Is it worth trying for a place at Redland Green School?

[Brainwracked]

We are moving to the Bristol area and can't decide between Redland Green and Backwell Schools. Is it worth makig the effort to get our DD into Redland Green? We would have to pay through the nose to rent a house within 700 metres of the school and although we would love to live there, chances are we wouldn't get a place at the school anyway since we won't be moving until March or April. I think Backwell School is good for performing arts, which is DD's main interest, but we worry about becoming isolated in a small community and having to commute a lot to Bristol. Can anyone share experience of this?

Not sure what your point is, HooNose. That there is a higher % of minority ethnic groups in Easton? Sure. But that doesn't mean that it is predominantly minority ethnic.

No sorry, my point was that the UK is still over 90% white. I took exception to whoever it was trying to imply that those of us living in white areas are somehow shielding our children from other ethnic groups. I know city dwellers are seen as living with their fingers on the pulse of society and being right on and in touch with modern life blah blah blah, and us country dwellers are fuddy duddy and out of touch and living in our fluffy white cocoons etc etc etc, but actually, city dwellers often seem to me to be the ones out of touch with the majority.

Minor point. Not really important in this debate I guess. It just annoys me.

I wonder how it would be received if I said
I wanted to live somewhere more white? Do you think that's as acceptable as saying I want to live somewhere more Muslim? And saying that somewhere is 'racist' but not 'crime ridden'?

Seems to me yet again it's okay to throw insults at some groups/areas but not others.

It's peculiar that people think crime and anti social behaviour doesn't spill into schools, of course it does. Noone has asserted that there are no drugs in all schools, but of course in some schools parental support and general behaviour is higher as are the results.

Riven: and many people deliberately avoid sending their children to a church school. So is it ok for them to also avoid sending them to a school with a large proportion of Muslim pupils?

The fact of the matter is, if all schools in Bristol performed well, most people would want to send their child to the nearest school.

Unfortunately though, the state of education in Bristol is known about throughout the country (didn't they have something like 14 schools performing at the lowest levels nationally last year? - something like that anyway). It is a total disgrace that a lovely city like Bristol is unable to get its act together and provide good education for the majority.

I would agree with that. I know a number of people who went to schools that most people would not consider for their kids, and ended up with a string of As at A-Level, Oxbridge offers, etc.

Whatever the statistics about the ethnic make up of areas, if you went into a primary school in the part of Easton I know well (round St Marks Road), you would not find a classroom with a 75% majority of white children. I'm not drawing any conclusions about the school from this, but there's no point pretending there ISN'T a high level of cultural segregation in Bristol. To do so is disingenuous.

As I said earlier, I actively chose a primary school that was not as primarily white-middle-class as the one we were first offered (despite it getting far better results), for lots of reasons, but one important reason was that I wanted the children to be educated in a multi-cultural, demographically varied school. That would hold true for me for any school - whether the majority group was white or whatever.

I strongly disagree with that. It is not just about supportive parents, it is also bullying, drugs, gangs or social groups. I was talking to a man the other day whose son is an astro physicist, all of his son's friends have done well working as spooks/doctors/lawyers etc. He said his son was fortunate to get in with the right crowd, his daughter has wasted the last few years and so have all of her friends. If education was simply about how much effort parents put in noone would give a crap about where their dcs went to school.

Hmm, it is not a risk I am willing to take. My children are bright but they are teens or going to be teens and I know what I was like as a teen. I wasted my opportunities and I can't say my children won't do the same.

Therefore, although I know they could do well wherever they go to school, I am not prepared to lower the odds by sending them to a school where there is a lot of disruption and disaffection. Unfortunately, even in their "outstanding" school, I still think there is too much disruption and disaffection but there is not much I can do about it.

OK, Lily, but what you originally said was "you can't deny that if you go into Easton there is a majority of one ethnic group". That's a bit different.

A very big reason that the schools are so segregated is that parents take fright when their kids reach 3 and move out to burbs for access to 'better' schools.

I'm not perfect, typing one handed whilst feeding baby I don't always phrase everything perfectly.

The parts of Easton I know are certainly not 75% white either, which suggests that Easton itself is segregated. I totally don't have a problem with that (before anyone shouts racism), but I think for the purpose of this discussion it's worth working out the true facts.

For the purposes of this discussion, do feel free to post some evidence in support of your 'true facts'.

Inter...could you clearly show some evidence of cultural integration in Easton? Because Southmead was filmed not so long ago and clearly showed the racist treatment toward a Muslim women, this is a very visible sign of segregation and ignorance.

Ok. look at ofsted reports for schools in the area.

Pupils' backgrounds are extremely diverse and many minority ethnic groups are represented at the school. The two largest groups are pupils from Pakistani and Black African backgrounds. The large majority of pupils speak English as an additional language and a small minority are at the early stages of learning English.

and another;

This is a large inner-city school in which a substantial proportion of pupils come from homes experiencing overcrowding and economic hardship. Almost all pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and a high proportion speak English as an additional language. The ethnic composition has changed since the last inspection and now includes a group that are especially transient.

and another;

That would seem to be fairly factual in terms of the make-up of the schools, which is a good indicator of the area - the parts I know are probably the most likely areas for children to live. Don't know about the other areas.

(that post in response to the request for 'evidence of segregation')