Who is Katharine Birbalsingh? Michaela School headteacher who banned prayer

A Muslim student’s legal challenge against a ban on prayer rituals at her school has been dismissed in a High Court ruling and hailed a “victory” for all other schools by the headteacher.

Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, faced legal action from a pupil, who claimed its policy was discriminatory and unlawfully breached her right to religious freedom.

High Court judge Mr Justice Linden concluded on Tuesday the ban did not interfere with the student’s rights and was “proportionate” amid the school’s aim to promote an ethos of inclusivity and social cohesion.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the school’s founder and headteacher, 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 has not been named, said the case “has not been easy for me” and even though she had lost the case she still felt she “did the right thing in seeking to challenge the ban”.

She added: “I tried my best and was true to myself and my religion.”

A legal challenge to Michaela Community School’s ban on Muslim prayers has been dismissed at the High Court (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)

Who is Katharine Birbalsingh?

Katharine Birbalsingh is the founder and headteacher of Michaela Community School and has been branded “Britain’s strictest headteacher” in the past.

The 50-year-old, who was born in New Zealand and grew-up in Canada, graduated from Oxford University with a degree in French and philosophy and began a career teaching in state schools.

From 2007, she wrote an anonymous blog, entitled “To Miss With Love”, in which as Miss Snuffy she chronicled her experiences teaching at an inner city state school.

She had become the assistant headteacher of Dunraven School in Streatham at the time but in 2010 she joined St Michael and All Angels Academy in Camberwell as vice-principal. She resigned later the same year after speaking at a Conservative Party conference where she criticised the British education system.

In 2014, she founded the Michaela Community School in Wembley Park with former home secretary Suella Braverman as the first chair of governors.

Ms Birbalsingh was appointed chair of the Government’s Social Mobility Commission in 2021 but resigned last year saying she wanted to be free to speak publicly about what she thought was right.

She has described her views as conservative and is an advocate for traditional values.

Pupils at Michaela are expected to remain silent in corridors, observe strict rules on uniform and there is a “zero tolerance” approach to poor behaviour.

In an interview with Nick Robinson, Ms Birbalsingh said her experiences working as a teacher in deprived areas led her to believe that the state education sector encouraged a “culture of excuses and low standards” with regard to discipline and quality.

She has openly opposed what she terms the growth of “woke culture” in education and said teenagers should be prevented from having mobile phones in school because they are too young to exercise self-control.

Why has she banned prayer at Michaela School?

The court was told that Ms Birbalsingh introduced the ban in March last year, with the backing of the governing body in May.

Around half of the 700 pupils at the secondary are understood to be Muslim but it is a non-faith free school, which is independent of local authority control.

By March 2023, up to 30 pupils had begun praying in the school’s yard, using blazers to kneel on.

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The prayer ban was introduced due to concerns about “segregation between religious groups and intimidation within the group of Muslim pupils”, the court was told.

Lawyers for the school said students seen praying outside contributed to a “concerted campaign” on social media about the school’s approach to religion.

An online petition, which has since been removed, attracted thousands of signatures.

The court heard the school was also targeted with death threats, abuse, “false” allegations of Islamophobia and a “bomb hoax”.

The pupil who brought the case alleged the school’s stance on prayer, one of the five pillars of Islam, was “the kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”.

However, the school argued the ban was justified as the prayer ritual risked “undermining inclusion and social cohesion” between pupils, would again expose it to “an unacceptable risk of threats” and that it avoided “logistical disruption”.

Mr Justice Linden concluded there was “a rational connection between the aim of promoting the team ethos of the school, inclusivity, social cohesion etc and the prayer ritual policy”.

He said: “The disadvantage to Muslim pupils at the school caused by the prayer ritual policy is in my view outweighed by the aims which it seeks to promote in the interests of the school community as a whole, including Muslim pupils.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “The Government has always been clear that heads are best placed to take decisions on what is permitted in their school on these matters, to balance the rights of all with the ethos of the school community – including in relation to whether and how to accommodate prayer.

“This judgment confirms this.”