Barnet schools launch 'Belonging in Barnet' project to combat rising antisemitism and Islamophobia
Barnet schools are implementing new strategies to combat rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, following a significant increase in incidents nationally and within the borough. The Belonging in Barnet
project, backed by a £20,000 government grant, aims to foster inclusive and respectful school communities.
Neil Marlow, Chief Executive of the Barnet Education and Learning Service (BELS), highlighted a significant increase in incidents of both antisemitism and Islamophobia nationally and within Barnet since October 2023. A report noted that Extremely high levels of recorded antisemitic incidents, including the violent and distressing attacks in Barnet, have left many British Jewish people feeling vulnerable and at risk. Schools have sadly not been immune.
Furthermore, the approval of Barnet Hill Academy as a Voluntary Aided Muslim Faith School from September 2026 prompted a huge number of social media and press comments, a number of which were hateful, Islamophobic and threatening. This led to the school community feeling very vulnerable and scared.
These incidents have prompted the Children and Education Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee to receive an update on the proactive measures being taken by BELS and the council.
A roundtable event with school leaders revealed that antisemitism in Barnet schools had significantly worsened since October 2023, with headteachers describing it as more visible, more normalised, and more severe than ever before.
Key issues identified included abuse regularly directed at pupils in public and at interschool events, a dismissal or lack of understanding from wider school communities, and high-level security measures becoming routine in Jewish schools, leading to increased workload and fear for school leaders. The problem was widely seen as under-recognised outside the Jewish community, often excused as political discourse about Israel, and insufficiently addressed by institutions.
The Belonging in Barnet
project will adopt a Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB)-led approach
to address these issues. The FoRB framework, rooted in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirms the right to hold, change, and express beliefs, while also highlighting the importance of balancing freedom with responsibility in shared spaces like schools. The project will work with senior school leaders, teachers, parents and the wider community to develop consistent and robust approaches for building religiously inclusive school communities. This will centre discussions on what to do, what to say and how to react to anti-religious hate in schools. The project will build awareness and practice of 'Learning to Differ Well'. By framing the initiative in relation to FoRB, principles of respect, dignity and inclusion will be embedded in project design.
Planned actions include sharing experiences through school partnerships, developing awareness materials, engaging governing bodies, and improving incident reporting responses. The Belonging in Barnet
project will involve training for all schools, with intensive support for five pilot schools. The project aims to develop consistent and robust approaches for building religiously inclusive school communities, addressing what to do, what to say, and how to react to anti-religious hate.
The Belonging in Barnet
project will involve the creation of a working group that will develop training. This group includes people from our own Barnet Sacrae, people from the council's community engagement team, Councillor Conway is the council's cabinet member for community safety. We will have a Barnet teachers on there, we've now recruited today, a year 11 student from one of our schools, one of our youth ambassadors on that working group, and the working group are putting together some training that we're going to be rolling out to all schools starting in January
. The project will also develop a toolkit that will be introduced to five pilot schools for intensive support. The five pilot schools will be chosen based on the responses to the surveys that they're doing currently
. The project team will work intentionally to ensure pilot schools reflect Barnet's diversity of by including a primary school, a secondary school, a faith school and potentially a Pupil Referral Unit.
Inclusion and identified need will also be considered.
The report also detailed the council's commitment to tackling Islamophobia, with engagement with community organisations and plans for workshops. The Strategy and Engagement team are leading on a community cohesion programme, using funding received from central government in response to attacks in Golders Green. They are engaging community organisations to shape how the council uses this resource.
A workshop with Jewish community leaders took place on September 3rd, and a similar session was planned with Muslim groups on September 23rd. Key outcomes emerging from these conversations include education as a priority, mapping existing services and interventions in Barnet schools to coordinate activities, and opportunities for communities to mix at shared events to address ignorance and misinformation.
The project aims to generate teacher-led approaches for building religiously inclusive schools, with support and input from external experts; map gaps in terms of service provision to schools (particularly in relation to pupil and staff training needs to understand particular forms of anti-religious hate) which national service providers will need to address; connect to Borough cohesion strategies, and connect to national conversations underway both about development of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia training and provision for schools, and also the reform of RE as a curriculum subject.
Expected outcomes include Increased teacher understanding and confidence in building religiously inclusive belonging in their school communities
and Teachers develop and implement practical approaches to build religiously inclusive belonging, including tackling anti-religious hate.
The project will also map gaps in terms of service provision to schools (particularly in relation to pupil and staff training needs to understand particular forms of anti-religious hate) which national service providers will need to address.
Concerns were raised by Councillor Martha Levy and others about the distinct nature of antisemitism and Islamophobia, with a call for a more focused approach on antisemitism due to its current acute nature. While acknowledging the importance of tackling all forms of religious discrimination, the council's approach aims to promote religiously inclusive school communities through the FoRB framework.