Did EAL numbers influence your school choice?

[benetint]

I was speaking to a friend the other day about a prospective primary I've looked round, loved and will probably send my daughter to. My friend looked really concerned though and said there was a high number of eal pupils (I looked it up after and it's about 50%) Now I have friends of various nationalities and consider myself very lucky to do so. I would have thought going to school with pupils from various cultures would at best enrich my daughters learning and at worst have no effect. What to others think, honestly?

The school I work in has a high proportion. They are put in bottom sets for everything until they master English and then we find that the majority end up making the top 2 sets for Maths and Science by the middle to end of their first year, top sets for English by the end of their 2nd year.

I don't know why and obviously not every child is that able, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems for other children at the school. Indeed we have ended up learning all sorts about Lithuania, Portugal and Poland, to name a few.

If there is a variety of languages spoken and the predominant one is English, then I would appreciate the diversity withing the school and view it as a good thing.

If the majority of the 50% all speak the same language and they are part of a community that mixes mostly with each other, then it would put me off and I wouldn't use the school. I would be worried that there would be a significant number of children all speaking to each other in a language that my child couldn't understand at playtimes, and I wouldn't send my children to a school where that might happen.

I agree with outraged.

There are quite a few at my ds1's school, the parents are pretty much all professionals choosing a brilliant school with an excellent reputation. There is a mix of cultures and the main language spoken in the school is English. My advice would be wait till term time take a stroll past the school at dinner break/12.30 and see if there is an obvious imbalance towards one culture or if there is a mix of cultures in the playground.

That's a really good point, thanks outraged and everyone for posting. I was going to ask how you'd find out what the cultural mix was (I'd feel a bit rude asking the head) so strolling past the playground is a good idea wolfina thanks.