An Orthodox Jewish private school has come under fire following an Ofsted inspection that scored the school’s ‘Overall effectiveness’, ‘inadequate’. In the report the school is criticised for a curriculum that is “narrow and lacks ambition” as it discovered that children were only taught English and maths in lessons.
Talmud Torah Tiferes Shlomo school is based in North West London. It is an independent Orthodox Jewish all boys school educating students aged three to 15. The report states that whilst “pupils get off to a positive start here” once the children leave early education “the quality of education is poor”.
Ofsted criticised the school for not teaching a wide range of subjects. The pupils spend most of the school day on their Jewish studies, leaving little time for them to study the secular curriculum. While pupils do study English and maths, they don’t learn any other subjects in depth. The report states that “there is no physical education (PE) planned or taught to pupils in Years 7 to 10”.
The report also noted that 'leaders have only recently reintroduced history and science in the primary phase, and the rest of the planned curriculum is not delivered'. Pupils take a GCSE examination for mathematics and English but if they wish to study any other subject at GCSE, they must do so outside school.
While the curriculum was criticised, the environment for pupils was praised. Ofsted noted: “Pupils like their school and value the friendships they have with each other. Pupils are kind and polite. They said that bullying does not happen. Staff are quick to sort out any disagreements that pupils may have. They encourage pupils to listen to both sides of the argument”.
