Menorah High School for Girls, an independent strictly Orthodox secondary school in Dollis Hill, north-west London, has been granted voluntary aided status by Barnet Council – despite it being located in Brent.
The decision was made on Wednesday evening, following a debate and vote held by the council’s Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding committee. Five out of nine committee members voted in favour of the changes, meaning that most of the school’s tuition fees will now be covered by the council.
Mark Morris, a philanthropist and governor at Menorah High, who is in charge of its finances, represented the school in front of the panel, alongside the London School of Jewish Studies’ chief executive, Jason Marantz.
He said that, although the outcome was victorious, the vote had been challenging as Labour members of the panel had argued against faith schools in general.
“But our proposal was very strong and everything was covered,” Mr Morris said. “The leadership of the school is very good and our results are very good. We go for outstanding.
“The only complication was that we are in Brent, not Barnet. The reason is that prices in Barnet are very high; we had to buy our own building.
“But all but one of our pupils come from Barnet, and the one who doesn’t come from Barnet doesn’t even come from Brent.”
Mr Morris said the school, which currently caters for 209 girls between the ages of 11 and 16, was “really delighted” with the outcome.
“The leadership and teaching is outstanding,” he said. “Although it is strictly Orthodox, the girls all go on to university and work in the wider world. We have girls working at Barnet hospital and Royal Free Hospital – they have set the balance between being strictly Orthodox and giving back to wider society, being fully integrated.
“That is the beauty of our community.”
He said the new voluntary aided status would give the school “financial stability. High schools are very difficult to maintain; we do not refuse any children who cannot afford to pay.
“This gives us the ability to pick up the education and to do extra things like music that you cannot justify on a tight budget.”
It has become increasingly difficult for schools to win voluntary aided status, with many instead being forced to go down the free school route – which puts them under the auspices of the government, rather than the local council. This means they are less in control of their admissions policies than they would be with voluntary aid.
In the last 30 years, the number of Jewish voluntary aided schools has more than doubled. Menorah High School for Girls is now the 50th Jewish school in the country to have been granted state aid.
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