Ofsted admits ‘mistake’ during faith school inspection

Ofsted has admitted that one of its inspectors was wrong to decide not to speak to pupils at a private Muslim girls’ school on the basis that the children were celebrating the religious festival of Eid.

The schools’ watchdog has said it has taken ‘appropriate action’ against the inspector who agreed he would only speak to senior mangers at the Zakaria Muslim Girls’ High School in Batley, West Yorkshire.

The school has 147 pupils aged between 11 and 16 and is run by members of the Deobandi sect, which teaches an orthodox view of Islam. The report into the unannounced emergency inspection, dated in October last year, said: “It was not possible to talk to students during this visit as they and the staff were celebrating the festival of Eid.”

The schools was initially found to have met Government requirements for safeguarding students on issues such as radicalisation and female genital mutilation. However, after a further inspection was carried out, following the error, Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE) is currently discussing the need of further monitoring of the school.

Commenting on the news, a spokesman for the DfE said: “As soon as concerns were raised we launched urgent investigations and while these are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further. Extremism has no place in our society and it is vital all schools are providing a high quality, broad and balanced curriculum.

“Where schools are not doing this and are focusing on ideological indoctrination instead, we will not hesitate to take action including closing the school or working with the police if necessary.”