BySimon Rocker, Simon Rocker
Redbridge Council has given the go-ahead for the borough's largest capital project for the Jewish community.
Ilford Jewish Primary School is to be relocated on the site of the King Solomon High in Barkingside in a £10 million development.
The move emerged out of a report into Jewish schooling commissioned by the Jewish Leadership Council.
Jonathan Goldstein, who chairs the project, welcomed the council's decision as "great news for the Jewish community in Redbridge".
The JLC, he said, would be "supporting this effort - and is already working with the governors of both schools to ensure the development is completed by September 2013, when the new primary school is expected to open".
A fundraising drive would be launched to raise the £2 million needed to cover the gap between the sale of the current primary school premises and the new building.
Clare Mehlman, vice-chair of the IJPS governors, saw the move as "an enormous opportunity to reinvigorate Jewish education in this area and the whole community".
She acknowledged the "enormous support" of the JLC, which said the rebuilt school would be "the largest capital project the Jewish community of Redbridge has ever seen".
King Solomon head Spencer Lewis said that the school was "very excited to be welcoming IJPS to the campus, which further demonstrates our partnership with other community organisations".