Not much diversity at son's school putting me off

[agagahag]

AIBU ? My local area is quite diverse. However the preschool my son attends is not diverse at all.

It's part of a prep school. I feel a bit put off by it.

Would it put you off ? Ideally the school should reflect the local culture, but in this case it does not at all.

I guess this as well which is why OP seems surprised at the lack of diversity in a private prep school. My guess is if the school was full of predominantly white kids the OP wouldn’t be questioning the lack of diversity. I’m laughing at you OP, just say what you mean and stop hiding behind coyly worded posts so that we can just go ahead and query whether you’re racist 🤣

Sarcasm or racism?

My DC go to a selective school that is predominantly Asian. They are white, as is the local community. It never entered my head to judge whether it was the right school for them based on the other children's skin colour or ethnicity.

I take it you’re white and do not understand how dangerous it can be to be any minority in a predominantly white area, let alone black?

The local private schools in our area have a lot of SEN children, middle class white and Asian SEN children, but they do have a lot of SEN representation.

WTF?

Race and class are deeply tied. You won’t find diversity of either in a private school

I don't think private is for you. If you value diversity do you really want your child to only meet rich / middle class kids ?

I don't think it's unreasonable to not want your child to stand out in a way that might attract unwanted negative attention from a large number of the other students, regardless of the races, ethnicities, etc. involved. If that's a concern, you should try to find a different school.

Aha. Racism then.

This is probably area dependent to be fair I live in a multi cultural area my son goes to the local Catholic school,I would say at least 50% of the pupils are not white British and they are from a variety of ethnic background,s including Asian ,African and it's very near the local.hospital who did a large recruitment drive 20 or so years ago in the Philippines so there is a growing Filipino community plus pupils from an eastern European background it's very different to the Catholic school I attended in the 80,s that had and still had a mainly white British demographic mix .

It generally seems to be non-selective private schools with high SEN representation rather than selective.

In terms of ethnic representation, where I am (Home Counties) private schools seem to have some ethnic diversity but it seems to be a fair mix of white and south Asian kids regardless of the make-up of the local area.

I would also find this off putting. It's one reason we chose the local prep school. The local state schools near us are very segregated (not by design but by reinforced selection), and the prep is more diverse, around a third of the kids are BAME which is reflective of the local population.

No

How is that racism? You can’t be racist against white people.

You mean brown people?

Well of course. What with white children being disproportionately more likely to be victims of knife crime and all that 😉

Are the staff members ethnically diverse?

The private nursery next to me got their first obvious non-white staff member about 18 months ago. It hasn't improved the diversity of the children who go there.

The nursery near my DD's childminder always had a diverse mixture of staff. The staff are also generally older. As a result the children who go there have always been diverse ethnically.

In fact parents deliberately choose the second nursery due to it's diversity so it has a longer waiting list.

On viewing independent schools near me (with the exception of a very traditional prep school), I've noticed more ethnic diversity than the state schools, in particular more Asian children. I suspect this is due to the strong emphasis on education in these cultures.

Reported.

What?

SandraCumin - Of course you can be racist against white people.

Rubbish. Racism is prejudice against any person due to their skin colour or ethnicity. Look up the Equality Act 2010. There have been made cases of white employees being found to have been racially discriminated against.

Can you not see that saying a Black child isn't safe around white children is racist? I despair.

I think Sandra might be being sarcastic

That's what I thought at first but apparently not...