A Muslim school criticised for it’s admissions appeals process has spoken out for the first time.

Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School is the country’s flagship Muslim School in the maintained sector.

In March 2010, Ofsted described the school as ‘outstanding’.

Government figures indicate it has consistently been one of the highest achieving schools in the country with 98% of its students achieving 5A*-Cs with English and Maths.

However, for the past four years, the school’s admission policy has been the subject of serious criticism from sections of the community.

It has been claimed that the policy is unfair, illegal and even racist. The issue has been brought to a head recently with a report published by the Local Government Ombudsman.

In an interview with the Chair of Governors of the School Kam Kothia, and Vice Chair Mohammed Isap, Asian Image challenged the school on its admission arrangements.

What does the school’s admissions policy say?

The school’s admissions policy gives first priority to children with special educational needs and those in foster care.

Following that, the admissions policy gives priority to students whose parents/guardians are members of our four local founding Mosques.

Following that, the admissions policy gives priority to siblings of students at the school, then those students who have medical or social problems, and finally to those students who live locally through a proximity criterion.

How many applications do you receive for admission to the school each year? How many students do you admit to the school each year?

We receive over 300 applications for places each year. In the recent past, we were only allowed to admit 60 students each year, but thankfully from September 2011 this has been increased to 120.

The school has a very small building, with small classrooms and narrow corridors. It’s simply not safe to take more than 120 students in each year.

When you get 300 applications each year, why did you only ask for 120 places? Surely, you will have more space when you move to new ground in September 2012?

We did ask for 200 places, but the Local Authority felt that any more than 120 students in each year at Tauheedul would cause problems for the other schools in the borough.

Although it means that many students won’t be able to study at Tauheedul, there are real benefits to having a school with a limit of 120 students in each year. Research shows that a school with 120 students in each year will be more able to look after the different needs of each of its learners, protect its ethos and maintain its standards.

We recognise that we are part of a family of schools across the borough and we have to be responsible when setting our admission number. If we increase our admission number too high, we would hurt other schools.

Young people at Pleckgate or Witton may not be able to get the full curriculum as their schools struggle to cope with falling numbers.

It’s a complicated picture and we have responsibilities to all young people in Blackburn, not just our students.

In any case, with our new Sixth Form opening at Beardwood as well, we won’t have space for any more than 120 students in each year.

Why does your admissions policy only allow students from families that are members of four Mosques? Your school is now funded by the taxpayer so should there not been a fairer process?

The four Mosques established the school 25 years ago and their communities supported the school through its most difficult periods, ensuring its viability and sustainability. This is also a Deobandi Hanafi school and so we give priority to students who come from these families attending the four locals Mosques. It is also important to point out that the admissions policy does not exclude students from other Mosques – it only gives priority to the students from these four Mosques.

Are all of your students from families that are members of these four Mosques?

No absolutely not. In fact, in the present Year 7, over half of our students come from families that are not members of the four Mosques.

So, what would you say to those who say only Gujarati (hailing from the Bharuch area of India) children who are members of particular mosques can be permitted entry to your school?

This is simply untrue. Whilst many of the members of the Mosques are from Gujarati backgrounds, this simply reflects the community that resides around the four Mosques.

There are also members of these Mosques who are from Pakistani and other non-Bharuchi backgrounds - they live within the community around the Mosques and pray regularly there. However, as we said earlier, over half of our Year 7 students come from families that are not members of the four Mosques.

Would it not be fairer to take students from all Mosques, not just those from the four Mosques?

As we said earlier, the school has students from all over Blackburn and from families that pray at many different Mosques across Blackburn.

But with only 60 places allocated to the school in each of the past four years, it was simply impossible to take students from every Mosque. This is no different to Christian Schools that are affiliated to particular parishes or Jewish Schools that are linked to particular theological schools of thought.

So, are you anti-Pakistani?

That’s just a ridiculous question. We don’t really want to give any credence to such ludicrous allegations. Its just crazy when around a quarter of our students are from Pakistani families and many of our staff, including senior leaders, are from a Pakistani background.

Look, we receive five applications for every one place at the school.

Sadly this means that over 200 families are disappointed each year. Over a five year period this equates to over a 1000 disappointed families. So we do understand how such allegations can arise, but it is simply not true – the facts speak for themselves.

Do you understand the concerns of parents who have been unable to get their children into Tauheedul because of the admissions process?

We believe that the admissions policy is fair. It balances the school’s faith ethos and traditions with the need to try to allow as many students as possible to the school. We are genuinely very sympathetic to those parents who are disappointed that their daughter cannot study at the school.

We would love to take every student who wishes to study at our school – but, as we have said earlier, we are only allowed to take 120 students.

We recognise that we are part of a family of schools across the borough and we have to be responsible when setting our admission number.

If we increase our admission number too high, we would hurt other schools.

Young people at Pleckgate or Witton may not be able to get the full curriculum as their schools struggle to cope with falling numbers. It’s a complicated picture and we have responsibilities to all young people in Blackburn, not just our students.

But, didn’t the recent Local Government Ombudsman’s report point out serious faults with the school’s admissions process?

No, it didn’t. The school’s admissions policy has been thoroughly scrutinized and approved by the Schools Adjudicator (an independent Government inspector of schools’ admissions policies appointed by the Secretary of State).

In 2009, the Local Government Ombudsman found serious faults with the admission appeals process, not the admissions policy itself. And it is important to stress that the appeals process is run separately by the Council on behalf of the school, and allows those parents who are refused admission to the school to appeal to an independent panel.

The serious mistakes were made by the independent panel, but obviously the school regrets any distress caused to parents and their daughters – we have worked hard with the Council to sort out the problems and offered a second appeal hearing to all of the families affected.

The Local Government Ombudsman has confirmed that the admission appeals process has been working well for the past year. Don’t take our word for it - your readers can read the report itself on the LGO website.

The school has a sixth form centre now. Has there been a similar admissions policy regarding this centre?

Currently, the school’s Sixth Form is delivered in partnership with Blackburn College and there have been no issues at all with regards to the current admissions policy.

From September 2012, the school will have its own separate Sixth Form and there will be a new admissions policy for that. We will take the views of the wider community before deciding on the admissions policy, but we are hopeful that any student who gets the grades will be able to attend.

How has this controversy affected the school?

Our students and staff work very hard to make the school an ‘outstanding’ place to learn, work and achieve.

The hurtful accusations and negative publicity, untrue as it is, has caused distress and worry for our students and staff. But, our teachers just care about teaching our young women – they don’t understand the politics and don’t really care about it.

You haven’t responded to the controversy for some time. Why have you decided to speak to us now?

We do feel that enough is enough. Recently, we have had influential people in the community saying very hurtful and untrue things about the school and our staff.

It’s just wrong to spread malicious and false allegations.