A ex-teacher of an Oldham school where Muslim pupils were filmed praying outside has spoken of his experiences whilst working at the school.

The video which showed pupils at the Oldham Academy North school performing their Friday prayers outside was widely shared.

It led to the academy offering ‘a sincere apology’ and saying, "We are proud of our diversity and have never, and would never, stop students from praying or ask them to pray outside.”

Later a student who was said to be part of the group also spoke out and said the pupils had not been ‘forced’ from the premises. He said: “We weren’t actually kicked out of the school, it is just rumours, we were just told that we can’t pray at that time.”

Now, Faiz Rai, 33, an ex-teacher has shared his experiences whilst working at the Academy between 2014-2016. He presently lives in Saudi Arabia where he holds the role of Academic Vice Principal/Consultant.

The Academy said there were ‘no formal complaints from the staff member either while employed or since leaving the academy five years ago’. The academy also revealed it was now under new leadership since the allegations and had contacted Mr Rai to ‘seek further information and to offer support.'

Mr Rai explained: “To begin with, in my first year, everything was okay but in my second year it wasn’t a positive environment at all. The demographic of the school at the time included a minimum of 97 percent Muslims. A vast majority of the school population were from an ethnic minority background.

“When I started at the school there were about 20 ethnic minority staff, but by the time I left two years later, these figures had come down to single digit numbers.”

He alleged in one incident he was shouted at by staff in front of pupils, “One of the two teachers warned, ‘We are coming for you.’ There were about fifteen students in the class when this happened.

“During this period I was off from work for a total of three months due to severe stress as a result of their behaviour towards me.

“I had faced some issues when praying Jummah (special Friday prayers) during my time at the school. The school began making excuses to stop us praying such as claiming the staff and students were attending lessons late as a result of praying Jummah, as well as being accused of not allowing students to eat their lunch, none of which was true.

“Students were choosing to pray and eat packed lunches instead.”

He said he used to ‘pray daily in an unused office’ and two other Muslim teachers would also use the same office for prayers.

“A member of staff walked in on me once when I was praying and asked ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? The kids don’t need to see you on your hands and knees praying to whichever God it is you pray to, we don’t allow or promote this kind of behaviour.’ He added: “The kids didn’t have any issues with me praying and whether Muslim or not they respected the staff members who prayed.”

In Islam there are five obligatory daily prayers and special prayers held on Fridays so it is very important for Muslims to perform these daily and weekly acts of devotion.

Faiz continued: “I used to wear an Islamic robe on Fridays so I was accused of acting unprofessionally.

“I loved the job, I didn’t want to leave it, but things were getting worse and worse.”

Mr Rai approached the National Union of Teachers but wanted to leave what he called the ‘traumatic and stressful situation’ as quickly as possible.

A 21-year-old ex- student said: “I attended Oldham academy and I didn’t realise what was happening to Mr Rai at the time. Once, two teachers came into class and started shouting at Mr Rai and one of them said ‘We will come for you.’ “As a student I couldn’t interfere, it was very unprofessional behaviour. I remember another time a teacher was telling off Mr Rai for praying.”

Another ex-teacher who didn’t want to be named said: “I worked at Grange and The Oldham Academy North for over a decade. We as staff performed our daily prayers in a storeroom and other places as we didn’t have a designated prayer area.

“It was an oversight not only from the Academy but also from community leaders and parent governors to not have a multi- faith prayer room in the school when the school was moved to its current site.”

The Academy was contacted and asked to respond to the accusations.

An academy spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened by these allegations and take them extremely seriously. At The Oldham Academy North, we are proud to be part of such an incredible community and consider our diversity to be our greatest strength.

“While the academy is now under new leadership, we have contacted Mr Rai to seek further information and to offer our support.”

Following the video of pupils praying outside, the Academy had said: “While we have always sought to provide appropriate prayer facilities at the academy, we are working with Oldham Interfaith Forum and Oldham Council to address the concern this issue has caused.

“At The Oldham Academy North, we consider our diversity our greatest strength. We will always do everything in our power to ensure our students, staff and our communities are given the very best opportunities in life.”