Safety fear for pupils at school by mosque

A MUSLIM faith school has been asked to refer “extremely serious” safeguarding concerns to Kirklees Council’s children’s services and the police.

The announcement follows an inspection by education watchdogs who raised concerns after pupils’ complaints indicated they did not feel safe at the Institute of Islamic Education in Savile Town, Dewsbury.

The school, which is in the grounds of Makazi Mosque, was invited to comment.

A report by Ofsted revealed “a lax attitude towards safeguarding” at the school and that leaders “do not always act in the best interests of the pupils”.

The school hit the headlines last year following another Ofsted inspection when inspectors found a book calling for gay people to be executed.

During the most recent inspection on November 25 and 26 last year, inspectors found no books with inappropriate content.

The latest report said a range of books, including fiction and nonfiction, is available to pupils and there is a system for signing them out and returning them.

However, whilst many of the required standards had now been met, inspectors found that leaders were still not implementing safeguarding procedures.

The report said leaders “do not recognise when there is a serious safeguarding concern”, and added: “This means that referrals to the local authority’s children’s services are not made when they should be.”

Members of the inspection team identified a “serious and significant safeguarding concern” during the inspection, according to the report.

It added: “The school’s leaders had not linked readily available pieces of safeguarding intelligence together.

“The inspectors asked the school’s leaders to refer this extremely serious safeguarding concern to the local authority’s children services and the police.”