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1 Feb 2018

Hijab ban for under eights

Today, the new head of Ofsted has told schools not to be afraid of standing up to religious groups. Amanda Spielman said headteachers shouldn’t fear causing offence when making rules for pupils.

Her comments follow a row earlier this year between some parents and a primary school in East London where pupils younger than eight were banned from wearing hijabs.

The headscarf ban has since been overturned by the school’s governors, but today, in an unusual intervention, Ofsted’s chief inspector gave her backing to the headteacher who imposed it in the first place.

So was she right to do so? Zubaida Haque from racial equality think tank The Runnymede Trust and Amina Lone, in Manchester, who has lobbied for the government to stop young girls wearing hijabs in school discuss this.