As we said in our previous article about United Synagogue primary schools, during the last few years the number and choice of all Jewish day schools has increased by 400% across almost all areas of Greater London as a result of increased demand for Jewish day school places.

I mentioned last week that representatives of the Jewish Leadership Council had presented to the Trustees, and how effective that presentation was. This week I was focussing on the Board of Deputies instead.

During the last few years, the number and choice of Jewish day schools has increased by 400% across almost all areas of Greater London as a result of increased demand for Jewish day school places. Not only are there the more traditional Voluntary Aided schools, where the school has all of the secular teaching costs funded by the government through the Local Authority, but there are now a number of Free Schools, funded directly by the government and where the school is free to teach outside of the breadth and depth of the National Curriculum. Within just the last two years, three primary Free Schools will have opened in North and North West London and more are likely to follow throughout the metropolis. With existing schools expanding to take pupil ‘bulges’, there are likely to be some 200 more primary school places available in 2014 compared to 2010. Not all of these schools follow the central, orthodox, ethos of United Synagogue schools nor do they accept the religious authority of the Office of the Chief Rabbi, but the range of Jewish schools now available to parents is almost unimaginable to the community of just a generation ago.