Final plans for the UK’s first state-maintained, inclusive Jewish secondary school have received mixed reviews from parents and residents. The Jewish Community Secondary School (JCoSS) Trust submitted a planning application on Friday for the East Barnet school after making changes in response to residents’ concerns.
The proposals are for a 14,852 metre-squared building on the site of the existing East Barnet Upper School, Westbrook Crescent. There would also be a hydrotherapy pool for children with disabilities, believed to be the first of its kind in Barnet.
Some residents living near the site claimed that a planned driveway across Pymmes Brook and the playing field of Livingstone Primary School, at the edge of Monken Hadley Common, would increase traffic in the area and cause environmental damage.
Consequently, JCoSS introduced new on-site parking, waiting areas and a park and stride scheme, where coaches can drop off and pick up pupils at New Barnet station to minimise congestion.
All parents whose children are dropped off will be expected to sign an agreement saying they will use the scheme, and the plans will be scrutinised by an independent Environmental Impact Assessment.
JCoSS will educate up to 1,350 pupils and include spaces for 50 children from the borough with severe disabilities, regardless of religion. So far, 500 parents have registered an interest in sending their children to the school, 72 per cent of whom live in Barnet.
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4 Responses
What a huge campus size?
when this school describes itself as inclusive, it is not just referring to speciall needs, it is referring to the fact that it will be accepting children who are not halachically Jewish. This school will be under the auspices of the Masorti (Conservative) movement.
Rivka: I wondered if that was what “inclusive” meant. After all, if it will be state-maintained, then it has to be open to all students.
A yeshiva being state-maintained is already a problem. That means that the government will have a stong say in the curriculum of the yeshivah.
The Chofetz Chayim said that even frum businessmen should not be in control of a yeshivah.
I heard from someone that the reason the Chofetz Chayim said this is because the business attitude will wind up making wrong and possibly apikorsisher decsions. That is, when running a yeshivah decisions that are RIGHT FOR BUSINESS are WRONG FOR YESHIVOS.
Now if that is an unfortunate and unintentional error that FRUM people can fall into, how can we trust a goyisher gov’t to make a Torahdig decision?
So it does indeed stand to reason that this is not an Orthodox yeshivah.
There are two points to bear in mind. Firstly this school is “inclusive” meaning that it will take pupils whose status will not be acceptable to religious school e.g. JFS. Secondly, this is not the first state maintained Jewish school but the first state maintained INCLUSIVE jewish school. There are other state maintained jewish schools which are state maintained and which offer an extremely good Limudei Kodesh and secular education up to a good yeshiva/seminary level. No, the government do not tell the school which blat gemorah to teach. In fact the schools are completely independant and are left alone as long as they meet the necessary standards. Inspections are by Ofstead for Limmudei Chol and Pikkuach for Limmudei Kodesh with all the inspectors for the latter being “frummer yidden”. One of the top schools in the country is Hasmonean in North West London (there are others) which fits into the above criteria.