1 min read
BySandy Rashty, Sandy Rashty
While they were pelting classmates with eggs, pulling a security fence out of place, trashing toilets, spraying graffiti on public and school property, did the student vandals ever consider the impact their actions would have on JFS – and more importantly, state-funded faith schools across the country?
When one trying gangster looked to camera in a black balaclava before defacing a public sign, did he consider the impact his image, circulated on media outlets across the UK and a video that went viral, would have on watching school governors, councillors and backers.
Enough has been said about the sheer embarrassment last week’s Year 11 so-called “muck-up day” has caused JFS pupils, parents, teachers and graduates (of which I am one).
But has anyone really considered what long-lasting impression it will leave in the minds of senior government officials and top donors that Jewish state schools have come to rely on?
Support for publically funded faith schools has come as a result of long-term lobbying from communal groups, educators and philanthropists who have highlighted the value of a top Jewish education combined with secular studies. Overall, students who attend faith schools consistently outperform non-religious state schools. In part, it is on this basis that Jewish schools have continued to receive support.
Over the past decade, we have seen a dramatic surge in the number of Jewish state and primary schools across the UK. In London, parents are now fighting for admittance to Jewish secondary schools, which reached their capacity after the last round of admissions. It is estimated that 70 per cent of British Jews have passed through a Jewish school since 2000.
Communal leaders – take for example, Lord Levy, the president of JFS and patron of the Mathilda Marks-Kennedy, Simon Marks and Etz Chaim Jewish primary schools – have fought for the ongoing protection of Jewish schools and the students within them.
How then, are they expected to react when the pupils for whom they lobby, respond by defacing the building and image that they have worked so hard to secure.
Headteacher Jonathan Miller has promised that the culprits will face consequences for their "loutish and dangerous behaviour", but excuses have started to wear thin - especially after JFS was downgraded in September from “outstanding” to “requires improvement” by Ofsted, which highlighted concern over the school’s discipline policy and the attendance record of some students.
Jewish students share an equal, if not greater, responsibility to do their bit to protect our schools – and last week’s disgrace, executed by morons of the highest order, was comparable to pelting eggs in the face of the community who have worked so tirelessly to give us the top education, support and care of a Jewish free school.