Hackney Council has come to the rescue of a homeless Charedi school by offering premises to enable it to open for the new school year.
Beis Yaakov, an independent girls’ primary, which had been forced to vacate its previous building in July, had turned to the council after being unable to find an alternative.
Now it has been given temporary use of part of a former school building which was closed last year.
Councillor Soraya Adeiare, cabinet member for children, young people and early intervention in the recently elected Green administration, said the building of Oldhill Community School would now provide “a temporary home” for Beis Yaakov.
“This will ensure children that do not currently have a place to learn can continue to receive their education in the new term, while it searches for a long-term home,” she said.
The space was “urgently required for the school to avoid closure and ensure the more than one hundred pupils on its roll still had a place to study in the new school year,” she added.
“Unlike some independent schools, Charedi Jewish schools like Beis Yaakov serve the community’s needs rather than acting as profit-making private institutions. They are often charities and offer heavily subsidised education to their pupils.
“This may make it difficult for them to find adequate buildings to teach their children, particularly when they are facing urgent displacement…
“While local authorities have no statutory duty to provide independent schools with sites, they do have to ensure that all school aged children within the borough have a place to learn.”
While the site is partially occupied by a children’s centre, it has “multiple entrances and a floor plan that easily allows for multiple organisations to share the building while remaining separate”.
In return for the licence, Beis Yaakov will pay the council a fee.
Motty Pinter, of Charedi education organisation Chinuch UK, said: “We are extremely grateful to Mayor Zoë Garbett, Councillor Soraya Adejare and Hackney’s director of education Jason Marantz for working with us so diligently to find a solution for a school that urgently needed a new home.
“For Beis Yaakov and its pupils this makes an enormous difference. It also shows what can be achieved when the council and the community work constructively together. This is a promise made and a promise delivered, and we very much welcome it.
“We look forward to continuing those discussions about this and other sites, so that buildings which would otherwise stand largely empty can continue to serve the educational needs of Hackney’s children.”
ave to ensure that all school aged children within the borough have a place to learn.
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