Islamia Primary School is probably the best known Muslim school in Britain,
partly due to its founder, Yusuf Islam, who in the 1960s and 1970s was the well known singer/songwriter, ‘Cat Stevens’, before converting to Islam in 1977. He used his own resources to establish the school after the birth of his first child and has worked tirelessly for the school and the cause of Islamic Education ever since.
Islamia Primary School was the first full-time Muslim school of its kind in England and the first to get recognition from the government after a long and difficult struggle. The School opened in October 1983 at Number 8, Brondesbury Park, NW6. Since then we have moved to what was known as the Kilburn & Brondesbury Secondary School. At first just a Nursery, Islamia Primary quickly grew to an Infant and then a Junior School too.
The school was soon known for its excellent results and was hugely popular and as a result needed to expand. Also there was now a growing demand for a Secondary School. So in 1989, the Islamia Schools Trust bid for the Kilburn & Brondesbury Secondary School site which is now home to Islamia Primary School and the independent Islamia Girls Secondary School. The site had been an old, and rather exclusive, Grammar School with many prominent ex-pupils. It had also served as a Synagogue for a time, during the construction of a purpose built Synagogue over the road, (which is now part of the Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra Islamic School).
Finally, in January 1998, fifteen years after the school was founded, the government granted it state funding.
The school continues to maintain excellent academic and spiritual standards.