s. By law, schools with more than five full-time pupils attending for more than 18 hours a week have to be registered.

miss ali claimed she was not breaking the law because her school was now open for 18 hours a week. it charges £2,500 a year and has around 45 pupils.

ambassador­s applied to register in 2016 after Ofsted announced it would raid unregister­ed schools.

But it failed its pre-registrati­on inspection in february this year. inspectors said it did not meet the required standard because of their safeguardi­ng concerns. Despite this, the school remained open – leading to miss ali’s prosecutio­n.

inspectors found six out of 11 teachers had not had Disclosure and Barring Service criminal record checks, and ‘teachers do not have the skills’ to help pupils progress. they concluded there was ‘no capacity for improvemen­t’ at the school, and there was ‘no plan in place to promote fundamenta­l British values’, such as tolerance and equality.

although there was no evidence that the disturbing texts in the staff room had been accessed by children, inspectors still felt they had no place in a school. miss ali claimed the books had been donated by a mosque and had been kept locked in the office.

 ??  ?? Defiant: Nadia Ali in a BBC interview yesterday
Defiant: Nadia Ali in a BBC interview yesterday
 ??  ?? Unregister­ed: Ambassador­s school
Unregister­ed: Ambassador­s school

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