A state-funded faith school has come under scrutiny regarding its policies that ban all internet use for pupils and censor photos in textbooks that show women’s legs above the knees.

The Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School serves the Orthodox Jewish Charedi community in Stamford Hill, North London.

Humanists UK accused the school of operating a “censorious, homophobic and misogynistic approach to education” - but the school said its policies were to “protect our girls from sexualisation”.

Ofsted said its inspectors had recently visited the school, and “will publish their findings in due course”.

Faith school conduct

Yesodey Hatorah’s code of conduct, which pupils have to follow in and out of school, says “access to the internet is forbidden even for educational purposes” and that leisure activities “not in line with our school ethos” such as ice skating and bowling are not allowed.

It also says that pupils watching DVDs or videos as a group “must have prior permission from school”.

Photos of textbooks used by the school, passed to Humanists UK, showed references to homosexuality blacked out - as well as those about women smoking, drinking and driving with men.

Images were also redacted to remove sight of women’s chests, shoulders, arms and legs above their knees, while a photo of Hollywood dance legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was completely covered up.

The school previously hit the headlines after redacting questions about evolution in GCSE science papers.

It was originally in the private sector before becoming a voluntary aided in 2005, and was rated “good” with outstanding pupil behaviour following its previous Ofsted inspection in 2014.

‘Not acceptable’

Humanists UK education campaigns manager Jay Harman said: “It is simply not acceptable for a state-funded school to take such a censorious, homophobic, and misogynistic approach to education. Nor is it acceptable for such a school to be rated as ‘good’.

“Once again, the consequences of giving religion free reign over our education system are brought into sharp focus.”

A spokesman for Yesodey Hatorah school said: “Old news, old news. It is well known that we redact our textbooks and it has been reported time and again as well as being well documented by all relevant authorities.

“This policy has nothing to do homophobia or misogyny, but is to protect our girls from sexualisation in line with our parents’ wishes and religious beliefs.”

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