New initiative considered to help children with no Jewish secondary school place

The latest figures from Pajes said there are 10 children currently without places.

Niki Goorney’s son James, who left Rosh Pinah Jewish Primary School last month, has remained on the waiting list of Yavneh College in Hertfordshire since May.

“It is the most stressful and upsetting situation to be in,” she said. “He made a lovely group of friends [at Rosh Pinah]. Now he is left and has watched all of his friends find out they are going to the school they want and going to be together.”

Since he is top of the Yavneh list, people she has spoken to have reassured her that he is likely to get a place eventually at the school during the year. But till then, he may have to attend a local comprehensive.

While she acknowledged the Pajes plan to cater for a group of Jewish children at a non-Jewish school, she said that one problem could be that as vacancies opened at Jewish schools during the year and children moved, the few that remained could be isolated.

She said that families in the same boat as hers needed better communal support and called for an official network to be set up to help them. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’ve been through. It’s horrible,” she said.