Beth Jacob Grammar School for Girls in the Hendon is the latest Charedi school to suffer an Ofsted downgrade after being criticised over its teaching of relationships and sex education.

 Despite being ranked outstanding for pupil behaviour and good for its quality of education, it was demoted from good overall to a school which “requires improvement”.

 Inspectors acknowledged the hard-working and high-achieving girls who were “taught rigorously” by knowledgeable teachers.

 In the broad and thoughtfully designed curriculum, which took up 60 per cent of lessons, girls read demanding texts in English and produced expressive artwork.

 In history, they were “taught to challenge accepted ideas and values while forming scholarly arguments."

 Girls behaved "exceptionally well, showing consideration for others and responsibility”.

Teachers stressed "the importance of developing empathy for others and accepting difference".

However, pupils received only “limited information” about other faiths and were not taught about the “different types of relationships people may have,” Ofsted observed.

 “At the request of parents, all pupils have been withdrawn from sex education. However, leaders do not have a suitable curriculum for sex education, should a pupil who is eligible to request it do so.” 

Inspectors also found shortcomings in careers advice, saying that “pupils are not taught to think ambitiously about their next steps after school, and are not given sufficiently clear or aspirational advice about options for future careers. For example, they are not encouraged to seriously consider a range of professions, such as medicine.” 

Most pupils left after year-11, though a few stayed on to do A-levels in one year.