Proportion of ethnic students in Independent schools

[snannak]

How can I find out the number of ethnic minority students in an independent school/class?

Can I phone the school and ask the question directly?

Myself and my wife are Asians and our daughter goes to an independent school which has predominantly white population due to the area. Even though she enjoys the school and hasn't made any complaint, I always wonder how many of her classmates will become true long term friends when she leaves the school.

We all know school friends are very important for someones life.

Wondering whether to change her to an independent school which has higher proportion of ethnic minority students? This will involve relocating to a different town which is annoying.

I do think you'd need to visit the school on a school day. My eldest's school do actually (I think deliberately) overrepresent a particular ethnicity in all their literature. The actual mix in school is somewhat different.

MN15, not all of us do think faith schools are a great thing, precisely because of their specificity.

I loved the DC school because of the very wide diversity. In that situation everyone sees themselves as a London teen, everyone is different, so no-one is different.

OP if you want to ensure a particular cultural environment for your child, which is specific, then that's something different.

I certainly don't think that faith schools are a good thing. I would never send my dd to one.

Education should be about promoting integration, not encouraging segregation.

Kenlee, I am a bit puzzled. "She has two close friends one is Russian (I know what can you say) the other local". What is so particular about Russians?

to be honest I did not keep in touch with anyone from my schooldays for more than a year or two. AFter school you can choose your friends, not just be thrown together by accident!

As I was reading the post I kept waiting to read - and my daughter is bullied, ignored, unhappy because of her looking different.

It seems that the OP has an issue, not her daughter. Considering moving to another town and taking her daughter from a school where she is happy - sounds strange.

My white daughter's best friends at her independent school are a British Asian, a Chinese and a British/Nigerian girl.

Friendships at the primary level probably won't last, but I do not think that at secondary level she'll suddenly be picking friends by race.

I have just consulted DD (16) about this. Her comment? 'Thing is, this generation don't give a crap and most high school friendships don't last anyway.'

Incidentally, one of her best friends is Asian. They are going to different schools next year but think they'll stay in touch because they'll see each other on the bus/train. Another of DD's good friends is Chinese.

My closest friend from uni went to a very ethnically mixed school; she's white, but is still good friends with several Asian girls from her year: that's 30 years since they left school.

OP, I think you can stop worrying.

So you are going to move towns; spend thousands of pounds on a new house to solve a problem that your daughter has not expressed any issue with? How do you know you won't just cause lots of other friendship issues? Making friends is your daughters job, not yours!

I think most of us are not looking at it in a South Asian perspective. Maybe OP is wanting friends from the same cultural back ground as she feels that her DD friends are to wild. That maybe if she has friends of the same culture it may calm her DD down.

Although this is very much a stereotype I can say it doesn't really work. We found that DD's Singaporean friend is crazier than her Scottish friend ten fold. Although I think I do understand OP's rationale

The op hasn't really said what his issue is. Is it culture, religion, country of origin, class?

My DS is bemused when people introduce people to him as 'ohhhh nochochubby, you must meet Blah, whose from your neck of the woods!'. He says its like someone assuming that I'd (a scot, from 'naice' commuter town) have loads in common with a binman from Leicester because we are both from the UK.

What does the ops wife say? I assume that she (like me) does most of the school run/play date stuff.