Susy Jagger, executive headteacher of Leeds Jewish Free School and Brodetsky Primary School is the focus of JLife’s latest Community Chat.
A year on from officially accepting the role of executive headteacher of the Leeds Jewish Free School (LJFS) and Brodetsky Primary School, Susy Jagger is gearing up for the first ever cohort of GCSE examinations at the end of this school year, and the nerves are definitely there: “With it being our first ones it’s really quite nerve-wracking. Everyone’s really biting their fingernails!”
“Hopefully everybody will achieve a grade 4 and above, but you never know on the day, and if that’s what they get we will be more than happy. The progress that the children have made is predicted to be good and we’re hoping that everybody achieves their full potential and more.”
It’s a big target for the experienced headteacher, having already taken on the role in an acting capacity six months before accepting the permanent position, but as Susy explains, it’s been a rewarding new phase of her career: “I’ve spent a lot of time in secondary and middle schools and actually being the executive head across both of the schools is something that has given me a new lease of life. It’s been such an amazing experience.”
“My last high school before LJFS in Kirklees used to be a middle school and which then changed to an academy and I was asked to stay on as the headteacher but at that point in my career I felt I didn’t have much experience.”
But it was love at first sight when Susy finally felt ready to accept a role at LJFS: “I walked through the door, and you can always tell in 15 seconds whether you are going to like a place and within 15 seconds it felt like coming home. It was the absolutely right place for me with my ethos and what I strongly believed in as an educator.”
Working as the executive head means that Susy has the unique task of overseeing both the associated primary school and high school and working towards providing a cohesion leadership strategy. It’s a task she certainly relishes: “Being able to see an overview across both the schools is fantastic. I can look at something going on in the primary school and see how that changes things for the high school.
“Some of the children we have in LJFS now have been with us in the primary school. Many who are doing their GCSEs and are in Year 11 have been with us since nursery and you get to have the full picture of that child and work closely with those families.”
Interacting daily with the pupils and parents means that Susy and the staff have formed a community within the school, and the small class sizes has ensured that everyone will be sadly missed when the time comes to move on: “It’s going to be horrific when they leave, but I do know that they will be back to see me all the time. I now know their families so well so it’s going to be a really emotional time.”
A fixed term intake of only 25 pupils for Years 7, 8 and 9 is a unique framework for a school, but as Susy explains, it’s one that works. With no plans to expand the class sizes further, LJFS’ ethos is focused around a concentrated educational experience: “We don’t really want to admit any more than that as that would spoil the whole community feel of the school. When pupils get into Years 10 and 11 we actually split that year group into two so they are taught in classes for their GCSEs in a maximum class size of 13.
“We’re very lucky that we can do this as we share a campus site with the primary school and The Zone, the youth provision for the Jewish community, so we are privileged that we are able to do that and have the staff for it.”
Speaking of the staff, what does it take to be a teacher at LJFS? “They’ve got to be able to fit in. Our school is very small. For example, I will serve the lunch at lunchtime. Not because I have to but because I want to make sure that I see the children and use that quality time.”
A recruitment drive has also seen the school handpick an expanded staff quota in time for next September, with just two or three posts left to fill.
“It’s not for someone who is just going to teach and not get involved,” reassures Susy, “we expect our staff to go that extra mile and it has got be somebody’s passion, and you do usually get that in the teaching profession.”
Of course, the faith provision at the school is central to its operations, with a Jewish assembly every morning and four lessons of Jewish studies a week for Years 7 to 9. Ivrit is also taught as a foreign language.
The school is currently riding high after a recent Pikuach inspection [the Department for Education accredited inspection service for Jewish schools in the UK] declared the school had achieved a ‘good’ rating across all areas: “The Jewish faith is the unpinning ethos of the whole school. The inspector stayed for two days to see the complete Jewish provision of the school. She was very complimentary and said that that we were outstanding in a lot of areas and gave us quite a comprehensive report.”
And it seems the news is getting out, as Susy recalls: “I called in to the petrol station the other day and somebody said ‘oh you work at LJFS – it’s the best kept secret in Leeds! It’s a grammar education without the fees’”. Proud and flattered, Susy replied: ‘…and let’s keep it that way!’”.