Spencer Lewis, current headteacher of King Solomon high school in Essex, is to take up the headship of Yavneh College next September.

Dr Dena Coleman, headteacher of Yavneh College since it opened six years ago, is to retire at the end of the academic year.

Schoolteachers who have just returned from a UJIA-organised tour to Israel have described the current situation as “surreal”.

The 22-strong group of Jewish and non-Jewish teachers from seven Jewish schools in the UK, participated in the programme’s six-day seminar, which included tours around Jerusalem and teaching lessons at partner schools.

A 17-year-old City of London pupil organised and hosted a multi-faith conference for sixth-formers from London schools including JFS.

Times religion correspondent Ruth Gledhill and Adam Copson of the British Humanist Association were among a panel recruited by Hannah Cowen to debate the place of religion in the modern world.

The chair of the parent council of Glasgow’s Calderwood Lodge has resigned after a prolonged spat over the status of Scotland’s only Jewish school.

Across the country, strikes are being organised in the heath service by public sector union Unison. Just this week, the union described plans to cut 50 per cent of nursing staff at NHS Direct as a “disaster”. The Department of Health and Unison are effectively at war.

Department for Education officials are seeking an urgent meeting with a Jewish school in an attempt to defuse a dispute over its admission policy that has seethed during the past month.