School must relax admissions rule

London, UK - A Jewish state school must offer places to pupils of other faiths, the schools adjudicator has ruled.

It upheld a complaint by Barnet Council that Hasmonean High School in north London made no provision for admitting children not of Orthodox Jewish faith.

The school must now change its admission policy to make it clear that other children would be entitled to attend if places were available.

Hasmonean High School declined to comment on the decision.

The school is attended by more than 1,000 pupils, with boys and girls taught on separate sites.

Earlier this week another London school won a legal challenge over a ruling that it must change its admissions policy.

The schools adjudicator had found that Drayton Manor High School in Hanwell, west London, had "indirectly discriminated" against children from "economically less advantaged families" who lived to the north of the school.

But on Tuesday the High Court quashed this, ruling that the adjudicator failed to give adequate reasons for its decision.