Ofsted orders school closure
A CHASIDIC boys school in North London has been ordered to close for failing to meet independent school standards.
Talmud Torah Chaim Meirim Wiznitz, which teaches 248 boys aged from three to 13 in Stamford Hill, north London, has a month to lodge an appeal against the decision by the Department for Education.
Ofstedinspectors,whovisitedinJune, said that the school was still providing inadequate secular education despite a critical report from the inspection service less than six months earlier.
A DFE spokesman said that Chaim Meirim would be removed from the register of independent schools on October 31 unless it appeals, after “Ofsted inspections found widespread breaches of the independent school standards”.
It is illegal to operate an unregistered school.
No one from the school, which is run by Vishnitz, one of the major Chasidic sects, was available for comment.
The highly unusual move to shut a school reflects a tougher stance on the part of the education authorities.
According to Rabbi Jehudah Baumgarten, an executive member of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations who deals with education, “inspectors have become more stringent. It is the same with non-Jewish schools. Our schools are feeling the same crunch.”
Ofsted said that pupils at Chaim Meirim did not have “a broad and balanced curriculum” and not all had the chance to study English as an additional language at the school, where boys are taught in Yiddish.
Pupils in the first two years did not study secular subjects, secular classes for later years took up only an hour and a half of a 10-hour day and there was no PE on the timetable. The inspectors also found that the school’s leadership had failed to check all staff were suitable to teach children and were insufficiently aware of the regulations governing independent schools.
Rabbi Baumgarten said Ofsted had become more strict on enforcing policy relating to children’s safety and welfare, “so schools will have to get it right.”
There are a few Charedi schools within the state sector, with most strictly Orthodox children being taught in independent institutions.
Rabbi Baumgarten was confident that in general these schools were able to comply with state requirements. “One definitely hopes so,” he said.
Over the past year, the DFE has also been active in trying to get unlicensed yeshivot which teach boys under 16 to register. But to do that, they will have to meet independent school standards and be visited by Ofsted inspectors.