A team from JFS triumphed at this year’s Beat the Clock, the inter-schools contest created by Manchester’s King David High School.

Now in its third year, the competition attracted its highest participation with 136 year-seven pupils from the host school and 88 from JFS, Immanuel College and Yavneh College.

The Londoners travelled up the night before and joined the local students for dinner, where they watched England’s World Cup semi-final against Croatia.

“Despite England being knocked out, the atmosphere was still on a high as students were gearing themselves up for their contest the following day,” said Beat the Clock’s creator, Rabbi Jonny Goodman.

Divided into 28 teams, they were set seven creative challenges designed to test their general Jewish knowledge.

For one of them, the Shopping Packathon, run in conjunction with the charity Gift, they had to prepare a box of supermarket goods, which would later be distributed to needy families in the city.

“They had to ensure that the items that chose to pack were kosher,” said Rabbi Goodman. As well as being able to consult the London Beth Din’s Is It Kosher? app, they could also call on Gift’s Rabbi Avrohom Zeidman, who was on hand to field kashrut queries. 

In another challenge, they were handed 67 cards referring to different events in Jewish history and had 20 minutes to arrange them in the correct timeline.

The final scores were close with teams from Yavneh Boys — the religious stream at King David — and Immanuel being pipped by JFS.

“This year was bigger and better than ever,” said JFS Jewish studies teacher Rabbi Doniel Karp. “Every round challenged the teams in different ways demanding team work and speed, creating a real buzz in the hall throughout.”