An adjudicator has ruled that a Jewish girls’ state school has not breached the admissions code by requiring families not to wear denim, leather or lycra, or have access to the internet or television.
The Office of Schools Adjudicator was responding to an objection made against the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in London.
It rejected claims that the school’s admissions policy was breaching equalities law but did find that it breached the admissions code over a lack of clarity in some areas.
The National Secular Society has said that it “defies belief that a state-funded school can be allowed to impose such draconian and discriminatory standards”.
The school has been at the heart of controversy after criticism from campaigners about its ban of internet use and censorship of photographs that show women’s legs above the knee.
Last month, Ofsted placed the school in special measures and called for an external review of its governance to take place.
However, Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School responded at the time to say it felt like it was the victim of a secularist plot.
Now the school’s admissions policy has come under the spotlight after a complaint.
The oversubscription criteria for the school admissions gives priority to Charedi Jewish girls.
The school states that “Charedi homes do not have TV or other inappropriate media and parents will ensure that their children will not have access to the internet and any other media which do not meet the stringent moral criteria of the Charedi community”.
It also states that mothers and girls will dress at all times in accordance with the strictest standards of modesty and gives detailed criteria of what clothing is forbidden.
The Office of the School Adjudicator’s report says that while the admission code prohibits schools from prioritising children on “the basis of their own or their parents’ past or current hobbies or activities” there is an exemption for schools with a religious designation.
The report adds that schools with a religious character “may take account of religious activities as laid out by the body or person representing the religion or religious denomination”.
The schools adjudicator Peter Goringe says he is confident that Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School’s requirements on clothing and entertainment can be considered “religious activities”.
The complaint also claimed that by requiring different standards of modesty for men and women the admissions arrangements were breaching equalities law. However, the schools adjudicator rejected this.
He did, however, uphold part of the complaint which said that the requirements of the school were unclear.
The adjudicator highlights how some of the requirements are open to interpretation, such as ensuring make-up is discreet, defining what unsuitable home entertainment is and how a parent would decide whether a particular shoe was trendy.
The report said that admissions authorities must ensure parents can easily understand how any faith-based criteria will be reasonably satisfied.
It says that the school’s governing body has agreed to amend the requirements to make them clearer. This includes confirmation that when it prohibits people wearing trendy fabrics it is referring to leather and lycra.
The adjudicator also found that the school’s requirement that a child’s father has to be a member of a Charedi synagogue breached the law as it would require someone to be born of a Jewish mother.
The report says this is at odds with a Supreme Court judgement against JFS school in 2009, which found that an admissions policy which discriminates against a child whose father was Jewish but “whose forebears in the matrilineal line were not Orthodox Jews” was discriminating on the basis of race.
The school is now planning to change its requirements to say that the pupil’s father must pray at a Charedi synagogue, rather than be a member.
Commenting on the new judgment National Secular Society education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said: “The adjudicator’s decision shows the folly of allowing religious groups to run schools.
“The admissions code only allows schools to make such ludicrous demands because it allows them to adopt policies that fit within a religious ethos. If faith schools were rolled back the state could hold schools to consistent standards on admissions regardless of religion.”
Shimon Cohen, a spokesman for Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School, said: “At first sight, we don’t see any issues with this judgement and we are rather pleased that the National Secular Society are unhappy.”
