A man and woman who ran an illegal secondary school in Park Royal have been banned from teaching. 

Suleyman Folami and Mujanet Daniah were given suspended sentences after they were convicted of running the unregistered school, called Advance Education Centre. 

Now a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) professional conduct panel has ruled they should both be banned from the profession. 

The pair ran a legitimate primary school on the ground floor of Unimix House in Abbey Road. 

But above that was an unregistered secondary school where up to 66 students were being taught for more than 25 hours per week. 

Students’ workbooks and teacher plans showed that the unregistered school set homework, issued detentions and was operating full-time, Ofsted said. 

The law states that when five or more children attend a place for education, it must be registered with the Department for Education. 

Brent & Kilburn Times: Classroom timetable at the Advance Education CentreClassroom timetable at the Advance Education Centre (Image: Ofsted)Ofsted inspectors identified several safeguarding risks, including inadequate supervision of children and unidentified adults walking unchallenged through the premises.

Inspectors described the setting as ‘chaotic’ and said the adults in charge appeared to have significant difficulty managing pupils’ behaviour. 

Folami, 62, and Daniah, 45, were were each handed four-week custodial sentences, suspended for a year, after a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in March 2020. 

They appealed their convictions and sentences but lost the appeal when a judge said the pair were “clearly trying to bend the rules”. 

On February 26, 2024, a TRA panel sat to decide the pair’s future in the teaching profession. 

After hearing the evidence, including references testifying that they were both excellent teachers, it was decided that both would be banned from teaching indefinitely. 

Folami will be able to apply for the prohibition order to be set aside in 2026, while Daniah will have to wait until 2029 to make that application. 

If they do apply, a panel will meet to consider whether they should be allowed to teach again.