Former staff at the Menorah Foundation School in Edgware believe that internal problems have contributed to falling pupil numbers, with one ex-teacher describing it as having been a “toxic environment”.

The state-aided Orthodox primary, which expanded to two-form entry a decade ago, is set to return to a single-form entry school in September next year.

Governors have cited various reasons for the move, including a fall in birth rates and financial pressures on families.

But critics of the school draw attention to the turnover of staff, saying that this reflects troubles inside the school gates. They say by the end of this term 30 staff, including teaching assistants, will have left over the course of the past seven terms.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” said one ex-teacher.

Next autumn, the school intends to cut reception intake — which had been 60 in 2018 — from 50 to 30 places; while nursery places, which had been 52 in 2021, will be set at 28.

In a consultation with parents at the end of last year about the reduction, governors explained that the school had been running two classes for each year group since 2019 but the “true financial and practical impact” of a full roll had never been “fully assessed”.

Despite extra facilities, the expansion had put “significant pressure” on the school, including on use of space.

Over the last few years it had experienced a decline in applications, while its current year-1 cohort of 41 along with future projections left it facing a “financially unsustainable” situation. Staff redundancies had already had to be explored, parents were told.

Governors attributed the drop in demand to “a number of factors including a reduced birth rate within the community, an increased number of schools places now available, the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the current inflationary environment causing extreme financial pressure on families”.

While Barnet remains the borough with the country’s largest Jewish population and its Jewish residents grew by 5 per cent over the past decade according to the 2021 Census, PaJeS, the Jewish schools network, is investigating an estimated 5 per cent drop in applications to state-aided Jewish primaries in the area for this September.

Parents certainly have greater choice. Beit Shvidler in Edgware became state-aided in 2012, as more recently did Noam, which also relocated from Wembley to Burnt Oak in Barnet.

The downturn at Menorah Foundation seems to have been relatively sudden. The Menorah Foundation charity, which raised over £937,000 for the school in the year ending August 2021, reported then that the trustees had “plans to meet the demand of increasing pupil numbers by upgrading the facilities in the school”.

But some former teachers tell a different story. While some staff have sought fresh opportunities or promotion elsewhere, several blamed their departure on their experience at the school, including the treatment of some colleagues.

One ex-teacher said they had got out of “a toxic environment”. Another said it was “not a happy ship. I couldn’t work in those conditions any more”. A third found it the “worst school I ever worked in”.

Another teacher said they had filed a legal claim against the school. The case is understood to have since been settled.

According to the critics, in spring 2021 a delegation of ten teachers went to see the then chairman of governors — predecessor of the current chairman — to raise various concerns, including over the school’s handling of alleged bullying of a colleague. The critics say that only three of the 10 remain at the school.

Social media messages exchanged between teachers, believed to date from a couple of years ago, reveal that some had concerns about children’s behaviour. One contributor proposed a working party to address the issue but another commented that this had been suggested before but “unfortunately we just were not supported”.

One messager remarked that “any behaviour problems are never the child’s fault. Parents always making excuses for them and blaming staff doesn’t help.”

Another post suggested that “too many children” were “rude, argumentative and blatantly disrespectful towards staff”.

One contributor believed that there was a problem in that “virtually all” of the governors were parents of pupils at the school. The JC understands that a number of independent governors have been recruited in the past year.

Menorah Foundation

Pupil numbers at Menorah Foundation, 2022 (source: Office of Schools Adjudicator)

But the complaints stand in contrast to the last Ofsted inspection in 2019, which reaffirmed Menorah Foundation’s status as a good school.

It described the school as “calm and purposeful,” whose pupils “are polite and show respect to adults and to each other”.

Ofsted praised the then headteacher Karen Kent for her “calm and determined leadership” which ensured that those around her shared her “vision for school improvement”. She had developed a “capable team of middle leaders”, supported by “highly effective” governors, while parents were “extremely positive” about the school and her leadership.

Mrs Kent left after five years as head near the end of February this year to pursue a career with Ofsted, two weeks after governors informed parents that she was going.

Asked about events at the school, she said she could not comment.

She was replaced by deputy head Holli Hunter, who was recruited from the Independent Jewish Day School early last year and took over as acting head for the second half of the spring term this year. In April, she was confirmed as the permanent head from this September.

One parent of a pupil said this month that the new head had “brought a bit of stability” to the school. “There has definitely been a lot of improvements. The changes to the school have been really positive.”

Another parent said that while experienced staff had left because the school could not afford them and replaced by younger teachers who did not know the school, “that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad school”.

The main problem, she said, was new parking restrictions recently imposed around the school by Barnet Council which made it hard to drop off and collect children and impossible to stop nearby in order to go in to speak to a teacher.

The school did not respond to requests for comment.