Is this a Taliban-run school in Kabul? No, one of our top comprehensives: Death threats to staff for stopping Muslim pupils praying, a girl forced to quit the choir because 'her religion bars singing' and another pressured to wear a hijab
It was a suburban schoolyard like any other, a place where pupils could gossip excitedly with friends or have a kickabout with a football in the precious breaks between lessons.
But earlier this year, that normality was shattered and the playground became a place that the school's own headmistress described as 'dangerous' and 'intimidating' – 'where there is discrimination and harassment.
'Where I have to have police in… [where] I have had to hire security for staff whose lives are now endangered.'
It all started with a prayer. A prayer by a teenage girl that, by the school's account, became weaponised by an influential Muslim clique, fuelling a culture war that has split pupils along religious lines and provoked death threats and bomb scares.
Now the row is heading for the High Court, pitching the demands of a vocal subsection of one religious group against teachers' authority to run their non-religious school in the way they believe is best for all their pupils.
Papers lodged with the court – exclusively obtained by The Mail on Sunday – reveal in concerning detail how quickly and how aggressively events escalated following a confrontation between a teacher and the girl who wanted to pray in the playground.
The documents describe how a culture of coercion emerged among the Muslim pupils, led by a group of about 30 youngsters with strict ideas about what their faith entails. They intimidated those who chose not to fast during the holy month of Ramadan, pressured one girl into wearing the hijab and forced another to quit the choir by telling her it was forbidden – 'haram' – under Islamic doctrine.
A court order means neither the school nor anyone involved can be named, not least for fear of further inflaming tensions. But it is one of the best regarded state comprehensives in England, and if such religious hostility can erupt here, there are fears it could erupt anywhere. Or quite possibly already has.
The flashpoint came during Ramadan in late March this year. Before then, the school says no pupil had ever sought to conduct what it describes as 'prayer rituals' in the schoolyard.
But at that point a small number said they wanted to perform one of the five daily prayers required of devout followers of Islam. Known as the Duhr, it should be completed between 12.30pm and 2pm.
The school said it did not try to stop the prayers, as long as 'they did not involve a breach of policy' – believed to be a ban on prayer mats. Pupils got around this by using their school blazers instead. In the court papers, the school says it quickly became apparent that allowing the prayers 'had an increasingly negative impact', and fostered an 'intimidatory and aggressive atmosphere' within the grounds.
The numbers taking part in the prayers swelled from a few to about 30 within just a week.
'This resulted in a division in the playground between the Muslim and the non-Muslim children which had never happened before,' the school says.
The group also became a powerful coterie, accused of 'intimidation of Muslim pupils who chose not to pray' and aggressively staring at those who chose to eat lunch rather than fast. 'Muslim children not wishing to engage in prayer rituals had been intimidated when eating, intimidated into changing their dress, and intimidated into dropping out of the choir,' the school says.
The school banned all prayer as a result of the tensions building up. Things came to a head when a Year 9 girl – aged 13 or 14 – clashed with a teacher on March 23, the first day of Ramadan, when she produced a prayer mat in the playground.
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