A Jewish school has issued a new table of data showing the likely effect on admissions of proposals to end its feeder school system.
Yavneh College produced the new table after parents argued that an original set of statistics showed that some families would lose out under the proposed new arrangement.
Yavneh, in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, wants to stop its policy of prioritising applications from children at two Jewish primaries in neigbouring Radlett and Shenley, and instead give preference to families living in selected postcodes.
According to the new figures, if the new system had applied in 2015, the intake from Bushey, Elstree, Radlett, Shenley and Borehamwood would have either increased or stayed the same.
Last week, the JC reported that a group representing more than 400 parents had obtained figures from the school under a Freedom of Information request. The parents claimed the data showed that, without feeder schools, places at Yavneh would increase for families in Borehamwood and Elstree, but fall elsewhere.
The first table supplied by Yavneh
The second table supplied by Yavneh
If the proposed change had been in place last year, places for families in Borehamwood could have risen by 117 per cent in 2015, but could have fallen by 91 per cent in Bushey, the parents said.
Yavneh responded by saying that the parents' complaints were based on a serious misunderstanding of the FoI data. A source close to the school said that the figures proved that the number of places would have either stayed the same or increased for all Hertfordshire communities.
However, the parents' group - which represents families with children attending Hertsmere Jewish Primary and Clore Shalom, schools which currently feed into Yavneh - criticised the explanation as "patently and obviously untrue".
A spokesperson for the parents' group said: "I am genuinely confused as to how there can be any ambiguity. We have already identified three children in Watford and Shenley who have been left off the table, and we suspect two others might also have been left off."
According to the group, the school has also ignored attempted interventions made by rabbis in the affected communities.
Last month, five United Synagogue rabbis from Bushey, Radlett, Watford, St Albans and Hadley Wood banded together to express their concerns about the school's proposal.
In a "resolution" sent by Rabbi Meir Salasnik of Bushey United Synagogue to Yavneh's chair of governors Sue Nyman, its headteacher Spencer Lewis and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the rabbi wrote: "Our five communities, home to well over 10,000 Jews, face the real danger that any proximity test will benefit Borehamwood families at the expense of all other Jewish families in Hertfordshire."
The spokesperson for the parents' group said that Yavneh had agreed to a meeting, but cancelled "at very short notice and have remained totally silent" about their concerns.
Yavneh is evaluating responses to its admissions consultation, which ended earlier this month. The results are expected to be published at the end of February.
