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The Story

Investigation: The hidden schools of Stamford Hill

The Story

The Times

Politics, Uk News, News, Long-form Audio, Global News, In-depth Journalism, Daily News, Exclusive Interviews, Audio Storytelling, News Analysis, Current Affairs, Investigative Reporting, Daily News Podcast

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the strictly isolated Hasidic community of North London, thousands of boys reach the age of 16 without being able to read or speak much English. The education for boys in the community includes only minimal secular teaching at most places of learning. Many schools are unregistered, and in some cases, as a Times investigation finds, are not even supposed to exist. And - in a rare glimpse into this hidden world - we speak with the head teacher of a registered Hasidic school, who explains that any discussion around improving the institutions must start with one basic question: what do these schools do right?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guests:

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter, The Times

Eli Spitzer, head teacher at a Hasidic school

Host: Manveen Rana. 

Clips: Parliament TV.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination, not a car in the world as you simply lean back.

0:17.0

And before you know it, you're there.

0:20.0

This is how travel should feel, and on our trains, it does.

0:25.0

Avanti West Coast, feel good travel.

0:41.0

On a chilly evening in January, an unmarked white mini bus pulls up outside a large wooden gate.

0:50.0

A group of young children run out, jump inside the vehicle, and it drives off.

1:03.0

And then, every half hour from four to five thirty pm, the process is repeated.

1:12.0

Each time, the children are slightly older.

1:18.0

Sometimes, the shadowy figure of an adult keeps watch from just inside the gate.

1:27.0

It all bears the signs of a clandestine operation.

1:31.0

But this is a routine repeated every day in a neighbourhood in North London.

1:39.0

And the children are pupils at a school that in theory doesn't exist.

1:50.0

Day after day after day, we sat and filmed that process. This is still a flourishing school.

1:56.0

Today, we look at a times investigation which has found unregistered and even unsafe schools,

2:08.0

secretly operating in the Hasidic community in North London.

2:13.0

And we'll also hear from a headmaster within the community in Stanford Hill.

2:26.0

I think schools who are the standards of health and safety and the standards of their facilities

2:32.0

are unsafe or unhygienic is shameful, it's embarrassing and it's wrong.

2:37.0

I'm not here to defend that, just to say that the overwhelming majority of Hasidic schools are registered.

2:44.0

Too often, when investigations and even Netflix series that discuss the Hasidic community,

2:56.0

the impression that people get is that this is some sort of dystopian cult,

3:03.0

where people are trapped in some endless cycle of poverty and misery.

...

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