to think this is a little bizarre

[AgaPanthers]

www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Devon-children-taken-London-meet-people-different/story-21203950-detail/story.html

Basically a primary school in Devon in its last Ofsted got a 'Good'. They obviously want 'Outstanding', and the only two recommendations offered by Ofsted in 2010 were:

• keep up the improvements in Years 1 and 2
  
• give you even more opportunities to find out about how people live in different parts of the United Kingdom and in other countries.
  
  (They also add that 'pupils' understanding of multicultural issues is underdeveloped')
  
  So they are being packed off to Hounslow to visit a school where most children are not white and have English as a second language.
  
  AIBU to think this is patronising, and that they would not suggest that children in say Southall learn that their community is not remotely representative of most of the country, and that they should be slightly embarrassed at this fact and be sent off for re-education?

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

piano, 93.4% of our population is White.
? 6.6% are Black and Minority Ethnic (BME).
? We have a rapidly rising BME population – it has trebled in the last 10 years and this trend is set to continue.
? The largest communities are Kurdish Iraqi, (3000); Polish speaking migrant workers
(2700); Indian (2500); Chinese (2000); Russian speaking migrant workers (1500);
and Black African (1,000).
? The council has 4.1% BME employees and Plymouth NHS 16%.
? At least 82 different languages are known to be spoken in the city, with most requested translations being for Polish, Kurdish, Chinese and Arabic. We have 3 mosques in the city, an active race equality council, a synagogue in the city centre, a south asian society, Baha'i assembly, a buddist centre, sikh meetings at the religious and cultural centre, the Islamic centre, a wide variety of ethnic restaurants in the city, yes a few shops too, most of the City schools have BME pupils granted the population of BME people in the city is still slightly lower than the national average but not by much. there are regular events in the guildhall and University at times like Diwali and eide. entertainmant events and of course refugee week and the respect festival every year. We are a dispersal city for refugees and asylum seekers and the university, Marjons and the art college have brought in lots of people from different cultures, just a stroll round the city centres displays many faces and dress types from different cultures. A recent conference introduced Plymouth as a welcoming city to promote and improve people's understanding of the different communities that make up the city.this is interesting so hard to say Plymouth is not a diverse city IMO

[carrie74]

Oh I know Payhembury really well and grew up in the the area. Yup, it's very, very white around there, but we don't all come out as some racist idiots who can't visit a city without staring at anyone who doesn't look like us.

I think a mutual exchange trip with another school which is different in a number of ways (so not just based on the pupils' skin colour) is a fine idea, and think the article has chosen to only focus on ethnicity. What about working in a city vs working on the land? Using public transport vs having to get in your car to get anywhere? I suspect the purpose will be to widen everyone's horizons a little.

[MrsCakesPremonition]

Sounds like a good idea then.Pupils from both schools get to experience something new and it will be lot more interesting and useful than the usual primary school residential to some sort of activity centre.

[WorraLiberty]

Yes, MrsCakes the link says a mutual exchange.

[WorraLiberty]

The experience left me with little experience of life for a Muslim but it did teach me to avoid long coach trips

The children are also writing letters to each other, so it's not just about the trip.

[MrsCakesPremonition]

Has the visit been arranged on the basis of some sort of mutual exchange, so that the London children will also visit Devon at some point?

A one-way visit seems bit odd, but two-way visits make a lot of sense to me.

[YouTheCat]

Why didn't the school just arrange some kind of friendly skype chats with another school? Some blog sharing etc would do the trick. Seems like a lot of bother to go to.

[AgaPanthers]

It's pretty common for people to point and stare at white people in some countries. Not on a malicious way IME.

[redskyatnight]

I am Asian in appearance (actually mixed race). One year, not that long ago, I went on holiday and met a family from (don't remember exactly where but south west). Their 10 year old daughter kept looking at me in a funny way.
Eventually the parents felt they should apologise that their DD kept staring at me and told me it was because "you're the first person she's ever met who isn't white".

[pianointhedark]

Stepaway I grew up in Plymouth and have lived here most of my adult life.

I don't find it culturally diverse in the slightest, as per statistic below of 93% white. I have never worked with anybody who isn't white (and at nearing 40 that's pretty shocking), there is only one child who isn't white at my dd's nursery, etc.

I know there's the Islamic centre here but where are the synagogues, the temples? I'm sorry but a couple of polish shops do not make somewhere culturally diverse

[Waltonswatcher1]

I just don't think this is the solution , I was taken on a two day trip to Bradford whilst studying Islam for a level RS . I grew up a few miles from Lands End .
The experience left me with little experience of life for a Muslim but it did teach me to avoid long coach trips .
It will be an excuse to miss lessons for a few days I guess !

[AgaPanthers]

Ofsted said apparently that this was an inspection criterion about understanding the community that was dropped in 2011. So it's all a bit silly really, people trying to tick boxes that no longer exist.

[Icimoi]

Waltons, your experience isn't necessarily universal. DD went to university in an area where black people are very much the exception, and friends who were black said they found going around the town and local area a very uncomfortable experience - on many occasions they were treated as if they were aliens, and at times they encountered outright hostility. So I think anything that encourages knowledge of diversity can only be beneficial.

[AKeyFox]

Just realised Sao-Paulo=St Paul's.

[AKeyFox]

On 2nd thought St Paul's, is pretty much a day trip away.

[AKeyFox]

Perhaps instead they should arrange a trip So Paulo, because it's sooo diverse.

Or Saudia Arabia because it's hot,etc.

But I take your point that they should have clearer and far more expansive guidelines of where to improve.

[maddy68]

I think it's a great idea!

[Waltonswatcher1]

This is all crap and nonsense .
I grew up in a really rural area- very much 99% white Cornish - the remaining 1% being white first generation Cornishish ( doesn't count unless your blood is at least five generations thick ).
We weren't all raving racists lacking in knowledge about Britain !
Bizarre . It's like the bloody food issue -more talk than ever before about how/what to eat , yet we get fatter . This is the same- more talk than ever before about race and understanding , yet we're getting less accepting .

[parallax80]

Maybe they could play that YouTube video about "they're taking the hobbits to Isengard Isleworth" on the coach on the way up.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

piano so what do you know about Plymouth then, I find it very culturally diverse, my kids have attended schools with a whole raft of different religion and cultures and as i said there are huge populations of different cultures in our city including those that are not ethnic. Its a great place to live, clearly no where near the levels of BME that Bristol or London have but not a complete backwater of never seeing a black face.

[WorraLiberty]

They probably will get to see some world class attractions as it's a 2 day trip.

[AgaPanthers]

Apparently Plymouth is 93% white British. Which is actually whiter than the South West as a whole. Bristol is more diverse though.

But there are other types of diversity besides ethnic.

[pianointhedark]

Plymouth culturally diverse? Haha that's a good one

[AgaPanthers]

It does seem like it would be expensive to go to Hounslow from Devon, they could just go on a bus to Exeter surely? If I had to fork out for a trip to London I would want my kids to see some world class attractions.

[AgaPanthers]

Well they are about 60 miles from Plymouth, they are 'twixt Exeter and Honiton. It's not hard to think they could have gone a bit closer than Hounslow though in search of this blessed diversity. Bristol perhaps? Isleworth hasn't got all that much going for it.