Ofsted says material in Golders Green school does ‘not teach respect for women’

Ofsted inspectors said material found at an Orthodox school in Golders Green does not “teach respect for women.”

A report published by the education watchdog on Wednesday said “texts” found in Lubavitch Senior Boys’ School’s main room contained messages about gender roles.

The material, which was discovered among religious textbooks during an inspection last month, included tips on how to “manage women” and references to their roles as “guards” protecting their families’ well-being, rather than as “workers,” inspectors said.

But the school’s leaders told Ofsted “they were not aware of these texts being in the school and that they do not represent their beliefs.”

During the inspection carried out without notice at the school rated inadequate, Ofsted found its secular curriculum to be “narrow and condensed.”

Pupils’ achievements were deemed “poor” in English, mathematics and science and inspectors found age-appropriate textbooks to be “censored through teacher selection of content studied.”