Plans by Borehamwood parents to send their children on a cross-London journey to Ilford Jewish Primary School have been abandoned after a number secured late places at Jewish schools closer to home.
Frustrated at their failure to obtain offers from local Jewish schools, two dozen parents attended a meeting at Borehamwood Synagogue in May. They heard IJPS head Roz Levin and governor Howard Kemp extol the virtues of the Ilford school, which had a number of vacancies for the new academic year.
Despite coming away impressed from visits to IJPS, the travelling time of an hour each way had been a disincentive. "Sadly, they found the journey just too long for some of the very young children," Mrs Levin said.
The Borehamwood meeting was organised by Eddie Hammerman, who found out only in July that his four-year-old son Oz had been offered a place at Wolfson Hillel Primary in Southgate. Mr Hammerson argued that the "totally unnecessary" stress he and his wife Ronit suffered over the school place search could have been avoided if a central organisation had compiled a proper database.