Dear Parents,

We find it useful to remind you of our birthday party guidelines stated in our parent handbook.

If your child is having a birthday party to which school friends are invited, you are urged to ensure that the parties are not scheduled to take place on Shabbat or festival days. During the winter months this includes Friday afternoons, when Shabbat begins so early that it will often not allow children to get home in time for Shabbat. We urge you to also ensure that all food served is strictly Kosher.

Strictly Kosher includes breads and birthday cakes. These are all purchased from a Kosher bakery. If you are putting items of food in party bags, we ask you to please ensure that these too are Kosher. The United Synagogue Kashrut division can be reached on 020 8343 6255 to answer any questions that you might have. You can also contact them through their web site on www.kosher.org.uk The school office has a Kashrut guide that can be looked at on the school premises. Alternatively the guide can be purchased through their web site. The web site also provides you with up to the minute information on foods that have changed status since the guide was published.

When planning a party we urge you to be sensitive to the fact that your child is in an orthodox Jewish school and there are a number of families who may feel very uncomfortable and are placed in an embarrassing situation when food is not strictly Kosher. We believe that this is an equal opportunity issue and we ask you for your continued co-operation.

There are a number of families, who despite your great efforts to make everything strictly Kosher, may still rather supply a food box for their own child. Kashrut laws are so complex in relation to food preparation, that they would rather prepare their child€s food in their own kitchen. Please respect their wishes, be understanding, and don€t take this personally.

If the whole class is being invited to a party, the class teacher will be pleased to distribute invitations. However, we ask that an example invitation is supplied and handed over to the class teacher. If this is not supplied, we will be at liberty to open one of the invitations ourselves.

We commend you for being sensitive to these issues. Your understanding and action helps maintain an extremely positive atmosphere and level of respect amongst all our families.

Yours Sincerely,

M. Bazak