Jewish parents are encouraging locals in a North West London neighbourhood to make their presence known on their streets at certain times of day, after three JFS pupils were mugged in separate incidents over the course of one week.

The muggings took place around Ossulton Way, between East Finchley tube station and Hampstead Garden Suburb, where a number of students from both JFS and Jcoss schools get off the bus after school.

In the three incidents, the students targeted, all boys, had their phones taken.

Dr Ellie Cannon, who has a child at JFS, told the JC: “On the big main road, Ossulton Way, they’re fine, and then as they go off onto the quiet roads, that’s when they got mugged.”

She said that the school, the police and the Community Security Trust (CST) had all been “fantastic… briefing our children on how to look after themselves”.

She said that she and other parents were encouraging local residents to make their presences known on the streets between 4:15pm and 5pm in the afternoon, “not as vigilantes or security but as an adult presence, which we know acts as a deterrent against this type of thing.”

She said they were “leafleting all of our neighbours, we have put things out on social media, local shul groups, church groups, dog walkers”, in attempt “to have more adults on the streets… in this trigger time.”

A spokesperson for CST said the organisation “urged pupils and parents to contact Police and then CST, should they suffer or witness anything of this nature, providing as much detail as possible of who the perpetrators are and what they are wearing.

“In general, schoolchildren should of course try and keep their wits about them, which means seeing potential troublemakers and avoiding them, and not having expensive phones out for others to see and try stealing.”