Eden Primary - Muswell Hill?

[Mumosaur75]

Looking for a nice school in the Muswell Hill area. Am going to apply for Muswell Hill Primary and Coldfall but also just came across this school, Eden Primary which is nearby.

Does anyone know what it is like? Apparently it is quite new, Jewish school. We just moved to the area. We are looking for a school that is quite mixed so our son can meet a range of people as he has been at a very mixed nursery in Tottenham. Their website looks nice but I'm wondering if my son would feel out of place if he is not Jewish and how religious it is, whether there are many kids who are from different backgrounds as it says they are inclusive on the website?

[nlondondad]

Unless an Eden parent comes on here I think these are probably questions you need to ask of the school.

The formal position is that as this is a religious Free School up to half the places can be allocated on the basis of religious affiliation, no more.

The people who set up the Eden School wanted to have a school with a Jewish ethos, but not, as it were, strictly so. Some Jewish schools have a strict definition of Jewishness, which means that some children of, for example, converts, may not be accepted by them as Jewish. The Eden school founders wanted a school that was liberal on this point, and were, so far as I can tell, prepared to accept as Jewish any family that identified with being Jewish.

So while all food served Kosher and so forth, both not strictly religious and wishing to prepare children for a world where most of the people are not Jewish.

And there are certainly children there who are not Jewish.

[Greenfizzywater]

I vaguely know someone who is Jewish, but not observant, and has a child at Eden (acquaintance rather than a friend), she told a quite funny story about how they were talking about what they eat at home and her son mentioned having a ham sandwich. Apparently the teacher took it completely in their stride and there was no disapproval or anything, so it doesn't sound like they are obsessive about observance of the Jewish faith.

[LePetitPrince]

It is a requirement of a free school that they keep places for applicants on distance - this is quite recent. You need to be okay with different term times (esp in Sep) and regular Hebrew/Judaism studies.

I also wonder if there is an additional "voluntary" payments to cover the above and security? It is certainly the case in other Jewish schools locally, e.g. Akiva and others.