topic How can this sort of thing be made to work properly? in The Round Table

How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

blackburn_stevie — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:23:36 GMT

http://tinyurl.com/csw7nqv

The link will take you to a MailOnline website (don't all shout at once) showing that there are 84 schools with zero white British pupils at all. So the link isn't even showing schools with only 5 - 10 white British pupils out of a total of maybe 50 pupils in the school. So how do schools with these sort of figures cope with having to first of all teach the kids how to speak English before going on to teach subjects in the curriculum? I don't know a way round it myself so I'm just throwing the doors open for your comments. Is this maybe one reason why schools get an undeserved bad rep for teaching ability.

Should kids be taken out of mainstream schooling if they come here to live at an age of 9 or above without being able to speak a word of English? Also, what happens to the kids of British parents who go to live abroad if the kids only speak English? Are the kids just put into a school class that matches their age?

Cheers for any sensible replies.

Steve

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

upthecreekyetagain — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:43:28 GMT

How many schools in the UK are there that have an all-white student body ?:|

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

blackburn_stevie — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:48:16 GMT

All White or all Black matters not a jot. What matters is a pupil's ability to speak and understand the English language. Without that ability, how is a kid going to learn?

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

lhasa.two — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:22:15 GMT

Also, what happens to the kids of British parents who go to live abroad if the kids only speak English? Are the kids just put into a school class that matches their age?

In my experience of living in 3 non English speaking European countries, either the children go straight into their age appropriate class in an equivalent of our "State" school or, they go to the local International School (either British or American) where English is the working language with many different nationalities attending.

Children have an ability to pick up a language very quickly but only if they have been schooled in their own language from a young age.

It's likely to be difficult for children coming to the UK and 9 being the starting age of their school life, particularly if they've come from the poorer areas of Asia.

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

blackburn_stevie — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:09:22 GMT

I've heard of these International schools before but it was never made clear how they worked. Do you know if there is a similar kind of thing over here that would allow a kid born in, for arguments sake, Germany to be taught the same curriculum as the English kids but by a German speaking teacher

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

bankhaunter — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:41:41 GMT

It should be remembered that a great number of non white children in schools will speak english with the local accent and there is a good chance many of their parents do also so any ratio of white pupils to others may be meaningless in itself.

There are a number of schools around where I live that teach in welsh.

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

lhasa.two — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:02:56 GMT

I've heard of these International schools before but it was never made clear how they worked. Do you know if there is a similar kind of thing over here that would allow a kid born in, for arguments sake, Germany to be taught the same curriculum as the English kids but by a German speaking teacher

The British International schools were originally set up overseas.

Have a read of this:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_school

The Americans do something similar and are just known as the American School.

No, never heard of anything along the lines of your German example. As far as I know there are no German schools here, although there is the French Lycee in London for French children and open to anyone wanting to learn in French. A German child would be taught in English here but could attend a "German" language class if the school had German in their Curriculum.

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

lhasa.two — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:06:09 GMT

Oh! I stand corrected, there's this in London and it seems it's run like the International Schools :-

http://www.dslondon.org.uk/

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

blackburn_stevie — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:13:48 GMT

Mrs. S ...... My apologies to you are needed. The idea of a school where a German kid could be taught was just an example. There are obviously thousands of kids living in England who are not getting a proper education simply because they have been brought here from overseas without being able to speak a single word of the language.

How are they expected to learn?

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

ilove2patch — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:06:55 GMT

Children learn foreign languages very quickly, far quicker than us adults. I imagine the majority of these children were born here anyway.

Re: How can this sort of thing be made to work properly?

ronnybabes — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:39:52 GMT

A German boy aged 12 was put into our Class (many many moons ago) he could not speak a word of English. Within six months he was writing, speaking, and fully integrated.

There were no special classes for him, he just got on with it.

As kids, we thought nothing of it, he was just plain Hansie to us, but now, looking back, I think "Wow!"