Rabia School in Luton: 'Gender dividing' school to be closed down

Rabia School was set up to provide an Islamic education and had 44 pupils in 2018-19

A school criticised for segregating male and female staff will be closed down by the Department for Education (DfE).

Ofsted inspectors had previously found teachers at Rabia School in Luton "lacked the resources and skills to meet the needs of the pupils".

The school was banned from admitting new pupils last year.

A spokeswoman for the DfE said it had now issued the school "an enforcement order to deregister them".

The news comes after the Charity Commission announced it will investigate the school's trust for the second time.

The BBC has contacted the school for comment.

The independent mixed school, in Portland Road, was set up in 1996 to provide an Islamic education and according to its accounts had 44 pupils in 2018-19.

According to its most recent Ofsted report from September 2019, the fees for the primary school were £1,950, rising to £2,300 at secondary level.

That inspection concluded the "independent school standard remains not met".

It said that during an inspection in January 2018, inspectors found "general weaknesses in teaching and assessment".

At that time it said the standard of an independent school "was not met because of discrimination on the basis of sex".

"At that time, the school operated a policy of strict segregation by sex. From Year Three onwards, girls and boys were not taught together and did not mix at breaktime and lunchtime or during school-led activities after school."

In 2016, then-Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw wrote to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan advising her that for the initial meeting with inspectors "the school insisted on segregating men and women through the use of a dividing screen across the middle of the room".

A DfE spokeswoman said the school "has failed to meet the independent school standards - and despite giving them time to improve they have not been able to do so".

"We have now issued them with an enforcement order to deregister them.

"We will continue to work with the school, parents and families to ensure all children have access to an appropriate education."