An Islamic girls’ boarding school that was criticised by a former pupil for its extremist teaching looks set to win its battle to stay open after finally passing an Ofsted inspection at the third attempt.
Nottingham’s Jamia al-Hudaa Residential College, a fee-paying school, was ordered by the Department for Education to stop taking any new boarders after Ofsted said that its narrow curriculum was failing to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.
It was rated as inadequate when inspected in April 2015, missing 15 of the independent school standards and ten national minimum standards for boarding schools.
Ministers ordered Ofsted to carry out an “additional” special inspection in April last year to see if any progress had been made. Inspectors concluded that pupils were being dragooned into a future of teaching Islamic studies, with no alternative careers being discussed.
They also criticised the narrowness of the curriculum and the dearth of general knowledge among pupils, saying that some did not appear to know the difference between the political parties or even “the purpose of parliament”.
