Boyschools in London

Posted: Wed, Jul 04 2012, 4:34 pm Post subject: Boyschools in London

Can anyone please share what they know about the following schools. What are they like? How is the level of education and more specific in Chol and Kodesh? How hard is it to get in? What type of people do the attract? Anything good or bad that you can share. can you enlighten me with any other schools that are similar if there are? TIA

Torah Temimah
Tahsbar (edgware)
Pardes House
Tiferes Shlomo

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 7:34 am Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

can anyone help me?

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 8:29 am Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

Firstly any responses you will get are from the perspective of whoever responds so keep that in mind.

Im pretty sure you are probably a friend of mind Wink

as you have asked me about these schools recently but maybe your not so I'll repeat this anyway.... Laughing

Torah Temimah is a great all round school- in kodesh and chol, the teachers are all qualified and the school takes part in a lot of extra programs across the school. It is chariedi with a range of parents from more modern to more shtark. Is the more English of the schools you mentioned.
Tashbar is more cheder style. Not all the teachers are qualified. Is mainly edgware families so probably harder to get in if you dont live there. Torah V'Daas is similar to Tashbar but in golders green, but more Yiddish in kodesh lessons. Have heard really good things from people who send there.
Pardes is very established and is frum chariedi. Has chassidish and litvish families, mainly from golders green. Purpose built building and is very good kodesh and chol from what I hear.
Tiferes Shlomo is chassidish as far as I know. I dont know much about it.

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 9:30 am Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

Good luck getting into any of them - the boys school situation is pretty rough... Confused

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 9:37 am Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

not as bad as the girl school situation!

How about Toras Hashem?

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 10:26 am Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

OP here. Thanks for the replies. can you tell me more about Torah Vadaas and Torah Hashem. Never heard of them before this thread. Also which of these are state aided and how hard are they to get in. IF my son is already 2 am I very late to apply? Which is the easiest to apply to. They all sound good I just have no family connections here and don't know much about them and want to start applying.
From what I am reading from this thread I like the sound of Torah Temimah and Pardes House. I tried researching about them online and the only school that had quite detailed information was Torah Temimah.

What is the protocol to applying? Can I apply to a few schools and then decide or see who accepts? Do I just call up and ask for a form or is it better to try and speak to someone involved? Also I don't live in London yet but hope to live in Hendon by the time my son is ready for school. Will that make getting in much harder? Especially for the state aided schools as I have heard that the area gets priority.
TIA

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 12:09 pm Post subject: Re: re: Boyschools in London

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 12:47 pm Post subject: Re: re: Boyschools in London

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 2:48 pm Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

Pardes is state-aided, I think Torah Temimah as well. Torah Vodaas is not, and therefore the fees are considerably higher - Pardes is approx �900/term, TV is approx �1450/term. The state-aided schools have better facilities and better Chol, Torah Vodaas has slightly higher Kodesh level. Pardes and Torah Vodaas both do yiddish from kindergarten. Torah Temimah doesn't do yiddish, as far as I'm aware. The crowd there is more English, also more BT parents but by no means all. They offer some better extracurricular stuff than the others. Tiferes Shlomo is chassidish and their cut offs are Elul-Elul, not September, so if your child is end of August he may not make the year.
The schools don't really look at applications until they are ready to consider all of them, but Pardes House and Torah Vodaas both have a babyclass/nursery/prenursery (everyone calls it something different) for the year before kindergarten. If you can get in then, you are in for school as well. The fees are less for that year.
If you don't know which schools are suitable, perhaps come to London for the day and visit them all to see if they are right for you?

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 3:59 pm Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

Torah Temimah is voluntary-aided (ie state subsidised). You should be able to look up OFSTED (government body) and Pikuach (Board of Deputies, LK) inspection reports on some schools on-line.
You should be able to look up phone numbers on frumlondon.co.uk if you can't find local frum phone directory. I think there's also going to be a new school opening in GG as a Free School (not mean free of charge, more like Charter school in the States).

If you're applying to voluntary-aided schools, you NEED to apply to the local council you'll be living. They won't take overseas applicants unless you have local address. Even for independent (ie private) schools, 3yr old and 4yr olds have some subsidy. The schools will also ask for supplementary informations, make sure you get reference from your Rabbi, as well as your ketuba copy. I won't suggest you may not move in time for Sept 13--there're so many parents applying the schools have zero interst in keeping a spare place for you if you're not local when the school starts.

The community body that coordinate school places are NAJOS, National Association of Jewish Orthodox School.

Posted: Thu, Jul 05 2012, 4:09 pm Post subject: re: Boyschools in London

Mrs Bissli, apparently the new school is not opening for this coming school year in the end. Also, some of the schools OP mentioned (the more chareidi ones) don't have more than a half page application form, no rabbi reference or kesuba necessary - though they do ask for where you daven, and a lot of information is assumed from that. Also note that most schools don't charge to apply, but for Torah Vodaas there is a �75 application fee.
For kindergarten you apply directly to the school, whether it's voluntary aided or not. You only apply via the council for Reception, even if you are already accepted by the actual school in question.