THE borough's only Jewish secondary school is set to more than triple its admission of non-Jewish pupils to meet the shortfall in demand for places and minimise job cuts, the Guardian has learned.

King Solomon High School, in Barkingside, has been hit by a funding crisis in recent years due to declining admission, and has decided to take 50 non-Jewish students for the coming term, which is more than three times the 15 who joined last September.

This is a third of the 155 pupils who will start at the school, after a increase in the number of places at other Jewish schools across north London meant admissions dropped from 157 in 2005 to 122 in 2009.

Headteacher Spencer Lewis said: “The way that the admissions process works is that Jewish pupils are offered places first, and then and any places left over will be offered to non-Jewish pupils.

“The number of Jewish pupils will vary year to year. Our current year six have 15 non-Jewish pupils, and some years it's more, some it's less.

“It's just because there happened to more or less Jewish kids around in each year.

Mr Lewis also confirmed that no more than five staff would be made redundant, and that this would include some teachers.

The increase in non-Jewish pupils has raised concerns about diluting the Jewish identity of the school and several day-to-day difficulties.

Rabbi Beni Fleischer of the Wanstead and Woodford Synagogue, said: “Obviously the situation throw up a number of challenges.

“If you're teaching the history of the faith and a pupil isn't a member of it then they could feel left out, and so a teacher would have to adjust their teaching in order to be more inclusive.

“It's a situation that we're all going to be keeping tabs on.”