Delamere Seed Funds Innovative New Tests To Help Identify Orthodox Pupils With Barriers To Learning

Regular objective individual pupil assessment is recognised as an essential feature of effective professional education in secular subjects. Rabbi Benarroch, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator at Mesivta School, spotted the need for a cleverly designed low cost system for testing pupil’s proficiency in Kodesh Studies, particularly in independent orthodox schools unfamiliar with secular educational practices.

He spent years developing and refining his own Kodesh Ability Tests using his  specialist expertise. The tests quantify how every pupil is progressing, and identify those who are falling behind.  Pupils with learning disabilities can be identified at an early stage so that their schools recognise the need to put in place action plans for specific underperforming children.

To encourage Jewish schools in Manchester to trial this highly innovative testing system, Delamere agreed to fund their first year of testing with a Janette Cattan Memorial award.  After that, it is believed they will not only recognise the system’s value and pay for its future use, but also take professional advice on the specialist teaching resources and skills they need to help underperforming pupils overcome the barriers to their learning in future.

For full details of the tests and their success, see here.

Appreciative Comments

“I am very grateful to Delamere for giving me the opportunity to develop this programme in Manchester. I already have nearly 30 schools enrolled across the UK with over 6,000 participants. Torah Umesorah that represents nearly 800 Jewish Day schools across the USA with 300,000 students has warmly endorsed this project and wish me to bring it to all their USA Schools.

This is a tremendous achievement for me personally, for Jewish Education, but also for Delamere. The trustees can be confident that their generosity will have a large impact for very many Manchester children with Special Educational Needs, at a relatively modest cost. Manchester is fortunate to have trustees with a vision and passion to help Jewish Children from whatever the background. Thank you.

This investment in education that Delamere has made has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of Jewish Children around the globe, particularly those with SEN.

I hope that we can continue to work together to make the lives of pupils with learning disabilities better.”

Rabbi Benarroch

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Delamere Charity Trust who very kindly sponsored the Kodesh assessments in our school.  The assessments have helped us clearly identify the children who are struggling which will enable us to help them appropriately.  May your organisation go from strength to strength.”

Rabbi Roitenbarg, Senco, Tashbar Academy