Reflecting on Judaism

          By mid 1970 the School realised that it would have to enrol more children over and above the maximum allowed for by the Local Authority the reason being that the Managers felt obliged to take in, at least the siblings of pupils already attending and their numbers were far higher than had been anticipated. We therefore approached the Authority for permission to increase our overall numbers but they summarily dismissed this request. We offered to erect two temporary purpose-built classrooms but permission for any further development was also refused. Coincidentally, a report appeared in the local press telling of the substandard conditions under which some children in Ilford were being educated; in converted cloakrooms, storerooms and temporary classrooms. The school buildings themselves were grossly overcrowded. Since the extra classrooms we had proposed would alleviate the overall local situation we considered that the Authority’s decision not to allow us extra teaching areas was political and not based on educational grounds. We expressed this opinion to them, firmly but politely, and permission for the extra space was granted.

          We were still in negotiation with the Chief Rabbi to further his plans to open a Private Secondary School in the area. Both he and the Jewish Agency were keen to get the project started and a meeting was arranged with Sidney Frosh, an Honorary Officer of the London Board, to discuss the matter. However, before the meeting, he wrote to say “that he is yet to be convinced that it is a practical proposition to start a Secondary School on a small basis and without proper Secondary School facilities. It tends to develop as a school for those children who just cannot get in anywhere else, and unless one has the resources to start with, it just does not seem able to get off the ground.” He went on to say “We are planning, over the next ten years, to build two Comprehensive Schools, and I hope, three more Primary Schools but of course a good deal of detailed planning has to be done”. His views led us to start considering a purpose built Secondary School. In November 1970 London Board circulated its plans for a Five-Form entry Secondary School for Ilford with an annual intake of 150 pupils. They estimated that the total cost would be in the region of £600,000 of which £120,000 would have to be found by the denominational body subject to the whole project ranking for the full 80% grant. It took some 20 years for these hopes to crystallise and then only with the enormous financial support of a number of local Jewish philanthropists.

          An ever increasing number of faults with the primary school building became apparent with the passing of the months, some of them quite serious, till it reached the stage that we threatened to withhold some of the professionals’ fees. I will not enumerate them all here but will give just one example. At the official opening of the School in 1971 there were buckets scattered around the floor of the hall to catch the rainwater which was coming in through the roof. The Chairman, in welcoming the guests which included the architect, said that he understood the reason for rain coming through the roof of the ‘Old School’ because it was over 100 years old but why rain should penetrate the roof of a brand new building was something he could not understand. Eventually, all the faults were remedied.

          By January 1971 the Managers were again under pressure from parents to accept additional children, pressure which they resisted except for four siblings who were due to be enrolled in the January term. The Authorities refused us permission to accept them. Raymond Rudie protested vehemently at this refusal. There followed further protracted negotiations which resulted in the following agreement which the Managers found acceptable: -

          We could use the nursery school on a temporary basis.

          We would restrict intake to 50 pupils in each of two age groups for the following two years and to 40 pupils thereafter.

          Preference would be given to siblings.

          Not to increase age groups which were already oversized.

          Not to replace children who leave age groups which were oversized.

          Not admit summer born children until the following September.

          Meanwhile the Managers were in ongoing negotiations with both the London Board of Jewish Religious Education and the Barkingside Youth Club.

          With the former it was the continuation of negotiations, with its representatives Nat Rubin and Sidney Frosh, assessing the possibility of establishing a Secondary School in the area. They were quite firm in not wishing to give our proposed Private Secondary School their blessing even though we had obtained initial plans for the redevelopment of a small site suitable for such a school. They believed it would not be successful and eventually the proposal was laid to rest.

          With the youth club, the problem revolved around which organisation had priority over certain facilities i.e. the gymnasium, which we shared in common. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, both the club and the school had managers-in-common, which presented a conflict of interest and this problem was not resolved till many years later.

          On 12th May 1971 the London Board wrote to us asking for a report of the work of the school over the past year. The following reports were sent.

ILFORD JEWISH PRIMARY SCHOOL

Headmaster: Mr. S. Rosslyn B.Sc. (Econ)

The school has now completed its first year since the opening in April 1970. The numbers on roll are now 310, and owing to the great demand for places, it has been allowed, by the Redbridge Education Authority, to use the nursery as temporary accommodation. It is expected that numbers will eventually reach 350.

The intake has been restricted to 50 per year, reducing to 40 in subsequent years.

There are ten teaching areas in this open-planned school, five of which are for infant children to the age of 7 years. The school periods have been lengthened to 6 ½ hours per day, of which 2 hours (1¾ hours - infants) is devoted to Hebrew instruction. This has been organised by the Headmaster, Mr. S. Rosslyn and the Head of Jewish Studies Dept., Mr. Wertheimer.

In addition to the secular teachers, two Israeli teachers are employed. The Hebrew instruction, under the supervision of the Director of Education, Dr. I. Fishman, has proved to be very successful. A form of Ivrit b'Ivrit method has been introduced.

A visit by the Chief Rabbi, Dr. I. Jacobovits, was very welcome and he expressed his satisfaction with the Hebrew teaching in the school.

A REPORT ON THE HEBREW EDUCATION IN THE ILFORD

JEWISH PRIMARY SCHOOL.

By Chaim Wertheimer

When the school was opened three aims stood before us.

A. To plant into the heart of the children, love of their religion, their people and their homeland in Israel.

B. To teach Hebrew as a spoken language and at the same time enable them to understand the Bible in the Hebrew language.

C. To ensure that all our children should know how to read Hebrew.

We have succeeded during this year in organising Festival parties, Erev Shabbat gatherings, and also by making use of morning assembly to implant the love of our pupils to their religion, nation and land. By decorating the school we have created the right atmosphere for Jewish education.

          We have succeeded in teaching our children the first steps of Hebrew speaking and the important part was by implanting into the minds of our pupils the knowledge that Hebrew is a living language and not only the language of the Book used in the Synagogue. We have succeeded to

advance the knowledge of our pupils in the learning of the Bible written in the Hebrew language by developing a system which enables us to use the vocabulary from the Torah as a spoken language. This, together with a further knowledge of

the past history of the Jewish people has already shown results in the outlook of our pupils.

          It was evident to all that Mr. Wertheimer’s teaching methods were outstanding. In May 1971, an Education Officer of the London Board invited representatives of all the part-time classes to attend a lecture by him to explain his methods. The invitation stated that ‘Mr. Wertheimer has set himself the task of teaching his pupils Jewish studies through the medium of Ivrit. It was an ambitious and interesting programme, which should interest many teachers.’ I, personally, believe that the method was eventually discarded because it showed up the failure of others.

Woolf Abrahams.