Madani Girls School is an independent secondary Girls School in Tower Hamlets. The school promotes moral, academic and professional excellence in a caring and secure Islamic environment, and we seek to provide opportunities for the fullest realisation of our children’s potential, so that they are better equipped to meet the challenges of adult life. The School was founded in September 1991 with 17 students at 38 Cannon Street Road, within four years we moved to a new site nearby at 15/17 Rampart Street to accommodate the growing student population. In 2001 with a population of 88 students we moved to our current site at Myrdle Street, a fifteen and a half thousand square meter site formerly occupied by Grenfell Primary School.
The work of the school has evolved since the 1990s in response to the needs of young adult females from the Muslim community in Tower Hamlets. The most satisfying aspect of the work of the school has been to oversee the development of a curriculum and approach to education designed to meet the social, educational and religious aspirations of young Muslim women in Tower Hamlets, and becoming the highest achieving school within Tower Hamlets. As well as providing a comprehensive secondary education within an Islamic framework, the school also offers educational, religious and leisure services to young Muslim women in Tower Hamlets, the School’s community projects serve young people from five years of age to twenty one. Madani is uniquely the only independent Muslim secondary girls school in Tower Hamlets, its female only environment provides a safe and comfortable social space for young women to come and realize their full potential.
In September 2006 the Department for Education (DfES) updated its handbook1 (under section 28 [new primary school] or 28A [new secondary school] which outlines 11 steps the promoters of an existing independent Muslim school needs to go through to join the maintained sector. It also offers guidelines for all interested parties including the Local Authority and provides a framework for action. From 1st September 2006 new provisions have been introduced which require local authorities to run a competition and invite proposals for a new secondary school, except where the Secretary of State has granted consent for the publication of proposals.
Madani Girls School was advised by the Department for Education (DfES) through the Association of Muslim Schools UK (AMSUK) to seek exemption from such a competition within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Accordingly an application has been sent to the Secretary of State for permission to publish proposals for Madani Girls School to join the maintained sector as Madani Girls VA School.
The school is currently seeking support, advice and comments about plans to re-designate the present independently funded Madani Girls School into a two form entry denominational secondary girls’ voluntary aided school within the mainstream education system.
The Trustees and Governors of the school strongly felt that members of the community in Tower Hamlets there should be an opportunity to have a detailed discussion on the proposal. Therefore the Trustees held a consultation meeting on 16th December 2006 5:00pm at Madani Girls School. Food and refreshments was be provided.
Various Ulema from East London attended the event. Speeches we given by the following scholars who had were involved in educational institutes in East London:
Mufti Umair Zulfiqar-Cityside Primary
Hafiz Zubiar - Imam Zakaria Academy
Moulana Sharif - Al Falah Primary
A speech and answers to questions were given by the General Secretary of Madani Girls School, Altaf Hussain JP.
All those who participated at the meeting believed that the schools commitment to greater community cohesion and meeting the needs of young people in Tower Hamlets will be strengthened by Madani Girls School entering the state funded education sector.
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