It is not a universal truth that you meet a wider range of people in a state school

[DiversityQuestion]

Ended up sending DS to an international school (independent) in year 9 due to bullying in his state school.

In his former state school, he met a wide variety of people from different economic backgrounds, which was obviously good. However, as a school in a rural area, it was virtually 100% white with no cultural diversity whatsoever. Openly expressed racist views were depressingly common.

New International school, DS meets people from all over world /many different cultures. It is a much broader experience and great for students to realise that we live in a global world and life is not limited to our small rural town. The students at his international school are so accepting of cultural differences because everyone is from different backgrounds.

Many independent schools have a lot of international students and I imagine students gain immensely from students being exposed to cultural diversity.

I think you’re getting more cultural diversity but less economic diversity.

@flatoutpanic

I think you’re getting more cultural diversity but less economic diversity.

This!

flatoutpanic

I think you’re getting more cultural diversity but less economic diversity.“

Very much depends where the school is. In parts of Preston, many schools with vast majority of students of Bangladeshi heritage, parents in economic deprivation and very little cultural diversity. A few miles up the road, vast majority of cohort white British, comfortably off equal lack of diversity.

Well, as 93% of the country go to state schools, I'd imagine that you are usually going to get a wider range of demographics, particularly socioeconomic ones, than in private. However, the pupils are going to reflect the local population. Your state school being entirelyly white was due to it being in a rural, entirely/overwhelmingly white area- of course it being a state school isn't going to change that

As for ethnic diversity, I don't know much at all about international schools but I'd imagine that the student demographic is a bit more, well, international than a standard private school in the UK.

It depends on the schools. My private secondary school was arguably more diverse than the state secondary school.

But like you, I was in a predominantly white, rural area. The local state school of course reflected that.

My private school had pupils from many different countries and was much more ethnically diverse.

The poster upthread makes a good point about economic vs cultural diversity, and although it's true that most of the people at my school were wealthier than me, there were also a good number of less affluent local pupils there on scholarships.

This is not true of all private schools of course, it will depend heavily on where they are and what the local state schools are like.

I agree.
Dh likes to say that as a big advantage. He went to a big comprehensive.
I've noticed that although there were a great variety at the school, he only mixed with people very similar to himself. If you listen to him talking, they very much all segregated themselves. They had very little knowledge or interest of any of the other groups.
I went to a small private, in the days of assisted places and means tested bursaries, and actually had a far bigger range of friends.
I mean I knew A lived in a caravan park because I'd been round there, B was a first generation immigrant because she talked about the difficulties occasionally C was from Hong Kong (boarder) and D's dad was head of a top international company that came and talked at a careers' day...
But I do not remember it ever coming up as more than passing interest. There was not the separation of the different groups in the way dh experienced. And certainly not the tension between them that dh had.

I'd expect a comprehensive school to reflect the area its in so of course the diversity would vary. My experience was also that people do tend to just mix with people from similar backgrounds.

In my case my time at an economically mixed school taught me to avoid certain people.

So you've swapped from encountering working and lower middle class, mostly white kids, to entirely middle class kids of varying ethnicities.

Yay for you. Such a broad experience for your child.

Don't fool yourself that surrounding yourself with only people on the same or higher income is more diverse than being around poor kids of any ethnicity.

I don’t think meeting people from different backgrounds at school is much of an experience of other cultures.

It’s the difference between knowing a couple of Bangladeshi people and living in a place with a large Bangladeshi community.

We probably know this from our own experiences? When I have been the only British person in an international setting, I massively modify my behaviour for ease of understanding and group cohesion.

Someone from that international group might think they have a diverse experience of knowing an English person, but they really don’t. They would have to see English people interacting as a group with each other to see another culture.

So I would say someone at a state school with, say, a large Bangladeshi British and large white British population actually gets to see A different culture, while international school is a very weak version of diversity.

I’m also kind of influenced on this by friend who went to international school and her recordings of them in black face in the school show.

I think that an international school is quite a specific and unusual example, though. In most very white, rural areas the private schools will have no more ethnic diversity than the comprehensive but will, obviously, also not have as much economic diversity.

At my dd's state primary school, over 40 languages are spoken so very culturally diverse.

I think you’re getting more cultural diversity but less economic diversity

Absolutely. And one is not more important than the other, IMO.

Plus OP’s comparison is between an international school and a rural state school. There is a lot more racial and cultural diversity in the state schools in my city than the private schools which are overwhelmingly white.

Half the girls at my DD private school were of South Asian background with some of their parents working two or even three jobs to pay for it.

Overall the proportion of children from ethnic groups other than white British is the same in the private and state sector.

It really comes down to individual schools.

I wish people didn’t need to apologise for sending their children to private schools.

We have an totally underfunded and failing state system. Anger should like with the government not with those who can afford to buy their way out of a big problem

The OP isn’t apologising.

She’s just rehashing the Anywheres vs. Somewheres cultural divide where the anywheres think they are superior to the somewheres because they see themselves as being more diverse and less ignorant.

By definition, the private school splits the haves from the have nots. A few scholarship pupils from aspirational homes don't exactly restore balance.

It is a much broader experience and great for students to realise that we live in a global world. Global world tautology aside, you'd have to think about what kind of experience and world they are learning about. If you want them to have the same grasp of the social spectrum as our current government, then carry on patting yourself on the back.

I live in a fairly undiverse town. My kids go to state school and there is very little ethnic, cultural or socio economic diversity!! But I cant imagine the private schools in the town are more diverse.

Our local private school is a mostly mix of white drs kids and Asian drs kids (not many private schools in this area of the country) so not necessarily that diverse a population
Our eldest went to a huge state primary which had a mix of pupils from various ethnic backgrounds but generally not many middle class kids, our youngest is going to village primary which is more economically diverse but as a village cofe school there is less ethnic diversity.
There is no magic utopia of the 'right' mix

I imagine there are less likely to be children with SEN at private schools.

@flatoutpanic

I think you’re getting more cultural diversity but less economic diversity.

This exactly - and I say this as someone who went to international schools!

Saying that, you’re right about state schools. My dp went to a Catholic one in London and there was racial diversity but no religious difference. He didn’t make a Muslim friend until he went to college

Ethnically diverse but not economically diverse is spot on.

I had more in common with and “clicked” with other tertiary educated solicitors from India / Japan / Nigeria when I worked in the City than I did with the majority of my peers at my bog standard comp. I could kid myself I was being oh so diverse but really we were all from the same strata of society albeit from different countries.

@Stripesgalore do you have proof for that statement?

To my class mates I was “posh” to my work colleagues I was normal!

@Stripesgalore

Overall the proportion of children from ethnic groups other than white British is the same in the private and state sector.

It really comes down to individual schools.

Sorry I mean the idea that their are as many ethnic minority students in private school as state.