A school’s ban on lunchtime prayer rituals was supported by senior Muslims, its head teacher has said.
Michaela Community School, run by Katharine Birbalsingh, who claims to be Britain’s strictest headmistress, defeated a High Court challenge this week to her policy of stopping pupils praying at lunchtime in the playground.
The girl who brought the legal case, estimated to have cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal aid, has said she wants to stay at the school until sixth form because of its “excellent” teaching and does not want to attend an Islamic school. Her sister is due to start in September, despite their mother threatening another legal claim on an unrelated matter.
Birbalsingh banned the girl and her friends from praying
