Jewish students in the UK have been given access to a new Israeli programme for beginners and near-beginners in Ivrit after a deal brokered by the Jewish Leadership Council’s schools network, Pajes.

The cost of external Ivrit programmes can be prohibitive for Jewish schools in Britain.

But Pajes was able to negotiate a 75 per discount for the new B’Sod Ha’Ivrit programme with Israel’s Centre for Educational Technology and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, with other support from London’s Wohl Foundation.

Samantha Benson, Pajes director of education, said, “As it became clear that a blended learning approach, combining remote learning with learning in school, was going to be the reality for the foreseeable future, a number of schools realised that B’Sod Ha’Ivrit could be an excellent programme to meet the needs of many year 7 and a number of year 8 students, and also some students with additional learning needs.”

Schools already have unlimited access to two programme, Ivritbeclick and Yesh Va’Yesh, under Pajes’s existing agreement with the CET.

B’Sod Ha’Ivrit “offers a digital book, online tools and student log-ins, and leads very well into Yesh Va’Yesh as students progress,” she said.

CET are providing professional development for 30 Ivrit teachers expected to use the new scheme this year.

Student access to two other programmes, called Mechina and Palulan, which had been due to end in summer, will continue for a further year, as a result of Pajes’s negotiations.