thomas davison
Party Leader
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 4018
Location: northumberland
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 Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:40 pm Post subject: BRITISH SCHOOL WITHOUT A SINGLE BRITISH PUPIL |
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British primary school where every single pupil is 'foreign' and speaks English as a second language (but it still received a glowing report from Ofsted)
Gladstone Primary School in Peterborough most multi-cultural in Britain
But language barrier hasn't stopped major improvement in standards
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 13:32, 24 February 2013 | UPDATED: 17:43, 24 February 2013
A primary school is believed to have become the first in Britain where not one of its pupils speaks English as a first language, it was revealed today.
All 440 pupils at Gladstone Primary School in Peterborough have a foreign language as their mother tongue, more than six times the national average.
Department for Education figures show that, of the school's pupils, 358 speak Punjabi Urdu at home, 23 speak Dari, the official language of government in Afghanistan, while there are also 15 Lithuanians and 11 Latvians. Data protection rules prevent the disclosure of the numbers in 16 smaller language groups.
But despite the potential for communication issues, the primary school as last week celebrating big improvements in standards after inspectors gave it a 'good' score in every area - just 14 months after it was rated 'inadequate' across the board.
Gladstone Primary School teacher Christine Parker chats with her pupils in a classroom. She oversees what is the most multi-cultural school in Britain, with not one of the 440 pupils listing English as their first language
Gladstone Primary School teacher Christine Parker chats with her pupils in a classroom. She oversees what is the most multi-cultural school in Britain, with not one of the 440 pupils listing English as their first language
Despite the language barrier, Gladstone Primary School has been rated 'good' by inspectors just a year after it was deemed 'inadequate'
Despite the language barrier, Gladstone Primary School has been rated 'good' by inspectors just a year after it was deemed 'inadequate'
Headteacher Christine Parker said the school compensated for pupils' lack of English by asking teachers to provide running commentaries on simple tasks, while it teams up with schools nearby with English-speaking pupils nearby to allow for its children to have native friends.
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Foreign-speaking staff are also employed, with 10 of the 28 teaching assistants speaking Urdu, while others communicate in Polish and Russian.
THE CHANGING FACE OF BRITAIN'S SCHOOLS
Gladstone Primary is believed to be the first in Britain where every single one of its pupils does not speak English as a first language, but more and more pupils across the country are now from foreign backgrounds.
In a 2012 census of 1,600 schools, it was found English-speaking children are now in a minority, with the figures particularly startling in the 14 inner London boroughs, where there were 98,000 non-native English speakers compared to 78,000 who could list the language as their number one.
Nationwide, there were 97 schools where the number of pupils speaking English as a mother tongue was fewer than one in 20 of the school population.
After London, Birmingham had the highest concentration of 'foreign' pupils, followed by Bradford and then Leicester.
Punjabi was the most widely-spoken first language.
She said the school embraces its multi-cultural make-up, telling the Sunday Times: 'More and more of the world is going bilingual. The culture at out school is not to see bilingualism as a difficulty.'
The headteacher said confusion mainly only arises when a child's family teaches them snippets of English alongside their mother tongue, which causes difficulty learning because they don't have a solid foundation of the language from which to build their understanding.
Peterborough is one of Britain's prime immigration hotspots and just down the road, another school, Beeches Primary, can tell a similar multi-cultural story.
Of its 592 pupils, there are 23 different native languages, with only 24 having English as a primary tongue.
Tim Smith, the headteacher, said Britain's ever-changing society meant more than 150 pupils leave and join every year, as families, especially from eastern Europe, move away from the school's catchment area as and when they get offered bigger accommodation.
The Tory MP for the city, Stewart Jackson, said Peterborough would not be able to cope with a fresh influx of people and urged the city council to reconsider proposals to accept large numbers of families being moved from London due to the government's housing benefits cap.
But Mr Parker said: 'Britain has always been a country of immigration. You only have to watch Who Do You Think You Are on TV to see how many famous people have their origins away from the British Isles.
'Our pupils will grow up wanting to play cricket for England...and support England and Pakistan.'
Peterborough city council confirmed more than 100 languages were spoken in the city and the proportion of children with English as an additional language had risen 19 per cent to 35 per cent since 2008.
This is the start of the end and our government is allowing it, says it all really, Brits are now second class citizens, until they have a revolution and wipe the board clean. |
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