By Simon Rocker
Ilford Jewish Primary School is accepting pupils from other faiths because there have been insufficient Jewish children to fill places.
Headteacher Roz Levin said that for the second academic year, non-Jewish children had been admitted “due to the fact that we are not oversubscribed”.
Five of this year’s 31 entrants to the reception class are not Jewish. Their families understood “we are a Jewish school and we only teach Judaism”, the head explained.
But she went on that “next year, we have 55 Jewish children who have registered interest and 54 for 2011 so it is just a blip.”
The United Synagogue-linked school has the capacity to take up to 60 children a year.
Outside of London, the King David schools in Liverpool and Birmingham’s King David Primary have long accepted a large intake of non-Jews owing to falling Jewish numbers in their localities.