Ethnic Minorities In Schools

[deadbeatdad]

Hansard had some interesting figures last month showing the percentage of children from ethnic minorities in all schools and in Catholic Schools.

All minority ethnics: 27% (catholic). 22.5% (all state schools)

Black 7.9 v 4.6%

Mixed Race: 4.7 v. 3.7%

White: 80.0 v 80.6%

Slightly fewer children from Asian background in Catholic schools but these figures seem to dispel the myth on MN that Catholic schools are not good for community cohesion.

I've never come across the 'myth' of which you speak Deadbeatdad, but it's not one that I would subscribe to either.

I went to Catholic schools until I was 16 in London, and the significant majority (probably 80%+) of us had immigrant parents or Grandparents, including many from the Carribean and the Catholic regions of India, and we all mixed both at school and church. This may have just reflected the area that I grew up in though.

I am surprised that ethnic minorities make up a quarter of school enrollement nationwide.

I teach in a Catholic school and we have about a third Asian students, and a few black and oriental (sorry, I can never keep track of whether this is a PC term - it is in the USA, but I am confused about the use in the UK) students. In my form, we have one-third white students, and only one Catholic.

I think that a Catholic ethos school is very attractive to Asian families, who practice Islam, Sikh and Hindu faith. The great religions of the world have a lot more in common than things that divide them.

I hadn't heard of that one but I did read that cofe schools and catholic schools have far fewer children on free school meals. Not sure how true that is. I tried to check once comparing 2 schools 5 min walk apart. One catholic, one not. I could not find the proper statistics but the catholic school osfted said they had a lower than average number of children on free school meals but that lots of parents were eligible but never claimed them. How would they know that? I have never given that sort of information or any school my children attended. They had no stats to back up this claim.

reup, it is quite easy to have a reasonable idea of who might be eligible for free school meals and who isn't -although no-one would claim to be 100% acurate! I know in which families both carers are unemployed, where parents work and what they do, which parents struggle to pay for school trips and uniform and which ones don't. As I said, not 100% accurate but a fair guess. I have 1 child in my class who claims free meals, 3 or 4 who I am pretty certain would be eligible if they wanted and 1-2 others who might possibly be. I have known the parents of the children in my class for the last 6 years- you would be amazed what you get to know!

My local catchment catholic primary school (Scotland, so we have a catchment choice of non-denominational or catholic) is over 75% Muslim and 15% Sikh! That means in a school roll of c.250, there are fewer than 25 practicing (f that) catholics!

There is a straight ethnic divide, in that all the catholics are "white" and the remainder are Asian.

Yes as a teacher you could make informed guesses but an an ex-teacher myself I was never asked for that information and am not sure how ofsted could glean that with nay accuracy from a 3 day insepction as its never formally written dowm.

Well, those figures sound about right for my DC's Catholic schools, deadbeatdad.

FSM numbers are ones that the school will collect. In Catholic state schools the FSM percentage may be a little below community schools (less if the comparison is all state schools) but that may be due to a range of other factors than anything to do with admissions criteria. The ethnic minority figures are interesting though not surprising to those with DC at Catholic state schools.

Also, in Greater London the % White in catholic schools will include increasing numbers of immigrants from East Europe, especially Poland.

community cohesion can mean lots of different things, though, can't it?

does it mean a cross-section of the people actually living in that community?

representative proportion of different ethnicities?

representative proportion of different social classes/income levels?

representative proportion of different cultural backgrounds (not necessarily the same as race)

if wealthy children are driven in from elsewhere then that won't do much for community cohesion regardless of their ethnicity

prettybird - are you from the south side of glasgow by any chance? One of the local catholic schools that my friend went to was like that.

Yup

Cory see the recent Ofsted report on community cohesion and their views on faith schools in this regard