The Department for Education has again turned down an application for a new Jewish secondary free school in London.

It said the New Jewish High School did not meet the criterion for the latest round of free school applications which is designed to facilitate investment in areas of low educational performance.

NJHS had sought to open a Modern Orthodox high school in south Hertfordshire against the background of rising demand for places at Jewish secondary schools in the capital in recent years.

Hertsmere, the DfE said, was “not deemed to be an area of low standards".

Eve Sacks, one of the main supporters of the project, said: “We have given it our best shot.

“But we believe the pressure of potentially having a new Jewish secondary school pushed other Jewish schools to open more places, which we hope they will continue to do.”

NJHS was formed out of the merger of previous unsuccessful Kavannah and Barkai College bids for a free school in 2017.

The Department for Education then questioned whether they would be devoting too much to Jewish studies at the expense of secular subjects, although the proposed curriculum of both resembled existing Jewish schools.

Pajes, the Jewish Leadership Council’s schools network, hopes that the DfE will approve funding for the permanent expansion of Yavneh College in Hertfordshire and JCoSS in East Barnet.

Yavneh is opening a bulge class in September, although JCoSS, which did likewise in the past two years, is not planning to do so this autumn.