Barnet & Potters Bar Times
In 2003, there were only 324 pupils of Afghan origin, but this year there are 587 an increase of 81.2 per cent. During the same period, the number of Somali children increased from 755 to 1,186 (57.1 per cent).
By contrast, while there are more western European’ and eastern European’ children, the number of pupils whose parents have classified them as British has declined by 7.7 per cent, from 19,528 in 2003 to 18,020 this year. The proportion of Indian pupils has also dropped by 7.2 per cent, from 3,688 to 3,421.
Parents were asked by Barnet Council to state, on one day in a given year, the nationality of their child.
Clive Baxter, deputy head at Whitefield School in Claremont Road, Cricklewood, estimated that around ten per cent of his school’s 850 pupils are from Afghani and Pakistani origin. But, despite having more than 70 languages spoken in the school, and just under 70 per cent of the children speaking English as a second language, the Department for Education and Skills has rated the school as providing some of the best value-added results in the country. This means the school manages to improve its pupils’ education better than many other schools.
“I have been here 18 years,” said Mr Baxter. “Different kids that come as refugees and asylum seekers have different issues and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.”
The school has set up different support groups, working with different nationalities in the school. “We have a Somali girls group. They are very suppressed within Somalia and it’s hard for them to understand the parameters here. We do work with Afghan boys they are wonderful cricketers. We often have kids who share the same language and culture but they are from two sides of the war zones, for example Kurds and Iraqis.”
Schools such as his often have a buddy’ system whereby children who speak the same language would look after new pupils to ensure they feel more at home. They are also inducted into the school’s English-as-a-foreign-language programme.
But it is not just about education in the traditional sense of the word. “We are here not only to provide academic excellence, but to support students to feel valued as part of a community as you get conflict when pupils feel isolated,” said Mr Baxter. “They need to feel safe and comfortable before you try to put them through fast learning programmes because they become confused and that’s when you get conflict.”
The best support you can provide for a child, he added, was in class with their peers and this would normally be provided by an additional teacher or teaching assistant, who are often bilingual.
Key facts
There has been an increase of 55.5 per cent in the number of Sri Lankan Tamil pupils in Barnet schools, from 274 to 426, over the past three years.
Iranian pupils have shown the fourth largest increase, from 491 to 757; up 54.2 per cent.
Pupils from Caribbean backgrounds have declined most in number, from 1,127 to 1,015, a decrease of 9.9 per cent.
There were 1,303 pupils described as eastern European in 2003. Now there are 1,591 an increase of 22.1 per cent.
Source: Barnet & Potters Bar Times, July 8, 2006
