Should they be celebrating their differences?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....multi-lingual-UK.html

Is it any wonder that our children's education is at risk?

/// The variety of languages at the school is such that staff have been banned from using slang terms like 'mufti' or 'inset' incase they confuse pupils.///

/// Mrs Lightfoot added: 'We have to be careful with words that the children don't recognise, like 'mufti day' and 'inset day', by calling them 'non-uniform day' and 'teacher training day'.///

And does Mrs Lightfoot consider those are the only problems that may arise?

[wolf63]

What, or who, is mufti?

Schools used to teach children to read, to write and to think for themselves.

When did all that change?

[ichkeria]

"We have to be careful with words that the children don't recognise, like 'mufti day' and 'inset day', by calling them 'non-uniform day' and 'teacher training day"

Surely that is a good thing. I'm a native speaker of English and the first I would consider weird, the second I would not recognise either. If it leads to native speakers being clearer in their speech and not using jargon, everyone will benefit, I'd have thought.
I've lost track of the number of times I've heard an interviewer pose a question to a non-native speaker in sloppy English and have to repeat themselves using expressions they should have been using in the first place.

[pa___ul3]

ace, so all the kids will be taught proper English and the opportunity to broaden their horizons with the potential to learn other languages is far greater! Wish I'd gone to a school like that! (they need a new maths teacher though!)

[vulcan]

Mufti is a perfectly good word and would be known quite well by service personnel.Strange to pick this particular word though, it is Arabic in origin.

[Zeuhl]

This is nonsense.

Confusion over terms such as 'mufti' or 'inset' are not related to race or language.

They are jargon terms similar to those that anyone who becames a parent will eventually come to understand.

In some areas Inset Days are referred to as 'Baker Days'.
In any aspect of life there are terms we become aware of if we are involved - otherwise they are irrelevant.
.

[plautus]

I have never heard the word mufti used in civilian life outside of my time in the Armed Forces, except perhaps in a police context, and even then the usual term is plain clothes. I would be surprised if most people without a Service background even knew the word, yet alone used it.

[Zeuhl]

True plautus though it may be an age thing.

Those of us with parents who served in the armed services - and that would be most people who grew up in the fifties and sixties - will have heard the term 'mufti'.

[emmie]

sure she didn't mean Tufti day, sure we had that when we were at school.
x

[Zeuhl]

Tufty in mufti LOL

[pa___ul3]

to be honest, I have no link to services and I know mufti as in dress down, didn't hear it 'til I was working though. Certainly never heard of an inset day, it was a baker day when I was a lad... which, to be fair, was a lot more recently than most on here!

[Gromit]

I am pretty sure I was never taught slang at school. And that is right. English useage and pronounciation in schools should be Best practice British or International English. Slang, localisms or colloquialisms will inevitably be picked up outside of the gates.

Not sure what any of this has to do with the number of languages spoken locally. Anyhow, I'm off to paint a fence with a Turks Head.

[rowanwitch]

Tufty club.....learning your kerb drill in a playground with no traffic ...look right look left look right again then if theres nothing coming cross the road.... trouble is in an inner city area when you did it for real there wasalways something coming... soon learned to ditch the rules and dive across at the first half chance.... and we didn't have teacher training days that took place during one week of the summer holidays and during 3 days over the easter break...

[emmie]

Mind you it can't be easy for English speaking children lumped in a class with children who's command of English is limited. Mufti is not a word commonly used in schools i would have thought. Inset day, haven't heard of that either. Our teachers didn't need teacher training days, one assumed they were already trained. Non Uniform days, only if you were suspended, or off sick.

[Zeuhl]

Inset Days have existed for about 15 years - or called Baker Days as referred to above - after Minister Kenneth who introduced them.

Use of the Mufti (non uniform) in schools may be regional. Can't recall it being used in my kids' Surrey/Sussex schools.

[carolegif]

We had 'Mufti' days, I thought it came from the British in India (Raj) and was an Indian name. We used to have mufti days to raise money for charity. I think 'inset' days came afer Baker left office.
We didn't seem to have them at all - I think it is so the teacher's can get cheap flight before the real term finishes!!

[pa___ul3]

aaah, I finished school in '95 so I just missed them!
Em10, nobody's saying the foreign kids' English skills are limited, just not their first language, could be like going to school with Welsh kids! Kids under 7 pick up foreign languages at an amazing pace.