School falls down league tables after pupils boycott 'anti-Semitic' Shakespeare

Nine teenagers from a 45-strong group refused to sit the Key Stage Three Shakespeare test last May because they were offended by The Merchant of Venice.

As a result the school lost its place as top performer for progress in English and was sent tumbling down the league tables.

The girls made the protest after studying the Jewish character Shylock, who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor in The Merchant of Venice.

This is despite the fact that the national curriculum test for 14-year-olds centred on a different Shakespeare play, The Tempest.

Those pupils at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School in Stamford Hill, North London, who refused to do the Shakespeare scored zero, even though they sat reading and writing tests which were also part of the exam.

Under National Assessment Agency rules, any pupil failing to write his or her name for any one of the tests will score nothing overall. Those zeros dragged down results for the 235-pupil school.

Last year, it was the top performer in England on the "value added" measure - the progress made by pupils between the ages of 11 and 14.

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But in tables published this week, it finished 274th. With more than 3,000 secondary schools represented in Key Stage Three league tables in the country, the result is still high but no longer outstanding.

The proportion of the school's pupils gaining at least Level Five - the standard expected of their age - in the subject also fell from 81 to 72 per cent.

This meant the school, which entered the state sector two years ago, plunged 349 places in the Key Stage Three rankings, based on raw scores.

Rabbi Abraham Pinter, the principal, said the girls had reached their view with the help of their parents.

"There was a perception that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic," he said. "We felt that we needed to respect those children's views.

"We did nothing to discourage them. We teach our pupils to have pride in what they believe in. If you do believe in something strongly, there can be consequences. But sometimes it's worth paying the consequences."

Rabbi Pinter said girls have protested about the Bard in previous years by refusing to answer Shakespeare questions in GCSE papers. Some, however, have still managed to go on to achieve As.

He insisted he was not disappointed that the school has fallen down the league tables. "We have never looked at them as a goal on its own. Good results are just a by-product of what we do."

Rabbi Pinter added: "When I look at Shakespeare I don't look at him as anti-Semitic. There are much better candidates for that position unfortunately."

The Merchant of Venice has long provoked controversy, though some argue that it can be interpreted as a plea for tolerance.

But Simon Gibbons, of the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the Times Educational Supplement: "I do not believe The Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic.

"But it is noble of the school to take the view that the individual pupils' views are more important than its league table position."