Al-Madinah free school to stop secondary teaching
Darshna Soni
Communities Editor
The troubled Al-Madinah free school is to stop teaching secondary pupils from this summer. The government stepped in after an Ofsted report warned that the school was in chaos.
Today’s announcement that secondary education at the troubled Al-Madinah will stop at the end of the summer term will be seen as a blow for Michael Gove‘s flagship free schools policy, writes Midlands Correspondent Darshna Soni.
The school, which has a Muslim ethos, was placed in special measures last October, after a report from Ofsted described it as in chaos, dysfunctional and inadequate.
The primary school will remain open, the Department for Education has said. The closure will affect hundreds of pupils.
Despite the negative headlines, many parents I spoke to felt the school and its former trustees had not been given a chance to prove themselves.
They chose the school because they wanted their children to have a Muslim ethos-based education. They now face the prospect of having to find other schools for their children.