News of extra places at Jewish schools was welcomed by Sascha Keates, whose daughter at a London Jewish primary school hopes to go to a Jewish secondary this year.

“It’s fantastic,” she said. “My daughter is desperate to go to JCoSS in September. Now there are 30 more places, the chances of her being accepted have increased, which means her dream may come true.”

Her reaction was echoed by many parents of younger children, who said it made them more hopeful of places for their offspring.

However, the mother of a child at one of the expanding schools said the prospect of additional children was “a worry”. After receiving an appeal for funds from the school because of cuts in its government allocation, she asked, “Where are they going to cram them all into? It’s bad enough now.”

If the bulge class continued, she added, “what happens in four years when there an extra 120 children in the school? How will the staff manage? Four of the lessons my daughter had today were taught by substitute teachers, so how would they cope with even more children?”

Ben Weinberger, from Cockfosters, north London, whose 14-year-old son did not get into JCoSS or JFS, was “unimpressed.”

“These schools are being forced into doing this because they’re scared of other schools opening up,” he said. “Why didn’t they offer to do this previously? It’s not a new problem.”

Another mother, whose daughter turned down a place at JCoSS, said she was concerned about a trend which meant “fewer and fewer non-Jewish children are getting the opportunity to socialise with Jewish children.”