UK's strictest Headmistress taken to school over banning prayers in the playground

[cakeorwine]

Top London school taken to high court over prayer ban | London | The Guardian

I don't believe that schools should have a compulsory act of worship.
However - it seems that there has been a ban on prayer rituals on the premises.

"The prayer policy was introduced in March last year by the school’s founder, Katharine Birbalsingh – frequently described as Britain’s strictest headteacher – when the school found itself the target of abuse and harassment after pupils were seen praying in the school playground by passersby. About 30 students took part, some kneeling on their blazers as they were not permitted to bring in prayer mats, the court heard.
Before these events, the court heard that prayers were not expressly banned at Michaela, though it had no dedicated prayer room. The new policy had the “practical effect of only preventing Muslims from praying because their prayer by nature has a ritualised nature rather than being internal”, the court heard.
The pupil’s lawyer said it was in effect “a ban uniquely on Muslim prayer”, stopping pupils praying “at a time as required by Islam”. In contrast, it would not, she said, prevent a Christian child sitting quietly in the corner of the playground from praying"

I think it seems that prayer mats were banned - and I think it seems they were banned from kneeling on blazers.

If someone wants to pray in the playground voluntarily, then they should be able to. It's not an act of compulsory worship.

I can see why they wanted this kept quiet.

One of my daughters wants to study physics and is great at maths. She wouldn’t have done dance. How does this make her more obedient and robotic than the students leaning dance?

Isn't Michaela oversubscribed? That suggests it is popular with the surrounding community.

Language-wise, that is hardly unusual. My two nearest state secondaries offer one language each; one French, one Spanish. There's a shortage of language teachers across the UK.

I am surprised that pupils would be forbidden from taking GCSE Biology, GCSE Chemistry and GCSE Physics simultaneously though. Where did you read that?

Most schools do double science, those that do triple usually limit it to the top set.

IT GCSE no longer exists to it isn't surprising they don't do it.

They don't do these subjects after year 8. Singing is the only practical music. If they can run clubs they can run a prayer room

They don't do computing OR offer the sciences separately to their top sets and claim to be a highly academic school. They're not. There is NO Tech. That is ridiculous. The curriculum is really, really narrow. This is why their results are so good at GCSE.

Half the school are muslim - thats about 350 kids - need to be a big prayer room to house that number.

It’s a secular school, I’m from a minority religious background, if I wanted my kid to go to a school that allows prayer etc etc thats where I would send them.

I believe prayer was allowed but no prayer mats before, after behaviour deteriorated at school thats when they banned prayer altogether. There was talk of children pressuring other kids, or teachers being verbally harassed. I’m all for any parent who objects to the rules taking their kids out. Thats on them. I believe schools can provide prayer rooms of they wish but they are not obliged to do so. I would be worried that court cases like this being used in the future to compel schools to provide prayer rooms even though they have a secular ethos.

The reality is that when you have things like prayer groups it can end up being coercive to children who don’t want to take part. The pressure to conform can be immense, I don’t think people not from that background can grasp that very well. The school has said they had kids dropping out of music after being accused of being bad muslims etc It can be extremely divisive.

if the court rules in favour of the pupil every school in the country is going to have to find a prayer room for their DCs. In some areas schools are majority muslim - I will grudge my taxes being spent on this religion specifically rather then education.

The threats of stabbing (which I've not seen in any of the reports I've read) are actually irrelevant to this case. It is of course right to discipline students who do this. You don't discipline individuals by removing contemplative space for all.

That’s a good point. I have just had a quick look at last years school allocation for Brent (insomnia bordem!) and the vast majority of the schools where at PAN last year (with some being over) and the distance pupils where admitted to Michaela school from where higher than a lot of the other schools.

A child being at the school doesn’t mean it was always where the parents actually wanted them to attend school.

@bombastix yes it’s massively oversubscribed. My son went to a strictly secular independent school. This was made abundantly clear in advance and the people who chose to go there had no problem in going along with it. It has a very diverse intake in terms of faith.

Do you begrudge your taxes being spent on providing collective worship of a mainly Christian nature everyday?

Or is it just Islam you have a problem with?

Where the school is located is very densely populated, the school’s premises (in an office building) are extremely cramped hence the difficulty in providing a prayer room for 300+ pupils.

There are plenty of other secondary schools in the area (with very good public transport) and as Michaela is oversubscribed it seems odd that someone who really didn’t agree with the school ethos would end up there. The documentary on it a couple of years ago followed a number of parents who were absolutely desperate to get their children in.

Just repeating again. There is no such thing as a secular state school. Free schools can request secular status from the Secretary of State. Michaela school has not gone through this process. It is non-denominational not secular.

If they cannot offer a prayer space indoors, DT or Computing because of the limitations of their building then I would strongly argue that the building is not an appropriate space for a school to occupy.

I’m no expert but don’t “free schools” have flexibility in setting threat one policies? As I understand it no school is required to provide a prayer room, it’s up to the individual school.

their own!

No school is required to have a prayer room.
Should schools try to accommodate the religious needs of their pupils, within reason?

The main argument from KB is that she does not want to divide her pupils by race or religion.

IT GCSE no longer exists to it isn't surprising they don't do it.

The issue is that they don't offer it as a subject at all.

Language-wise, that is hardly unusual. My two nearest state secondaries offer onelanguage each; one French, one Spanish. There's a shortage of language teachers across the UK.

Again, it depends where you are. Where I am, most schools offer at least two and frequently three languages. On a random selection of secondary schools in Brent, I couldn't find any other than Michaela offering less than two.

Isn't Michaela oversubscribed? That suggests it is popular with the surrounding community.

That doesn't mean that every pupil who is there was placed there because their parents desperately wanted it. Often people simply put down the nearest school or the one where their children's friends are going.

I gather until fairly recently pupils in Turkey pupils were not allowed to pray during school hours. Obviously Erdogan is gradually changing this, something which is by no means universally applauded.

Government schools in France and the USA allow no religion into the school room. Personally I would like the Church of England to be disestablished in the UK so we have the same.

I wonder would people be as keen to support the rights of evangelical Christians in these cases.

Not necessarily, as that is not what the action is about - they've specifically said they're not seeking a prayer room; they're simply asking for the ban on prayer to be lifted.

If schools don't want this to happen outside, all they have to do is to allow the relevant pupils to come indoors during breaks for the 5 or so minutes needed for prayer. It's hardly onerous.

The problem here is that the ban was only brought in in March, so it can't be claimed that the pupil concerned or any other pupil before the 2023 intake specifically came into the school knowing they wouldn't be allowed to pray.

very few schools have a prayer room. Most (vast majority) schools offer a space (or spaces) for the small amount of time required. Just as they do for other clubs.
Again, I repeat if her space related argument isn't entirely disingenuous then what she is actually saying is that her building isn't appropriate for a school. Do they not have a hall?

Yup the ban seems to have been brought in during Ramadan. Which appears to be a deliberate attack on a specific religion. If this was about the behaviour of the individual concerned she would have been suspended/excluded without the need to ban prayer.

They don't have to provide a prayer room. All they are being asked to do is to lift the ban on prayer which specifically impacts pupils of one religion more than others. If they don't want pupils to pray outside, they could allow them to come in for 5 minutes during breaks for the purpose. Their problem with that is that, despite their famed discipline, they can't trust their pupils to be in the building without supervision at any time, which is an unusual and rather sad state of affairs.