Defending identities or segregating communities? Faith-based schooling and the UK Jewish community

The educational reforms that are at the heart of the British Government’s plans for its second term include an explicit call for more faith-based schools. This paper examines Jewish day schools as examples of these. It considers attempts by community leaders to defend Jewish identities and promote religious ways of life through the construction and maintenance of socio-spatial educational boundaries. The nuanced ways by which parents accept, resist or try to bypass the aims and objectives of community leaders is also discussed.