A landmark prosecution has resulted in sanctions being handed down against an unregistered school.
Billed as a learning centre for home-schooled children, the Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre in Southall, west London, was found by Westminster Magistrates Court to be operating illegally.
Indications that the centre was being run as a full-time school in all but name included the appointment of a head teacher, daily homework being given out to pupils and monthly fees being charged for lessons in a range of subjects.
Head teacher Beatrix Bernhardt, 38 and director Nacerdine Talbi, 47, were both convicted of running an unregistered school and were sentenced to a three-month curfew between 9pm and 6am. They were also both ordered to pay £400 each and a victim’s surcharge of £85.
The court heard how Ofsted inspectors visited the centre on two separate occasions in 2017 and found more than 50 children between the ages of five and 11 being taught there.
In its defence, the centre claimed it simply provided tuition to home-schooled children but witness statements and photographic evidence collected by Ofsted inspectors enabled the Crown Prosecution Service to prove this was not the case.
Louis Mably, prosecuting, said: “The school purports to be providing part-time education. It purports to be supporting children who are being home educated. It holds itself out as being a setting that provides a maximum of 18 hours lesson time a week.
“The school operates from 9am to 2pm each day and therefore it operates across almost all of what might be considered a school day. The key point is that anyone attending this setting for a full period as a body of children are losing the ability to be educated during the day anywhere else, and what’s more the setting sets homework every night and expects it to be completed.”
Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Schools, said: “We hope that today’s judgment sends out a message to all those running such schools that they will face justice. We will continue to investigate and expose illegal, unregistered schools and, where we find them, play our part in making sure they are closed or become properly registered.”
Schools Week recently reported that Ofsted has identified a total of 420 “illegal schools” but, to date, only 55 have been closed or ceased to operate, since the watchdog established a special team to deal with the issue in 2016. The case involving the Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre is the first prosecution of its kind.
Jeremy Sirrell, a Partner with Palmers who specialises in litigation matters, said: “It would appear that, in this particular case, the centre breached key operating rules and overstepped the mark.
“Rather than offering additional ‘top up’ tuition services to home schooled children it, in effect, operated as a paid-for, unregulated school which should have sought registration because the education it provided met the government’s definition of “full-time”, in that it operated during the day for more than 18 hours a week.
“Thankfully, the vast majority of schools operate within the regulations laid down by the Department for Education, but it would seem that this landmark ruling could pave the way for further prosecutions in the future, so unregulated operators would be wise to seek legal advice to ensure that they fully comply with the DfE’s rules.”
At Palmers, our expert education team provide advice on all aspects of compliance. For further information on our full range of legal services for schools, please contact us.