Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman is challenging a High Court ruling in November

Segregating pupils for religious reasons harms girls’ life chances and creates ‘an apartheid’ within schools, judges in a landmark appeal case have heard.

Education watchdog Ofsted has said Muslim faith schools which separate boys and girls are guilty of sex discrimination.

The Court of Appeal is to decide whether Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham has breached equality laws by segregating pupils from the age of nine for both teaching and break times.

In the first case of its kind, the state-funded Islamic school is challenging its own critical Ofsted report, which found separating the pupils left them ‘unprepared for life in modern Britain’.

Until now, the name of the school has been kept secret – but following an appeal by the Daily Mail on Monday the anonymity order was lifted. Ofsted also found the school kept ‘offensive’ books in the library which advocated wife beating and forced sex – a fact the school is not challenging.

The case will influence whether Ofsted is able to mark down Islamic and other faith schools in future for segregating pupils – a controversial practice which campaigners say makes girls feel inferior.

Government lawyers said yesterday there were a ‘number of schools’ that would have to stop segregating, or split into single sex schools if Ofsted wins the case. Yesterday, Helen Mountfield QC, representing the watchdog, said segregating pupils in a mixed sex school was against the Equality Act 2010.

Ms Spielman is challenging the ruling last November that cleared Al-Hijrah School (pictured) in Birmingham of operating an unlawful policy of segregating the sexes from year five

She said it created ‘a kind of apartheid within one environment’ which gives girls ‘a sense that “I’m different”’. This is not the case in single sex schools, where the separation does not occur in the same environment, she reasoned.

She said segregation suggested ‘the difference between men and women is so great that they cannot be allowed to share a space’. Ofsted believes the arrangements were detrimental to both sexes because they were not being ‘prepared for life in modern Britain’.

Miss Mountfield added: ‘But this creates a particular detriment for females as neither male nor female pupils are socialised to regard women as normal working and social companions for men... in a society in which men still hold the significant majority of power.’

The initial inspection was carried out in June last year, with Ofsted concluding the school was ‘inadequate’ and needed to be put in special measures over the offensive books, the segregation and a number of other issues. The school then challenged the segregation point in a judicial review.

Mr Justice Jay ruled in their favour in November last year and agreed that segregation was not illegal. Ofsted is now seeking to overturn this ruling in the Court of Appeal.

The case continues tomorrow.

Amanda Spielman is challenging a High Court ruling in November last year that cleared Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham of operating an unlawful policy of segregating the sexes from year five.

Arshad Mohammed, the headteacher of Al Hijrah School in Birmingham

Demonstrators outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday carried banners saying 'gender segregation is gender apartheid', as the landmark battle over whether the segregation is unlawful sex discrimination began before three judges at the Court of Appeal today.

Ofsted inspectors had penalised the mixed-sex school maintained by Birmingham City Council, whose headteacher is Arshad Mohammed, after a two-day inspection in June 2016 which found that its policy constituted discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act.

Overruling the inspectors, Mr Justice Jay said they had taken an 'erroneous' view on an issue 'of considerable public importance'. He ruled: 'There is no evidence in this case that segregation particularly disadvantages women.'

The judge allowed Ofsted, the body that regulates schools in England, to publish the rest of a controversial inspection report placing the school into special measures because books found in the school library gave tacit approval to domestic violence.

Ofsted's chief inspector, who is in court in person, is appealing over the segregation ruling in a two-day hearing.

Ms Mountfield said Al-Hijrah was an Islamic voluntary aided school which admits pupils of both sexes between the ages of four and 16.

From year five, however, boys and girls were completely segregated for all lessons, as well as break and lunchtimes and for school trips and all school clubs.

Following the June 2016 inspection, the school was deemed to be inadequate and requiring special measures.

The practical consequences of segregation for girls are more harmful than for boys Helen Mountfield QC, for Ofsted

After complaints from the school board, the inspection report was amended in August 2016 to acknowledge that segregation had not been commented on adversely in previous inspections.

Ms Mountfield submitted the fact that the less favourable treatment resulting from segregation had been overlooked in the past did not make it lawful.

She said: 'The practical consequences of segregation for girls are more harmful than for boys.'

There was 'the necessary implication that females are intrinsically inferior to, or relatively different from males in day-to-day work and social contexts'.

She said the latest inspection of Al-Hijrah was in June this year and it was once again placed in special measures.

An order had been made to turn it into an academy, which would involve a change of management.

Lawyers for the school's interim executive board said in a statement they were resisting the appeal, adding: 'The board says, as the High Court judge found, that boys and girls are treated entirely equally at the school and there is no bar on separating boys and girls as it has done.

'It points out that Ofsted did not claim that separation was discrimination until 2016.'