Pupil loses High Court bid to overturn prayer ban at ‘Britain’s Strictest School’

A Muslim pupil has lost a High Court challenge against a ban on prayer rituals at a high-achieving north London school previously dubbed Britain’s strictest.

The student, who cannot be named, took legal action against Michaela Community School in Brent, claiming the policy was discriminatory and ‘uniquely’ affected her faith due to its ritualised nature.

She argued the school’s stance on prayer – one of the five pillars of Islam – unlawfully breached her right to religious freedom and was ‘the kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society’.

The school, founded and led by headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, a former government social mobility tsar, argued its prayer policy was justified after it faced death and bomb threats linked to religious observance on site.