She has resigned as head of education at Sinai Synagogue, but still remains an active member.

"It's time for me to move on," she said. "I want to devote more time to other commitments."

These include her talent for art, and she is currently doing a Fine Art degree course at Leeds Metropolitan University, with one more year to go until graduation.

Gillian, of Oakwood, is passionate about education - for herself and all those around her.

"I had been on the education committee at Sinai Synagogue since 1992, two years after arriving in Leeds," she explained.

Born in Chester, Gillian (nee Holding) later moved to Birmingham University to study law and French, and then qualified as a solicitor in a large firm in London, followed by work in Paris.

That changed her life, for having been sent to Paris from the solicitors in London, she met her future husband, Richard, also a solicitor, in the same office.

"He was sent out from the London firm at the same time - but I had never met him in London during the four years I was working there," she revealed.

Gillian, 49, and Richard were married in London in 1990, and a month later moved to Leeds.

They were looking for a place where both of them could work as solicitors in the same firm.

"We found one where we both became partners, and Richard is still there," she said.

Neither of them had previous connections with Leeds, "but we were looking for somewhere that had a reasonable Jewish community.

"We have no regrets moving here - and I can't imagine living anywhere else."

Richard's parents were founder members of the Middlesex New Reform Synagogue and Gillian was a member of the Liberal Movement in London.

On moving to Leeds they joined the Sinai Synagogue, and Gillian has become deeply involved in its activities.

"As soon as I had children I developed a broader interest in education, and when my eldest was seven, my predecessor as head of cheder at Sinai Synagogue left," she said.

"I had finished practising as a solicitor, so it seemed a good idea to fill in a bit of time - and that was it. I was in at the deep end."

Her experience in teaching had been to law undergraduates and trainee solicitors, "so it was a bit of a rapid learning curve to teach Jewish education. It was fascinating".

Gillian had studied Judaism in London.

"There was a lot of opportunities in London for learning," she added.

She took over as cheder head in 1999, but after about five years she realised that the traditional Sunday format was not meeting the needs of the members of the Sinai community.

"I felt, and still do, that formal Jewish education was not sufficient to create a lifelong Jewish identity," she said. "It needed something happening at home and being part of a broader religious community."

Gillian found a revolutionary way of educating the children, and two years ago changed it to Nitzotzot (Hebrew for Sparks, which stands for Sinai's Programme for Acquiring Religious Knowledge and Spirituality).

"Children need the formal Jewish education and to see their parents learning, actively engaged in some way, and to see the wider community learning, like Limmud," she said.

Gillian praised the 'Living Judaism' programme that started around 2001 "which gave an incredible buzz to the congregants, encouraging them to think that if you want to do it, you can. It was hugely empowering."

Nitzotzot also became inspiring. Gillian took out Hebrew, Jewish education, Jewish Studies, community education and Bnei Mitzvah to allow families to enrol for whatever they wanted to do, in those subjects.

She said: "Everyone had more flexibility. I wanted to turn my hand to teach everything, but a lot of the time I was doing administrating and managing the whole programme."

The whole new idea proved far more popular than the former cheder.

"More adults have come in to learn and now there is an established adult education programme.

"I have only been able to achieve what I did with Nitzotzot because of the way the community and the rabbi, Ian Morris, are. It's an empowering community.

"Education is the core of Jewish continuity."

Now Gillian is devoting more time to her artistic skills.

"As a two-year-old I loved to draw," she declared. "But I started painting when I finished law. I wanted to have a second career as an artist. Even as a solicitor I was selling my paintings."

A few years ago she won a prize in a painting competition in the Open College of Arts, with a portrait of her son Sammy. He is now 17, and he has three sisters - Jessica, 15, Isabel, 13, and Rachel, 9.

Now studying for a Fine Art degree, Gillian is involved in video work, print making as well as drawing and painting.

She is still part of the synagogue's tapestry group.

"We are constantly producing textile art pieces for the shul," she said.

"Over the years I have made a lot of Judaica, including tallitzim, ketubot, and two Torah mantles for the community in Sheffield."

Her latest achievement has been an etching in the new Reform Siddur that was introduced at the Sinai Synagogue two months ago.

Her etching is of a building in Tel Aviv, "but it highlights the tensions of the secular and religious, and ancient and modern, all in Israel."

Gillian and Richard's eldest child, Sammy, took part in an Israel tour with Reform Synagogue Youth: RSY Netzer, last year.

Gillian visited Israel two years ago, "and I would love to spend an extended time there at some point," she said.