The popularity of the sessions, particularly for girls, across the strictly Orthodox spectrum encouraged the charity to extend its provision to eight-year-olds.
Participants come from around a dozen schools and Mrs Israel pointed out that Shoshanim offered a rare opportunity for children to mix with others from outside their own small communities.
“We also do lots of community cohesion schemes, bringing in the Queen’s Guard, the police, the fire brigade.
“The children get to see a lot — and we try to broaden their horizons.”
Its holiday clubs and play schemes are also hugely popular. Its winter programme included an outing for 900 boys and 900 girls to see The Twins Of France — an American acrobatics and magic duo.
Shoshanim employs four full-time workers but takes on another 45 paid staff during the school holidays. The latest Big Lottery Fund grant will also fund an empowerment co-ordinator tasked with helping the children to take decisions.
Around a quarter of users have special needs and Mrs Israel would like to expand the figure by 10 per cent.
“I was recently asked by a visitor: ‘Do you run this for special needs children or for mainstream kids?’
“That’s how integrated we are. It’s really beautiful.
“We will have a young person with special needs who gets up on stage to sing and who receives a roar of approval from everyone.
“This doesn’t just happen overnight. It happens because of inclusion over many years. It has become one of the themes of my organisation.”
