A Muslim pupil has lost a legal case against a London school that has a ban on prayers after an earlier controversy over religious observance.
The pupil argued that the prayer ban was an act of discrimination against ethnic minorities and made her feel "alienated from society".
But the prayer ban only applies within the school. There's nothing to stop her praying or following her religious beliefs anywhere else.
When I was at boarding school I was expected to attend two religious services every Sunday, although they meant nothing to me but a waste of 1½ hours.
We occasionally get religious leaflets through our letterbox, and we occasionally get approaches from religious charities, but in general believers (who are numerous in Northern Ireland) keep a low profile and don't try to get us interested.
In fact I have no idea whether any of our immediate neighbours are religious or not, with one exception. The subject just never comes up.
As the school head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh says "A school should be free to do what is right for the pupils it serves. Schools should not be forced by one child and her mother to change its approach simply because they have decided they don't like something."
