The question of whether Michaela Community School, a secular secondary free school in Wembley, west London, run by headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, could lawfully prohibit pupils from performing prayer rituals on its premises recently came before the High Court. In this week’s NLJ, writer Nicholas Dobson looks at the legal issues and principles involved
The prohibition of prayer rituals on school grounds in March 2023 followed, as Dobson explains, ‘an outbreak of coordinated, disruptive, divisive and intimidatory pupil behaviour after several Muslim pupils had started a routine of praying in the school yard on blazers and forbidden prayer mats during lunch break. Bomb threats, other incidents and abusive and threatening emails followed.’
A pupil, through her mother and litigation friend, brought legal proceedings challenging the prohibition on the basis of her Art 9 freedom to manifest her religion and the school’s Equality Act 2010 duty not to discriminate.
Dobson explores the facts of the case, argument and judgment.
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