Stamford Hill Haredi School Found To Be Providing Inadequate Education

The report said pupils had a “very limited” understanding of other cultures and faiths and only a “sketchy” understanding of public institutions and services in England. They told the inspector that they had “little involvement in their local and wider community other than their immediate religious community."

Talmud Torah Chaim Meirim Wiznitz School on Lampard Road in Stamford Hill, London, England

The Hakney Gazette reports:

Pupils being slapped with the hand and inadequate teaching were among failing uncovered by an emergency inspection at an Orthodox Jewish primary school.

Ofsted [the inspection arm of the British government’s equivalent of the US Department of Education] carried out an unannounced visit to the Talmud Torah Chaim Meirim Wiznitz School in Lampard Road, Stamford Hill, after concerns were raised by the Department for Education (DfE) over the children’s welfare, quality of the curriculum, teaching, and pupils’ progress – particularly in English and maths.

The subsequent report, published on February 6, alleged that pupils had told inspectors of incidents where teachers had “given them a small ‘slap’ with the hand” and that others had said it had been threatened as a punishment.

Provision of subjects such as history, geography, science, technology and physical education was deemed to be “inadequate” at the boys’ school, which has 230 pupils on its roll.

In their report, inspectors said “not enough attention” was given to these areas and “pupils were unable to describe in any detail a broad range of activities that they had undertaken in these subjects, especially physical education”.

The report also said pupils were making “inadequate progress in English and mathematics” and the curriculum was “too narrow”.

In addition, boys with special educational needs and limited English were found to be struggling to understand and complete their work, with teachers “not adequately meeting their needs”.

The report said pupils had a “very limited” understanding of other cultures and faiths and only a “sketchy” understanding of public institutions and services in England. They told the inspector that they had “little involvement in their local and wider community other than their immediate religious community”.

Senior staff’s child protection training certificates were also said to be out of date.

A range of recommendations for improvement have been made by the inspectors.

Ofsted previously carried out two inspections in 2012.

Cazenove ward Cllr Abraham Jacobson said: “It’s a long-established school which is run on a shoestring budget. It does not get money from the council and is run by volunteers. It does give a good education. I think it’s one of the best schools around.

“Physical education is a problem as the school doesn’t have a playing field.

“The school will be discussing and looking into all the issues and trying to address them.”

The school declined to comment.

Comments

[Alter Kocker]

It is a crime not to instruct children in the basics. Our Haredi brethren believe that all they need is Toyreh. Unfortunately, Toyreh won't tell them that the wrong change was made at the store. Toyreh will not teach them how to read a simple sentence in English. Toyreh will not give them the history of the land that they currently inhabit.

Our Haredi brethren believe that Toyreh is the answer to all questions and that education in the basics is goyish. I propose that this is child abuse. In failing to arm their children to survive in a non-jewish world, they condemn them to a cloistered society with no way out. They may say that this is the desired effect. To that I say rubbish. Toyreh leaves them poor, ignorant and a slave to the hive mentality. It also leads to many cases of lives led in quiet desperation.

[David]

Can someone explain to me how refusal to educate one's children is consistent with Judaism?

[anuran]

It would be more newsworthy if they could find one of these indoctrination centers that provided a real education

[rocky]

When is "No Child Left Behind" going to be enforced in the US, both the spirit and the letter of the law, when it comes to Haredi youngsters?

[jancsibacsi]

Alter Kocker---Did you ever hear of the hassidishe saying its a motto for them, that toyreh is the beste sehoyre?:)the live under a delusion from which it is impossible to extracate them from until they are made to starve to death.

[Allan]

“Provision of subjects such as history, geography, science, technology and physical education was deemed to be inadequate”

Talk about understatement. “Inadequate” must be a polite British euphemism for “virtually non-existent” and “this is not a school by any definition of the word.” Such schools must be closed because the rabbis in charge will NEVER willingly allow a real curriculum to be taught because in the haredi mind Torah contains the ONLY true history as well as all the science and math any true Jew could ever need. These poor children will come out of this school unable even to handle a standard high school curriculum , let alone higher education. As AK said, this failure to educate is criminal.

[Baal Shem Tov]

@Allan
A school cannot be rated worse that "inadequate" (there's a 4-scale rating).
So, yes, it does mean non-existent in this context.

[Baal Shem Tov]

If this is "one of the best schools around", how much worse are the other Haredi schools in Stamford Hill?

[Baal Shem Tov]

If this "one of the best schools around", how much worse are the other Haredi schools in Stamford Hill?

[Jeff]

I'm sure the New York authorities will follow this example and begin implementing regular surprise inspections of Haredi schools. [/sarcasm]