Yavneh College in Hertfordshire is to offer a bulge class next September, enabling it to take an extra 30 students into year 7.

The school said it was responding to a large demand for places.

Applications for entry into state secondary schools next year had to be submitted by the end of last month. But most parents will not find where their children will go until March at the earliest.

Spencer Lewis, the college’s executive headteacher, said, “We are pleased to be able to help as many families as possible by providing extra school places for September 2025 giving them access to the first-class secular and Jewish education of which we are so proud at the Yavneh schools.”

Regularly oversubscribed, the college opened a bulge class in September 2023, increasing year-7 places from 150 to 180, but did not do so this year.

Research commissioned by the Jewish schools network, PaJeS, suggests that demand for secondary school places in London will generally remain stable, although anticipating it will peak in September 2026.

However, Labour’s imposition of VAT on independent school fees from January could prompt some parents to switch to the state sector.