Avigdor Hirsch Torah Temimah Primary School - Essay Example

Although a strict Jewish school, Torah Temimah also embraces secular education (which is compatible with Jewish values), which includes the United Kingdom’s national curriculum.  The school’s mission states that Torah Temimah exists for the sole purpose of equipping Orthodox Anglo-Jewish boys with quality ‘Jewish education coupled with national curriculum studies imbued with Torah values’ in order to enable the boys to make positive contributions in the society (BODBJ, 2011 p. 3). Physically, the school is located in what was originally the Dollis Hill synagogue (BODBJ, 2011 p. 3). The synagogue was originally meant to accommodate 640 people, and as such, it is currently able to handle the different learning needs of the 204 students and the entire teaching and non-teaching staff comfortably.

Additionally, and especially if the opinions of Victoria Institute of Teaching (2007, p. 1) were to be taken into account, Torah Temimah's physical setting can be said to reinforce the Jewish values that the educators therein seek to instill in their learners. Victoria Institute of Education (2007, p. 1) observes that  ‘there is sufficient research to state without equivocation that the building in which students spend a good deal of their time learning does in fact influence how well they learn’.

Although it is hard to get conclusive evidence regarding the actual physical environment in Torah Temimah, the good rating by inspectors from the Jewish community as reflected in (BODBJ, 2011) and non-Jewish inspectors as reflected by The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted 2011, pp. 1-14) is perhaps an indication that the physical environment does not hinder pupils’ learning activities. The non-physical environment is perhaps reflected by the observation that the ‘proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average’ (Ofsted 2011, p.3). Yet, the school is rated as being among one of the best performers (i.e. the special education or disabled students notwithstanding).

Additionally, the Ofsted (2011, p.5) inspection report indicates that the students with special needs are able to integrate effectively with others, hence meaning that they attain the guidance and moral support that is needed. Other notable aspects of the school’s non-physical environment include the inclusion of extra-curricular activities, teachings about healthy lifestyles, healthy diets, and the general equipping of students with good levels of information communication technology (ICT), numeracy, and literacy skills.

Combined, the effects of the physical and non-physical environments in Torah Temimah lead to good education results as reflected in the league table results in figure 1 below. Additionally, the school’s absence level at 3.7% is below the local (6.5%) and national (5.3%) average rates, hence indicating that its students are more eager than the average student to attend school if the statistics published by the BBC (2009, n.pag.) are anything to go by. Figure 1: A sample of different schools as they appeared in the 2011 Brent league tables Source: BBC (2012).