Chasidic school loses appeal against ban on new pupils
By Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle:
A Chasidic boys’ school in north London which has covered up images of women in short sleeves and refuses to teach about same-sex relationships has lost an appeal against an order not to admit new pupils until it makes changes.
The Beis Aharon Trust, which runs an independent school for 342 boys from three to 13 in Stamford Hill, had also been criticised by Ofsted for shortcomings in its secular education.
The Care Standards tribunal ruled that the Department for Education’s restriction against taking new pupils was “proportionate and necessary” until the school met the required standards for independent schools.
The ruling will have significant implications for the independent Charedi educational sector in the wake of a tougher Ofsted inspection regime that has operated over the past two years.
While the school planned to increase the teaching of secular subjects from an hour to one and a half hour a day, few of the planned improvements had been “shown to have been implemented”, Judge Hugh Brayne wrote in his decision.
Beis Aharon failed to “encourage respect for women and girls” because it had obscured images of parts of the bodies of women in books.
“Although the particular books have been withdrawn,” the judge said, “the evidence that pupils learn in a school that women showing bare arms and legs are impure remains a concern.”
The failure to allow pupils to see unedited images of women and girls in everyday situations did not prepare pupils for adult life in Britain, he said.
He also observed that independent schools were required to inform pupils about people in same-sex relationships or who have reassigned gender.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
