Barnet Council has approved the transfer of an independent Islamic primary school into England’s State-funded education system, giving the north London borough its first council-maintained Muslim faith school.
Barnet Hill Academy, in West Hendon, is due to switch from fee-paying to “voluntary aided” status on September 1. The school, which has operated in Montagu Road for the past 20 years, teaches pupils aged four to 11.
The decision was signed off this month by John Anthony, the council’s executive director of children’s services. Voluntary aided schools are almost entirely funded by the taxpayer while remaining under the control of a religious governing body.
The National Secular Society has written to the council objecting to the school’s uniform policy, which makes the hijab compulsory for girls in Year 3 and above. NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said “women should be free to choose religious dress”.
Under voluntary aided rules the school may select all of its pupils and staff on religious grounds. Its proposed admissions arrangements place Muslim applicants ahead of children from other backgrounds.
The council said the school would operate inclusive arrangements because it accepts applications “from children of all faiths and none”. It argued that Islam was not represented in Barnet’s State-funded sector, which already includes Church of England, Roman Catholic and Jewish schools.
Barnet recorded 47,700 Muslim residents at the 2021 census, just over 12 per cent of its population. A four-week consultation held from May 8 to June 5 drew support from every respondent, the council said.
Audited accounts show the school ran in-year deficits and held net liabilities for three consecutive years. The council has sought an indemnity covering liabilities incurred before the handover.
Pupil numbers are projected to roughly double to about 400 by the early 2030s once fees disappear, a forecast the council itself described as ambitious.
The NSS said little evidence had been produced that the effect on integration and community cohesion had been weighed, as council guidance requires. It also questioned how a school likely to draw its pupils from one religious background could be called inclusive.
Islamia Primary School in Brent, west London, became Britain’s first State-funded Muslim school in 1998 after a campaign lasting more than a decade. Faith schools now account for roughly a third of State schools in England, most of them Anglican or Roman Catholic.
Comparable arguments have surfaced elsewhere in Europe, where Muslim pupils make up 42 per cent of enrolments in Vienna’s State schools, according to figures from the Austrian capital’s education authority.
