At his small north London high school, 15-year-old Yossi Hamilton pours over sacred texts as his Jewish ancestors did for over two thousand years, part of a curriculum that he says prepares him for his future.
This special faith-based education is profoundly important to Hamilton's strictly Orthodox Haredi Jewish community, which numbers 80,000 in Britain. Many are the descendants of Holocaust survivors and are extremely protective of their way of life.
Educating its children in private schools and at home, the Haredi community, along with some Muslim and Christian groups in Britain, says it is deeply troubled by a new government-backed proposal to register all home-schooled children.
Although the proposed new legislation wouldn't directly affect pupils in schools such as Hamilton's, faith groups see it as the state exercising more control over education and fear it could ultimately lead to new rules on what children are taught both at home and at school.
"This intrusion by the state not only threatens parental rights and fundamental freedoms but also puts at risk the faith, culture and traditional way of life cherished by the strictly Orthodox Jewish community," said Rabbi Asher Gratt, a former governor at the biggest Haredi school in London.
Echoing those concerns, Randall Hardy, a Christian who home educated his children, said: "Calls for registration are not just about knowing where children are, they are ultimately about overseeing what all children are taught, which is why many Christians are concerned about bills like this one."
