Rosh Pinah Primary School
Rosh Pinah Primary School is a school in Edgware, in London, England.
On 1 December 2002, the founder, the Reverend Amias, died at the age of 95. He wrote this in 1996 for the 40th anniversary celebrations at the school, which describes how the school came into being.
"It was in the late 1920s that four members of the then very small number of Jewish residents in Edgware, organise some Jewish communal life, starting with Hebrew classes for their children. They placed an advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle for 'a Hebrew Teacher'.
From the four applicants I was chosen. My brief was to organise and to teach a class and to seek out and get the interest of local Jewish residents to join the newly formed Hebrew Congregation. I began Hebrew classes on Sunday mornings in a hired room in Broadfields Avenue with five pupils, three from the same family.
During the war I served as an army chaplain in both the UK and Europe. I returned to Edgware upon my release ... My great ambition always was to start a Jewish school, and in 1948 with the active support of the Zionist Federation Educational Trust, I started a Jewish nursery with a handful of pupils with my late sister, Helen, as the first Headmistress. My suggestion of the name "Rosh Pinah" was accepted by the ZFET. From little acorns great oak trees grow - and so this nursery grew, first under Helen and then Rochelle Israel who only very recently retired. I came to believe it necessary for these children to progress in a similar Jewish atmosphere.
In 1956 we opened the Rosh Pinah Primary School; we had one pupil and three qualified teachers, one for secular studies, one for Jewish studies and myself! This was all happening in the Mowbray Road building. I recall with great pleasure that first pupil of the school, growing up as children do, to become my first Rosh Pinah bride, and I am happy now to see her son attending Shul quite regularly!
As the founder of my beloved Rosh Pinah I was appointed Hon. Principal, a position I hold to this day and one of which I am extremely proud. For many years I was a member of the Education Committee of the London Borough of Barnet.
The late Mr Chaim Beckman was appointed Headmaster in 1961 and led the school until his retirement in 1982. He was succeeded by Mr Mervyn Leviton.
Our new purpose-built school came into being in 1986 and has a sound-proof music room, resource areas for handicrafts, an audio-visual room used for teaching Hebrew and a gym/hall. There is a chess club as well as football and netball teams, a school choir and Israeli dance club. Jewish feasts and festivals are celebrated in the appropriate manner."
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