Second Stamford Hill Jewish school criticised for failing to teach about same-sex relationships

Beis Malka school on Alkham Road. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

A second Orthodox Jewish school in Stamford Hill has been criticised by Ofsted for failing to teach about same-sex relationships.

Beis Malka Girls’ School, an independent girls’ school with 482 pupils aged two to 16, has made improvements and “worked hard” to meet statutory requirements, the schools’ watchdog found following an emergency inspection in April.

But the school fell short of the required standards for failing to teach pupils “to understand and respect different lifestyle choices”, such as same-sex relationships.

Dovid Spitzer, a governor at Beis Malka, defended the school and said that the subject of “personal relationships” should be taught at home.

“It seems that our religious beliefs about the teaching of relationships are now a barrier to our school’s success,” Mr Spitzer said.

“Our pupils are encouraged to respect everyone, no matter their background or life choices. [But] we have always taught about personal relationships at home.”

“We believe this part of our children’s education is the duty and responsibility of the family. We do not believe that these subjects are to be taught at school.

“Unfortunately, simply teaching respect for everyone appears not to have been enough for us to have met all the independent schools’ standards.”

Another Stamford Hill independent school Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadasss, was criticised by Ofsted two months ago (26 May 2016) for “shielding” its pupils from learning about sexual orientation because of its strict adherence to the Shulcan Aruch, the code of Jewish Law.

Both schools, which are run by the Orthodox Belz community, came under fire last year for threatening to ban children whose mothers drove.

The idea was dropped after the Equality and Human Rights Commission stepped in.