| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Major things we get wrong. | |
| Posted by: | Martin Whaley | |
| Date/Time: | 10/07/13 12:15:00 |
| Well at least one of the articles can't be true. The Mail article, dated 2009, states: "There are now ten schools in England without a single pupil who speaks English as his or her first language" The Telegraph article, published this year states: "It is thought the school, in the immigration hotspot of the agricultural area of the Fens, is the only school with no pupils who speak English as a first language" It doesn't actually surprise me (the Telegraph article i mean, i expect nonsense in the Daily Mail), but it is important to understand what the problem is, if indeed there is one. A stronger barometer of issues such as first language in school, is the performance of said pupils in the school system and the backgrounds they come from. Clearly, learning English is essential to integrating into society...but are pupils without English as first language really an issue. Since you have touted the Daily Mail as a font of knowledge about a lack of native English speakers in English schools, perhaps this story would interest you, published a couple of months after the article about schools without native English speakers!: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163212/White-working-class-boys-worst-performing-ethnic-group-schools-age-11.html |