R (TTT) v Michaela Community Schools Trust

Extract

Michaela School is avowedly secular and operates under a very disciplined regime. It has a high proportion of Muslim pupils, and in 2023 the school's governing body decided to prohibit pupils from performing prayer rituals on its premises – regardless of religion – after the Headteacher had banned prayer rituals as an interim measure. Muslims are required to pray five times a day; and while TTT, a Muslim, accepted that the requirements of the school day meant that she could not always pray during the appropriate period, she wanted to perform the midday prayer (Duhr) in autumn and winter during the school lunch break – which, she argued, was ‘free time’. It was argued for TTT that the school's refusal violated her rights under Article 9 ECHR (Ground 1); that the policy discriminated indirectly against Muslims, contrary to section 85(2)(d) and/or (f) of the Equality Act 2010 read with section 19 (Ground 2); and that in introducing the policy the school had failed to have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, contrary to the public sector equality duty in section 149 of the 2010 Act (Ground 3). She also claimed to have been subject to two procedurally unfair ‘fixed terms of exclusion’ because she had not been allowed to respond to the allegations against her before her exclusions (Ground 4).