FOI release

Jewish independent schools

Details of meetings between the department and representatives from the Jewish community.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 26 April 2012

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Jewish independent schools

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Jewish independent schools

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Details

• Date requested: n/a
• Publish date: n/a
• Updated: 26 April 2012

Request

Can the department provide details of any meetings between the Department of Education and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC)? This includes the names of the participants, minutes, memos and reports associated with these meetings since 2007.

Also, please supply details of any meetings between the department and the Association of Orthodox Jewish Schools (AOJSO) and organisations since 2007. This includes the names of the participants, minutes, memos and reports associated with these meetings.

Release

The department has records of three relevant meetings.

The first of these, with UOHC, took place in the week commencing 20 April 2009. It was attended by Rabbi J Baumgarten on behalf of the Union, together with colleagues for whose names we do not have any record. For the department, it was attended by Penny Jones, Deputy Director of Independent Education and School Governance Division. It was also attended by Ofsted, but the name of the Ofsted representative is not on record. The meeting was held to discuss regulatory issues relating to Orthodox Jewish schools. No briefing notes or meeting notes are held by the department, neither did UOHC provide an agenda or papers for the meeting.

The second meeting, with UOHC, took place on 10 September 2009, when Rabbi Baumgarten met the then Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, to discuss the Mathematics curriculum in Orthodox Schools, together with other issues raised on the day. No note of the meeting is held. Please see below in relation to briefing prepared for this meeting.

The third meeting took place on 19 January 2011 and was with both the UOHC and the AOJSO. Their representatives were Rabbi Chaim Halpern, Mr Joe Logenstein and Rabbi J Baumgarten, accompanied by Mike Freer MP (who had requested the meeting on behalf of the two organisations to discuss issues affecting Charedi Jewish schools), and Councillor Brian Gordon. The meeting was with Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools and Departmental officials also attended. No note of the meeting is held.

Details from the meetings are contained within the attached annex.

Published 26 April 2012