Teachers at St Stephen’s school in Newham faced a coordinated campaign of bullying and harassment after the school stopped young girls from wearing the headscarf.
Staff were not given proper “emotional care and public support” by the local authority during the crisis, says a damning report by Ofsted.
Inspectors made an emergency visit after the school became a target of abuse from people protesting against the headteacher’s decision to stop girls aged under eight from wearing the hijab. The abuse was so vicious that the headteacher Neena Lall was compared to Hitler and the ban was reversed.
Inspectors, who published their findings today, said the school continued to be “outstanding”, but said it was let down by “ineffective” support from Newham council. St Stephen’s, a secular state school in an area with a large Pakistani and Bangladeshi community, was last year named as the best primary in England. [Evening Standard] Read more
