Edinburgh's first Muslim faith school to welcome pupils next August
Plans for the school were initially refused by the council over noise concerns
Edinburgh’s first Muslim faith school is set to finally welcome its first pupils next August, three years after a planning row saw the Scottish Government overturn the council’s refusal.
The Eden School has announced that parents interested in sending their children to the private, fee-paying school at the former prison governor’s house in Saughton can now register their interest.
Alongside the standard curriculum, it plans to be a fully registered school which will also teach an islamic studies course on topics like understanding the Quran, being a productive Muslim and Islamic history.
According to its website, it aims to deliver a “balanced, broad and progressive primary school education in an islamic environment”.
The school’s planned opening was held up in 2023 when the City of Edinburgh Council refused planning permission to turn the property, which had spent 30 years as a trade union office, into a primary school.
Councillors' refusal on the grounds that the school in the shadow of HMP Edinburgh would cause an ‘inappropriate’ level of disturbance for local residents was overturned by the Scottish Government on appeal in early 2024.
Speaking at the time, Akeel Umar whose charity World Care Foundation was behind the project blasted a lack of “factual data” and “technical information” to support the council’s ruling made last year.
More than 800 public comments were submitted about the proposal before its eventual approval, 628 supporting the plans and 209 objecting.
One local councillor said they were worried the school would attract “people from all over Lothian and beyond travelling by car”.
The Government reporter Stephen Hall said any noise generated from the school would be mostly drowned out by traffic from the nearby Calder Road dual carriageway.
The World Care Foundation argued there was a growing need for a school for Muslim children living in the capital.
Edinburgh’s Muslim population had risen from 11,000 in 2011 to 18,000, although the religious group still only make up 3.5 per cent of its population.
Eden School is partly funded through donations through the World Care Foundations website, which also provides humanitarian aid.