Education chiefs have been criticised for failing to support a primary school at the centre of a row over banning the hijab.
Teachers at St Stephen’s school in Newham faced a coordinated campaign of bullying and harassment after the school stopped young girls from wearing the headscarf.
Staff were not given proper “emotional care and public support” by the local authority during the crisis, says a damning report by Ofsted.
Inspectors made an emergency visit after the school became a target of abuse from people protesting against the headteacher’s decision to stop girls aged under eight from wearing the hijab. The abuse was so vicious that the headteacher Neena Lall was compared to Hitler and the ban was reversed.