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Three in five Jewish pupils, 27 recommendations, and all of them accepted

Qurexa Editorial Team22 October 20266 min read 0 0
Three in five Jewish pupils, 27 recommendations, and all of them accepted

What happened

On 21 October 2026 the government said it had accepted all 27 recommendations of an independent review into antisemitism in education in England. The review was led by Sir David Bell, a former chief inspector of schools. One of its findings explains why the response has been so complete: three in five Jewish pupils aged 16 to 19 had experienced or witnessed antisemitism. The changes apply to schools and colleges. Universities are handled separately and are not covered here. What is being introduced includes dedicated antisemitism training for school and college leaders and for safeguarding staff; clearer treatment of antisemitism as a safeguarding matter; updated guidance, including the statutory document Keeping Children Safe in Education and the guidance on political impartiality; and specific guidance on discussing Israel and the Middle East in a balanced way. Schools and colleges will also be encouraged to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, given new resources for identifying and challenging it, and offered better routes for reporting and recording incidents, along with extra support for complex cases. An implementation group has been set up to drive the work, and Sir David Bell will lead a review of progress after one year.

Why this matters

The figure at the centre of this is the thing to hold on to. Three in five is not a minority experience. It means a Jewish teenager in England is more likely than not to have run into antisemitism at school or college. Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, framed the aim simply: every child and every teacher should be able to go to school or college free from fear. She described antisemitism as an ancient evil that remains as pernicious as ever. Sir David Bell's own description of what the review found is the more useful one for teachers. He said antisemitism's modern forms have been treated in an "unacceptably casual" way when linked to the Middle East, and that these modern manifestations are having a pernicious impact in too many places. That word "casual" is doing a lot of work. It points at something different from deliberate hostility — a drift in which remarks get waved through because they arrive attached to a political argument, and staff are unsure whether objecting is their job. Treating antisemitism explicitly as a safeguarding issue is the structural answer to that. Safeguarding has clear duties, named people, recording systems and escalation routes. Moving something into that framework changes it from a matter of individual judgement into a process.

What the evidence actually says

The headline statistic needs reading carefully. "Experienced or witnessed" covers a wide range, from being personally targeted to overhearing a remark about someone else. Both matter, but they are not the same experience, and the combined figure will be higher than a figure for direct personal targeting alone. The age range is also specific: 16 to 19. It does not describe younger pupils, and the review's own scope was education in England. On the substance of the response, accepting all 27 recommendations is a strong signal, but acceptance is not delivery. The honest test of this package is whether the training actually reaches the staff who need it and whether incident recording improves. That is precisely why the one-year progress review led by Sir David Bell is the most important item on the list — it creates a date on which someone has to show their work. The implementation group has been built from people who will know whether it is real. Its members include Rabbi David Meyer OBE of PaJeS, Mark Rusling of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, Ruben Persey of the Union of Jewish Students, Natalie Highfield of the NAHT, Jeff Greenidge of the Association of Colleges, Noni Csogor of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, Michele Phillips of Someone Else's Eyes, and a student member, Jonathan Frisher. Including a student and a serving headteachers' representative alongside Jewish community organisations is a reasonable design. Groups made only of officials tend to report that things are going well.

Practical advice

**If you are a parent, you can ask direct questions.** Does the school record antisemitic incidents, and how? Who is the designated safeguarding lead? Has staff training on this happened or been scheduled? You are entitled to ask, and the answers tell you a great deal. **If your child has experienced something, report it in writing.** Email creates a record with a date. Ask what will happen next and when you will hear back. If the response is unsatisfactory, the complaints route runs to the governing body or academy trust, and then to the Department for Education. **If you are a teacher, use the safeguarding framework.** That is the point of this change. If an incident would be logged were it about race or religion in another form, log it here too. Uncertainty about whether something counts is exactly what the new guidance is meant to resolve. **Read the guidance on discussing the Middle East when it appears.** Many teachers have felt stuck between avoiding a difficult subject entirely and handling it badly. Balanced-discussion guidance is genuinely helpful, and the political impartiality guidance is being updated alongside it. **If a young person is distressed, take the wellbeing side seriously.** Repeated exposure to hostility affects sleep, concentration and mood. A GP or school nurse is a reasonable place to start if it is persisting, and so is the school's pastoral team.

What to know

The government has accepted all 27 recommendations of Sir David Bell's independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges in England. The review found that three in five Jewish pupils aged 16 to 19 had experienced or witnessed antisemitism. The response includes dedicated training for leaders and safeguarding staff, clearer treatment of antisemitism as a safeguarding matter, updated statutory guidance including Keeping Children Safe in Education, new guidance on discussing Israel and the Middle East in a balanced way, encouragement to adopt the IHRA working definition, better incident reporting, and support for complex cases. Sir David Bell's assessment was that modern forms of antisemitism have been treated in an unacceptably casual way when attached to Middle East politics. Moving the issue into the safeguarding framework is the structural response to that. An implementation group including Jewish community organisations, school and college leaders and a student will oversee delivery, and Bell will review progress after one year. That one-year review is the real accountability point — accepting recommendations is not the same as delivering them. Sources: GOV.UK (Department for Education), "'Generational moment' as government acts on landmark antisemitism review", 21 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/generational-moment-as-government-acts-on-landmark-antisemitism-review. GOV.UK (Department for Education), "Keeping children safe in education", accessed 22 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2. GOV.UK, "Department for Education", accessed 22 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#antisemitism#schools#safeguarding#teacher training#Department for Education#colleges

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