£10m campaign launched to build new Jewish secondary

A £10 million fundraising campaign has been launched to help build a new Jewish secondary school in north London.

The school, in East Barnet, was granted planning permission in August last year. It will cost £40 million and is expected to open its doors to pupils in 2010.

The Government has agreed to contribute about £36 million towards the "inclusive" school which will take some non-Jewish pupils.

The campaign, which has already raised £1 million, is being led by business tycoon and philanthropist Gerald Ronson.

In a letter to potential donors, he wrote: "The school will, I believe, open up the choice of a Jewish education to a whole new group of parentsand has a crucial part to play in re-engaging many who will otherwise be lost to our community."

The school, called the Jewish Community Secondary School, will be on the site of the existing East Barnet Upper School and will accommodate up to 1,310 pupils.

More than 1,000 parents have already registered interest in the school.

Mr Ronson, who owns the Heron business empire, was one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs in the Eighties. But his role in the Guinness fraud earned him a one-year prison sentence, of which he served half.