For most people, this week's publication of the plans by Kedem High School's backers came out of the blue.
The response from the establishment - the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the Partnerships for Jewish Schools (Pajes), an arm of the Jewish Leadership Council - has been far from blank-cheque support.
Their calls for further consultation can be seen as a veiled warning against rushing ahead with this local initiative.
But one source who had prior knowledge of the Kedem proposal argued that the leading groups did not want the status quo upset. "Pajes has been telling everyone that there is no problem with places, but their premise is flawed," the source argued.
Pajes has certainly not disguised its ambition for greater influence. It has recently launched its Jewish Schools Network to increase collaboration across schools. One of the aims behind the network is to encourage schools to jointly buy external services which could prove a cost-saving measure.
But Pajes is also considering applying for recognition as a multi-academy trust, a move which would enable it to run a consortium of schools.
That ambition has led to speculation that it might be interested in forming new Jewish schools itself - and thus not be too happy about being pipped to the post by an independent group.
Better co-ordination might also be preferable when it comes to opening new schools, especially if a new secondary were to prove one secondary too many and leave empty desks at existing schools when the better option would have been to persuade them to offer a few more places each year.
But central planning may have its limits, as recent history suggests. JFS was worried that opening Yavneh in Hertfordshire would have an adverse impact on it. JCoSS was originally planned for Hertfordshire but could not reach a deal with the backers of Yavneh over differences in entry policy.
Both schools, as well as JFS, have thrived when central planners might have thought that there was only room for one.
