Raising Achievement
Are schools doing enough to meet the needs of their increasingly diverse population? Linda Tanner reports on programmes that have been proven to make the difference for Black and minority ethnic children
f you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise – and perhaps a challenge to your perceptions. That was what happened when a Bristol school invited parents and
carers to join staff and children in a den-building Forest School activity. For while tip-toeing through the twigs might make English-born families
Removing barriers I
think of happy times such as barbecues, taking shelter evokes different memories for people who used the forest as a place of refuge when fleeing civil war in Somalia. But the staff at Rosemary Early Years Centre, in the heart of the inner city,
saw this “culture clash” as an opportunity rather than a challenge. They told a team of researchers from the University of Bristol that taking
part in the activity together on an equal basis allowed sharing of aspects of people’s cultural lives and personal histories as well learning from each other’s experiences, skills and knowledge. The university’s study was commissioned by the Bristol Education
Attainment Partnership, which includes school, college, community and council representatives, to get behind the statistics and find out what more could be done to narrow the gap and raise expectations and results.
14 “A lack of understanding on the part
of the school about cultural issues can result in misinterpretation of pupil behaviour, leading to clashes between pupils and teachers”
In early years centres, 37 per cent of children are from non-White
British backgrounds compared with 27 per cent of 15-year-olds. But the spread is not even across the city. Twenty-three out of Bristol’s 105 state- funded primary schools have more than 50 per cent BME children, while
The researchers were looking at how schools in Bristol are responding
to rapid demographic changes that have seen the proportion of Black and minority ethnic (BME) pupils go from a quarter to a third – and rising.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40