Immanuel College confronts its falling numbers

Immanuel College’s new acting head Dan Endlar this week received a welcome vote of confidence in the Bushey school from the Independent Schools Inspectorate. In its first inspection for five years, the ISI said that pupils were encouraged to be “helpful and effective members of society” and made good academic progress, some “rapid”.

Endlar, who came to the school in January as second master, took over last week from Millan Sachania, headmaster for a little over two years, who remains till the end of the academic year as consultant. The ISI’s endorsement will provide moral support to the acting head as he confronts the challenges of a sharp drop in numbers – down from 681 from the last inspection five years ago to 467 this autumn – along with government policy that will hit independent schools in the pocket.

From January, private schools will have to pay 20 per cent VAT on fees, and in April, they will lose the 80 per cent relief on business rates. Immanuel, which charges nearly £24,000 a year for a pupil to attend the senior school, has yet to announce whether fees will rise accordingly.

Last year, the school gained planning permission to build new classrooms and improve sports facilities ahead of its 35th anniversary next year. A decade ago, it began to enjoy a boom in numbers amid growing demand for Jewish schools in London.

From 473 pupils at the time of its 2013 inspection, two years after opening a preparatory school, it reported reaching 700 for the first time in September 2020, with as many as 99 in Year 7. But numbers have since plummeted by a third.

The cost-of-living crisis may have played a part in that, as well as JFS’s recovery from a rocky patch. In September 2023, JFS said that 21 students transferred from Immanuel, mostly into its sixth form, considerably more than the five who did so in each of the previous two years.

But some parents who have had children at Immanuel believe it experienced a difficult time emerging from Covid, and problems were exacerbated by a restructuring that led to a number of teacher lay-offs in the summer of 2022. One parent who said their two children did “brilliantly” at the school – “they got a great education and had lovely friends” – nevertheless felt morale had fallen and behaviour had “definitely got worse”.

As well as staff who lost their jobs, a number of others left for other schools, resulting in what some parents believe was too great an exodus of experienced teachers at one time. Some teachers were struggling to control classes, they said.

One parent removed their child, whose behaviour had gone “downhill”, from the school . Although they felt Dr Sachania, a former deputy head, who returned as head in September 2022, was doing his best to put things right, they said; “When you’re paying that kind of money, I’m not prepared to wait.”

Another parent even went so far as to describe some children as “feral”. Some, however, thought it was parents rather than teachers to blame for unruly conduct by failing to support measures such as after-school detention. “You had quite a lot of vociferous parents who would not support the sanction,” one said.

At any rate, behaviour and discipline appeared to be a vexed issue. An email was reportedly sent to the chairmen of governors in the winter of 2022, which recounted the experiences of a couple of dozen families over the past few years.

“Parents… respect the idea of boundaries and discipline but are questioning the hardship, destructive and senseless punishments that do not seem to be helping anyone,” according to what the JC was told was the final draft of the email, “and that is definitely destroying the nurturing reputation of the school”.

How widely such discontent was shared is difficult to gauge. Not every school is right for every child. Some parents were happy with the education, such as the mother of a child now at a Russell Group University, who said: “I think Immanuel brings out the best in its students.”

Dr Sachania explained last year that he had been more “selective” in taking students with 70 places offered for Year 7 in September 2023. In the event, 60 took them up, although the school then accepted an additional number of British-Israelis, who took refuge in the UK after the events of October 7.

“The school expanded over the last ten years, and I think that has put a real strain on our resourcing, in our infrastructure at the school. We do not have spare classrooms at the moment,” he told the JC last autumn.

The expansion had been “good for the school at the time, but we have to make sure that the size of the school is such that we can give the best first-class education and experience for all our pupils,” he said.

But his intake policy had resulted in “the most able cohort in Year 7 that we’ve had for years”, he added. The school has declined to say how many students entered Year 7 this autumn, but it is believed to be considerably lower.

According to the most recent posting on the government’s Get Information about Schools service, Immanuel had 584 on its roll in August 2024 – a hundred more than the 467 recorded by the ISI at its inspection in September.

As for behaviour, Dr Sachania believed that a new disciplinary policy, introduced last year, which “starts with rewarding positive behaviour” and revised tariffs for misdemeanours, was paying off. “Our pupils are well-behaved,” he said. When he walked around the school, “I see only examples of really good behaviour, cheerful pupils who all wish me good morning.”

When he was previously at Immanuel – he left as deputy head in 2011 – “behaviour on the coaches left a lot to be desired,” he said. “It is impeccable now.”

He also defended the staff cuts of two years ago, carried out at the time by interim head Mike Buchanan, former executive director of HMC, the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, saying he “will have done it for sound reasons, but any change is unsettling. My job was to calm everyone.”

At any rate, morale had improved, Sachania said. Staff turnover during the first year of his headship had only been 5 per cent – a third of the national figure for teachers.

As for transfers to JFS, he offered a number of reasons that included a wider choice of sixth-form subjects at the state school and the “pull factor” of friendship – if one pupil moves elsewhere, some of their friends may want to follow.

But Immanuel’s sixth form last year, he believed, was still “the second highest… we have ever had”.

In 2023, the school climbed 18 places to 125 in the Times’ league table for independent school based on exam results – and it may go higher this year as its performance was even better.

It also continued to excel in creative activities, on which it prides itself. For a second year, a GCSE photography pupil scored full marks, while it was shortlisted for music and drama in the Independent School of the Year Awards.

From the latest inspection report, the new behaviour policy appears to be working.

“A focus on consideration and kindness alongside clear expectations promotes pupils’ positive behaviour,” the ISI said.

Immanuel pupils were being prepared to be “helpful and effective members of both contemporary society and within the full range of their Jewish heritage”, inspectors said.

Governors put pupil wellbeing at “the centre of their decisions” and worked with school leaders to provide children with a “high-quality education”. Most achieved GCSE and A-levels in line with or above expectations. “Most pupils, including those with SEND, make good progress in relation to their individual starting points,” the inspectors said. “Some pupils make rapid progress.”

The majority of teaching encouraged children “to apply what they know, take risks and think deeply”, though “in a few lessons, teaching is not sufficiently engaging or challenging.” The school had a “clear and effective” complaints procedure, the ISI stated, and received “very few” formal complaints.

Immanuel’s policies supported its vision to equip pupils with “the attributes of kindness, aspiration, responsibility and curiosity,” concluded the report.