Although Noam Primary was last week awarded state aid by Barnet Council, there are concerns that conditions attached to applications could make it harder for other faith schools to follow suit.

Noam, which is due to move from Wembley to Burnt Oak in 2020, will become voluntary-aided in January next term.

Earlier this year, the government promised more support for applications for voluntary-aided status, following the retreat from its previous  pledge to lift the faith cap on free schools.

Free schools can still allocate only half their places on the basis of faith, whereas voluntary-aided schools may reserve all their places for children of one faith, as long as there are enough children to fill them.

The greater control over admissions makes voluntary-aided status more appealing to schools on the right of the Orthodox Jewish spectrum than is the free school option. 

In recently published guidelines, however, the Department for Education has stated that applicants for voluntary-aided status will still have to demonstrate how they would be  “welcoming and address the needs of all pupils — from all faiths and none”.

They would also have to show their support for integration between communities, for example by creating links between their own pupils and “young people of different faiths (or no faith) in other schools”.

Applicants would have to disclose whether they planned to teach about all major faiths and not just their own — although the guidelines do not say that schools teaching just a single faith would be ineligible for aid.

The small print has been queried by Rabbi David Meyer, executive director of the Jewish Leadership Council’s education division, Partnerships for Jewish Schools.

The requirements for social cohesion, he said, were “in line with the government’s agenda, which will require faith schools to take actions to ensure that there is greater social engagement between faith schools and non-faith schools.”.

However, Rabbi Meyer added, there was “concern about the practicalities for schools trying to implement this measure. 

“It should also be questioned as to why the government would focus on faith schools, when there are certainly greater concerns about disparities between school communities based on socio-economic or other factors.”

* Meanwhile, members of Brighton’s Jewish community have agreed to push forward with plans to open a Jewish primary free school in the city following a public meeting last month.

A project team of 15 people has been set up to explore the practicalities of the idea after overwhelming support for pursuing it was expressed at the meeting.