Muslim parents have been given a rallying call to get more involved in the running of their children's schools.

An educational conference, organised by the Bradford branch of the Islamic Society of Britain, was told that parents should make more of an effort to hold their neighbourhood schools accountable.

That way, they can ensure schools policies and curriculum are more responsive to particular needs of Muslim pupils, delegates heard.

About 100 people attended the event on Saturday at the Carlisle Business Centre which was addressed by high-ranking speakers.

Tahir Alam, who works for the Birmingham education authority as a school governor trainer, used his speech to urge members of the community to get more involved.

"Schools should serve their community but communities fail to take responsibility for education and for devising solutions or looking at the problems their children are experiencing," he said.

"There is laziness in the community - that needs to change. It's about holding the people running schools to account ."

He gave as an example the comments of one head teacher, who referred to a school as "my school". In another example, he said pupils had been actively dissuaded from taking up Islamic Studies as an option even though they achieved high grades in it when they were finally encouraged to do so.

Mark Pattison, managing director of Education Bradford, said the district's Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils, who historically achieve lower results in national tests and GCSEs than their peers, were narrowing the gap in Bradford but more work needed to be done.

He was challenged by a member of the audience to explain why there were no Muslims employed as senior managers within Education Bradford, and he replied that the organisation would be setting targets to improve its ethnic diversity.

The conference follows a similar event last May which heard calls for more Muslim faith schools in the district.

There is one voluntary aided Muslim school, Feversham College, but it only caters for girls. Mr Pattison said: "We are delighted with the success of Feversham College, but other, community schools also have success with Muslim pupils."