A faith school has told Ofsted that it “cannot, and will not” teach legally mandated content which conflicts with its religious ethos.
During an inspection in September, Ofsted found Talmud Torah Tiferes Shlomo, an Orthodox Jewish school in London, does not include all the required content of statutory relationships and sex education (RSE) guidance for secondary pupils. This includes failing to teach about “intimate and online relationships, consent and some of the protected characteristics”.
Schools are required to promote equality and pupils’ understanding of the protected characteristics which are outlined in equality law. But many Jewish schools fail to do so because they have religious objections to teaching about LGBT people.
Ofsted said that whilst leaders “want their school to meet all the standards”, they are “unable” to do, as covering all required RSE content would be “entirely unacceptable on religious grounds, including to parents and carers”.
Inspectors were also blocked by school leaders from speaking to pupils about any “matters relating to RSE” with pupils.
A previous Ofsted report found that pupils “spend most of the school day on their Jewish studies”, and did not learn any other subjects “in depth” other than maths or English.
Jewish counter-extremism group Nahamu has demonstrated how the lack of RSE in strictly orthodox Jewish schools means engaged couples may not be ready for sexual relations and may lack knowledge of consent, abuse and rape.
Other recent Ofsted reports also found independent Jewish faith schools to have continually and repeatedly defied legal requirements.
NSS: Repeated disregard for legal requirements must be addressed
National Secular Society spokesperson Jack Rivington said: “This is yet another example of an independent faith school openly stating they have no intention of complying with the law.
“School standards exist to ensure the rights and wellbeing of children are protected – they must be robustly enforced at all schools, no matter their religious character.
“The Government must address the failings of a system in which schools that consistently and repeatedly disregard legal requirements face little to no consequence.”