Two former pupils at an independent girl’s school where antisemitic graffiti was found in a toilet have branded its response to their concerns about the incident “disappointing”.

Channing School for Girls in Highgate reacted quickly after reports of vandalism – a Nazi swastika and graffiti saying “kill Jews” – in a student toilet at lunchtime on November 2.

Following the incident, 252 alumnae wrote a letter to school management that day, stating that they were “reassured" by its response, but calling for further action.

Among their demands were that the school adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in full.

They also urged Channing to take a “zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism” - automatically expelling any student who commits a severe breach of the IHRA definition.

The school’s response to the letter on November 22, which has been seen by Ham and High, thanked the signatories for their “support and…concerns”.

It added that the graffiti was “abhorrent, cowardly and totally unacceptable”.

But the school said that it could not commit to expelling the responsible individual, as that would “prejudge” the outcome of any police investigation.

It also pushed back on demands to adopt the IHRA definition, claiming that it is not appropriate for a school to adopt “something which was designed for national government and international organisations".

Now three former Channing students have told Ham and High the school’s response is inadequate.

Jessie Amado, a former student at the school who graduated in 2016, claimed that the response to the letter was “weak”.

She said: “Their reasoning for why they wouldn’t accept the IHRA definition is also really bad.

“Just to say its higher education and other organisations that are only meant to accept it is weak – it doesn’t mean that they can’t.”

She added: “I would feel horrible going to this school right now to be honest.”

Jessica Bloom, a Jewish alumna who also finished at the school in 2016, agreed, claiming the refusal to adopt the IHRA definition was “really disappointing”.

She said: “It doesn’t really make sense to us when many school bodies like universities have adopted the IHRA. There’s definitely a place in education for it to be adopted.

“Brushing it away was quite disappointing when it was a main point on our letter, and a main reason why we had over 200 signatures.”

She added that she thought the school could also have “at the least” committed to expelling the perpetrator of the antisemitic graffiti.

Ms Bloom did praise the school for asking Stand Up! Education – an interfaith project that teaches about discrimination – to work with staff in the week after the incident.

But she said that the school now needed to look at “long-term solutions” to tackling antisemitism.

Ms Bloom added: “Our aim was always to help Channing through this, we stressed a lot that we wanted to support them.

“We just feel a bit let down by the response that we got back. I support Channing and I really want them to do the right thing.”

Channing School acknowledged this paper’s request for comment about their reply to the alumnae letter, and the points raised by Ms Amado and Ms Bloom, yesterday (November 30) but has not yet responded.