Pupils at an Islamic faith school told inspectors they did not want single-sex lessons because it ‘wouldn’t prepare them for modern life in Britain’, the High Court has heard.
The Muslim pupils told a school inspector that segregation at school was having a ‘negative effect’, because it was not a reflection of life outside the classroom.
The comments were revealed during a High Court legal battle over a controversial Ofsted report relating to a school which cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The inspector told Mr Justice Jay that one young woman referred to it as ‘dumb’.
He said boys had also mentioned segregation as ‘having a negative impact in terms of preparing them for life’. But he added that not all pupils had agreed with that view.
The challenge has been brought by the school’s interim executive board over findings in the Ofsted report that it was an ‘inadequate school’ and required special measures.
The board is disputing the report’s findings and applying for a judicial review to have it quashed.
One of the criticisms in the report was the school’s segregation of boys from girls.
The judge was told the Islamic voluntary-aided school admitted pupils of both sexes between the ages of four and 16.
From Year 5, girls and boys are completely segregated for all lessons, break and lunchtimes, as well as for school clubs and trips.
The school cannot be named after a judge at an earlier hearing said identifying it would be likely ‘to generate a media storm and tensions and fears for parents and the local community’.
The judge said if the school’s legal challenge failed the interim order could be lifted and the report published.