what are the most racially diverse london schools?

[lhc2]

Hi!

We are currently living in NYC (we are from spain) and we are moving to London next year and i've been looking for schools for my daughters.

One of my dds is black and diversity is very important to me as i don't want her to be the only black girl in her class and judging by the london schools websites i didn't see any black girl at their schools.

I would like to know based on your opinion which london single sex private schools are more racially diverse?

Thank you very much.

I fyou are used to NYC schools then North London Collegiate (for girls at prmary and senior level) with St Paul's are the best of the best in London.
NLCS where my daughter went is often the best school of boys and girls in all sectors for exam results and university entrance at age 18 and huge numbers of girls are Jewish, Black, Asian, Chinese etc. I am not sure of the percentages but it is enormous as entry is by brain power/exam rather than anything else.

There is a school coach from Kensington which is chaperoned and private and runs from Kensington ( see point 3 on this link - www.nlcs.org.uk/752/junior-school/coach-service)

OP
There is another issue that coming from the US to the UK you will not be as aware of.

Britain is much, much, much less racist that the USA.
The casual racist abuse we got on the streets of New York and Philadelphia at Christmas would get you arrested on the spot in London.

The British are far more obsessed with class and much much less so with colour.
It may not feel it to the British, but every time I go back to NYC I am struck by the paranoia and racism.

Talkin - depends on which race you are. I have faced much, much more racism here than in the US. It is a relief for me to go back home - yes, the US is still home for me despite the fact I have not lived there for 12 years. If I spent another 50 years here, it still would never feel like home based on the way I am treated here.

fwiw, my experience in London is that children are pretty colour-blind and really not very interested in whether their classmates are black, asian or whatever (nor in fact in whether they are English, European or any other nationality). If you want a single-sex private school in a particular area then I would look more carefully at availability and what the local schools offer rather than fretting too much about the ethnic mix which probably won't vary that much within an area anyway.

I found London Catholic state schools the most diverse ethnically of all schools probably because its a faith which has been exported over a long period of time to every continent.

My DD is mixed race and privately educated ... we've never found inclusivity a problem but she's always gone to girls' day schools in S London where the population is quite diverse. Someone mentioned Blackheath High - a great school and one of the ones she went to. Good luck!

My dc Catholic school is very diverse. Children of Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Indian, Nigerian, Irish, British, Scandinavian, Iraqi, various middle eastern actually, and many mixed etc, descents.

In my quiet cul de sac we have two Catholic families (I am Norwegian my dh is Polish), and an English/Irish mix, my Ugandan/Nigerian friend with her two dc (one of whom was privately educated in a co-ed), an American couple where the lady is Chinese, a Jewish family, an elderly British couple, and a Muslim family of Pakistani origin. There is also another Polish family, a German family, and a couple of English family.
This is a nice and quiet neighborhood, where everybody get along just fine, regardless of our skin colour, ethnic origin, or religious faith.

This is NOT unusal in London, I would say it is the norm.

So, therefore coming from the US asking to get ethnic diversity and acceptance is like going to Alaska wondering if there is ever snow!

BTW, if you are moving now, be prepared to the next round of foreigner-bashing in the newspapers and public rhetoric in general. Before the last elections only BNP and Conservatives were playing the xenophobic card. Now, looking at BNP's success at local elections, the others are visibly jumping on the bandwagon.

Just warning. It will be better, once elections over.

MsAverage
speaking as a first generation economic migrant
(albeit one with blue eyes and a naice accent)
IKIP and BNP are piss in the pan wasted protest vote now
(NOT like in 1978 - New Cross, I lived on the 53 bus route)

Once you stop paying attention to Sky, the Daily Fail and the Daily Sexpress and get on with your life,
the vast bulk of intelligent people in this country are far more tolerant than pretty much any .

Hmm, maybe this thread has strayed a little.

I dont know much about the stats. However our experience of Central London private schools is that kids come from all over, and OP should not worry too much. My own guess is that her children will be perceived as American or Spanish first, whichever they choose to emphasise, and skin colour will be less important.

The bigger issue is getting into a private school in the area. The population is growing and places are in demand. (I think the new BoE's Chief's wife blamed the tax-avoiding French migrants for her struggle to find a suitable home. All in a fine British tradition.) Op should not find it quite as hard as NYC but not easy all the same. Academic performance/potential will matter as well as a few other things such as how long she is likely to be in the country, and ....ability to pay. Secondary is even harder.

There is a well regarded Spanish school in Kensington where many Spanish expatriates choose to send their children. However it is mixed.

TBH there are plenty of things to worry about. Lack of diversity is not one of them.

I think skin colour is a red herring tbh, esp in a private school. They will be 'the American kids'. When DS started in his school there were some black kids in his year but they were the 'brits', not black - it really wasn't an issue. Are you concerned that they will be bullied because of ther skin or because they are 'foreign'?

In our school we have kids from all over the world, and of all colours, and they are usually described by what language they speak, not colour. My DS is the token 'english' kid (even though he is 1/4 english, 1/4 scottish and 1/3 ME!).

In the nursery at work the kids backgrounds are even more diverse (one child is described as '1/8th...') and there has never been any issues around colour, race or religion.

I 'get' why you worry, but it won't be an issue unless you especially want other black children in the class especially, but in London privates, classes can change termly.

Maybe if you can look at staff and look for schools with a proportion of black or other 'ethnic' teaching staff. Our school has a few black teachers, and a few auzzies, french, polish, italian...

Really, don't worry about it. Just find a nice school - there are loads around there. Even in the shitty state school, out in the wops, I went to, one of the coolest girls was the only black (ie of african origin at some point in the family) and that wasn't to do with her skin colour.

BTW the state school one side of us is mainly eastern european, the other side is mainly arab kids. It's just the way it is where I live - very very few white brits, probably more black people actually!

If work is picking up the tab, they possibly will help you out with school suggestions, or pay for a trip over to find a home/school before you move. They may even pay for a search company to help you find something suitable.

Excuse my maths there! 1/4, 1/4, 1/3????? Not representative of the education system here!

Talkingpeace, please do not think that social hostility sounds naaaicer than racism. "Daily Mail reader" is a standard insult here, as meaningless as it is stupid. You do not do yourself any favour automatically deploying it. Good? Good.

BNP was thought to be a protest electorate for Cons, and the last local elections proved that it is not. That one-man-band is a single-idea party, and the idea seems to be quite attractive for our fellow Britons. It is just a question of months, when Labour will have their own Damien Green and LibDems their own Theresa May. Just look at the development of the twin latests scaremongering campaigns - NHS Tourism and Educational Tourism, both born without any figures, just as political marketing tools, perhaps in the same party thinktank. The latter died in the crib, but the former was received favourably and now gets momentum all across major parties. And it is more to come.

BNP Councillors do not particularly worry me.
Local government is my field of interest so I have watched the UKIP, BNP, sundry oddity councillors who are elected with great fanfare.
Very few last a year because they suddenly realise they have almost no individual power.

I love reading the Daily Fail website. But I also know that it is hypoctitical bilge. Sadly many of those who actually pay for it do not.
I've actually stopped buying a paper and get my fix of news analysis from the Economist - who of course support open borders.

Given the diverse population of London, there are a TINY number of black children in private education. I'm laughing sadly at this thread (particularly at Xenia thinking there are many black children at north London).

Twisted
I do not know the figures for London but I know for a fact that the most racially diverse part of Winchester town by a very long way is Winchester College
State schools are around 98% white, the private school it not!

I don't know about Winchester but how many of these children are black? My guess is not many...

I am not talking about BNP parties, I am pointing out that there are signs that other parties clearly got the idea what sells the best on today's political market, and the market day is soon. :)

msAverage
If you look at what mainstream political parties say they will do and then see what they actually did do, you'll see that actions are much more moderate than words
(except for the secret stuff they never brag about anyway)
the current swing to the rabid fringe a short term hiccup
once the costing of the NHS stuff comes through it will be allowed to drop
without any fanfare

To contribute to the topic: last autumn I was going around the North London schools (our non-diversely black state school do not have 6 form, so we were shopping around): SHHS, SCLG, both Fr.Holland, Latymer Upper, Wimbledon, Queens something, Latymer gram, Godolphin&Latymer, Highgate, Channing, lots of free drinks, maybe, I forgot one or two. So, I saw Jews, Asians, Russians, Germans - whoever, but not the black. The two schools I saw black children were Latymer gram and Upper Latymer - both are very large and quite hard to get in.

*very large by UK standards, not US.

Exactly! "What they say" is exactly the thing I am trying to make OP ready to. I know people who moved to US because they got tired of listening to anti-immigrant shit here. Scientists, they did not have any difficulties making a move.

I second Hill House International School, it may not have huge numbers of BME children, but it has children from all over the world, all different races and backgrounds- and celebrates this.