A class of their own - The Jewish Chronicle

Jewish primary schools have excelled in national tests this year, with four achieving perfect scores and a strictly Orthodox boys' school making one of biggest year-on-year improvements ever recorded. All 11-year-olds at the Independent Jewish Day School in Hendon, North Cheshire Jewish Primary School, King David Manchester and Clore Shalom in Hertfordshire attained the government's target Level 4 score in maths, reading and writing. The results achieved by the Independent Jewish Day School made it the 26th best primary in England. It was the third year running that the north London co-educational school had attained a perfect result. Headteacher Rabbi Jacob Ebrahimoff attributed the success to "specific and specialised teaching". He said: "Our dedicated staff focus on the individual progress of each child and that makes a big difference. My focus is making sure each child is supported in the best way for them." The North Cheshire Jewish Primary School repeated the 100 per cent record it achieved in 2013. Twenty-two 11-year-olds at the school took the tests. Acting headteacher Michael Woolf said: "We are delighted and very proud of all the children. This is a tribute to their hard work, and the efforts of all the staff and our supportive parents." The Department of Education figures relate to Key Stage 2 tests taken in the summer by Year 6 pupils at state schools. Half the Jewish schools saw an increase in the number of students reaching the Level 4 target, with virtually all achieving 70 per cent or above. The most eye-catching score, however, came from the strictly Orthodox Lubavitch House Junior Boys, in east London, which jumped from just 14 per cent in 2013 to 63 per cent this year. A spokesperson for the DfE said the result was the "largest" improvement it had heard of. The previously independent school became state-aided last year and has had access to external consultants within the Jewish community who have helped raise standards, particularly in reading and writing. Rabbi Bentzi Sudak, who oversees the Lubavitch schools group, said: "We've been working very hard to bring the school in line with the top performers." However, it still has some way to go - the government regards a score of below 65 as a sign that a school is failing. Sara Perlmutter, education policy and projects manager at the Board of Deputies, said the results showed that Jewish education worked well in conjunction with the national curriculum. "Faith schools are constantly under attack. But if it's not broken, don't fix it," she said.