Ohr Emes

Inspection of Ohr Emes 148 Upper Clapton Road E5 9JZ

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Inspection dates: 29 July and 16 to 18 September 2025

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school because they make good friends and like learning. Staff provide a high level of care and supervision. The school presents a calm and purposeful learning environment. Pupils behave respectfully and pleasantly towards each other and staff. Any upset between pupils is rare and quickly resolved. Pupils know they can go to adults in school if they have any worries. Pupils are kept safe in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from educational trips to local places of interest that bring their learning to life. The school choir’s performances in front of community audiences boost pupils’ confidence. Pupils are motivated to collect tokens for behaving politely and being kind and helpful at school and at home. Pupils are enthusiastic to exchange their tokens for a range of exciting prizes.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils respond positively to leaders’ high expectations to work diligently in lessons and refocus if any reminders are needed. Pupils learn key facts in a range of subjects. However, the school does not provide pupils with opportunities to develop and apply their learning to more complex ideas.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils speak Yiddish as their first language and learn also to read fluently in English. However, their access to high-quality texts in English is limited.

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better?

The school has set out clearly the curriculum content they expect pupils to learn. Pupils learn and recall key facts in a range of subjects. However, they do not have sufficient opportunities to deepen their knowledge and develop subject-specific skills. Teachers’ subject knowledge across the secular curriculum is not secure. This limits their readiness to spot and resolve misconceptions and to enhance pupils’ understanding. As a result, pupils do not apply their knowledge to more complex ideas.

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better?

The school has established its approaches to teaching early reading and phonics. It has effectively adapted the chosen scheme in the early years to accommodate children learning in Yiddish and in English. Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to reinforce their prior learning and practise using and blending new sounds. Children develop confidence and accuracy as they become fluent readers. They thoroughly enjoy storytelling in the early years. Opportunities to enjoy listening to and reading high-quality texts in English are infrequent in the primary phase classes.

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better?

The school has developed the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff identify swiftly when pupils need support with SEND. Strong communications between staff teams, parents and carers, and external specialists ensure appropriate plans are in place to support pupils with 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025 SEND. Leaders have invested in training and resources to support individual pupil’s needs. Staff adapt teaching strategies to ensure pupils with SEND can access the same curriculum as others.

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better?

Leaders have carefully cross-referenced the curriculum in Jewish Studies to ensure pupils are taught key themes in personal, social and health education (PSHE). Pupils gain an understanding of the importance of healthy eating, looking after their own and others’ emotional well-being and to value qualities such as respect, forgiveness and kindness. The school has developed the curriculum to provide pupils with more insight into different faiths and cultures. Teachers apply pupils’ learning in Jewish Studies to help them gain some knowledge and skills in a range of other subjects including history, art, design technology and music. Educational visits and extra- curricular activities enrich pupils’ experiences beyond the classroom. The school provides clear guidance to pupils on recognising risks to their safety and how to keep themselves safe, including online.

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better?

The school has responded swiftly to areas that needed to improve in the early years at the time of the previous standard inspection. The early years environment is suitably resourced to support children’s development across the seven areas of learning. Both indoor and outdoor spaces offer a wide range of activities that promote exploration, creativity, and skill development. Interactions between adults and children are consistently warm and considerate. Staff communicate in both Yiddish and English supporting children’s language development. Activities are guided to promote vocabulary, early writing, and numeracy skills. Children demonstrate high levels of engagement and concentration, including on tasks that develop fine motor skills and perseverance. There is clear evidence of progression in learning from Nursery to Reception, such as consistent use of correct pencil grip and sustained focus .

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better?

In the early years, the school makes checks on children’s learning, to identify those who may require further support. In the primary phase classes, teachers’ approaches to checking pupils’ learning is not sufficiently precise to identify gaps in individual pupil’s knowledge and understanding. Pupils do not receive the extra help they need to catch up quickly.

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better?

Leaders, including the proprietor and the governing body, have a clear understanding of the strengths and priorities for improvement in the school. They have successfully developed leaders’ oversight of the provision for pupils with SEND. Their development of leadership across other areas of the school’s work is in earlier stages of implementation. This is having limited impact on ensuring an optimum balance of workload and sustainability for current leaders as the school has grown in size and started operating from two sites.

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better?

Leaders maintain professional links with other schools to share ideas and practice for school improvement. They attend training in an extensive range of relevant aspects of the school’s work, drawing upon this to provide helpful one-to-one guidance for staff. However, staff training opportunities are limited, for example, in subject- knowledge development. 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025 Leaders ensure that the required policies and documentation are in place and implemented effectively including those relating to the welfare, health and safety of pupils. The school meets the independent school standards.

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better?

The school complies with schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 Teachers’ checking of pupils’ learning is not precise. Gaps in individual pupil’s learning are not identified and resolved swiftly. The school should ensure that gaps in pupils’ knowledge are systematically recognised and addressed.  Teachers’ subject knowledge in the secular curriculum is not consistently strong. Pupils’ application of their learning and understanding of complex subject-specific ideas are limited. The school should develop its training programme to enhance expertise and confidence in the secular curriculum, enabling pupils to deepen their learning across all subjects.  The school does not have firmly embedded routines in the primary phase classes to encourage pupils’ enjoyment of and interest in reading. Pupils do not have frequent opportunities to read a wide range of books. The school should give pupils more opportunities to hear and read high-quality texts.  The development of leadership is not being implemented swiftly enough in

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

response to the areas of expansion and improvement of the school. This impacts the workload and sustainability of current leadership. Leaders, including the proprietor, should accelerate the implementation of leadership development at the school to enhance capacity and strategic oversight of the school.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school. 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 147312 DfE registration number 204/6022

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School details

Inspection number 10391792 Type of school Other Independent School

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) Variable and voluntary

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School details

Date of previous inspection 10 October 2024 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025

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Information about this school

 Ohr Emes is an independent primary day school for Orthodox Jewish boys aged three to eleven years. Many pupils speak English as an additional language.  The proprietor body consists of three trustees of the registered charity, Ohr Emes Ltd. The headteacher is the chair of the proprietor body.  The Nursery and Reception classes are based at the main premises. The primary phase classes are based at additional premises at 34 Fairholt Road, London N16 5HW.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors carried out this inspection under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008. The purpose of the inspection is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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Information about this inspection

The school meets the independent school standards. These are the requirements set out in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in the evaluation of the school.  Inspectors held meetings with school leaders, including the headteacher, who is the chair of the proprietor body, the early years manager, the compliance manager, the head of Jewish studies and a member of the governing body.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, science, geography and PSHE. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, looked at curriculum plans and visited a sample of lessons. Inspectors also spoke to teachers and spoke to pupils about their learning. Inspectors also looked at curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects.  The previous standard inspection took place in November 2023 when the school’s

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Information about this inspection

overall effectiveness was judged to be requires improvement. The most recent inspection was a material change inspection which took place on 10 October 2024. The material change inspection was commissioned by the Department of Education (DfE) to consider the school’s application to change its age range of pupils from 3 to 7 years to 3 to 11 years. The inspection also considered the school’s new additional premises. The inspection found that the school was likely to meet the relevant independent school standards if the material changes relating to the school provision were implemented. 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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Information about this inspection

 An inspector completed a tour of the school premises accompanied by the leaders to consider the school’s compliance with the independent school standards.  There were no responses to the online survey Ofsted Parent View, the pupil survey and the staff survey. Inspectors took account of pupils’ views in meetings with pupils and of the views of staff in meetings with staff. Inspectors held conversations with parents of pupils attending the school.  The inspection started on 29 July 2025. Inspectors returned on 16 September 2025 to gather evidence in line with Ofsted inspections and visits: Deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence policy.

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Inspection team

Amanda Fraser, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Wright His Majesty’s Inspector 29 July, and 16 to 18 September 2025 to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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