Texts at boys’ school ‘do not respect women’

TEXTS FOUND at a Lubavitch boys school in Golders Green “do not teach respect for women”, Ofsted reported this week.

In a highly critical report, the inspectorate found secular education at the Lubavitch Senior Boys’ School too narrow and standards poor.

The school — which teaches 22 boys aged from 11 to 13 — moved from Stamford Hill to share premises as the Lubavitch Yeshiva Katana in Golders Green in September last year.

Texts found in the school’s main room housing religious books gave a message about women being “guards” of their family’s wellbeing — and not as “workers”, Ofsted said.

“Parables talked about how to ‘manage’ women. These texts do not teach respect for women.”

In response, the school’s leadership told Ofsted “they were not aware of these texts being in the school and they do not represent their beliefs”.

Ofsted said the quality of education at Lubavitch Senior Boys remained “inadequate. The secular curriculum is narrow and condensed. Pupils’ achievement is poor in subjects such as English, mathematics and science.”

Pupils could not provide any evidence of written work for English last term.

Access to textbooks was censored by the teachers’ selection of what content to study.

Ofsted noted that the school’s permanent head was absent and it was unclear if he would return.

Not all checks on suitability of staff had been undertaken, Ofsted said.

The inspection was conducted without notice in order to advise the Department for Education on Lubavitch Senior Boys’ continued registration as an independent school.

Ofsted has also reported that an “inadequate” Chasidic boys’ infant school in Stamford Hill has more than 100 children over its official maximum.

Talmud Torah D’Chasidei Gur, which has 242 boys from three to seven, was rated inadequate in all categories after the inspection service’s latest visit.

Ofsted criticised “a poor standard” of secular education and noted that pupils struggled to read because staff lacked the knowledge of how to teach boys phonics.

As a result, they got confused between Yiddish and English.

Subject plans were too narrow and focused mainly “on the experiences of the Jewish people” with nothing about how Britain has influenced or been influenced by the wider world.

Pupils did not learn about the role of women, Ofsted added.