Children who count English as their mother tongue are now in the minority at more than 1,600 schools across England.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....0-school-Britain.html

How long will it be before the indigenous population of this country become the minority?

[whiskeryron]

Not long now AOG.

W Ron.

[MarkRae]

What's your point?

[sunny-dave]

There are over 20,000 schools in England - 1,600 is about 8% - hardly being 'swamped' yet I think ...

[youngmafbog]

It is pretty obviousl what his point is, but on this occasion I think this is alarmist.

If you look at families who have emigrated to the UK over the years in most cases the parents remain faithfull to the home and (why do they move if its so god back home you wonder - perhaps a sweaty could answer this ?) but the generations below begin to take on the indigenous population habits and dialects. Listening to people on the phone, especially working in London it is impossible to know what ethnic origins many people have.

So no, it is a proble at the moment that needs to be addressed so pupils dont leave school illiterate but it will even out.

[Old_Geezer]

I'd suspect the main point is that parents are failing their children by not ensuring the children have the language of the country they're a citizen of, as their "mother tongue".

[Gromit]

There are 24,605 in England so it will be a heck of a long time. Long after you and I are dead.

Of course many of the children who have English as their second language are British and were born here. And they are bi-lingual.

The majority of these 1600 schools are in a few clusters in our major cities.

[Gromit]

There are 24,605 SCHOOLS in England

[sandyRoe]

All those Welsh children, and quite a few in Scotland, not speaking English as their first tongue. Shameful!

[MarkRae]

Quite, SR. Now, if the story had been that these parents were actively PREVENTING their children from learning English, that would have been a story.

Surely, though, so long as they CAN speak the national language when they're out and about, what does it matter what language they use at home?

[ummmm]

Doesn't matter a jot!

[Kiki-frog]

My dad's mother tongue was French. But his English spelling and grammar were far superior to those of most native English speakers. That's quite often the case with people who have to learn it as a foreign language.

And just out of interest, how many generations does it take before one becomes indigenous?

[MarkRae]

> And just out of interest, how many generations does it take before one becomes indigenous?

Didn't Nick Griffin say it was something like 15,000 years?

[THEMOTLEY1]

kiki, I was about to ask same question, most of todays school-age children must be quite a few generations down the 'born in the UK line'

[jno]

this seems fairly normal. Parents speak poor English but their kids go to school and learn properly (not just through lessons). They will never call English their mother tongue if they didn't get it from their mother (or father), but their kids will; and they'll speak it just fine. Which suggests the number of non-native-English-speakers will ultimately fall rather than go on rising forever.

Indeed, they'll be bilingual, which seems beyond the power of most people born here.

[ummmm]

lol

[sandyRoe]

I suppose the children and grandchildren of those who came here on The Windrush are as indigenous as you or me.

[Kiki-frog]

MarkRae - well that's me on the BNP hitlist then.

[THEMOTLEY1]

Me too by the look of it.

[jno]

well, it's everyone. There weren't a lot of people here 15,000 years ago. Nick Griffin may still be living in a cave trying to catch up, of course.

[MarkRae]

If I'm understanding these figures correctly, approximately 1,600 schools out of 24,605 contain a majority of pupils who don't consider English to be their mother tongue. Around about 6.5%, then.

I'd have thought AOG would have been doing cartwheels on reading this, as the headline could just as easily have been "Children Who Count English As Their Mother Tongue Are Now In The Majority At Almost 95% Of Schools Across England"