We’ve no power to shut illegal schools, says Ofsted chief

NO ONE has the power to close illegal schools, the head of Ofsted has admitted, as it emerged that a head teacher who has been prosecuted promised to continue operating.

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, said that inspectors, local authorities and the Department for Education were all unable to shut down unregistered schools even when they are breaking the law.

She made the comments as Nadia Ali, the headmistress of Ambassadors High in Streatham, south London, said the school would remain open.

Last month, Ms Ali and her father were both convicted in court for running a full-time school “without the legal authority to do so”.

The school, which describes itself as having an Islamic ethos, says it charges £2,500 a year per pupil and had 45 children on the roll at the time of its last inspection. But it has not yet met standards required to register.

Ofsted inspectors found the school had “wilfully neglected” safeguarding and that almost half of its teachers had not undergone criminal record checks.

In an interview on the BBC’S Victoria Derbyshire show, Ms Spielman said: “The law never contemplated that people would attempt to run schools against the law. We can issue a warning notice, but schools like this do not want to operate within the law and no one has the power to close them.

“We need a better definition of a school – it is too easy to fiddle at the margins and claim that something isn’t a school. When people are operating illegally, there should be somebody with powers to make it close.

“There should be serious consideration of disqualifying people who’ve run an illegal school. The legal framework needs to evolve.”