CARDIFF – Wales’s only Islamic primary school is set to celebrate 20 years of success in instilling morals and values of the faith in its students, as well as engaging with their neighbors at a time of rising Islamophobia.
“It’s a happy school. In a lot of aspects, it is the same as any other school. We have the same pupils and the same problems as any school. It is more the same than different to other schools in Cardiff,” head teacher Zahed Khan told Wales Online on Sunday, September 2.
“But there is better understanding among our parents about what the school is and where it is coming from.
“We follow the National Curriculum for Wales and teach Islamic studies. We study other religions as part of that.
“What we try to do is give a context to topics so that if we are doing science we teach our children about Muslim scientists and mathematicians as well. We teach about evolution and Darwin as well as what God says.”
Cardiff Muslim primary started as an independent school with 80 students in a few rooms above the Noor ul Islam mosque in Cardiff Bay in 1998.
Today, it has a capacity of 138 pupils taught in the Victorian school building in Merthyr Street, which was previously home to St Monica’s Church in Wales Primary School.
Although its motto is “Faith through learning, learning through faith” there is little in the Cardiff Muslim Primary building which is overtly Muslim.
There are no prayers on the school walls and although female staff wear hijab, neither they nor students are obliged to wear one.
“Here home and school life becomes integrated. Growing up Muslim you have to have a bit of a dual personality,” said the headteacher Zahed Khan.
“You are a different person at home, school, and work. The continuity they get here means as well as teaching the National Curriculum children to learn the basics of Islam.”
Part of the Society
While most of the pupils are from South Wales, their families have diverse backgrounds and a range of languages apart from English are spoken including Somali, Bangladeshi, Arabic, and Pashtun.
The students learn Arabic to feel comfortable in their identity as Muslims in Wales and to show people what their religion stands for, deputy head Naeela Minhas, who is also year five teacher, said.
With Muslims having lived in Cardiff for nearly 200 years they are part of the city’s fabric and have long needed a faith school of their own, the school leaders say.
“We provide a balanced, broad and wide curriculum,” says Naeela.
“We teach topics that address wider knowledge children need. In years five and six our current topic is on heroes and villains. Along with Muslim heroes from past and present, we also look at people like Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela among others. It’s about teaching the children values, social causes, and understanding of integrity, justice and equality – all of which are not only universal values but Islamic values also.”.
“Society has changed since we were younger and you want to keep a certain identity for your children and don’t want to compromise. In a faith school, you feel those values will be protected more. But these are universal values such as respect, kindness, and modesty.
“I think there is growing demand as Cardiff has a growing Muslim community. People come here looking for that faith element.”
At the school’s last inspection in 2014, Estyn judged the current performance as good and prospects for improvement as adequate while adding: “Most pupils attain good standards; all pupils in the school make good progress.”
Sajid Hussain, 39, chairman of trustees, who has three children at the school, believes it is these results and the faith ethos which drives the school’s popularity with parents.
“Generally I think it is the academic side, not just faith that brings parents here. People send their kids to Bishop of Llandaff High not just because of Christian ethos but because of academic results,” Sajid, the former Allensbank Primary, and Cardiff High pupil, said.
“My vision for this school is that it could be so good academically that non-Muslims want to come.”