Family & Education
Jewish school with Muslim pupils affected by ‘community tensions’ says Ofsted
Some parents have struggled with ‘Israel’s special place in Judaism’ says King David Birmingham head
July 23, 2024 10:18
Some parents have struggled with ‘Israel’s special place in Judaism’ says King David Birmingham head
July 23, 2024 10:18A Jewish primary school which has a majority of Muslim pupils has been affected by community tensions, Ofsted has reported.
In its latest inspection of King David, Birmingham’s only Jewish school, Ofsted mentioned that “over the past 10 months, there have been community tensions which have had an impact on the harmonious nature of the wider school. This created a number of challenges for school leaders.”
Inspectors did not refer directly to October 7 or the war in Gaza or go into detail on the impact of tensions on the school.
But they noted that King David was “a warm and welcoming school where pupils of different faiths work harmoniously together. Adults and pupils show a deep level of respect and care for one another, strongly promoting the school’s values.”
Positive relationships between pupils and staff were “clear to see,” Ofsted said.
However, concerns about the quality of education led to the school being downgraded from “good” to “requires improvement”.
King David headteacher Steve Langford told the JC that “the increased focus on security, with additional checks on visitors, stricter access to the school, and intruder drills, were all added challenges.”
While parents were “very supportive” of the school and respected its Jewish ethos “at all times,” he said, “However some have struggled with Israel's special place in Judaism, as the biblical homeland of the Jewish people. Our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations took place, although scaled down due to the security situation and the absence of a key staff member.”
He added: “Normal school life has returned to King David School, although we continue to maintain vigilance on security aspects.”
In a letter to parents following the inspection, he said he was “confident that the school has an outstanding leadership team in place for September… They have already begun addressing the issues raised by the report. I am certain that the school will quickly improve those areas and regain the good or better grade at the next inspection.”
While Ofsted reported that SATS results last year were below the national average, he said that in this summer’s tests children had exceeded national results in maths and English (spelling, punctuation and grammar), and “very close” to the national average in reading.
“This cohort also exceeded the national average pass rate for writing, which is assessed by the teachers,” he reported.
Ofsted found that while significant work had been done to plan an ambitious curriculum, the implementation was “not consistently good” across the school. It did not have “an accurate picture of what is working well and what needs to improve”.
Pupils behaved well and enjoyed events relating to the school’s Jewish character, Ofsted said.
Earlier this year, King David was rated outstanding for Jewish studies by Pikuach which commented that school leaders were “passionate about the importance of a Jewish school, whilst upholding the multi-faith nature of the school community as paradigm of living harmoniously together in today’s society”.
The school has 18 Jewish pupils with Sikh, Hindu and Christian as well as Muslim children.