Under-fire Nottingham Islamic girls' school appeals pupil ruling

The school principal rejected the Ofsted conclusions as "flawed"

An Islamic girls' school facing partial closure has appealed against moves to stop it taking boarding pupils.

Jamia al-Hudaa Residential College in Nottingham has been heavily criticised by Ofsted in areas including cultural awareness and safeguarding pupils.

The Department for Education said it could no longer take boarders- which make up the majority of its 250 pupils.

However, while the appeal is under way the order is suspended and the school can continue to operate as before.

The school, which opened in 1996, is run by the charity Madni Trust.

Despite requests, the school has so far been unavailable to comment to the BBC.

'Community service'

It was rated as inadequate when inspected in April 2015, missing 15 of the independent school standards and 10 national minimum standards for boarding schools.

A second inspection in April 2016 found many of the requirements were still not met.

The report noted: "Pupils received little information about careers other than those related to teaching Islamic studies" and the school did not "promote balanced views".

The second inspection found there was a greater range of books at the school and pupils had a "clear sense of right and wrong", but inspectors said some pupils did not understand how laws were made and were "not certain of the purpose of parliament".

Principal Raza Ul Haq told the Nottingham Post he felt the inspection was "flawed" and the school provided a "big community service".

A former pupil and campaigner for secular education, Aliyah Saleem, said: "The latest report at the girls' school in Nottingham, has demonstrated the management at the school fail to safeguard children and offer a balanced education.

"I hope the Department for Education moves swiftly now to protect these pupils."

Government officials said there was no timetable for how the appeal would progress.