Why faith schools are bad news

Parents of children due to start state primary school this year will find out shortly where their child has been allocated. It's a nervous time - a recent National Audit Office Report found that a fifth of primary schools are full or oversubscribed with a predicted shortfall of 240,000 places next year.

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Parent disputes Moriah admissions policy

A family has complained that their son has been denied a place at the Moriah Jewish Day School nursery in Pinner, Harrow in September because the school miscalculated the distance from their home.

The boy's father, who did not wish to be named, said that other children who lived further away from the school had been placed higher than their son in the queue for 26 places.

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Father told he can challenge JFS ruling

The father who was refused a judicial review of the admissions policy of JFS by a High Court judge has been told he can appeal against the decision.

Mr Justice Munby gave the man known as E — against whom he ruled two weeks ago in a 72-page judgment — permission to challenge his ruling and take his fight to win a place for his 11-year-old son at the Kenton school to the Court of Appeal.

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‘The fight is with intolerance, bigotry, lack of common sense’

For 47-year-old David Lightman, whose wife Kate is head of English at JFS, the judgment served only to strengthen his resolve to win justice for his own family.

“We are obviously very disappointed at the outcome, because it reinforces the clear discrimination and prejudice that we heard in this case. There is discrimination between people who are Jewish by choice and people who are Jewish by birth,” said Mr Lightman.

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‘The school could have done the right thing, that’s the shame of it’

Helen Sagal took an unequivocal view of the proceedings. “I can’t imagine how Mrs Lightman goes to work there. I know they have absolved the school from any responsibility, but I don’t believe the school is blameless.

“JFS could have done something to stand up for what is the right thing and that is the shame of it. You have to have the human touch in the end and that is what this case lacks,” added Mrs Sagal.

“Somebody should have the good sense to sit back and say this is nonsense. What are we doing in this position?

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Father vows to fight on against JFS entry rules

Judge rules that top school’s admission policy does not break race-relations laws

A father who has been refused a judicial review of the admissions policy of JFS, Europe’s biggest Jewish school, has sought permission to appeal.

Last week, in a 72-page written judgement, Mr Justice Munby cleared JFS of the accusation that its admissions policy broke race laws both directly and indirectly. He said the school’s policy was based on religious and not racial or ethnic grounds.

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JFS admissions policy backed by judge

A challenge to the admissions policy of the JFS Comprehensive School in Kenton, North West London, appears to have ended today after Mr Justice Munby ruled the policy to be "entirely lawful and proportionate to the aims and objectives of the school." Sitting in Cardiff, the judge said that Jewish status could only be defined by Jewish law, and was not something to be determined by the secular courts.

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