Muslim pupil loses appeal against prayer ban at ‘UK’s strictest school’

A Muslim pupil at a school led by “Britain’s strictest headmistress” has lost a legal challenge against its ban on prayer rituals.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and headteacher of Michaela Community School in Wembley, north-west London, hailed the ruling as a “victory for all schools”.

Ministers also welcomed the court’s decision. The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said: “Headteachers are best placed to make decisions in their school. I hope this judgment gives all school leaders the confidence to make the right decisions for their pupils.”

The pupil, who cannot be named, claimed that the school’s policy on praying was discriminatory and that it “uniquely” affected her faith because of Islam’s ritualised nature. But Mr Justice Linden, sitting at the High Court in London, said the girl had known the rules when she accepted a place at the school and that she could have gone elsewhere if she disagreed with them. He said: “It seems to me that this is a case… where the claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion. “She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.

“She herself says that, long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home.”

Ms Birbalsingh (inset) said after the verdict: “Schools should not be forced by one child and her mother to change its approach simply because they have decided they don’t like something at the school.

“Multiculturalism works at Michaela, not because we have emptied the identity space of the school in order to accommodate difference, but because we have a clear identity which anyone can sign up to, if they are willing to compromise.”

She added: “Last year, we watched our Muslim pupils put under pressure by a tiny number of others to fast, to pray, to drop out of the choir, to wear a hijab.

“I watched one of my black teachers racially abused and intimidated, another teacher who had her personal home nearly broken into, and another with a brick thrown through her window. I have a duty of care to protect all of our pupils, but also to my staff.”

The pupil said after the ruling that her school was “very well run” and had good teachers, and that being involved in the case “has not been easy for me”.

“Even though I lost, I still feel that I did the right thing in seeking to challenge the ban,” she added. “I tried my best and was true to myself and my religion.”