Will government’s faith school plan help us?
THE GOVERNMENT’S decision to lift the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions to new free schools has prompted differing reactions across the Jewish community.
While many leading figures welcomed the move, others, including parents, expressed concern.
Theresa May made the announcement as part of a major overhaul of secondary education.
She declared her desire to “remove the obstacles that stop more good faith schools from opening” by removing the requirement that new free schools must limit the number of pupils it selects on the basis of faith to 50 per cent
The Department for Education is currently considering two bids for new Jewish free schools: Barkai College and Kavanah College, which brings together the campaigns for Hertfordshire Jewish Free School (HJFS) and Kedem High School.
As the applications must be submitted by the end of the month, they will not be affected by the proposed changes.
In her announcment, Mrs May said the government would work to “confidently promote” faith schools which “are popular with parents and signifi- cantly more likely than other schools to be rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding”.
She said the aim of the 50 per cent cap had been to improve the diversity among pupils at faith schools. But she noted: “In practice it has little impact on many Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu schools because they tend not to appeal to parents of other faiths.
“So despite the best intentions, the rule is failing in its objective to promote integration.”
Instead, she hoped to improve social integration in other ways, while giving more freedom to faith schools.
Following the announcement, she launched a consultation, called “Schools that work for everyone”, which will remain open until December 12.
Despite the best intention the rule is failing to promote integration’
The consultation is proposing “a series of strengthened safeguards to promote inclusivity” in faith schools so that all children will be admitted on the basis of religion.
Mrs May indicated that religious schools could operate within “wider multi-racial and multi-religious trusts” and that schools of different faiths might be twinned.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis welcomed the proposed removal of the cap. He said: “For many years, without the 50 per cent rule, the Jewish community proudly built schools which did not compromise on outstanding academic standards, an immersive Jewish atmosphere and a total commitment to promoting the values of integration and tolerance.
“I wholeheartedly support the government’s proposals, which will enable us to return to that arrangement.”
Sheila Gewolb, vice-president of the Board of Deputies, said the cap had “inhibited the creation of Jewish schools and has not demonstrably improved community cohesion.”
Rabbi David Meyer, executive director of the Partnership for Jewish Schools (PaJeS) believed the cap had failed to encourage diversity in faith schools, “but instead, has disadvantaged certain segments of the Jewish community as well as other religious groups”.
David Collins, director for young people and young families at the United Synagogue, said the change would “enhance our ability to create an immersive Jewish education alongside a message of integration”.
Oliver Dowden, Conservative MP for Hertsmere, which has a high number of Jewish residents, said the current cap was “unrealistic” because parents want their children to go to a school “of their faith”.
He added: “Rather than introducing the arbitrary cap of 50 per cent, which isn’t really meaningful, this consultation looks at what we are trying to do fundamentally — which is to promote integration.”
A more cautious response came from Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, senior rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism. She said: “It is important that faith schools continue to be inclusive, valuing diversity and building bridges with the wider community and young people of other faiths and none.”
Rabbi Danny Rich, senior rabbi of Liberal Judaism, was more critical, declaring that Mrs May’s proposal would neither promote social cohesion nor “strengthen Jewish life in the UK in the long term ”.
Parents also expressed reservations. Earlier this year Ben Weinberger and his family relocated to London from Bristol. His two younger sons immediately started at a Jewish primary, but his 13-year-old is on a waiting list of more than 30 people for a place in Year 9 at JCoSS.
Though frustrated with the current provision of Jewish secondary school places in north London, Mr Weinberger feels removing the cap is “irrelevant”.
“I want to see another Jewish school open,” he said. “I want my children to grow up in a mixed and integrated society and I want them to have a Jewish education so that they know who they are.
“All of these things could be achieved with another free school that would take up to 50 per cent non-Jewish children.”
Referring to the Rabbi Mirvis’s warning, reported in the JC last week, that too many young Jews lacked an understanding of the wider world, Mr Weinberger said: “It’s very hypocritical of the Chief Rabbi to say that our kids are growing up in a bubble, but then oppose a free school because half of the children might not be Jewish.
“I have a very strong connection to my Judaism because I grew up in an environment where there were enough Jewish kids so that I didn’t feel like an outsider, but still mixed with other kids.”
Gilead Limor’s daughter was one of more than 60 Jewish children who failed to get a place at a Jewish secondary school 18 months ago. Now in Year 8, she is yet to be offered a place. At the time Mr Limor founded a support group for other families in their position. He said: “I like the idea of integration. What I would like to see is that rather than eliminate the criteria altogether, they should allow 10, 15 or even 20 per cent for non-Jewish children if and when the need arises.”
The cap has inhibited the creation of Jewish schools and not improved community cohesion’ I want my children to grow up in an integrated society’