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For parents awaiting the result of their children’s secondary school applications in less than a month, the promise of up to 60 extra places in the Jewish system in London will be reassuring.
While there is no guarantee of satisfying every Jewish applicant, bulge classes at JCoSS and, if need be, JFS are expected to meet demand for 2017.
But the longer-term solution to cope with the forecast increase in numbers remains to be settled.
Partnerships for Jewish Schools (Pajes), the Jewish Leadership Council’s education division, is confident that existing schools will rise to the challenge and ensure enough places in future years. For Pajes, expanding schools is preferable to opening a new school, not least because it may prove a cheaper option.
Secondly, if demand falls off in future years, schools may then be able to reduce their intake accordingly. They will be able to preserve what Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has called their “immersive Jewish atmosphere” — they will not have to accept children from other faiths in the event that there won’t be enough Jewish pupils to go round.
However, the Pajes plan is not yet concrete enough to convince supporters of a new Jewish free school to abandon their ambitions.
The Kavanah College team are planning to re-apply in spring. If they or another group are successful this time round, that would obviate the need for expansion by other schools.
Alternatively, if the Department for Education approves a new Jewish free school, Kavanah could pull out later, should other Jewish schools commit themselves to more places.
But questions remain about the free school option, following the Department for Education’s initial rejection of Kavanah and the second bidder, Barkai College, partly on the grounds that they were offering too much Hebrew and Jewish studies.
By the next round of free school applications in spring, the government is expected to change entry rules so that, in future, a free faith school can prioritise all its places for children from one faith.
Yet, at the same time, the government appears to want free faith schools, in theory, to be open to applicants from different faiths. Hence, the DfE’s apparent desire either to curb the amount of religious studies within the curriculum — or stipulate that alternative courses must be available.
