School assuming things about my mixed race son

[TulipDragonfly]

DS (5) has come home today. I'm white, his dad is British born Chinese (ie, his parents came over from China, he looks Chinese but was bought up in the UK has never been to China and can't speak Chinese)

Mummy did you know I can speak chinese?

No darling, you can't

Yes I can, my teacher told me I could

But you can't sweetie!

Yes, she looked in her book and told me I could! And so I can!

She got him to speak a bit of Chinese to the whole class - hes such a little people pleaser that he said" I tried to speak Chinese" (he just made some noises mi Ka la ta do hi sa - what he thinks Chinese sounds like) and then she said 'well done'

Wibu to go into the school tomorrow and clear up that he can't speak Chinese, and I'm slightly concerned that they've just made an assumption he can because of what he looks like?

Did you complete an ethnicity checklist when you registered him?
Possibly someone assumed this was the same as EAL. Or it's a simple clerical error - someone uploaded the data wrongly. Go in and ask for his record to be updated.

From a data-crunching point of view, (which is ridiculously important in education) his name will be included in the wrong categories, so the school will want to know they've got it right.

Loved the story though.

Given that she has looked in a book I would say this is a data error rather than her just assuming because of his appearance. I would definitely speak to the school though and make sure they correct the error and make the teacher aware too!

As a side note you have had me in fits of giggles imagining your little boy stood up just making up Chinese words 😂😂

Our EAL record at work is only whether the child themselves speak an additional language. We also have records on the child's ethnicity, and the written comments sometimes state if a family member speaks another language at home. This information comes directly from the registration forms which parents and carers complete when the child enters the school.

The SENCO then spends a short amount of time with each child in their first few weeks at the school, going through some set EAL forms to determine at what level that child's English is at. Their ability to speak another language is not rated - it'd be impossible anyway unless we had a whole load of interpreters or similar coming in to do it.

We only gather the data on EAL from the admissions forms and that is information the parent has given us.

This sounds like an error on the part of the admissions person when adding information on to the school records, or similar. Maybe speak to reception to have the records amended.

Bless your DS talking in 'Chinese' and now believing he speaks the language.

Both dh and I are English speaking but both come from a background where we can speak another language (In theory! Dh can, i can order a beer...). We have regional, English accents. Yet teachers, nursery ext always assume we speak other languages at home. Its weird. I would mention to teacher.

For about a year (age 3-4) my DS was convinced he could speak French. That was in one of his school books too, an “about me” section he had filled out. His knowledge of French consisted of Bonjour and Frere Jacques and they believed him. His dads native language was in there too, which he can speak more of, but didn’t boast about as much as he did the French. I’m not French. He just got it in to his head and I don’t think they wanted to undermine him. 😂

Your son sounds so cute.
Aibu to think it’s not a big deal? What is wrong with assuming, say, a half-Spanish person may well speak Spanish? It seems to be taking offence for no reason. I’ve a very Irish surname and am constantly asked about being Irish (am not). That’s life. So what - it’s not being malicious to assume a half Chinese person speaks “Chinese”. Surely there’s a good chance they might if they grew up in HK for instance

I'm a teacher and a use SIMS at my school - the students who come up as EAL may not have ever spoken one word of another lanuage! I am always very, very careful not to make assumptions.

In fact, I always try not to assume anything at all - e.g. i don't just say parents if I am referring to people at home - I always say 'whoever you live with at home' to avoid any issues.

I had a (non) issue when my little boy was at preschool and the teacher said 'everybody has 10 fingers' to which ds pipes up ' no they don't, my grandad hasn't got 10 fingers'. Said preschool teacher was adamant they did and queried at the end of the day why my son was saying this. I pointed out that actually, his grandad (my dad) doesn't have 10 fingers as he lost two in an accident many years ago. She was and . I hope it made her think about assumptions in future!

I had this problem in reverse. Same circumstances with ethnicity. DH British born and can't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. When DS1 was in Reception, each child took it in turns to be star of the week and had to sit in a special chair for 10 minutes each day and tell the class about themselves, take stuff in, etc etc. On day 2 of his turn he announced proudly to the class that he was half Chinese and could speak in Chinese. He then taught all the children to count to 3 in made up language. First I knew was the next day when his share was his 8 week old baby brother and class teacher pulled me aside to point out I hadn't ticked the EAL box on his paperwork.

But back to you OP, go and chat with the teacher.

This is really bad!

Schools frequently get stuff wrong. It can be as simple as two children having similar names, or things being mistyped. I would immediately jump to a conclusion that’s the teacher made an assumption.

She should have listened to him, but perhaps she thought he was just lacking confidence.

Their job is hard enough without parents marching up to the school to demand an explanation. Simply send a note in explaining there must be some mistake,

Chinese isn't a language.

Chinese isn't a language.

This is fairly obvious and I’m sure OP knows. It’s more a figure of speech I suppose, my fiancé always says ‘speak Chinese’ or will say ‘I want to try and teach the kids chinese’ instead of Cantonese which he can speak.

DS has a fabulous memory to be able to remember what he said to his teacher in a made up language

Haha! You're funny!

My DD as a toddler could perfectly impersonate her Czech opera singer Nanny on the phone to her family, including the singing. Funnily enough nobody ever assumed that I was the source......

does it flipping matter? this is first world issue. Yes it does. You clearly do not have an adolescent and understand how being "different" in any way, even in trivial ways like having ginger hair or wearing glasses, can lead to feelings of exclusion. I know a lot of mixed race people who have grown up between cultures and not feeling part of either culture, and being othered by those of either / all of their cultures, is a problem for them, whether they come from the first world or third. They have all bought their children up to have their identity defined by one culture and language, whilst not ignoring or devaluing the other(s). Look on the web and you will find any number of articles / blogs/ webpages on the issue, it is affecting a growing number of people in the UK but many of the issues are the same wherever you live in the world. I would bet that OPs husband has heard the derogatory term "banana" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) that some Chinese people use for anyone who has embraced western culture at the expense of their Chinese heritage. It is important to respect that identity whatever it is and not just resort to lazy stereotypes. It is will be even harder if you are made to feel different because you have an ethnic background that you have no emotional or cultural connection too, it is bad enough from peers but teachers really should know better, and OP should definitely make sure the teacher understands and respects her child's identity.

and as op said why would he show up as bi-lingual if she never put it on the form ?

He has not been flagged up as bi-lingual. He has been flagged up as EAL, rightly or wrongly. OFSTED uses data where A first language other than English should be recorded where a child was exposed to the language during early development and/or continues to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community.

If a child was exposed to more than one language (which may include English) during early development the language other than English should be recorded, irrespective of the child's proficiency in English.

This data used to be gathered in the past, by the ethnicity section of the school application. This is for a number of reasons but in this case, all the OP has to do is ask for it to be removed from SIMs.

A frst language other than English should be recorded where a child was exposed to the language during early development and/or continues to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community.

But op put language down as English. That should have been it.
Nobody should be presuming something due to ethnicity.

I know someone who was born here, as were his parents None of them speak in thier ethnic language. Would you go up to him and insist he spoke to you in Cantonese? I doubt it but as he was a child its ok to put him in front of his classmates and try to force him to do something he can't. What if he hadn't made up stuff? what if he had been embarrassed and upset at being called a liar and expected to do something he couldn't?
Great way to instill confidence in 5yr olds.

You're ds sounds like he is really enjoying the idea of being able to speak Chinese.

Isn't it slightly more likely that, inspired by Chinese New Year, a teacher asked him whether he could speak Chinese, then he thought it would be fun to say yes and see what he could do? He's 5. 5 year olds do that sort of thing.

But op put language down as English. That should have been it.
Nobody should be presuming something due to ethnicity.

A fair point. I was just explaining that EAL doesn’t just mean that the child alone speaks an additional language, in response to your posts.

Anyway, as I said upthread, Damian Hinds wants to remove this piece of information that schools have, in any case.

Thanks for all the replies. Its helped me realise that most likely an esl admin thing that the teacher never questioned. But I'll go in tomorrow and have a chat with the teacher.

Is there a possibility that the 'book' the teacher looked in was actually a register or something and she was presuming that he could speak Mandarin based off of his name(assuming he has his father's surname)?

A grandparent speaking it is a ridiculous reason to be recorded as EAL.

Not if the grandparent lives with the family and only speaks to the family in their language.

If the gp lives miles away and has little contact with them then it doesn’t make sense.

For example I know one family where the main carer for the children was the grandmother who was Polish. The parents had been born and brought up in the uk and spoke English but the grandmother spoke to them in Polish.
Yet I knew another family where the mother was English and the father from another country. The father had no contact at all with the child, neither did any of the family. The mother only spoke English yet she would tick EAL on all the forms.

A lot of people are saying that the school gets money for EAL pupils. It most probably doesn't, but does have to show what it is doing to support them.

Slightly different, I had to send an email to school saying my son could speak some Arabic, and I’m pretty sure the other child could to. Both of our families had lived in UAE, and kids learnt some Arabic at school. Boys never met until they ended up in school together in England. Teacher was convinced it was two 13 year olds lying to him.

It sounds like your teacher has information stating that your child is EAL. (English as an additional language). Check with the school has they have to legally supply that information to you. Simply explain that he isn't and it will be taken off. The teacher just assumed from probably knowing this. I'm sure it will have nothing to do with what your child looks like but simply the information they were given when they found out about their class. As a primary school teacher myself I have a few children who are classed as EAL but can't actually speak another language. Just address it politely with the class teacher and I'm sure the situation will be resolved.