Calderwood Lodge

History

As is widely reported Calderwood Lodge, was “founded originally in 1962 by the Zionist Federation”.

Bishop John Keenan is half of the religious authority for a unique education project in Scotland. There, two primary schools, one Catholic and one Jewish, share a purpose-built campus. “I think,” jokes Bishop Keenan, “that the relationships here have gone beyond interfaith dialog. As far as I can see, the dialog is in the bricks.”

St. Clare’s Catholic Primary and its Jewish counterpart, Calderwood Lodge, are housed in a brand-new building in the Newton Mearns suburb in the south of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. Plans were in the works for four years to open what is thought to be an international first, where two religious schools share the same premises.

The two schools are halfway through their first term and will open formally on November 8, in a ceremony due to be attended by both Keenan, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Paisley, and Britain’s chief Orthodox rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis. The project grew out of an educational and municipal coincidence: Calderwood Lodge, founded originally in 1962 by the Zionist Federation, switched school districts after a municipal boundary change, and came under the authority of East Renfrewshire Council.

Zionism

This year Calderwood Lodge is working alongside UJIA to mark Mitzvah Day. The Pupil Council are collecting non-perishable food items to be used to make Welcome to Glasgow packs for asylum seekers. Goods collected in school will be given to the UJIA.

UJIA’s Joanna Hyman cites the partnership between Calderwood and an Israeli school and the participation of a dozen Scottish teenagers in Israel tours this year as evidence of the community’s Zionist credentials.

Friday afternoon at Calderwood Lodge Jewish Primary School in Glasgow is always a special time. For 12 pupils in Primary 7 it was even more special because at 5.15am the following Monday, they would be setting off on a week-long trip to Israel. For them, Glasgow was going to Israel, while for the eight left at home, Israel was coming to Glasgow.

The children going to Israel with two of their Hebrew teachers were ready to see the sights in Jerusalem, learn more about their faith, visit both the north and south of the country, meet their pen friends and have fun. Those in Glasgow were set to embrace Israel at home, with activities including a visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at Kelvingrove and a chance to try some Israeli (chalah) baking.

After an informal introduction in nursery, the 200 pupils at Calderwood begin to learn Hebrew in P1. At this stage they make up their own prayer book with only pictures representing the main prayers. Formal reading and writing lessons begin in P2 and in P3, pupils get their first real prayer book. A concert with Hebrew song and drama celebrates the event. Study of the language continues until P7.

“I’m proud to say that many of our pupils are achieving a National Certificate Module 1 in Hebrew by the end of Primary 7,” Mrs Wolfson says. “Many of the children also belong to Jewish youth groups or have strong family links, and go to Israel for the summer, which improves their command of the language greatly.”

Student body

• In 1998: Nor are all the pupils Jewish. Approximately 10 per cent come from other faiths including Catholic, Protestant and Muslim. “I don’t like quoting numbers like this, because the non-Jewish children are just part of the whole school community,” Mrs Wolfson says.
• In 2017: A significant proportion of pupils at the Jewish primary school are Muslim.

• In 2018 Calderwood’s Jewish ethos is applicable to all its pupils, which means that the 48% of children who are not Jewish still learn Hebrew and attend Jewish subject lessons. [4 may 2018]

So there appears to be a 10% decline in Jewish kids per five years.