THE first academy in Britain to be rated “outstanding” by inspectors is being investigated by the Department for Education (DfE) after claims it is sidelining non-Muslim staff.

A former employee of Park View Academy in the inner-city Alum Rock area of Birmingham is understood to have claimed that non-Muslim staff were being treated unfairly.

The employee also alleged that the academy, which has been approved to oversee two other schools in Birmingham, has been attempting to teach Islamic studies despite not being a faith-based state school.

Last year Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, received a complaint from a member of staff at Park View that the school in effect excluded female students from after-school tennis classes by ruling that they could not be taught tennis by