Primary school in deprived area

[WaryDeer]

DS has started at the local primary school this year.

The staff are well meaning and kind but I'm a little worried we messed up in choosing this school. I sense that they are catering to a minimum standard but not resourced to facilitate children reaching their full potential beyond that minimum.

To give more context, we live in an urban area characterised by high immigration and transience. Approaching 100% ethnic minority and English as an Additional Language. The fellow parents are pleasant enough at the gates, but they tend to cluster into groups based on home country language, and in many cases are recent arrivals to the UK with the rudimentary level of English that comes with that. They also move on frequently with about 35% transience (double the UK average I believe). DS has friends in the classroom but no mixing outside of school.

I'm starting to think we've made a mistake by sending DS to this school. When we sent him there we were thinking it would be nice for to grow up amongst diversity and good for his social development, and that we could make up any educational shortfall relative to more affluent areas with tutoring and support at home. We were then planning to move to a more traditionally "nice" area in time for secondary school - possibly even catchment for one of the grammar schools that exist not too far away.

Hand on heart, if money were no objective then I don't think we'd have stayed living where we do. But we can't change the past. I'm just wondering what to do now. All being well we could afford to move to a "nicer" area in a couple of years.

1. Would it make sense to move schools as soon as possible?
2. What can we do to make the most of the situation?
3. I've become a parent governor. I don't expect to have any power as such, but is there anything I can leverage in the role to make the best of things?

I would try to move him as soon as possible. I wonder how much teaching is actually going on, if a lot of the kids can't actually speak English fluently?

I too wanted my DCs to benefit from a multicultural environment but you seem to suggest that you’re almost the only English speaking family at the school- I wouldn’t be happy with this, for social/friendship reasons most of all.

I’d look at which other schools in the area have spaces and/or look at moving areas. You don’t want to move your child twice.

"I sense that they are catering to a minimum standard but not resourced to facilitate children reaching their full potential beyond that minimum."

What is your evidence of this actually for DS? Clearly a school that only expects children to meet a minimum standard regardless of ability, is not a good school, and no-one should want their child to go there. However, the evidence you produce for this is that the parents cluster in their own ethnic groups outside the school. This is not evidence that DS is not being encouraged to meet his potential in any way? Real evidence that DS is struggling in any way due to the ethnic make-up of the school?

We have many children who don't speak English as a first language - we teach them by speaking to them in English. They still do the same lessons such as phonics etc, and currently most of the children in reception are on track with their phonics skills. We don’t specifically teach them to speak English!

From a staff perspective I'll give my insight, and as a parent governor OP you can do a lot to make positive changes. Our school was a very white school which changed fairly rapidly, nowhere near what the OP's is but I'd say about 20% BAME now. Parents who don't speak English will naturally form groups with other parents who speak the same language, this is completely normal and anticipated, especially if they are relatively newcomers. The same with pupils. Viewing this as 'problematic' not only isn't fair or reasonable, but is counterproductive (there is a study on newcomer children which talks about this). I noticed a lot of the longstanding local parents made absolutely no effort to welcome them or even acknowledge them either, thus forcing them to 'segregate' even further.

Our Head was really good and put forward initiatives to make everyone feel relaxed and part of the school. There was an informal coffee morning/english conversation class once per week, which had a good uptake, the mums came in groups and with each other they felt more confident and willing to participate. The Head also made it a thing to talk about the cultures/faiths of newcomers in assembly, not in the "Mohammed is a Muslim, he believes..." but in a very inclusive way, which celebrated diversity and difference and the children saw this as something good and were genuinely interested. Asking parents if they would like to share their experiences to the class is also a lovely thing, or bringing in items of clothing or the like that ties in with what you are doing is another nice thing, both for the adults and the children.

OP it's important also to realize that for many people globally school is a place to learn and socialize, you are not required or expected to socialize closely outside of school, nor are parents expected to be friends. Many of our newcomers were wary of this idea and the notion of playdates where you drop your child off (to a household you don't know) was a complete no-no. If this is important to you, perhaps you could suggest taking them out to a neutral, low cost or free venue (they might not have money to go to soft play/coffee) first to get to know each other. On the other hand many children have after school/weekend schools for religious/language purposes and will not have time to meet up.

There's a lot you can do with your son to celebrate the diversity and open up his world from home. Even your attitude can make a big difference, "Lanxin goes to another school every Saturday and Sunday to learn Mandarin? Isn't that amazing, it's so cool to learn another language", rather than making out it's a punishment or some form of cruelty (I've heard these things from parents). Or Ahmed came from Somalia last year, how do you think life might be different there/have you asked him to teach you how to say 'school' in his language? I found that the parents who had this approach, their dc were the ones who really benefitted and were very open minded and nice individuals. I distinctly remember one girl who used to put her hand up and announce that "Egor is speaking Polish again!" as if this was a crime, and I realized that her parents viewed this as something very wrong, and as a result she did too.

Also important to realize that some parents aren't really bothered, about education in general and/or facilitating friendships and becoming a 'school family'. Any time a thread is started on here about playdates it's full of "I hate playdates, don't have time/inclination/energy/don't want my house to get messy".

My dd is a few years older than yours. The composition of the school sounds very similar to yours. She's got good friendships within school, but this only occasionally extends to play dates or parties outside school. This wasn't always the case. In the first couple of years, we built up good relationships with some other families, but they all moved away.

Since then, I've tried to make connections with other parents, but with limited success. It's not helped by the fact that I can only pick her up once a week, so not much opportunity to chat at the school gates. I completely understand why other parents focus their friendships on people from their culture.

I can't fault the school. There's a huge range of abilities within the year, including childrem who have arrived mid year without being able to speak English. My dd is bright and loves learning. She's never felt bored. I can see she's learning really well and making great progress. So I wonder if you should move schools.