JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School and later Jewish Free School) is a Jewishmixedcomprehensive school in Kenton, North London, England, founded in 1732. Amongst its early supporters was the writer and philanthropist Charlotte Montefiore. At one time it was the largest Jewish school in the world, with more than 4,000 pupils.
History
The school was founded in 1732, sited at Dukes Place in the City of London. It later moved to the East End, then to Camden Town. In 2002 it moved to a new site in Kenton to meet the demand of London's Jewish population moving further out towards the suburbs. The school is within the jurisdiction of the London Borough of Brent, and its postal town is Harrow.
Staff
Headteachers
2021–
Dr David Moody
2021
Paul Ramsay (Acting Joint Headteacher) Anna Joseph (Acting Joint Headteacher)
Both Brodetsky and Zangwill were former students, Angel was a previous and long-serving 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.
Academic results
In 2007, 53% of the school's attempted GCSE exams received grades of A* or A. In 2012 JFS was at the top of the School League Tables for GCSE in Brent and its A-Level results were the best of all the mainstream Jewish schools.
In 2024 at GCSE level, 95% of students passed both English and Mathematics, and 48% of all grades were a ‘Grade 7’ or above.[clarification needed] 30% of all grades were a ‘Grade 8’ or above.
Awards
The school won a Wellbeing at School Award in 2021.
In October 2006, a Jewish father made enquiries with the United Synagogue as to whether his son, born to a mother who had been converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Masorti (Conservative) denomination, could convert under Orthodox auspices for entry to JFS in September 2007. He was advised the process could take several years and that such applications to JFS are very rarely successful given that the school is highly oversubscribed. He applied for his son but did not declare to the school's admissions board the mother's conversion history.
By April 2007, he had not supplied JFS with the requested information, and the school advised him that, being oversubscribed that year, it was unlikely his son could be offered a place. He then unsuccessfully appealed for reconsideration of his application.
In July 2008, the father sought to prosecute JFS on the grounds of racial discrimination, but High Court judge, Mr Justice Munby, ruled against him, holding JFS' selection criteria were not intrinsically different from Christian or Islamic faith schools and their being declared illegal could adversely affect "the admission arrangements in a very large number of faith schools of many different faiths and denominations".
The Court of Appeal, however, in June 2009 declared that JFS, under the Race Relations Act 1976, had illegally discriminated against the child on grounds of race. They ruled that the mother's religious status, and thus her child's religious status, had been determined using a racial criterion rather than a religious criterion. The school subsequently issued revised admissions criteria based on religious practice including synagogue attendance, formal Jewish education and volunteering. JFS and the United Synagogue appealed to the Supreme Court, with the support of the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. On 16 December 2009, the UK Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's ruling.
Alleged 2026 antisemitic incident
In March 2026, Norfolk Police initiated a hate-crime investigation following an under-15 football match between JFS and Thorpe St Andrew School in Norwich during the quarterfinal round of a national tournament, in which antisemitic slurs such as "Dirty Jews" and "Go back to the gas chambers" were said to have been shouted from the stands at players by a crowd that consisted primarily of supporters of the Norwich school. Later the same month, the police reported that they had not been able to verify the allegations, and were not taking further action.
↑Cherry, B.; Pevsner, N. (2002). London: North. Pevsner: Buildings of England. Yale University Press. p.358. ISBN978-0-300-09653-8. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
↑Freeman, Simon; Moore-Bridger, Benedict (8 May 2015). "300 pupils are sent home after exam day 'riot'". London Evening Standard. p.21.
↑Name withheld (14 May 2015). "School mayhem was exaggerated". London Evening Standard (Letter to the editor). p.59. ... it was no more than five or so students out of three hundred ...
↑"JFS Home". Jfs.brent.sch.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
↑"Thorpe St Andrew School face antisemitic abuse questions", Eastern Daily Press, March 9, 2026. Accessed March 15, 2026. "An under-15 team from the Jewish Free School (JFS), in London, were playing in a national cup quarter-final at Thorpe St Andrew School when the shocking scenes unfolded. JFS pupils claim they were told to 'go back to the gas chambers' and were called 'dirty Zionists' by the crowd, which was said to be mostly comprised of pupils from the Norfolk school."
↑Burrows, Tom. "Police investigating report of antisemitic hate crime at English school’s under-15 game", The New York Times, March 7, 2026. Accessed March 15, 2026. "Police are investigating following a report of a hate crime during a football match involving Britain’s largest Jewish school in a national tournament.... The alleged incident happened on Thursday, March 5, when they played in an away game in the quarter-final stage of the English School's under-15 competition against Thorpe St Andrew School, based in Norwich.... They shouted throughout the game. They were saying 'go back to the gas chambers', 'dirty Jew' and 'Zionist', she claimed."
↑Sherer, Cyril. "General Morris (2 Gun) Cohen, a personal recollection by his cousin Dr Cyril Sherer", Jewish East End of London. Accessed March 15, 2026. "Enrolled at Jews Free School, he played truant. By the time he was ten he was a petty thief, pickpocket, even a prize-fighter under the name of “Cockney Cohen” which is where he got his broken nose."
12Silver, Craig. "Furman’s flying for Smith and McCoist", The Jewish Chronicle, April 24, 2008. Accessed March 15, 2026. "Born in Cape Town, Furman grew up in Edgware, Middlesex, and was a JFS schoolfriend of Maccabi Herzliya starlet Josh Kennet."
↑Freedland, Michael. "Interview: Maurice Glasman", The Jewish Chronicle, June 30, 2011. Accessed March 15, 2026. "This is still the honeymoon period for the JFS old boy who is enjoying the novelty of having been in Ed Miliband's first list of peerages."
↑Singer, Saul Jay. "The Jewishness And Zionism Of Samuel Gompers", The Jewish Press, August 17, 2022. Accessed March 15, 2026. "Gompers attended the Jewish Free School on Bell Lane, where he was an excellent student, but his formal secular education ended at age 10 when his financially distressed father removed him from school to serve as an apprentice to a shoemaker."
