Denbigh High School, Luton

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Denbigh High School is a comprehensive state-funded school in Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.

The school is based in Alexandra Avenue, Luton and caters for pupils aged 11-16. Denbigh currently has 1066 pupils on roll, 567 boys and 499 girls. It has an Indian-British Muslim Head Teacher and the majority of the students are Muslims from Pakistan or Bangladesh. It was brought to national attention as the result of a law suit over excluding a student, Shabina Begum, who refused to wear the school uniform, instead opting for an Islamic dress.

1 Student Demographics
2 Head
3 School performance
4 Awards
5 The Jilbab Controversy
6 References

[edit] Student Demographics

About 77% of the pupils come from Asian backgrounds, with the vast majority either from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds. Overall, about 95% of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and 85% have a first language which is not English. The school states that 42 languages are currently spoken in the school, by children from 37 nationalities. A large number of the students at the school are currently classified as refugees or asylum seekers.^[1]

Many of the pupils are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is well above the national average. The attainment of pupils on entry to the school is well below the national average and the proportion with special educational needs is above the national average.

[edit] Head

It became successful under the headship of Yasmin Bevan, who was born into a Bengali Muslim family in India. The OFSTED Report said of her "The school’s vision that “high achievement for all is our shared responsibility” is being achieved with great success. Key to this success is the outstanding leadership by the head teacher."

[edit] School performance

The OFSTED report stated that the school is "very effective, with outstanding features and it provides very good value for money". Those with special needs and those for whom English is a second language achieved excellently.

On pupils’ achievement, it reported that it "is very good overall, and excellent at the end of Year 11 where the government value-added score from the end of Year 9 is one of the highest in the country".

The schools performs well in terms of the national and local averages for unauthorised absence: 0.40% unauthorised absence (0.8% locally, 1.1% nationally)

Inspectors have said that an ethos has been created in the school where pupils are expected to do well, whatever their levels of disadvantage, and where individual pupils and their cultures are valued and supported.

In the New Years Day honours list for 2007 Yasmin Bevan was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire.

[edit] Awards

The school has won a number of awards, including: two school achievement awards for improvements to pupils’ standards; an Investors in People award; Sportsmark; the Nokia Citizenship Award; and a Healthy Schools Award. It rates 3rd out of 12 in its Local Education area and 1635 out of 3579 nationally. And in 1986 the Denbigh High School Troubadours were invited to perform at the White House. This invitation has not been repeated since.

[edit] The Jilbab Controversy

For more details of the case see Shabina Begum.

The school has recently become embroiled in controversy over its dress code. It permits students to wear various ethnic costumes to follow the hijab. However, it does not permit the jilbab, a head to toe covering worn by some Muslim women.

Bevan argued that "she wanted her school to provide an environment in which the children could learn and live together in harmony and believed that a school uniform promoted a sense of community identity".