A state-funded Islamic school in Birmingham unlawfully discriminated against pupils when it separated them by sex from age nine, a court has been told.
The court of appeal case could lead to other schools that practise similar segregation across the country having to make drastic changes to how they operate, or to split into separate single-sex schools.
The schools inspectorate, Ofsted, alleged that segregating pupils within a mixed-sex school was unlawful discrimination as it launched an appeal against a November 2016 judgment, in which the high court found that segregation did not mean either boys or girls were treated unfavourably.
In an inspection in June 2016, Ofsted rated Al-Hijrah, a school in Birmingham that has pupils aged four to 16, with its lowest grade of “inadequate” and said it should enter special measures. It was partly on the grounds that from the age of nine boys and girls were separated for all lessons, breaks, school trips and other activities. [The Guardian] Read more
