Family & Education
School 'breached' restriction on admitting new pupils, says Ofsted
Bnois Jerusalem in Stamford Hill has made improvements but inspectors want to see further progress
April 10, 2022 10:41
Bnois Jerusalem in Stamford Hill has made improvements but inspectors want to see further progress
April 10, 2022 10:41One of Stamford Hill’s largest schools has breached an order not to admit new pupils, according to Ofsted.
The Department for Education imposed the order on Bnois Jerusalem, an independent girls’ school with more than 800 pupils, to take effect from September 24 last year.
However, while the school added some new pupils to its register before the cut-off date, some were not due to start until January this year. “Therefore, some new pupils have joined the school when they should not have done so,” inspectors reported. “This represents a breach of the restriction order.”
Bnois Jerusalem has been rated inadequate on its past two full inspections.
On its latest monitoring visit, Ofsted said significant time and money had been put into improving the secular curriculum and noted investments in science equipment and textbooks. A limited range of fiction had been introduced into the library.
But leaders had no intention of introducing recognised qualifications in case children encountered exam questions felt to be inappropriate or offensive. The school used old GCSE papers which were marked internally.
Some subjects such as reproduction or “alternative theories to creationism” were not allowed to be taught. And mention of some groupls protected under equality law (which include LGBT people) was considered a “red line” that could not be crossed.
The DfE said it was considering "appropriate next steps" in line with its regulatory policy.
The school did not respond to requests for comment.