Diversity in Independent Schools, SE London

[SlimSchadey]

Hello,

I have been going to open days at some SE London private primary schools that are meant to be very good. What I have noticed, above all, is that there seems to be no racial diversity at all -- all the students, teachers, administrators are white with a light smattering of SE Asians, perhaps. Do schools make an effort to enrol a diverse group of students and families? Is anyone else bothered by the idea of a school where essentially all the children are from the same type of background?

I think the assisted place scheme was a vile idea! Bit clever, are you? Right then, you obviously need hoiking out of your oiky state school and into private!

They might be more diverse than some stereotypes suggest - if the stereotypes are wrong! As Seeker says though - clubs for rich people, essentially.

"But they do have a somewhat greater range of pupils than the stereotype suggests - particularly in 6th forms."

Time for me to get out my private school thread Bingo card. I'm sure all the best quotes will be along soon!

I posted that because I read somewhere recently that 25% of sixth formers were in private schools.

I'll have a hunt for where I read it, but does anyone have any good links for what the current picture is?

The assisted place scheme was essentially a bursary scheme, and I did think that abolition was wrong. If it is wrong for parents to apply to schemes which will fund a move of their children out of the state sector, then logically I suppose all bursaries would have to be abolished. I wouldn't support this, but I can see why others would.

I do think stereotypes are usually inherently flawed.

Private Primary schools in SE London are definitely less diverse than most State Primaries. Secondaries less so.

If you want private with diversity go for academically selective private schools.

And at primary, go for state RC - they tend to take a very high % of non catholic children and are often chosen by parents of other faiths who don't have a local school of their own religion.

^ Is less true in some areas but should be the case in many parts of London.

"If you want private with diversity go for academically selective private schools."

Yep, rich kids come in lots of different colours!

You could start off at a local primary off Borough High Street until the end of Key stage 1.

Out of Cathedral, Charles Dickens and St Joseph's you'll get into one- and until the age of about 7 the advantages of having a mixed peer group outweigh the disadvantages of having friends who stay up late, swear, watch Eastenders etc. BTW the sweary soap watching 4 year olds were the white kids- the ones who looked like my kids except for the earrings and heels.

The National Curriculum at Key Stage 1 is quite accelerated and mine transferred from there to 'posh prep' quite smoothly, which prepared them well for Selective Secondary, where again the intake is mixed ethnically if not socially.

seeker- its slightly subtler than rich kids coming in all colours. Imperfect as the bursary system is, it does at least exist at Secondary level!

OK.

"Comfortably off kids come in all colours"

That better?

seeker I'm really not trying to have a fight!

Just pointing that at Secondary level there are often Bursary Schemes that pay full fees, uniform and travel, so these schools are more mixed socially and ethnically.

If I was going to have a fight ([hgrin]) I'd point out that in this country rich kids are overwhelmingly and predominantly white and that catchment areas, bursaries, faith schools etc. are all a smokescreen that distracts us from noticing and doing something about the fact that this is a very unequal society.

"almost invariably the bursaries are significantly less than 50% of the fees"

The Sutton Trust did a survey in July 2010 of bursaries and found that remissions were on average higher than that. They broke it down by ranking in the Times league table of independent school. Obviously, there could be big variations between the highest and lowest awards, and it's discount of an expensive figure (+/- £4k per term). But I thought it might be interested to add it here.

For those in places 1-70 - average bursary 52%; 71-140 - 64%; 141-210 - 43%; 211-280 - 53%; over 280 - 50%.

so 2 x 100% bursary and 2 x 10% bursaries makes an average of about 52%

it doesn't say anything about number of bursaries or the actual amount paid by people

Yes, I acknowledged that when I posted.

I still haven't found stats on %age in private education by prep/secondary/sixth form. I know it's a bit of a diversion from the OP on this thread but I'd really welcome a signpost from one of you bursary experts to the accurate and recent stats.

I'm more interested in the activities they offer that give them the charitable status and associated tax breaks to be honest

they sometimes let clever children from state school in for a morning of patronizing activities.

We sometimes get floppy haired boys doing cricket coaching.

Win Coll probably the most selective boys school in the UK has approximately 700 boys over 80 are on bursaries the average being 50% ok this does not open it up to people even on average incomes but it's a start. They are very committed to the idea of bursaries and have increased the numbers on bursaries this year by over 80% and are aiming to continue increasing not only the number of boys on bursaries but the size of the bursary year on year. St Paul's has been committed to the idea of a open access policy for longer and has I think over 110 boys on bursaries. I don't know the averag size but 50% of 18000 makes it more achievable for more families than 50% of 31000. ElaineRees your anti independent school veiws are well known on MM I struggle to work out what your problem is. No one is forcing you to send your children to an independent school you stated on another posting that you think that state ed is as good so if some of us want to spend our hard earned money educating our children what diffence does it make to you.

"St Paul's has been committed to the idea of a open access policy for longer"

open access!!!!!!!!! Are you serious????????????

I didn't really think about diversity in our all white British village school. DC are white, but only 1/2 British and its seems to some extent a novelty/oddity to speak 2 languages here. Sometimes I wish we had stuck to the city schools where there is more diversity (state that is). Even a friend's private school seems to be more diverse than our village school.

I find it rather comical that you are considering skin colour when selecting a school. It is far more important to me that my DC's are at school where the focus is on learning and excelling. My experience of private education found that there were many blacks (mainly from Africa), Indians, Chinese and expats at private schools in the UK. My secondary school was 50% chinese.

Glad there were many " blacks". Were the lots of "coloureds" too?

seeker read their web site.

School isn't just about learning and excelling though, its also about fitting in socially, and learning to be a decent human being who knows what the real world around them is like. Can not to be said of most politicians though.