This is a battle of wills that looks set to go to the wire

OFSTED’S DAMNING report into Yesodey Hatorah has only inflamed the conflict between Charedi communities and the educational establishment. Rabbis had already warned that strictly Orthodox Jews may be unable to remain in the UK unless there is a change in attitude towards their schools.

Behind the alarmist rhetoric, however, the question remains: is there scope for compromise?

The main flashpoint is the application of the “British values” agenda, which was introduced to counter religious extremism. According to official guidelines for independent schools, the required teaching of respect and tolerance for others must “pay regard” to the characteristics of people protected under equality law, such as race, religion, gender, disability, age and — controversially for Charedim — sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

While existing guidelines don’t spell out that pupils should learn about all the protected characteristics, that is certainly the way some Ofsted inspectors have interpreted them. On the other hand, quite a few Charedi independent schools — primarily outside Stamford Hill — have got through their Ofsteds without a problem.

Now the Department for Education is proposing to tighten the rules, making clear it expects all the protected characteristics to be covered, at least at secondary age, leaving no wiggle-room for Charedi schools.

It will be hard to persuade the DfE to amend the proposals. But Charedi schools may still try to lobby for the revising the guidelines so that not all protected characteristics under equality law would have to be covered in the classroom. If Charedi schools were prepared to institute policies of training staff how to deal sensitively with LGBT issues, for instance, they may be spared the requirement of openly having to address these with children.

Advocates for Charedi schools would be in a stronger negotiating position if they also accepted the need to improve secular education within parts of the strictly Orthodox sector. Some independent schools have already been forced to devote more time to basic subjects such as English or maths as a result of Ofsted pressure.

Elements within Stamford Hill are ready to go to the wire to defend their education system as it is. They figure the government is unlikely to take the drastic step of closing down Charedi institutions and attempt to dragoon thousands of strictly Orthodox children into secular state schools.

Rabbis warned Charedim might leave Britain’