Plans for the country’s first non-denominational Jewish school got the go-ahead from a London council this week.
At a Barnet council planning meeting on Wednesday evening, councillors gave the Jewish Community Secondary School (JCoSS) permission to be built on the site where the sixth-form section of East Barnet secondary school currently stands. The £50 million project will be the only Jewish school not under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi.
The project was originally granted planning permission in August last year, after a deal was stuck with the council in which East Barnet school would be rebuilt so that the sixth-form section joined the rest of the school.
The council was also granted planning permission for the rebuild; however, it had to submit revised plans this year after allegedly realising that its original proposals were not financially viable.
Had the revised proposal not been granted planning permission, then the sixth-form section of East Barnet school would have remained at its current site, meaning that JCoSS could not have been built there.
This was the last matter which need to be submitted to the council’s planning committee, so the project now has the green light to go ahead.
Michael Phillips, chair of the JCoSS Trust, said: “This is another important step forward for JCoSS, which continues to progress well on all fronts.
“This decision will now enable us to finalise the planning and funding arrangements.”
The school is due to open in September 2010, with 180 pupils.
It will have the capacity for 1,310 students as well as a special resource provision for 50 pupils with autism, which will be run in conjunction with Norwood.
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