Mr Shone and Mrs Spurling are based in our Kehila lounge, a welcoming, safe and contained space where Year seven students can come every lunchtime to enjoy fun activities, make new friends or meet their sixth form buddies. The activities are supported by our sixth form Kehila prefects, who play a key role in implementing all of our activities.

The Kehila team create exciting, interactive activities and programmes to mark and celebrate all key moments in the Jewish year, as well as events of national significance; these join us together as a community! Everyone looks forward to Purim and Chanukah celebrations; Shabbat challah baking, Rosh Hashanah honey jar decorating, making edible Sukkot are just some of the ways we bring Jewish festivals and Holy days to life. During Sukkot, we enjoy games in the Sukkah and our community Rabbanim come in at lunchtime to encourage students to enjoy the mitzvah (commandment) of waving the lulav and etrog. Meeting World War Two veterans and Holocaust survivors make history relevant and meaningful and hearing from our students during LGBT week or Black History month help us to develop empathy and respect.

Kehila drives charity and volunteering initiatives, leadership schemes, inter-faith programmes and acts of kindness on behalf of the school community, emphasising the impact we can make as concerned young citizens. Making bouquets for residents of local care homes for Shavuot or collecting food for Redbridge families in need, teach our students to think of others and appreciate what we have. Promoting the Dof E award scheme and NCS inter faith programme show the importance of teamwork and learning from and about each other, building mutual respect and understanding. Organising the school buddy scheme and training the buddies bring our sixth form in touch with their younger peers to offer support; working with sixth form leaders to run school wide events offers them transferrable skills to take forward to higher education and employment.

We work with a diverse range of community partners to deliver many of our programmes, including the excellent ATID course for all members of sixth form (see more in sixth form section), life skills, assemblies and ‘Hear Our Voice’. The Israel and Poland trips (see trips section) are also organised by the team, as well as shacharit, bar and bat mitzvah kiddushim and lunch and learn (see tefila).

Kehila is also always responsive to events or situations as they occur and offers opportunities to celebrate, remember or learn together. Kehila programmes illuminate our motto; developing the individual, understanding our place in the community and taking opportunities when they present themselves, all leading towards a bright future!