families of white working-class children 'lack drive'

James Curran · Post by **James Curran** » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:49 am

Ofsted chief: families of white working-class children 'lack drive' of migrants

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... f-migrants

James Curran · Post by **James Curran** » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:27 pm

'White working-class children have fallen behind because their families can “lack the aspiration and drive seen in many migrant communities,” according to Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England.'
I feel that ethnicity is a bit of a red herring here and that the real problem is poverty and the concentration of poverty in schools in the UK.
According to the OECD schools in the UK are among the most socially segregated in the developed world. As the Coleman Report, Equality of Educational Opportunity found being born poor was a huge disadvantage but going to a school full of poor children presents a second independent challenge. More and more now there is a tendency for rich children to go to one type of school and disadvantaged children to go to another type.

James Curran · Post by **James Curran** » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:42 pm

There are good reasons why poor British children struggle in school

Let’s congratulate migrant success, but the ‘indigenous’ poor deal with a hard legacy

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -in-school

James Curran · Post by **James Curran** » Sat Jun 30, 2018 10:13 pm

Coalition education reforms ‘fuelled inequality in schools’

Study shows best schools take fewer children from deprived backgrounds as a result

Sweeping education reforms appear to be fuelling inequality in the schools system, according to a major analysis that shows high-performing and improving schools are accepting fewer children from poor backgrounds.

In a stark assessment of the impact of controversial measures introduced since 2010, the study warns that an original pledge to set schools free and give them more power has actually led to a system that is causing high levels of stress among teachers.

How the drive to ‘empower’ our schools created chaos in classrooms
Read more
It finds the system is now pushing schools and their heads to prioritise “the interests of the school over the interests of groups of, usually more vulnerable, children”. Some schools were found to be engaged in “aggressive marketing campaigns and ‘cream skimming’ aimed at recruiting particular types of students”.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... inequality