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.

This is the very tip of the iceberg of wrong that is Birbalsingh. That she is allowed near children at all is a failing.

What with her two outstanding ofsted reports and best academic marks / progress 8 for a non-selective state school in the UK. What with all those happy children that countless visitors have reported seeing via the school's open door policy to children. Have you visited?

I'm no fan of KB or her self-selected identity as Britains strictest headteacher. And I wouldn't want my DC attending a school run by her.

Yet I can't help wondering if there is an element of getting Al Capone for mail fraud here. KB does have a lot of enemies after all and I assume the particular student in whose name this is being brought, is backed by a wider group or groups.

I can't imagine any Headteacher allowing pupils to kneel on blazers in the playground, and I suspect most are wise enough to know that not every member of the prayer group are quite as devout as they claim to be. Even in my day it was known for some students to prefer religion to hockey when it suited.

The issue for me is how it was handled. I'd be interested to learn why the seemingly obvious option of providing an appropriate space wasn't used.

You couldn't pay me to visit anything within 15 miles of that reductive racist woman. :)

Of course there should be faith based schools, why not, but by the same token schools should be allowed to self-determine if they are going to cater for religious practice, or not.
I think that the point being made here, taking this school to court, it's an attempt to take away this choice.
Religion is becoming more and more polarising in society, it would be nice to have a safe space for everyone.

I am all for non denominational schools and a diverse range of options for all. but everyone should have the freedom to practice their religion of choice (its a basic human right). a simple non denominational prayer room in this case would solve the problem. non religious pupils could use the room for meditation/mindfulness, children of different religions could pray there if they wish. the ideal is children of all faiths/nonfaith growing up together, respecting each other.

I'd be interested to learn why the seemingly obvious option of providing an appropriate space wasn't used.

So would I.

Back when I was at school before the Human Rights and Equality Acts, my secondary school then college had multi-faith pray rooms.

There were a handful of pupils/students who policed it under an RS teacher.

I only know because decided to have a look and was amused by the teacher in charges religion not being the same as most of the people who used the room.

@mamma65432 - most schools don't have a prayer room. All schools have rooms! That's what we use. And it's not separating students. If she thinks that the students are one great big group with no divisions then she knows nothing about teenagers.

@KnittedCardi has such delusions of grandeur that they feel prayers should not be “required” during the school day and centuries of religious practice should be overturned to accommodate their hurty feelings on this point.

Good. It's very upsetting that some schoolchildren think that if they don't pray at a specific time of the day that they will go to 'hell'. Great rule.

or they pray because they love God and want to connect to their spiritual selves.

my younger brother has been praying since he was five (my family was not very religious) of his own accord. even as a child he hated missing prayers and he has grown up drawing strength from his spirituality and become a patient, kind and wonderful young man.

I know many children of a range of ages and religions to whom prayer is important. your opinion is based on assumptions which are false. just because religion is not for you (which is totally fine), doesn't mean its not for others.

But if religion is an important part of your life and day, why not attend a faith based school? '...children of all faiths/nonfaith growing up together, respecting each other.' is absolutely better and desirable: that would be a school where everyone leaves religious practices at the door - not religious identity.
In the name of respect and tolerance, one room where anyone can worship sounds ideal but in practice you are opening the door to demands for further accommodating measures.
The basic human right to practice your religion does not mean you have the right to practice anywhere or anytime.
This is what will be tested in court.

They knew the rules when they applied to go to this wonderful high achieving school. Stopping lessons for up to 5 times each day to accomodation DC is not on.

What makes you think that Michaela pupils are unable to think for themselves? And where is your evidence that they are 'spoon fed?' What exactly do you think this means? If you think it means teaching pupils how to answer questions, then all schools do it.

You can't get excellent GCSE and A level results unless the candidates are able to think for themselves.

Regarding the praying issue, all that I needed is an indoor space for prayers, it's easily solved.

I'm an NHS doctor and have worked in a large number of hospitals all of which have non denominational prayer rooms. there are absolutely no issues. allowing pupils a small space is not going to cause problems.

there are not enough faith schools.around. not to mention faith is a spectrum and these are children, who are developing beliefs and values. so practically it's not feasible. you are suggesting something like the French system and we all know how France has an issue with racism and discrimination.

people should be free in all spaces to live their lives according to their values. what you are suggesting leads to segregation division and then polarisation.

no one is talking about that. the pupils wanted to pray at break time

the 5 daily prayers do not fall within the school day. only one (perhaps two in the winter) fall in the school day and all can be prayed at break time

Really? Because in my area there are not enough non-faith schools, and even tthe ones there are often can be heavy on the compulsory worship.

These students also walked out of lessons to pray it was not just at break times

I am a die hard atheist who finds adults encouraging children to pray absolutely immoral.

this is ridiculous.
children have the right to pray.

all people have the right to pray.
there is no reason children can’t have prayer mats and use their recreation time for prayer.

schools should not be in the business of endorsing religion, but neither should they be banning religion.

Presumably either because their religion requires it, or perhaps because they derive comfort and reassurance from it. Birbalsingh doesn't seem to have come up with any reason why they couldn't have provided indoor space for prayer, though I strongly suspect that it's to do with her rigidity around making pupils obey rules purely for the sake of it.

Where does that come from?

I did not see any thing on this. would you mind terribly sharing a link please?

if they did this, then of course it would be unacceptable

ps did you also know that the pupils while praying outside received racist abuse threats (including a bomb threat) and bottles and such like thrown at them? I feel like this is what we should be focusing on as the amount of islamophobic abuse is growing every day and the fact that children are also now victims of this should be ringing alarm bells

I do find it interesting that children are wanting to pray at school now.
My school was around one third Muslim and no one prayed (or covered their hair actually, although lots wore salwar kameez). All were British with Pakistani/ Bangladeshi or Afghan heritage.
As an atheist myself I'm not sure a focus on any particular religion/ religious practice in school is a good thing. Religion just seems to breed division.

How did I know it was GB News.🙄 As entertaining as GBN is, it is not a News channel and it's shit at facts, preferring misinformation and misrepresentation.

Don't be fooled by the name @Meceme.

Oh dear, if that's correct it directly contradicts what Birbalsingh said. Quote:

"Because of our restrictive building combined with our strict ethos that does not allow children to wander around the building unsupervised, we cannot have a prayer room"

In this instance I would actually believe Birbalsingh, not least because the legal action would have no foundation if an indoor space was being provided.