by Ben Bloch, October 20, 2026
Report set to reveal vast scale of anti-Semitism in English schools
A landmark report is set to detail the vast scale of anti-Semitism in English schools and colleges, Sky News can reveal.
The review, conducted by former schools inspector Sir David Bell, will on Wednesday set out 27 recommendations to create change, which the government is poised to accept in full.
It will call for teacher training and resources to tackle anti-Semitism in schools, strengthened guidance on political impartiality, and giving students the tools to recognize and confront online anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories.
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Sir David said he was “very struck” by the evidence of rising anti-Semitism in schools, but also the extent to which it actually goes underreported.
He explained that in a survey they conducted, one in five students said they had witnessed anti-Semitism, and three in five Jewish students had experienced it, but less than half felt it would be addressed if it was reported.
Sir David said that his report contains both evidence of anti-Semitism in schools, but it is also about “helping schools and colleges themselves to think about what they can do to tackle anti-Semitism and educate that next generation to be more open and tolerant.”
Government “Too Timid” on Anti-Semitism
“I think what this review has demonstrated is that a general commitment to tackling racism or prejudice or hate has not properly identified anti-Semitism as a particular kind of hate. And certainly that’s one of the themes of this report,” he said.
“We do need to name anti-Semitism as a particular kind of prejudice and hate, because I think if you don’t name it, you don’t actually know what you’re tackling or what you’re going to be able to do to respond to it.”
The former schools inspector also said there needs to be guidance on political impartiality in schools so that students can “debate topical and difficult issues without feeling that teachers are imposing their own views on students.”
The recommendations:
Sky News has been leaked many of the 27 recommendations that Sir David makes in his report, which the government is set to accept in full. They include:
• Encouraging schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, and ensuring teachers receive anti-Semitism awareness training.
• Including anti-Semitism in schools’ online safety and safeguarding policies, and educating young people on contemporary anti-Semitism.
• Developing media literacy lessons to aid in recognizing and confronting online anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories.
• Strengthening the approach to Holocaust education, ensuring that anti-Semitism is taught as a central, explicit theme of the atrocity.
• Ensuring modern-day Judaism is comprehensively taught in Religious Education classes, and promoting opportunities to engage with the Jewish community, such as by visiting synagogues and marking Holocaust Memorial Day.
• Making sure that policies on staff behavior should be clear that anti-Semitism is not acceptable, and where they experience it themselves, robust reporting and response mechanisms should be in place.
• Strengthening guidance for schools on political impartiality, particularly with regard to geopolitical issues, and schools should consider the appropriateness of political expressions or identifiers.
• Delivering a communications campaign in transport hubs near Jewish schools as part of efforts to deter anti-Semitism experienced by those students.
• Ensuring school inspectors from Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate can hold schools accountable for the implementation of policies to tackle anti-Semitism.
“The burden was left on me as a 12-year-old”
Jonathan Frisher, a 17-year-old Jewish student from Cheshire, told Sky News that he has been campaigning in recent years for more education in non-Jewish schools about contemporary anti-Semitism after being the victim of it himself.
He said: “I was the only Jewish student at my school, and I experienced lots of anti-Semitic bullying. There were lots of comments around gas chambers, people telling me that I belonged in a gas chamber. And I also saw a wider culture in school of swastikas and Nazi salutes becoming quite normalized.
“And the burden was often left on me as a 12-year-old Jewish student to explain to my peers why this anti-Semitism was so wrong. And I really believed then, and I believe now, that this has to come from the government, teachers have a role to play in tackling anti-Semitism. The responsibility is on them to tackle anti-Semitism.”
Frisher said it is a “universal experience” for Jewish students in his area, but that “change really is possible because so much anti-Semitism in young people comes from ignorance rather than pure hatred.”
Sky News has been told that the Department for Education intends to accept the 27 recommendations made in the report, with progress on implementation expected to be assessed in a year’s time.
The department declined to comment on the leaked recommendations when approached by Sky News.
Full story here.