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Bobby Moore Academy opens in Olympic Park


The Bobby Moore Academy Secondary School, a sixth-form secondary school for 1,140 pupils, recently opened on one of the smallest secondary school sites in London. A six-storey high building, it is situated in the heart of the Olympic Park, it provides much-needed education and community facilities to support the growing local neighbourhood. The Academy has been designed by


Penoyre & Prasad, which also designed the Bobby Moore Academy Primary School, opened last year and located west on the other side of the Olympic Park. It comprises 9,240 sqm of diverse learning and social spaces across six storeys, woven together through vertical and horizontal connections. The building presents a strong


architectural presence to hold its own against the dominant Olympic structures such as the Stadium, Orbit and Acquatics Centre. It is carefully positioned along the site’s northern boundary to maximise south-facing external play space. The main large spaces - assembly hall and sports hall – are raised to the first floor


providing outdoor covered social space at ground level. A series of roof terraces step up the south elevation to provide additional external social space, commanding distant views over London and Canary Wharf. The building was designed in extensive


consultation with the David Ross Education Trust and the London Legacy Development Corporation, with complex educational and community needs. It has


been organised as a truly inclusive facility to be used in evenings, weekends and holidays by the wider public. Community- accessible facilities – dining, gathering, assembly hall, music and IT teaching, and sports facilities, are located at ground and first floor, with inclusive changing facilities at both levels, with the school’s teaching spaces on the upper levels. An extra large lift accommodates parasports teams using the sports hall.


Pressure builds on school spaces for Jewish children


The number of Jewish children in Jewish schools in the UK is up by nearly 12 per cent over the past three years. A report from the Institute for Jewish


Policy Research and the Board of Deputies says there were 34,547 Jewish children enrolled in day schools in the last academic year — up 11.8 per cent from 30,914 from the previous report produced three years ago. The strictly Orthodox, who now comprise


a majority with 58 per cent of Jewish schoolchildren, increased their intake by 2,367 pupils from three years ago, while the non-Charedi sector rose by 1,666 children. The number of Jewish children in


Jewish day schools has been rising for decades. There are close to seven times as many Jewish children in Jewish schools than there were 60 years ago. However, the current numbers are


“underestimates”, says the report’s author, JPR executive director Jonathan Boyd, because they do not include an


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estimated 900 boys aged from 13 to 15 in yeshivot that are not registered with the Department for Education. Day school rolls have risen almost 60


per cent since the mid-1990s. While the previous report stated that


over 63 per cent of Jewish children were in day schools, JPR and the Board have not given an official proportion this time because of the lack of up-to-date population statistics. But the rise in numbers indicates they now probably now amount to around 70 per cent of the age group. The latest figures show an increasing


concentration in London and South Hertfordshire, with three-quarters of children in Jewish schools studying there. Charedi schools now take 5,000 more


children than those in the central Orthodox and pluralist sectors. While Charedi schools increased by 4.3


per cent annually over the past three years, the other schools still recorded a significant rise of 3.1 per cent a year, which reflects the opening of a number of free schools. The Charedi school community has


increased by 166 per cent since the mid-90s.


Image: Dennis Gilbert


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