LSJS (The London School of Jewish Studies) is excited to announce the appointment of two new additions to its teacher training team. Rabbi Yehuda Pearlman will be the Jewish Studies programmes manager and Jonny Atkins has taken on the role of School Direct Secondary programme manager.
Jonny Atkins will be working three days per week as LSJS’ School Direct Secondary programme manager, whereby he will be running the training provision in Jewish Secondary schools.
He will also remain at Immanuel College, where he is responsible for the learning and development of staff and students. He has extensive experience as a teacher trainer at schools, working with trainees and early career teachers to support their development as educators. Jonny is also in the first cohort of the Lira Winston Fellowship for School Leadership.
“I’m tremendously excited to be joining the talented and passionate team at
LSJS. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to mentor our large group of trainees on the first step of their teaching journey,” said Jonny. “Additionally, I look forward to partnering with our schools and am already relishing the challenge to get a diverse, committed, and talented group of Jewish educators to become school leaders of the future.”
Rabbi Pearlman will be responsible for Jewish Studies (JS) subject training for School Direct (SD) Secondary schools, the Israel Seminar for JS trainees and Teach to Lead, specialist teacher training for JS teachers. As well as developing other programmes with JS teachers, he will also be running Project Innovate, LSJS’ exciting initiative, launched last year, to encourage Jewish studies teachers to try out new ideas in the classroom. The programme brings teachers together from different schools so they can learn from each other and develop bespoke projects for their own schools.
He has been the Principal of Broughton Jewish Primary School for over 10 years, and has an MSc in Education Leadership and Management, a PG Cert in Jewish Education and a Post Graduate Foundation in Systemic Practice. He is currently studying for a PhD in Jewish Spiritual Education. Rabbi Pearlman is a Pikuach Inspector and was a key member of the Pikuach working party that developed the criteria for Jewish Spiritual Development in Schools and rewrote the Pikuach Inspection framework to reflect those expectations.
“It has been a wonderful experience getting to know the new cohort of young educators who are passionate about making a difference to Jewish Education in the UK,” said Rabbi Pearlman. “I am looking forward to supporting them in their journey as they learn to engage the hearts and minds of our teenagers. “It is a privilege to be part of the LSJS team and I am very excited to connect with leaders in UK Jewish Education and across the world to explore opportunities to learn from each other.”
“We are excited to welcome Jonny and Yehuda to the team. They each come with a wealth of experience from having worked in senior school positions for many years,” said Dr. Helena Miller, Director of Degrees and Teacher Training Programmes, Senior Research Fellow. “We are looking forward to working with them as we continue to develop our teacher training provision”.
