The country's first voluntary aided Jewish Reform secondary school will be established in East Barnet, if Barnet Council gives the go-ahead at a meeting next week.

The plans, which are still in the early stages and are subject to the council receiving funding from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), would see the new Jewish school being established in the grounds of a secondary school in East Barnet.

East Barnet School would, under the plans, rebuild its lower school buildings and move all its students to the site in Chestnut Grove, leaving its other site, in Westbrook Crescent, free for the new school to use.

The Jewish Reform school would be built on the current East Barnet upper school site and be for pupils aged 11 to 19, giving priority to Reform Jewish children.

If councillors agree, both schools should be completed in time for the start of the academic year in 2008.

Councillor John Marshall, cabinet member for education, said: "We are hoping to get a new East Barnet School and a new Jewish secondary school for Reform Jews who want their children to go to a Jewish school.

"This will be the first Jewish Reform secondary school in the country. It's really a coincidence of wants."

Mr Marshall underlined that the playing fields at Westbrook Crescent will not be built on.

It is hoped the project will drive up the standard of education at East Barnet School, which was described in a 2002 Ofsted report as very good and exciting'. The council's cabinet resources committee meets on Tuesday and is expected to recommend JCoSS (the Jewish Community Secondary School group) and the local education authority (LEA) make a bid to the DfES for money to cover the project.

As a voluntary aided school, the new one would receive its grants directly from the DfES rather than through the LEA, as other state schools do.