JCoSS - What are your views?

[Doublers]

Considering this school for DD as heard a couple of concerning things about a different school we were veering towards sending her to. If you have a child there, what are the pros and cons?

I’m Jewish, my husband isn’t - we are very secular, so e.g. children will go to shul and family on Rosh Hashanah, but also celebrate Christmas …and are partial to a bacon sandwich. Will she stick out like a sore thumb? Would really appreciate any feedback.

Just seen this - posting anon for obvious reasons. I used to work at jcoss. It’s cross denominational so you get many mixed families there. It’s no way frum!! Many children will both celebrate Christmas and Rosh Hashanah and will eat bacon!

It really is a lovely school - I’d advise you visit and check it out. If you have more specific questions I’ll try and answer them although I left there a few years ago now - I still have friends with kids who currently attend.

My DD is there- in her final year and has had a wonderful experience. Your DD will definitely not stick out. It’s a pluralistic school with many children and families just like yours so you don’t need to worry about that in the slightest.

Thank you. I’m also a bit worried in rise in antisemitism and uniform being an easy target.

I wouldn’t worry about this. If something significant happens (like directly after Oct 7th) they were told not to wear uniform on public transport. Horrendous that it had to come to that . It was just for a short while. The uniform isn’t that obvious anyway, especially when they have a winter coat on.

Don’t mean to hijack this, but would JCoss accept a child whose dad was Jewish and mother wasn’t? I have friends with kids there who are doing so well both socially and academically.

Jcoss was set up exactly for this! 100% in fact all the main Jewish schools (apart from the very Orthodox ones) now have to accept who don’t have a Jewish mum. There was a ruling on it several years ago. It’s all done now on points system of going to synagogue for all the main Jewish schools. Jcoss was set up before the ruling came into place so that if you had a Jewish dad and not mum , you could still go.