A MUSLIM Free School accused of forcing women to wear
headscarves and segregating pupils by gender (News, 4
October) will have its funding stopped unless it complies with
a list of government demands, an education minister has
threatened.
In a strongly worded letter to the Al-Madinah Free School, in
Derby, Lord Nash, the minister responsible for free schools and
academies, said that the school "had manifestly breached the
conditions of its funding agreement by failing to ensure the safety
of children at the school; delivering an unacceptably poor standard
of education; discriminating in its policies and procedures towards
female staff".
He said that he "would not tolerate" these breaches, and gave
Al-Madinah only one week to meet a list of demands, including
meeting assurances that the school complies with equality
legislation and tells all staff that they are not required to cover
their hair. He also wants assurances that, by next Tuesday, all
Criminal Records Bureau checks on staff have been completed, and
written references for every employee have been taken up.
The school reopened on Monday, having been closed temporarily
last week. The school said that it had closed because of "health
and safety issues", but OFSTED issued a statement on Tuesday saying
that the reason was inspectors' concern about a lack of
safeguarding checks on staff.
"Inspectors discovered that staff records showing whether they
were cleared to supervise children were either missing or
incomplete," said the chief inspector, Michael Wilshaw. "The school
remained closed until yesterday when inspectors made a return visit
to satisfy themselves that the necessary safeguarding arrangements
were in place, and that there were sufficient numbers of adults
with the necessary clearance for the school to function
safely."
The full OFSTED inspection report is expected to be published in
the next few days.
Shazia Parveen, who chairs the Al-Madinah Education Trust, said:
"To say the letter [from Lord Nash] came out of the blue is an
understatement." The school was now consulting solicitors over the
next course of action.
"The trust and governing body remain fully committed to doing
what is in the best interests of our pupils, their parents, and the
community as a whole," she said. "However, at this point, the
school is struggling to see how we are being treated comparably
with other schools. Consequently, while we intend to co-operate
fully with the Department for Education, we have also sought the
advice of the school's solicitors."
