Lincolnshire school denied top rating for being 'Too White'

[Guinness Boy]

Would that be the prevailing culture which is Anglican or Catholic; royalist or republican; socialist or capitalist; rich or less wealthy; inner city or rural; Southern or Northern; those with an IQ of 125+ or those with an IQ of <90; those who support football or those who play polo; etc.?

It is a patent nonsense to suggest, as you do, that there is one prevailing culture in the UK into which others have to fit.

That's right. There are two cultures. The honest as the day is long white man who just want an honest day's pay for an honest day's teabreak so he can spend it dahn the pub and perhaps have a fight before being lovely to someone's mum, and the Bangladeshis who are all LUZZING nappies out of windows as I type.

 

[Billy the Fish]

If you read beyond the headline, you get this from the actual report:

"The report said: "The large majority of pupils are white British. Very few are from other ethnic groups, and currently no pupils speak English as an additional language. The school needs to extend pupils' understanding of the cultural diversity of modern British Society by creating opportunities for them to have first-hand interaction with their counterparts from different backgrounds beyond the immediate vicinity.”"

Which doesn't seem unreasonable, imo. Many of the pupils will live and work in areas of the country where there are more ethnic minorities than reside in the area that their parents have chosen to live in. It's not a bad idea to give them a little exposure to other cultures. If not, the risk is that they'll become racist bigots, which would surely be a dereliction of duty by the school. The report captures this by saying “All schools must teach pupils about fundamental British values including mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. That way they will be prepared for the future wherever they go.”

The school has responded by saying "school trips usually involved visits to the countryside, taking in farms and zoos, but it had recently focused on outings to a mosque and factory."

Seems pretty sensible to me, tbh.

That is providing an answer to a problem which doesn't exist.

The part in bold is just ridiculous and a great example of how the modern liberal attitude treads a fine line between sensible and hysterical. Teaching about different cultures in schools already happens - it's part of the curriculum and has been for a long time. I went on a trip to a mosque and a synagogue 20 years ago. Racist attitudes are passed down from parents and peers and harboured in the media/social media. If you take any racist bigot in their 20's it pretty certain that they went on a school trip to a mosque.

Education is key here and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but making outlandish statements about children turning into bigots really doesn't help and neither does artificially forcing the issue. As I said, it's trying to highlight a problem where a problem doesn't exist.

 

[Stato]

Absolutely unbelievable, just waiting for the usual apologists to come out with their excuses and 'storm in a teacup' arguments, no wonder UKIP are gaining a lot more support.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...arked-down-by-Ofsted-for-being-too-white.html

I just don't know how this forum would get by for the stirring up of racial tensions and sewing of discord without your fine contributions.

Thanks for committing the time to bringing us things that we could have read ourselves if we weren't so suspicious of the motive of the people who report such stories.

I think we should make you NSC minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment.

 

[Triggaaar]

They shouldn't have to , how about other 'cultures' get taught how to fit in with the prevailing judeo/christian culture and if they can't , then f**k off somewhere they do.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

They shouldn't have to , how about other 'cultures' get taught how to fit in with the prevailing judeo/christian culture and if they can't , then f**k off somewhere they do.

Because "other cultures" include aspects of UK culture that it is difficult to experience if you are a primary school pupil living in a small rural village.

The head teacher of my kids' school who initiated the twinning arrangement with the south London school was brought up in Birmingham. She was motivated by not much more than a realisation that the pupils she taught knew nothing of urban living. Multiculturalism isn't just about mosques.

 

[User removed 4]

This is bubbling along nicely. Bushy getting the wrong end of the stick from the right wing press and quote from a Tory claiming it's all

The follow up “Multiculturalism is an irrelevance in Lincolnshire with its low number of ethnic minorities" is brilliant. It seems like only last week we were being told no one could get a job on a farm any more because the Romanians and Bulgarians were all doing it for £1.20 an hour and all the turnips the thieving little rats could reasonably stuff in to their trousers.

I haven't got the wrong end of the stick at all, that's just the sort of lazy assumption I expect from you and a lot of the posters on here , I quoted the headline because it gets peoples attention , I absolutely don't agree with any of the reports conclusions .

 

[Goldstone1976]

That is providing an answer to a problem which doesn't exist.

The part in bold is just ridiculous and a great example of how the modern liberal attitude treads a fine line between sensible and hysterical. Teaching about different cultures in schools already happens - it's part of the curriculum and has been for a long time. I went on a trip to a mosque and a synagogue 20 years ago. Racist attitudes are passed down from parents and peers and harboured in the media/social media. If you take any racist bigot in their 20's it pretty certain that they went on a school trip to a mosque.

Education is key here and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but making outlandish statements about children turning into bigots really doesn't help and neither does artificially forcing the issue. As I said, it's trying to highlight a problem where a problem doesn't exist.

The sentence you highlight had a slightly different intent than the one that you might think taking it at face value. A gentle whooosh, perhaps.

I agree with your sentiments and comments.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Absolutely unbelievable, just waiting for the usual apologists to come out with their excuses and 'storm in a teacup' arguments, no wonder UKIP are gaining a lot more support.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...arked-down-by-Ofsted-for-being-too-white.html

As somebody who might, I suspect, be lumped in with "the usual apologists", I would agree if this were the only reason that the school did not get an outstanding grade.

BUT IT WASN'T. And of the three issues mentioned in the article, it is probably the least important.

I am no great apologist for OFSTED - in fact quite the opposite, but this telegraph report is biased. It's not a Storm in a teacup, because it is not a storm in the first place.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think the Head Teacher needs to take a long look at himself, then reach for a DVD of Balamory. Despite being a school on the distant Scottish island of Mull where the non-white population is less than 3% the cast were 25% black and the kids featured in each episode were never less in number than 25% non-white, sometimes almost 50%.

Under Miss Hooley's excellent multi-cultural-focused, all-inclusive guidance - and notwithstanding the constant disruptive classroom interruptions of PC Plum and Penny Pocket - the school still consistently managed to obtain an "Outstanding" OFSTED rating.

 

[Ludensian Gull]

It's in a rural part of Lincolnshire where the only adults with brown faces you'll encounter are in a GP surgery or a restaurant , down the road in Market Rasen.

As I only live 4 miles up the road I can recommend said restaurant.

 

[BigGully]

If you read beyond the headline, you get this from the actual report:

"The report said: "The large majority of pupils are white British. Very few are from other ethnic groups, and currently no pupils speak English as an additional language. The school needs to extend pupils' understanding of the cultural diversity of modern British Society by creating opportunities for them to have first-hand interaction with their counterparts from different backgrounds beyond the immediate vicinity.”"

Which doesn't seem unreasonable, imo. Many of the pupils will live and work in areas of the country where there are more ethnic minorities than reside in the area that their parents have chosen to live in. It's not a bad idea to give them a little exposure to other cultures. If not, the risk is that they'll become racist bigots, which would surely be a dereliction of duty by the school. The report captures this by saying “All schools must teach pupils about fundamental British values including mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. That way they will be prepared for the future wherever they go.”

The school has responded by saying "school trips usually involved visits to the countryside, taking in farms and zoos, but it had recently focused on outings to a mosque and factory."

Seems pretty sensible to me, tbh.

I have exclusively responded to your post and my points are in response to your comments, I neednt read the report in full as I have no great desire to comment beyond the points you highlighted.

If the Headteacher believes it effected her grading and as I suspect she is correct then my point stands and it seems unreasonable.

 

[mikeyjh]

Quite how people think that preparing children for a multicultural WORLD that they will study in, work in and live in once they leave their village is somehow a bad idea, is a little hard to fathom.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

To be fair, I mark Switzerland down for being too white.

It's snow. What are they supposed to do?

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

The school are failing to teach the children in their care about other cultures.

They shouldn't have to , how about other 'cultures' get taught how to fit in with the prevailing judeo/christian culture and if they can't , then f**k off somewhere they do.

That's literally the definition of ignorance. How can NOT teaching kids about other cultures ever be a good thing?

 

[Goldstone1976]

I have exclusively responded to your post and my points are in response to your comments, I neednt read the report in full as I have no great desire to comment beyond the points you highlighted.

Then you haven't read my post properly either.

"The school has responded by saying "school trips usually involved visits to the countryside, taking in farms and zoos, but it had recently focused on outings to a mosque and factory."

The piece never said that the report had said that the school should take kids to a mosque, and neither did I.

 

[Pavilionaire]

You could argue this the other way. Given that 90% of the world's population has no opportunity to experience other cultures within their immediate vicinity then how are our enlightened kids expected to reason and do business with these prejudiced, unenlightened and racist 6 billion people? Already our sense of tolerance and fair play has made us a pariah in FIFA, we are hated in Europe and under attack from the Muslim world.

 

[Billy the Fish]

The sentence you highlight had a slightly different intent than the one that you might think taking it at face value. A gentle whooosh, perhaps.

I agree with your sentiments and comments.

Haha, I'll take that as a wooooooosh moment then!

Last month, it was claimed that a small Christian school in the Home Counties had been penalised after failing to other invite faith leaders, such as imams, in to lead assemblies.

Just read this in the article. Things like this surely should be encouraged in the name of better integration, obviously working in both directions. I think the manner which things are sometimes highlight and reported cause more problems than the problem they're supposedly highlighting and reporting. The inference in this case is that the children of that school are somehow inferior because, through no fault of their own, of where they live (which ironically is pretty close to the definition of racism). There must be a better way of making that point

 

[Guinness Boy]

As somebody who might, I suspect, be lumped in with "the usual apologists", I would agree if this were the only reason that the school did not get an outstanding grade.

BUT IT WASN'T. And of the three issues mentioned in the article, it is probably the least important.

I am no great apologist for OFSTED - in fact quite the opposite, but this telegraph report is biased. It's not a Storm in a teacup, because it is not a storm in the first place.

There's a puce-with-rage Tory though. That's all that paper needs.

 

[BigGully]

Quite how people think that preparing children for a multicultural WORLD that they will study in, work in and live in once they leave their village is somehow a bad idea, is a little hard to fathom.

Quite how people think spending half a day in some inner city twice annually might somehow prepare them for your multi cultural world is a little hard to fathom too.

Look if a school has chosen to visit inner cities areas and experience that dynamic, all well and good, should it be a necessary criteria to give an otherwise outstanding performing school its earned status, then absolutely no.

 

[Goldstone1976]

I think the manner which things are sometimes highlight and reported cause more problems than the problem they're supposedly highlighting and reporting.

Abso-bloody-lutely.

Teaching kids by whatever means you can that they will be entering a multicultural world when they grow up can only ever be a good thing, imo. Despite best intentions, the implementation of that principle can sometimes be less than ideal, and the reporting of it by the media is often agenda-driven.