Hackney parents pray for school places

IT LOOKED like some kind of High Holy-Days preview. But the crowd who gathered on Clapton Common, Hackney, on Sunday afternoon to recite psalms were there for a different purpose.

They had come to a prayer assembly called on behalf of local Jewish children denied school places.

Even within Stamford Hill’s numerous Jewish schools, it appears there is no room at the desk for some.

Meanwhile, the local education authority has been looking into whether more secondary places could be offered at the state-aided Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls.

Two years ago, the school, which originally had three forms of entry, cut its year-7 intake in the light of a shortage of applications and proposed to open classes for the top two primary years.

Its current admission policy states that it has 65 places available in each of years 5, 6 and 7. But while it has taken 72 girls in year 7 for this year, there were none for years 5 or 6.

The school received 80 applications overall, Hackney Council reported.

According to a council spokesman: “While the school decided to offer places for years 5 and 6 from 2019 onwards following a consultation, only two children in years 5 and 6 received places in 2019 and no applications for these year groups were received last year.

“As a result, the school has been unable to start running classes for these year groups yet.”

The council was “working with the school to help them decide whether to increase the number of spaces available for children going into year 7, rather than continue offering places for years 5 and 6, as this would help ensure that the number of children offered places uses the school’s capacity more effectively”.

However, Yesodey Hatorah headteacher Clare Neuberger said the school was already at capacity.

Although the maximum may have originally been set at 400,”the building is not designed for that number of students. The classrooms are small.

“Sixty-five would be a lovely number [for year 7]. We have taken seven extra this year, which is more than we would have liked.”

She felt “very sorry” for parents who were struggling to find a Jewish school place but added that she knew of one school which had places for girls.

Yesodey Hatorah will be holding a consultation on whether to end the notional entry at year 5 or 6 given the lack of applications.

We are helping them to decide whether to increase places’