By Sheila Mckenzie-
Ofsted has successfully won a case against a school trust and its chair for breaching operating conditions imposed by the Secretary of State for Education.
Rabia Girls’ and Boys’ School was prohibited from admitting more students after successive Ofsted inspections revealed low all round failings, including safeguarding and welfare failings.Pupils at the Independent Islamic school failed to meet expected academic outcomes and were poorly catered for with no signs of improvements.
However, during a progress monitoring inspection in September 2019, The inspection team found evidence that the school was still admitting pupils, despite being prohibited from doing so.
At the request of the Department for Education, Ofsted prepared case for submission to the Crown Prosecution Service, which was heard at Luton Magistrates’ Court on 27 May.
Magistrates found the school to be in breach of its operating conditions. As a result, the trust running the school was fined £8000. Zafar Iqbal Khan, the trust’s chair, was also fined £4000.
The Rabia Girls’ and Boys’ School was an independent Islamic school in Luton, which failed the independent school standards seven times. The first was in 2014, then twice in 2015, twice more in 2016 and twice again in 2017 more than any other school in the country.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, former chief inspector of Ofsted, wrote to the then-education secretary Nicky Morgan in 2016 , demanding tough action.
Meanwhile the Charity Commission has been chasing the Rabia Educational Trust over late accounts since 2012 – eventually using its powers to get copies of its bank statements.
Other schools of perpetual low standards have been ask to raise their standards or stop admitting new pupils.
Two schools Jewish schools in north London, the Beis Aharon School and the Getters Talmud Torah School, are still open despite both failing five times, over an insufficiently broad curriculum and poor safeguarding checks on teachers respectively.
Ayasofia primary school in east London was also shut down in September 2016 after falling below the standards four times after a lot of its pupils failed to meet its secular curriculum which was “narrow and lacked depth”. Pupils at the school also showed limited academic progress
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman said:
“This unprecedented conviction sends out a strong message. If schools have a restriction imposed on them because of their repeated failure to meet basic standards, they must comply with it. If not, they are liable to prosecution and significant financial penalties.”