Established | 1732 |
---|---|
Type | Voluntary aided comprehensive |
Religion | Orthodox Judaism |
President | Lord Michael Levy |
Headteacher | Debby Lipkin (Executive Headteacher) and Simon Appleman (Headteacher) |
Chair | Ms Geraldine Fainer |
Location |
The Mall Kenton London HA3 9TE England, UK 51°34′52″N 0°16′53″W / 51.58118°N 0.28135°WCoordinates: 51°34′52″N 0°16′53″W / 51.58118°N 0.28135°W |
Local authority | Brent |
DfE number | 304/4033 |
DfE URN | 133724 Tables |
Ofsted | Reports |
Students | 2090 |
Gender | Coeducational |
Ages | 11–18 |
Houses | Angel , Brodetsky , Weizmann & Zangwill |
Website | www |
JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School and later Jewish Free School) is a Jewish mixed comprehensive school in Kenton, north London, England. At one time it was the largest Jewish school in Europe, with more than 4,000 pupils.
Simon Appleman (Headteacher)
JFS operates the house system and has four houses for organisational purposes. Students must wear a tie with stripes in their house colour, e.g. blue for Brodetsky students.
Both Brodetsky and Zangwill were former students, Angel was the first headmaster and Weizmann, who has several links to the school, was the first president of the state of Israel.
Students are split into their respective houses for most classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 as well as inter-house competitions, such as football and basketball.
A tradition called "muck-up day" involves Year 11 students celebrating the last day of formal schooling before their GCSE examinations with various pranks. In May 2015 this descended into "a near-riot", with more than 300 pupils barred from the campus after a small minority spread foam, eggs, flour and dead chickens around the school. The police were called after some students broke through a security fence and let off fireworks, but no arrests were made.
The school moved from Camden Town to Kenton in 2002 to represent the demand of the Jewish population of London moving further out towards the suburbs of the city. There are special bus routes, provided by Transport for London (TfL), between the school and several areas with a large Jewish population, such as Edgware, Mill Hill, Southgate, Barnet, Hendon, Muswell Hill, Radlett and Elstree.