Family & Education
Chasidic boys’ school ‘meets required standards’ to have ban on admitting new pupils lifted
Education authorities remove sanctions against Stamford Hill school
October 4, 2018 08:58
Education authorities remove sanctions against Stamford Hill school
October 4, 2018 08:58A Chasidic boys’ school in Stamford Hill has finally had its ban on admitting new pupils lifted by the Department for Education.
Two years ago the independent Beis Aharon unsuccessfully challenged the restriction order, imposed after persistent criticism by inspectors, at a tribunal.
But the DFE confirmed on Wednesday that “the school is now meeting the required standards and as such restrictions have been lifted”.
The school, which had 342 pupils aged between three and 13 in 2016, would be regularly inspected to ensure “quality remains high”, the DFE said.
A spokesman for Beis Aharon said the restriction on entry had been "extremely damaging".
The school had"left no stone unturned and invested enormous efforts both physically and financially" to have it lifted, he said.
Beis Aharon, which teaches Jewish studies in Yiddish, was ranked inadequate by Ofsted in 2014 and at one stage was not teaching English to some year groups.
The Care Standards Tribunal ruled in 2016 that it had made insufficient improvements to its secular education to justify removing the ban on new pupils.
The tribunal was also concerned the school had covered up images of women in short sleeves in textbooks and refused to tell boys about people in same-sex relations or of transgender status.
Judge Hugh Brayne, chairman of the tribunal, wrote that pupils would not be equipped “to enter modern British society, which accepts as part of its diversity civil partnerships, gay marriage, families with same-sex parents and acceptance of transgender persons”.
Earlier this year Lord Agnew, the minister responsible for faith schools, cited Beis Aharon in a letter he wrote to strictly Orthodox leaders in Hackney to warn about the failure of schools to meet educational standards.
“It clearly cannot be right for us to leave it to ‘wither on the vine’ year by year… so if this state of affairs continues, there must come a point when we shall have to move to deregistration,” he said.
But now the DFE is satisfied Beis Aharon has made enough progress to grant the school’s request last month to allow the admission of new pupils.
The school's spokesman said "The untiring efforts of the headteacher Moishe Gotlieb with his innovative approach must be acknowledged as the crunch which sealed the deal, and a special thanks to all the melamdim [Jewish studiees staff] and teachers who worked tirelessly for the improvement of the school".
Beis Aharon was also grateful to its advisers, Rabbi Yoinesen Yodaiken from Manchester and Satmar dayan, Rabbi Shmuel Lew, as well as the new educatioinal organisation Chinuch UK.
