Steadying the ship at JFS - The Jewish Chronicle

“He’s been there two minutes!” exclaimed the mother of one JFS pupil as news filtered through of the departure of interim head Martin Tissot barely a month after the start of term.

Her son had liked what he had seen of the new head, who would stop to talk to children in corridors.

But Mr Tissot’s temporary leadership has proved rather more temporary than many had anticipated.

Whatever the cause of that, the chairman of governors Andrew Moss was this week trying to reassure parents that the search for a permanent replacement for Rachel Fink, who left at the end of May, was under way and interviews would be taking place in “the coming weeks”.

In the meantime, the mantle has been assumed by deputy, now acting heads Anna Joseph and Paul Ramsey. Mrs Joseph, who joined JFS four years ago, had been propelled up to “joint interim principal” in the upheaval after the Ofsted visit, while Mr Ramsey arrived this term from Verulam School, an academy in St Albans, where he had been head.

Also helping to steady the ship will be Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former Ofsted chief inspector who stepped in as “interim executive principal” during the summer term, and another senior educator, Dame Joan McVittie, who remain as advisers.

“Change is never easy and there are and will be inevitable bumps in the road from time to time,” Mr Moss admitted to parents.

There is no doubt that some of the steps taken to address the failings identified in June’s critical Ofsted report had led to a backlash among parents.

“Of course, you need to stamp out bad behaviour but there’s got be some leeway,” said one parent, who felt not enough account had been taken of the disruptive impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on children.

According to one post on a Facebook mother’s group, which was doing the rounds this week: “My children have loved school their whole lives but up until a year ago, they just don’t want to be there anymore.”

Pupils, she claimed, were policed by “three bulky men known as uniform guards who walk around checking out the length of the girls’ skirts, they give detentions if a child’s tie is not in perfect place, they make them line up in the playground in the morning and even if they move out of place for a moment, they get detention.”

While the authorship cannot be verified, her complaints of disciplinary overkill chimed with other JFS parents I have spoken to.

Governors must hope their next appointment will produce the kind of stable command the school enjoyed for almost quarter of a century under Jo Wagerman and then Dame Ruth Robins from 1983 to 2007.

But before that, another significant decision affecting the future of the school will be taken. As a consequence of being placed by Ofsted in special measures, JFS is being forced to come under the umbrella of a multi-academy trust.

Since JFS is already a school under the religious authority of the United Synagogue, it would seem logical for that trust to be the US-founded Jewish Communities Academy Trust. The Department for Education is expected to confirm that shortly.

But the recently formed JFS Parents Forum has voiced concerns about JCAT, arguing that it is a consortium of primary schools without experience of managing a large secondary school.

Representatives of the forum, which claims to have engaged with around 100 JFS parents, were due to have met JCAT chief executive Kirsten Jowett on Wednesday.

Putting out a more positive message ahead of the meeting, the forum’s founder Leslie Bunder said it was “fully confident that the JFS governing board is working collaboratively with JCAT and its trustees to build a brand new JCAT”.

Welcoming the appointment of Mr Ramsey and Mrs Joseph, he said the forum was grateful that the new leadership had reached out to “discuss how the views of parents can best be recruited to strengthen the school” and and it looked forward to a “productive working relationship”.

The new acting heads will now have to ready the school for a follow-up visit by Ofsted to monitor progress, which is expected soon.

But a senior figure at the school told me that the changes being made were intended to “put JFS right for generations, not just for Ofsted”.