Our History

This is the history of two schools, which were founded within 1 year of each other. Cassel Fox Infants School and Broughton Jewish Primary School and how along the way they became one school on one site.

Before the war, Messrs Eli Fox and Adolf Cassel purchased a building at the bottom of Upper Park Road to bring refugee boys over from Europe. After the war, Mr Cassel and Mr Fox decided to hand over the building to be used as an infants’ school.

The pioneers involved were Rabbi Moses Casper and Mr Samuel Davies JP. Soon afterwards Dr Judah Slotki, Messrs Emmanuel Raffles JP, Aubrey Harris, Zalman Jaffe and Louis Fidler became involved. They set the school up in 1946 and in 1953 it became state aided.

The school originally ran solely as an infants school and was headed by a series of wonderful headmistresses: Miss Starr, Mrs Green and Miss Freeman. The last headmistress before the two schools amalgamated was Mrs Sophie Freedman who remained with the school until her retirement in 1984. Each year the infants school proved popular, attracting large numbers of children, who, over the years, have gone on to become successful and prominent members of the Jewish community.

At a similar time, in 1943, Mr Simcha Fulda, who had recently arrived from Germany, found that Jewish Education was woefully lacking and approached the then Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Segal z”l about setting up a jewish day school. At that point the Rosh Yeshiva was not sure whether this would be successful, but after perseverance by Mr Fulda, he agreed to the setting up of a Cheder and 99 George Street was put at his disposal. It already had a Shul on its premises, and now a classroom was opened up. Mr Julius Roberg, previously a fully fledged teacher in Germany, was employed by Mr Fulda to teach a group of boys and girls after school every day. And so, the George Street Cheder was born.

A wonderful Jewish Education (as well as refreshments after a long day at school) proved very popular and consequently the Cheder grew. The growing numbers of pupils and the good results they were achieving, again, highlighted the need for a jewish day school, and Mr Fulda felt that the Cheder was no longer a suitable compromise. He continued to push for a school to be set up, speaking to many prominent members of the community. He persuaded Mr Yankel Levy, a successful wine merchant, to donate a large sum of money in order to help purchase the building at Park Lea, Park Lane for use as a school and the sum of £4000 was paid.

The school opened in September 1947 as Broughton Jewish Preparatory school with 20 children. The first Governors and Trustees were Messrs Simcha Fulda, Sidney Beenstock, Louis Cohen, Shick Herman, Leon David, Simcha Bamburger and Yankel Levy. Mr Roberg was employed as the principal and Mrs Price as headmistress. Many will also remember Miss Hilda Dahl who taught at the school from 1948 until her retirement in 1974. She was an inspirational teacher who moulded and shaped many generations. After a few years Miss Stella Schlesinger took over the role as headmistress and the famous partnership of Mr Roberg and Miss Schlesinger was established.

The school was officially opened on September 13th 1949 by Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie z”l and Joseph Sunlight Esq. and was a memorable occasion for the children and teachers alike. The school proved that there was a great need for Jewish primary education as the numbers of children grew rapidly within the first few years. So much so, that within  a few years the building could no longer contain all the children and a new building urgently had to be found to house the infants. Again, Mr Fulda was instrumental in this and in 1953 he found a disused hotel called Lathom House. (Lathom House is unfortunately no longer standing but many will remember going to school next to what is now Lubavitch on Singleton Road). The money was somehow found despite the times being hard, and the infants school was on the move.

Due to the great efforts of Mr Herman who served for many years as Chairman of the Governors, Broughton Jewish became State Aided in 1954, however Lathom House was to remain as a private infants and nursery school until its amalgamation with Cassel Fox.

In the early 1970’s the Lathom House building was starting to deteriorate and the great costs to both the parents and the management was beginning to take its toll. An approach was made by a few of the Governors on behalf of Broughton Jewish, to the Governors at Cassel Fox concerning the possibility of a merger of both infants schools, and the process of amalgamation was started. This was finally realised in 1976 when Lathom House closed and moved over to Cassel Fox. All the extensions  on both the Cassel Fox and Broughton Jewish sites were overseen by Mr Beenstock, and through his insight and dedication they provided wonderful additions and facilities to the schools.

A new purpose built kindergarten was opened, as was an extension to the existing building, to house the nursery. This was run by Mrs Beattie Oster, who had started in Lathom House in 1961, and she remained in charge of the nursery until her retirement in 1996. During this period she nurtured and cared for many hundreds of children who came under her wing.

The Kindergarten also had some familiar faces when it opened in 1976, with Rosalind Fisher and Shelly Levey (then Segal) starting at the same time. It is also interesting to note that Ros Fisher (daughter of Mr Herman) was one of the first twenty pupils in Broughton Jewish, and prior to teaching in 1976 in the kindergarten, was part of the junior school staff, teaching Maths and English for several years, truly a dedicated member of the school community.

From 1976, Cassel Fox and Broughton Jewish Junior school became united, although official amalgamation of both sites was not going to happen until 1986, as the wheels of bureaucracy turned slowly. However, all the governors merged under one committee and Jack Lopian became Chairman of the Governors for both sites. He was followed as chairman by Aubrey Harris, and both worked tirelessly for the school. When Mr Harris retired, his position was taken over by Mervyn Black.

In 1987 the governors started to look for one site, and in the early 1990’s the Legh Street campus was found. After many years, the two schools finally moved into one purpose built site and in January 1996, the Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary school became united under one roof. The new site on Legh Road houses the Kindergarten, Nursery, Reception, KS1 and KS2 all on one campus.

The Governing body has seen some changes since the change in premises. Dr. Mervyn Black was the Chair of Governors until 1999 and was succeeded by Mr. Shimmy Pine with Mr. Alex Pfeffer as Vice Chairman. In November 2006, Mr. Pfeffer took the role as Chair of Governors with Mr. Dov Black as Vice Chair of Governors. The Governing Body changed once more in November 2010 when Mr. Pfeffer retired and our present team took their positions: Mr. Dov Black as Chair and Mr. Leonard Seitler as Vice Chair.

In recent years David Bondt and David Mechlowitz (as chair and vice chair of governors respectively) have taken the helm and numbers are consistently over 350 pupils.

Undoubtedly, the heart of the school is the beautiful, new state of the art Beis Hamedresh which was opened in the presence of our esteemed Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis. Central to the shul is the Sefer Torah, gifted by the Fulda family, continuing their long term connection with the school. 

Our children are inspired and truly value the importance of learning in this makom tefilla and it has become the neshomo of our Kodesh learning. 

Notably,our newly developed learning hub has immeasurably added to the opportunities within our Broughton Jewish family. In particular  the sensory room and nurture provision add to the holistic experience of each individual pupil.

Rabbi Pearlman together with Miss Taylor and the entire staff body are devoted to ensuring that each pupil learns al pi darko.

Alongside our indefatigable governing body, the aim is to build on the successes of the past (set by their predecessors) and ensure these standards are maintained in the present so that we can be confident that the future of Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary school is in safe hands.