Community special educational needs school to relocate and expand

A community school for students with special educational needs (SEN) is to relocate and expand its intake to secondary pupils.

Gesher will move from Willesden to a larger 3 acre site in Pinner, at the premises at the former Moriah School in September 2021.

The move, announced with the Harrow Jewish Day School Trust on Thursday, will allow the oversubscribed Gesher Primary to offer an extra 16 places next year, growing to 56 pupils overall.

The school will offer a year 7 and possibly year 8 intake in September 2021, with the aim of having specialist secondary provision and 120 places for pupils across the community, within five years.

In addition to relocation and expansion, the school, which plans to host a fundraiser, will open an assessment and diagnosis unit, and research centre working directly with Professor Simon Baron Cohen and the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge.

The announcement was welcomed by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who said te “broadening of Gesher School’s provision, facilitated now by the move to permanent premises, is a very significant addition to the landscape of Jewish education in this country” that will “benefit many more families, in ways that will have a transformative impact on the lives of SEN children”.

Rabbi David Meyer, Executive Director of the Partnerships for Jewish Schools (PaJeS), congratulated Gesher on the move, saying “it is particularly pleasing to see that communal resources are being utilised so effectively. He added Pajes is “confident that they will continue to succeed in creating a nurturing and supportive environment for their students.”

Sarah Sultman and Ali Durban, co-founders of the school, said it is “the fulfilment of an ambitious dream.. to enable our community’s SEN children to have access to an education that meets their needs, allowing them to develop, flourish and reach their potential”.

Howard Zetter, its chair of governors welcomed the “hugely exciting expansion project that will enable Gesher children and families to have a clear educational pathway”.

Brian Leaver, Chair of Harrow Jewish Day School Trust, said it “looks forward to nurturing Gesher’s future growth in the buildings and grounds that were created with the generous help of our benefactors more than 20 years ago to educate Jewish children in this leafy corner of northwest London”.