change of admissions at JFS (North London)

[MumNWLondon]

In case this is of interest, JFS has changed its admissions policy.

JFS is a 10 form entry state jewish secondary school in North London that consistently achieves outstanding results.

Previously it required the pupils to be jewish (by birth or orthodox conversion) now it has been forced to move to an observance basis, such that around 6 synagogue attendances between now and the application day in October (including jewish new year and day of atonement)would be enough.

Here is the link: www.thejc.com/node/19289

Anyone who wants to send their child to the school needs to contact a synagogue as no doubt they will be coming up with methods to clock people in and out etc.

Also do you think that people who are not jewish in any way would want to send their children to this school, and would attend the synagogue in order to do so - all the current children are jewish although many from non observant families.

[Bigschoolmummy]

I do think that some people who are not Jewish would want to send their children there.

However it is seemingly a very oversubscribed school and therefore a system may soon be followed that mirrors that of admission to oversubscribed Catholic schools; that of references by priests, where observance levels (at church) are noted and graded i.e. 1. attends every week - 4. attends special occasions only

Rabbis may soon be asked to complete sections on admissions forms in this manner (if not some way already - I plead ignorance on this point)

[MumNWLondon]

In response to bigschoolmummy from what I understand the school would want to go down that route, there are already other jewish schools catering for those who are very observant, and these schools already have admission policies along these lines. JFS is a more secular jewish school and would not want to alienate secular jews by imposing these sorts of tests.

They have said that the bar is 3 points and it will not made any difference if you get more points. Although I suspect they will not want to turn away observant jews who live too further away in favour of those who are not jewish who live nearer etc and have attended synagogue the requisite 6 times at the moment (for this year anyway) that appears to be what the policy is.

[lazymumofteenagesons]

I can't see non-jewish families/children attending synagogue to get into the school. I'm not sure how they would get membership of a synagogue, although you might be able to attend without, but not on the main holidays. As you can see from my msgs on your other thread even I would be worried that my son would not fit in, with a jewish mother but no real jewish upbringing. Do they require the boys/girls to be bar/batmitzvahed?

[MumNWLondon]

They are not allowed to require synagogue membership because to have synagogue membership you need to be jewish and that conflicts with the court case. It is true that attending the synagogue on the main holidays without membership might be more difficult as the synagogues are often short of space but it wouldn't be impossible especially in overflow services as long as you called up in advance.

No they don't require barmitzvah. Up to now they haven't required anything other than being jewish by birth.