Jewish school flouting admissions rules, says watchdog

9:20am Wednesday 5th November 2008

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The admissions process of a Jewish school in Hendon illegally discriminates against children of other faiths, the schools admissions watchdog has ruled.

The schools adjudicator decided Hasmonean High School, in Holders Hill Road, has been flouting the Government’s new code on school admissions by failing to make clear that non-Jewish children could attend if places were available.

The judgement was made on October 24 following a complaint by Barnet Council that the voluntary-aided secondary school “made no provision for admitting children not of the Orthodox Jewish faith”.

The council subsequently tried to withdraw the complaint after Hasmonean added an amendment to its application form, but the adjudicator refused to allow the withdrawal on the grounds the new wording was still not compliant with the code.

A council spokesman said: “The council was under a legal obligation to make an objection to the wording of one part of Hasmonean High School’s oversubscriptions criteria that was in breach of the code.

“However, the council continues to believe that it is more effective for the council to negotiate with schools locally to help them achieve compliance with the code.

“While the council will continue to meet its statutory obligations to ensure compliance with the code, we will continue to press the Government to review the code to ensure it better supports the needs of faith schools, and Jewish Schools in particular.”

The new code, which came into force in February, aimed to make the admissions process fairer by forcing schools to offer children a place, regardless of their faith, if there are places available.

It also banned schools from interviewing children or asking for details about parents’ jobs and marital status.

The adjudicator’s ruling came seven months after a Government survey revealed Hasmonean was one of seven schools in the borough asking for illegal cash donations from parents in their application forms to fund extra-curricular religious studies and additional security.

The study, which covered 84 secondary and 486 primary schools in Barnet, Manchester and Northamptonshire, prompted a national inquiry, the results of which were published in the chief adjudicator’s report on Monday.

The study found that around half of schools have breached the admissions rules in some way, mainly on technicalities, with faith schools some of the worst offenders.

But chief adjudicator Sir Philip Hunter said he was satisfied all were the result of “misunderstandings” rather than “a wiful disregard” of the code.

Concluding, he said: “I have been assured that all the necessary action has been taken to ensure compliance with the code in the schools identified.”