How to start a madrasah in the UK: a practical checklist
Starting a madrasah is deeply rewarding and genuinely a lot of work. Most of it is not teaching, it is the setup around it: a safe place, safe adults, a clear plan, and a way to keep track of everything. This checklist walks through the practical steps in a sensible order. It is general guidance, not legal advice, so check the specifics for your area.
1. Be clear on what you are setting up
Most community madrasahs in the UK are supplementary schools: evening or weekend classes that sit alongside a child's mainstream schooling. This is different from a full-time independent Islamic school, which is registered and inspected differently and carries far heavier obligations.
Getting this distinction right at the start shapes everything else, from your premises to your paperwork. This guide is written for the supplementary madrasah and maktab.
2. Sort your premises and safety
Whether you are using a room in the mosque, a community hall or a dedicated building, the space needs to be safe and appropriate for children.
- Fire safety: clear exits, a fire risk assessment, working alarms and extinguishers
- Suitable toilets and a clean, heated teaching space
- Public liability insurance appropriate to running classes for children
- A sign-in and collection routine so you always know who is on site
3. Get safeguarding right from day one
Nothing matters more than this, and nothing will end a madrasah faster than getting it wrong. Safeguarding is not a form to file, it is a culture.
- A written safeguarding and child-protection policy every member of staff has read
- A named Designated Safeguarding Lead who knows what to do with a concern
- DBS checks for every adult working with the children
- Basic safeguarding training for all staff and volunteers
- A simple, confidential way to record and escalate any concern
4. Plan your classes and curriculum
Decide how you will group children (by age, by ability, or a mix), what each class will study, and how you will know they are progressing. Even a simple structure, Qaidah, then Nazra, then Hifz, with duas and Islamic studies alongside, is far better than making it up week to week.
Think about how you will assess and report. Parents want to know their child is moving forward, and a termly report card, even a basic one, does a lot to keep families engaged.
5. Recruit and organise your staff
You will need teachers, and before long some help with admin. Beyond the DBS checks and training already mentioned, decide early how you will handle pay. Many madrasahs pay teachers a modest amount, and once you do, you have responsibilities around payslips, tax and pensions to consider.
Keep clear records of who teaches which class, their hours, and their pay from the very beginning. It is far harder to reconstruct this later than to keep it as you go.
6. Set your fees and keep clean records
Most madrasahs charge a modest monthly fee to cover costs. What you charge is entirely your decision, based on your costs and your community. What matters from an admin point of view is that you record who owes what, who has paid, and who is behind, clearly and consistently.
Cash in an envelope is how fee income quietly goes missing and how awkward conversations start. A simple record of fees per child, updated as payments come in, saves you months of confusion.
7. Choose your admin system before you open
This is the step most new madrasahs skip, and the one they most regret. In your first term you will be juggling registers, contact details, progress, fees and staff, and if each lives in a different notebook, spreadsheet or WhatsApp chat, nothing joins up.
Decide early how you will keep it all in one place. Doing this on day one, while your numbers are small, is painless. Retrofitting it once you have two hundred children and three years of history is not.
A realistic first-term checklist
Pulling it together, here is what to have in place before your first session.
- Safe, insured premises with a fire risk assessment
- Safeguarding policy, a DSL, and DBS-checked staff
- Class structure, a basic curriculum, and enrolled students with parent contacts
- A clear fee arrangement and a way to track payments
- One system for registers, records, progress and fees
Official guidance worth reading directly
This checklist is a starting point, not a substitute for the source material. These three are the ones worth reading in full before you open.
Common questions
Do you need to register a supplementary madrasah in the UK?
A supplementary madrasah running evening or weekend classes alongside mainstream schooling is treated differently from a full-time independent Islamic school, which must be registered and inspected. Requirements vary by area, so check with your local authority. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
What do you need in place before the first session?
Safe, insured premises with a fire risk assessment; a safeguarding policy, a named Designated Safeguarding Lead and DBS-checked staff; a class structure with enrolled students and parent contacts; a clear fee arrangement; and one system for registers, records, progress and fees.
Do madrasah teachers need DBS checks?
Yes. Every adult working with the children should have an appropriate DBS check, alongside basic safeguarding training and a written safeguarding policy they have actually read. This is the area where getting it wrong causes the most damage.
What admin does a new madrasah need from day one?
Registers, parent contact details, progress records, fees and staff hours. Deciding where these live before you open is painless while your numbers are small. Retrofitting it once you have two hundred children and three years of history is not.
Do you have to run payroll for madrasah teachers?
If you pay teachers, even modestly, you take on responsibilities around payslips, tax and pensions. Keep clear records of who teaches which class, their hours and their pay from the beginning, because reconstructing it later is far harder.
IlmFlow gives a new madrasah one place for enrolment, registers, progress, fees and staff from day one, and we set it up with you personally so you are running your first session the same week.