Madani Girls' School


Madani Girls School is an Islamic independent secondary school in Whitechapel, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. As of 2013 the school has 300 students.
It also operates a college and Alimah programme. The school opened in September 1991.

History

The main school building was originally occupied by Myrdle Street Central School. It was designed in 1905 by Thomas Jerram Bailey, the Architect of the Education Department of the London County Council. Myrdle Street was one of the first of the LCC's "central schools" that offered higher than elementary education. The building is described in the Pevsner Architectural Guide for London East as a "unique, outstanding design" featuring two semicircular staircase towers with copper domes. It became a Grade II Listed building in 1973.
Notable former pupils of the Myrdle Street Central School include Hannah Billig, a British-Jewish doctor who worked in the East End during the London Blitz when she became known as "The Angel of Cable Street". Also Morris Harold Davis, the President of the Federation of Synagogues and Labour Party politician.
After World War II, it became a special school changing its name to Grenfell Special School, which finally closed on 31 July 1999. In 1977, the school began to be used as a social centre for the local Bangladeshi community including evening language classes.

School uniform

In 2013 the Daily Mail wrote that when students are outside, they are required to wear black coats and burqas and that students are not permitted to wear makeup or jewellery. The school released a statement that the school does not enforce the niqab on students and that the use of "burka" refers to the jilbab.