Fresh criticism over school's curriculum failures

A school which inspectors last year said was not preparing pupils for life in modern Britain has received further criticism by the regulator for failing to teach children about "different kinds of families".

In April, Islamic Tarbiyyah Preparatory School in Bradford was rated by Ofsted as inadequate, with the watchdog saying boys and girls were treated differently and gender stereotypes were not being challenged.

According to a new report, during a follow-up visit in November inspectors found the school was still not meeting statutory guidance over areas such as relationships education and safeguarding.

The school has been approached by the BBC for comment but has so far not responded.

Following an inspection in September 2023, inspectors criticised the school's curriculum, saying it "did not include any aspect of technological education".

It also "did not prepare pupils fully for life in modern Britain", they added.

Meanwhile, inspectors raised concerns that the school did not teach "tolerance and respect for different relationships, faiths or cultures".

In their new progress monitoring inspection, which was conducted without notice on 26 November, inspectors found that despite adopting a new Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education programme, the school did not teach pupils about "different types of families".

According to Ofsted, the new PSHE programme had led to children being able to understand public institutions, as well as different faiths and cultures,

"However, pupils do not possess sufficient age appropriate knowledge about the protected characteristics," inspectors reported.

"The school does not teach pupils about the protected characteristics in an explicit enough way."

Inspectors also raised concerns about the school not having "a strong enough culture of safeguarding".

They added that staff training was "not systematic or rigorous enough".

The safeguarding culture applied to the early years as well as to the other phases of the school, Ofsted said.

The watchdog said the overall outcome of the new inspection was that the school did "not meet all of the independent school standards that were checked".

The school, on Ambler Street, charges £1,700 a year for day pupils.

It teaches children aged between three and 11 years old, with about 175 pupils currently attending the school.

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