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JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School and later Jewish Free School) is a Jewish mixed comprehensive school in Kenton, North London, England and was founded in 1732. Amongst its early supporters was the writer and philanthropist Charlotte Montefiore. At one time it was the largest Jewish school in the world, with more than 4,000 pupils.

Location

The school moved from Camden Town to a new site in Kenton in 2002 to represent the demand of London's Jewish population moving further out towards the suburbs. The school is within the jurisdiction of the London Borough of Brent, while its postal town is Harrow.

Staff

Headteachers

Other staff

• Michael Adler taught Hebrew at the school in the late-19th century.

Houses and other traditions

JFS operates the house system and has four houses for organisational purposes. Students must wear a tie with stripes in their house colour.

Both Brodetsky and Zangwill were former students, Angel was a previous and long-serving headmaster and Weizmann, who has several links to the school, was the first President of the State of Israel.

Students are split into their respective houses for most classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 as well as inter-house competitions, such as football and basketball.

A tradition called "muck-up day" involves Year 11 students celebrating the last day of formal schooling before their GCSE examinations with various pranks. In May 2015 this descended into "a near-riot", with more than 300 pupils barred from the campus after a small minority spread foam, eggs, flour and dead chickens around the school. The police were called after some students broke through a security fence and let off fireworks, but no arrests were made.

Academic results

In 2007, 53% of the school's attempted GCSE exams received grades of A* or A. In 2012 JFS was at the top of the School League Tables for GCSE in Brent and its A-Level results were the best of all the mainstream Jewish schools.

Awards

The school won a Wellbeing at School Award in 2021.

Controversy over admissions criteria

In October 2006, a Jewish father made enquiries with the United Synagogue as to whether his son, born to a mother who had been converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Masorti (Conservative) denomination, could convert under Orthodox auspices for entry to JFS in September 2007. He was advised the process could take several years and that such applications to JFS are very rarely successful given that the school is highly oversubscribed. He applied for his son but did not declare to the school's admissions board the mother's conversion history.

By April 2007, he had not supplied JFS with the requested information, whereupon the school advised him that, being oversubscribed that year, it was unlikely his son could be offered a place. He thereupon unsuccessfully appealed for reconsideration of his application.

In July 2008, the father sought to prosecute JFS on the grounds of racial discrimination, but High Court judge, Mr Justice Munby, ruled contrariwise, holding JFS' selection criteria were not intrinsically different from Christian or Islamic faith schools and their being declared illegal could adversely affect "the admission arrangements in a very large number of faith schools of many different faiths and denominations".

The Court of Appeal, however, in June 2009 declared that JFS, under the Race Relations Act 1976, had illegally discriminated against the child on grounds of race. They ruled that the mother's religious status, and thus her child's religious status, had been determined using a racial criterion rather than a religious criterion. The school subsequently issued revised admissions criteria based on religious practice including synagogue attendance, formal Jewish education and volunteering. JFS and the United Synagogue appealed to the Supreme Court, with the support of the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. On 16 December 2009, the UK Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's ruling.

Notable former pupils

This article's list of alumni may not follow Misplaced Pages's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (December 2013)

• Barney Barnato, Randlord
• Gina Bellman, actress
• Raphael Benjamin, rabbi in Australia and America
• Eyal Booker, Love Island Contestant
• Selig Brodetsky, mathematician, Zionist leader, and President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Benjamin Cohen, journalist and Channel 4 News presenter
• Morris Cohen, adventurer
• Dean Furman (born 1988) - professional footballer
• Maurice Glasman, academic, social thinker and Labour life peer
• Jonathan Glazer, BAFTA and Oscar award-winning film director
• Samuel Gompers, first President of the American Federation of Labor
• Ray Kelvin, founder of luxury clothing retail company Ted Baker
• Josh Kennet (born 1987), English-Israeli footballer
• David Joseph, chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK
• Bernard Lewis, founder and owner, River Island
• Joe Loss, musician
• Ofra Offer Oren, Israeli writer, poet, blogger and translator
• Steven Reingold, cricketer
• Barbara Roche, Labour politician
• Joel Samuels – DJ Luck, DJ
• Jez San, game designer, Argonaut Games
• Florence Schechter, founder of Vagina Museum and author
• Ian Stone, comedian

References

1. Nicola Woolcock (27 October 2009). "Jewish school JFS in Supreme Court to deny it broke law by turning boy away". London: TimesOnline.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2009. JFS, formerly the Jewish Free School, which is heavily oversubscribed,...
2. "Jews' Free School journal – The Jewish Museum". Jewishmuseum.org. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
3. "Jewish Free School, Camden Road, Camden LB". Discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. January 1973. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
4. Cherry, B.; Pevsner, N. (2002). London: North. Pevsner: Buildings of England. Yale University Press. p. 358. ISBN 978-0-300-09653-8. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
5. Buck, N.; Gordon, I.; Hall, P.; Harloe, M.; Kleinman, M. (2013). Working Capital: Life and Labour in Contemporary London. Taylor & Francis. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-136-47778-2. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
6. "Montefiore, Charlotte Simcha". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/105616. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. Miller, Helena; Grant, Lisa D.; Pomson, Alex (2 April 2011). International Handbook of Jewish Education. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789400703544.
8. "New JFS head with zero tolerance for ill-discipline". Thejc.com. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
9. "JFS appoints acting joint heads as search for full-time hire stepped up". Jewishnews.timesofisrael.com. 11 October 2021.
10. "Catholic schools chief made JFS interim head". The Jewish Chronicle.
11. Ferrer, Richard (7 June 2021). "Former Ofsted chief to become new JFS headteacher". Jewishnews.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
12. "Dame Ruth Steps Down As JFS Head". Archived from the original on 18 February 2012.
13. Later elected first female president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Rachel Sylvester (17 July 2000). "First woman elected to lead Jewish board". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
14. I, Jonathan Goldsmith, left in 1975 and Gatoff had been there 2 years by then
15. Conway, E.S. (1983). Comprehending Comprehensives: The J.F.S. Experience. Woburn Press. ISBN 978-0-7130-4008-1. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
16. "Jews' Free School - The New Headmaster". The Jewish Chronicle. 10 December 1897. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
17. Freeman, Simon; Moore-Bridger, Benedict (8 May 2015). "300 pupils are sent home after exam day 'riot'". London Evening Standard. p. 21.
18. Name withheld (14 May 2015). "School mayhem was exaggerated". London Evening Standard (Letter to the editor). p. 59. ... it was no more than five or so students out of three hundred ...
19. "JFS Home". Jfs.brent.sch.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
20. "Secondary school league tables in Brent". BBC News. 21 March 2012.
21. Rocker, Simon (15 February 2021). "JFS wins wellbeing award". Jewish Chronicle.
22. Jonathan Romain (27 October 2009). "JFS puts faith schools in the dock". Guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
23. Graham Tibbets, "Boy refused admission to leading Jewish school was 'not victim of racial discrimination'", The Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2008
24. R(E) v Governing Body of JFS [{{{year}}}] EWHC 1535 (Admin) (3 July 2008)
25. "Jewish school admissions unlawful". News.bbc.co.uk. 25 June 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
26. R(E) v Governing Body of JFS [{{{year}}}] EWCA Civ 626 (25 June 2009)
27. JFS (28 August 2009). "JFS – Admissions". Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
28. "Admissions Year 7 | JFS". Jfs.brent.sch.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
29. Simon Rocker, "JFS: What's Next?", Jewish Chronicle, 3 July 2009
30. "Jewish school loses places fight". BBC News. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
31. R(E) v Governing Body of JFS UKSC 15
32. "The UK Supreme Court Dismisses the Jewish Free School Appeal". Humanrightsinireland.wordpress.com. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
33. Interview: Gina Bellman, The Jewish Chronicle, 17 January 2014
34. Doherty, Rosa (4 June 2018). "Love Island's Jewish contestant Eyal Booker's brother tells all". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020.
35. Simon Rocker (11 February 2010). "Bibi and the boy wonder". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
36. Ingham, Tim (14 December 2017). "David Joseph: 'We creatively empower our artists globally. I'm proud of that.'". Musicbusinessworldwide.com. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
37. "From the archive: The Drapers Interview with River Island founder Bernard Lewis". Drapersonline.com. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.

Further reading

• Black, Gerry (1998). A history of the Jews' Free School, London, since 1732. Tymsder Publishing ISBN 978-0953110407.

External links

• JFS official website
• OFSTED Report

• 1732 establishments in England
• Educational institutions established in 1732
• Jewish English history
• Jewish schools in England
• Kenton, London
• Secondary schools in the London Borough of Brent
• Voluntary aided schools in London