Europe’s biggest Jewish school went from being in special measures to ranking sixth-best in the country in just one year by cutting detentions, its headmaster has told the JC.

After a damning inspection report in 2021, which saw the once outstanding-rated school placed in special measures, Ofsted dramatically restored JFS’s status to “good” earlier this year after Dr David Moody, a turnaround expert, took the helm.

This month, it was listed as the sixth-best comprehensive in the country by the Sunday Times after exceptional A-level and GCSE results this summer.

In his first interview since taking charge of the Modern Orthodox comprehensive a year ago, Dr Moody told the JC how he had cut the number of detentions by 90 per cent, from 3,000 to 300, in his first six weeks in the job.

Dr Moody said that a change in leadership in recent years had had an unsettling effect but there was now “more stability and happier children”.

A rigid disciplinary policy had been introduced in the wake of Ofsted criticism of behaviour, he said, which had created “a lot of frustration” among parents.

“I could see what people were doing, trying to bring in structures to make school a more orderly place,” he said, “[but] it was a one-size-fits-all system.”

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JFS head David Moody with pupils

There was a desperate need for “human moderation” in teachers’ decisions on discipline, he stressed, adding that the school is now “on the up”.

With the number of detentions reduced, relations with parents are improving, he added.

Evidence of growing support for the school comes as a majority of parents are now paying voluntary contributions for Jewish studies once again, he said. The proportion had fallen to under 40 per cent.

The school has been undersubscribed for the past two years, whereas before there had always been a waiting list. But Dr Moody is now hoping it will return to its former popularity in next year’s applications.

Looking ahead, he said that the next phase was “about refinement rather than massive changes”.