The new chief executive of the community’s largest multi-academy trust has been encouraged by rising pupil numbers.
In May Mancunian Adam Goldstein took the reins of the Jewish Community Academy Trust, a coalition of four London Orthodox primaries, launched by the United Synagogue six years ago.
“Both Rimon and Wolfson Hillel have seen growth in their overall pupil roll over the last 12 months,” he said. “Hertsmere and Sacks Morasha also saw several transfers from non-JCAT schools during the previous academic year. We have reasons to be optimistic.”
Although the new Labour government may not share the previous Conservative administration’s ambition for all schools to enter a MAT by the end of the decade, his sense is that “they don’t have any appetite to row back on what’s already happened. I don’t think what we will see is them trying to break up MATs.”
Even with more money coming into the education system, schools will continue to face a difficult funding environment, he believes. Smaller schools in particular “probably would find it easier to be financially sustainable within a broader grouping of schools”.
But while JCAT said last year it was in talks with other schools, none have so far come on board.
“Growth is important but it has to be at the right time,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to offer something that other schools would like to join rather than remaining on their own.”
His mission now is to demonstrate the benefits of inter-school co-operation more widely. Pupils can gain by coming together in cross-trust events such as last term’s mock-election - his aim is to hold one such event every term - and teachers through career development training.
Rabbi Cobi Ebrahimoff, UK education director of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy, has been drafted in as external adviser on Jewish studies. “Strengthening Jewish studies is going to be a big focus - not because I don’t think what we’ve got already is strong individually but I think we can deliver something truly transformational if we work together,” Goldstein said.
As part of his ambition to raise the trust’s profile, it recently held its first community event last month before Succot to bring parents and pupils from all four schools together and he has just launched a consultation on its future direction.
However, a restructuring at one school, Sacks Morasha, in North Finchley last term upset some parents. Following discussions between the Education Funding and Skills Agency, which oversees academy funding, and the trust, the post of deputy head at the school was made redundant.
Sarah Simmons, the Rimon head has taken on the role of executive principal of Sacks Morasha
Sarah Simmons, head of Rimon in Golders Green, has become executive principal of Sacks Morasha also, with Dena Shmuel promoted to head there. But the exit of deputy head Justin Kett, who was head of Kodesh too, raised eyebrows in Jewish education circles, not least because the school is ranked outstanding for Jewish studies and the inspection report had praised his exemplary leadership. Happily, he has a new role at JFS.
Goldstein said the changes at Sacks Morasha had been decided before his arrival, but having looked over the process, he believed it was “extremely fair”. The decision was not “JCAT-forced”, he said, but done in conjunction with the school.
It would not be unusual for RFSA to review a trust’s finances, he explained, and “it is not uncommon for there not to be deputy heads in one-form entry schools”.
While acknowledging that the departure of a longstanding member of staff could be “challenging”, Goldstein was confident that Sacks parents would be satisfied with its offering under new Kodesh head Gideon Restan.
Financially, JCAT had been “on a decent trajectory, but there is some more work to be done”, he said.
Heavily involved in education for more than 20 years, he took the job because “in my career I wanted to start giving back to the Jewish community as well. JCAT felt like an excellent opportunity.”
A product of Manchester’s King David Primary and Manchester Grammar School, he read history at Oxford before moving to London to work at the Department for Education. His career portfolio includes a consultancy at PWC and leadership roles at a large MAT, Astrea, and vocational qualifications body NCFE.
Apart from his day job, he also does voluntary work as chair of governors of Barnet and Southgate College and is a trustee of a learning disability charity.
He believes there is a “misperception” that once schools join a trust, they lose their unique character. “I think we can be a trust that works like a family of schools where we can respect the individual ethos of each of the schools,” he said.
