A Chasidic primary school in Stamford Hill has been accused by Ofsted of failing to abide by restrictions imposed on it by the Department for Education because of poor standards.
Bnei Zion Community School was barred in April 2025 from accepting new pupils until it showed improvement.
But in a recently published report, inspectors who visited the independent school in November said “there was evidence that proprietors are not complying with the restriction” and that pupils had been admitted after May 23 last year.
They reported that leaders had been unable to “provide evidence that the school has made the relevant information about the restriction available to parents”.
Ofsted also said Bnei Zion was operating “beyond its registration agreement” because it has pupils on the roll who were 11 when its registered age range was from three to five.
The school has been judged “inadequate for almost 10 years”. In its last five graded inspections between 2016 and 2024, it received the lowest inspection grade for overall effectiveness.
“Over this time, the proprietor has not taken seriously the issues identified and has not ensured that the independent school standards are met,” Ofsted commented.
While inspectors did not award a grade on their latest visit, they found oversight of the quality of secular education to be “weak”. Pupils were not well supported to achieve fluency in reading and were “behind age-related expectations”.
Ofsted said the school had 148 boys on its books; in December 2024, there were 165, according to the inspection report at that time.
The DfE said: “All schools must meet the Independent School Standards and those that do not, must improve rapidly or face enforcement action, which may result in closure.
“Where a school is already subject to a relevant restriction, the school will be kept under review. If it is evident that there has been little to no discernible improvement, further enforcement action can be taken to deregister the school.”
The school was approached for comment.
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