JFS (school)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Jews' Free School. For the other school abbreviated to "JFS", see The John Fisher School.

JFS[1]
Address
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
The Mall

Kenton, Harrow
,
Greater London
,
HA3 9TE

England
Coordinates51°34′52″N 0°16′53″W / 51.58118°N 0.28135°W / 51.58118; -0.28135Coordinates: 51°34′52″N 0°16′53″W / 51.58118°N 0.28135°W / 51.58118; -0.28135
Information
TypeVoluntary aided comprehensive
Religious affiliation(s)Modern Orthodox Judaism
Established1732; 289 years ago (1732)
Local authorityBrent
Department for Education URN133724 Tables
OfstedReports
PresidentLord Michael Levy
ChairMs Geraldine Fainer
GenderCoeducational
Age11 to 18
Enrolment2090
HousesAngel  , Brodetsky  , Weizmann   & Zangwill  
Colour(s)Blue
Websitehttps://www.jfs.brent.sch.uk/

JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School[2] and later Jewish Free School[3]) is a Jewish mixed comprehensive school in Kenton, North London, England. Amongst its early supporters was the writer and philanthropist Charlotte Montefiore.[4] At one time it was the largest Jewish school in the world, with more than 4,000 pupils.[5]

Staff[]

Head teachers[]

2021- Martin Tissot
2021–2021 Sir Michael Wilshaw (Acting Headteacher)[6]
2018–2021 Rachel Fink
2018 Simon Appleman (Acting Headteacher)
2016–2017 Debby Lipkin (Executive Headteacher)

Simon Appleman (Acting Headteacher)

2008–2016 Jonathan Miller
1993–2007 Dame Ruth Robins[7]
1985–1993 Josephine Wagerman, OBE[8]
1973–1984 [9] Leslie Gatoff
1958–1972 Dr Edward Conway
1939–1958 Aryeh Tysman
1897–1938 Rosa Serlin[citation needed]
1842–1897 Moses Angel
1800–1842 Daniel Nelson
1764–1800 Noah Cantor
1732–1764 Joshua Kaizer
1700- 1732 Matan Selouk

Other staff[]

  • Poet Daljit Nagra taught English at the school, as well as having other support staff roles including Learning Resource Centre staff member
  • Michael Adler taught Hebrew at the school in the late-19th century

Houses and other traditions[]

JFS operates the house system and has four houses for organisational purposes. Students must wear a tie with stripes in their house colour, e.g. blue for Brodetsky students.

House Named after Colour
Angel Moses Angel Red
Brodetsky Selig Brodetsky Blue
Weizmann Chaim Weizmann Green
Zangwill Israel Zangwill Yellow

Both Brodetsky and Zangwill were former students, Angel was a previous and long-serving headmaster and Weizmann, who has several links to the school, was the first President of the State of Israel.

Students are split into their respective houses for most classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 as well as inter-house competitions, such as football and basketball.

A tradition called "muck-up day" involves Year 11 students celebrating the last day of formal schooling before their GCSE examinations with various pranks. In May 2015 this descended into "a near-riot", with more than 300 pupils barred from the campus after a small minority spread foam, eggs, flour and dead chickens around the school. The police were called after some students broke through a security fence and let off fireworks, but no arrests were made.[10][11]

Transport and location[]

Route 628, one of the school buses that serve JFS students

The school moved from Camden Town to a new site in Kenton in 2002 to represent the demand of London's Jewish population moving further out towards the suburbs. The school is within the jurisdiction of the London Borough of Brent, while its post town is Harrow.

There are special bus routes, provided by Transport for London (TfL), between the school and several areas with a large Jewish population, such as Edgware, Mill Hill, Southgate, Barnet, Hendon, Muswell Hill, Radlett, Bushey and Elstree.[12] The nearest train station is Kingsbury (Jubilee line), which is a few minutes' walk away. Preston Road (Metropolitan line) is also nearby.[13]

The list of bus routes are as follows: 653, 683, 688, 628 and B76.

Academic results[]

In 2007, with 53% of the school's attempted GCSE exams receiving grades of A* or A.[14] In 2012 JFS was at the top of the School League Tables for GCSE in Brent and its A-Level results were the best of all the mainstream Jewish schools.[15]

Awards[]

The school won a Wellbeing at School Award in 2021.[16]

Controversy over admissions criteria[]

Main article: R(E) v Governing Body of JFS

In October 2006, a Jewish father made enquiries with the United Synagogue as to whether his son, born to a mother who had been converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Masorti (Conservative)[17] denomination, could convert under Orthodox auspices for entry to JFS in September 2007. He was advised the process could take several years and that such applications to JFS are very rarely successful given that the school is highly oversubscribed. He applied for his son but did not declare to the school's admissions board the mother's conversion history.

By April 2007, he had not supplied JFS with the requested information, whereupon the school advised him that, being oversubscribed that year, it was unlikely his son could be offered a place. He thereupon unsuccessfully appealed for reconsideration of his application.[18]

In July 2008, the father sought to prosecute JFS on the grounds of racial discrimination, but High Court judge, Mr Justice Munby, ruled contrariwise, holding JFS' selection criteria were not intrinsically different from Christian or Islamic faith schools and their being declared illegal could adversely affect "the admission arrangements in a very large number of faith schools of many different faiths and denominations".[19]

The Court of Appeal, however, in June 2009 declared that JFS, under the Race Relations Act 1976, had illegally discriminated against the child on grounds of race. They ruled that the mother's religious status, and thus her child's religious status, had been determined using a racial criterion rather than a religious criterion.[20][21] The school subsequently issued revised admissions criteria based on religious practice including synagogue attendance, formal Jewish education and volunteering.[22][23] JFS and the United Synagogue appealed to the Supreme Court, with the support of the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.[24] On 16 December 2009, the UK Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's ruling.[25][26][27]

Notable former pupils[]

References[]

  1. ^ Nicola Woolcock (27 October 2009). "Jewish school JFS in Supreme Court to deny it broke law by turning boy away". London: TimesOnline.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2009. JFS, formerly the Jewish Free School, which is heavily oversubscribed,...
  2. ^ "Jews' Free School journal – The Jewish Museum". Jewishmuseum.org. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Jewish Free School, Camden Road, Camden LB". Discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. January 1973. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  4. ^ "Montefiore, Charlotte Simcha". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/105616. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Miller, Helena; Grant, Lisa D.; Pomson, Alex (2 April 2011). International Handbook of Jewish Education. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789400703544.
  6. ^ timesofisrael.com website
  7. ^ TotallyJewish.com website Archived 2012-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Later elected first female president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Rachel Sylvester (17 July 2000). "First woman elected to lead Jewish board". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  9. ^ I, Jonathan Goldsmith, left in 1975 and Gatoff had been there 2 years by then
  10. ^ Freeman, Simon; Moore-Bridger, Benedict (8 May 2015). "300 pupils are sent home after exam day 'riot'". London Evening Standard. p. 21.
  11. ^ Name withheld (14 May 2015). "School mayhem was exaggerated". London Evening Standard (Letter to the editor). p. 59. ... it was no more than five or so students out of three hundred ...
  12. ^ "Protected Page – Enter password – JFS". Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  13. ^ https://jfs.brent.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Transport-Final-Bus-Times-2018-.pdf[bare URL]
  14. ^ "JFS Home". Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  15. ^ "Secondary school league tables in Brent". BBC News. 21 March 2012.
  16. ^ Rocker, Simon (15 February 2021). "JFS wins wellbeing award". Jewish Chronicle.
  17. ^ Jonathan Romain (27 October 2009). "JFS puts faith schools in the dock". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
  18. ^ Graham Tibbets, "Boy refused admission to leading Jewish school was 'not victim of racial discrimination'", The Telegraph, 3 July 2008
  19. ^ R(E) v Governing Body of JFS [{{{year}}}] EWHC 1535 (Admin) (3 July 2008)
  20. ^ "Jewish school admissions unlawful", BBC, 25 June 2009
  21. ^ R(E) v Governing Body of JFS [{{{year}}}] EWCA Civ 626 (25 June 2009)
  22. ^ JFS (28 August 2009). "JFS – Admissions". Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  23. ^ "Admissions Year 7 | JFS". www.jfs.brent.sch.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  24. ^ Simon Rocker, "JFS: What's Next?", Jewish Chronicle, 3 July 2009
  25. ^ "Jewish school loses places fight". BBC News. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  26. ^ R(E) v Governing Body of JFS [2009] UKSC 15
  27. ^ For a detailed summary of the decision see http://humanrightsinireland.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/the-uk-supreme-court-dismisses-the-jewish-free-school-appeal/
  28. ^ Interview: Gina Bellman, The Jewish Chronicle, 17 January 2014
  29. ^ Simon Rocker (11 February 2010). "Bibi and the boy wonder". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  30. ^ Ingham, Tim (14 December 2017). "David Joseph: 'We creatively empower our artists globally. I'm proud of that.'". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  31. ^ "From the archive: The Drapers Interview with River Island founder Bernard Lewis". 2 November 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.

Further reading[]

  • Black, Gerry (1998). A history of the Jews' Free School, London, since 1732. Tymsder Publishing ISBN 09531 110419.

External links[]

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