A Muslim student at a high-achieving school in north London, once dubbed Britain’s strictest, has lost a High Court challenge against its ban on “prayer rituals”.
The pupil, who cannot be named, took legal action against Michaela Community School in Brent, claiming that the policy is discriminatory and “uniquely” affects her faith due to its ritualised nature.
But in a landmark written ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Linden dismissed the pupil’s arguments and found in favour of the school, which had argued its policy was justified after it faced death and bomb threats linked to religious observance on site.
The case will be seen as upholding the right of non-religious schools to make their own decision about whether to set aside time and space for pupils to pray.
The outcome was hailed as a “victory for all schools” by the headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, a former government social mobility tsar who co-founded the school with former home secretary Suella Braverman. She said: “A school should be free to do what is right for the pupils it serves.
“The court’s decision is therefore a victory for all schools. Schools should not be forced by one child and her mother to change its approach simply because they have decided they don’t like something at the school.”
The pupil who brought the legal challenge said she was disappointed by the result but that she felt she did the right thing challenging the ban.
“I am obviously very disappointed that the judge did not agree with me,” she said in a statement through lawyers. “Even though I lost, I still feel that I did the right thing in seeking to challenge the ban. I tried my best and was true to myself and my religion.”
She added: “As is set out in the judgement, I do not agree that it would be too hard for the school to accommodate pupils who wished to pray in the lunch break.”
The pupil’s mother said she was “profoundly dismayed by the case’s outcome”, claiming that the “case was rooted in the understanding that prayer isn’t just a desirable act for us — it’s an essential element that shapes our lives as Muslims.”
“In our faith, prayer holds undeniable importance, guiding us through each challenge with strength and faith,” she said.
In a later statement, headteacher Ms Birbalsingh claimed that Muslim pupils last year had been put under pressure “to pray, to drop out of the choir, to wear a hijab” while teachers faced abuse and intimidation. She said there had been a false narrative peddled that Muslims were the oppressed minority at the school.
“In 2014, 30 per cent of our intake was Muslim. It is now 50 per cent. We are oversubscribed. If our families did not like the school, they would not repeatedly choose to send their children to Michaela,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
She added: “There is a false narrative that some try to paint about Muslims being an oppressed minority at our school. They are, in fact, the largest group. Those who are most at risk are other minorities and Muslim children who are less observant.”
Dan Rosenberg, a lawyer at Simpson Millar, which represented the pupil, said the judge had noted the case raised “issues of genuine public interest in circumstances where the school’s approach has come into conflict with the religious perspective of an important section of society”.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan described Michaela as an “outstanding school”. “I hope this judgment gives all school leaders the confidence to make the right decisions for their pupils,” she said. “I have always been clear that headteachers are best placed to make decisions in their school.”
During the case, the pupil had argued that the policy – which forbids her from praying for around five minutes at lunch time, on dates when faith rules required it, but not during lessons – was “the kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”.
The pupil’s lawyers previously said the “prayer ban” unlawfully breached her right to religious freedom, adding that it made her feel “like somebody saying they don’t feel like I properly belong here”. The court was told the pupil, referred to only as TTT, is making only a “modest” request to be allowed to pray at lunchtime.
The student also challenged allegedly unfair decisions to temporarily suspend her from school.
