Is This Discrimination Against The Few Native English Speaking Pupils?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/466589/British-school-to-teach-English-as-a-FOREIGN-language

Better have a multi language direction board then.

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/secondary/140498.jpg

/// In other words, all children are to be treated equally and the needs of all of them are to be met – with the exception of those who are native speakers of English. ///

/// They will be treated as non-native speakers on the grounds, it seems, that this will make things more manageable for the school, even if it is not in the interests of the pupils concerned. ///

/// What clearer example could there be of discrimination against a school’s ethnic minority? ///

[youngmafbog]

It's not very good is it.

Will please the 'liberal elite' on this site no doubt though.

One has to wonder, if there is such a myriad of languages and no common one how they will cope

[2sp_]

"The school says it has been forced to include British-born English speaking pupils in the programme, because their standard of English is so bad."

I'm more appalled at the fact that native speakers are struggling so much with their mother tongue that the school is having to do this.

[ludwig]

// "The school says it has been forced to include British-born English speaking pupils in the programme, because their standard of English is so bad." //

Either that or the school's lying, and they've just done it that way because it suits them.

[naomi24]

If the standard of English among the British born is so bad in that particular area then there's a fundamental flaw in the system which needs to be urgently addressed. Failing that, the schools spend all their time teaching people for whom English isn't a first language, thereby neglecting to adequately educate the rest.

[DaisyNonna]

Would not allow my children to attend that school.

[maggiebee]

I remember saying to a teenage relative who was feeling hard done by "Oh stop playing the martyr". He hadn't a clue what martyr meant and accused me of making up a word. Quite sad.

[DaisyNonna]

Buy him a dictionary and teach him how to use it.

[New Judge]

Yes maggie, the “Nouveau ignorance” of many youngsters knows no bounds.

Back to the question, anybody who can find a reasonable defence of the situation where English is treated as a foreign language in an English school has my admiration.

[naomi24]

//anybody who can find a reasonable defence of the situation where English is treated as a foreign language in an English school has my admiration. //

They don't have mine.

[mikey4444]

The most worrying part of this is that there are native born English speakers whose grasp of the language is so bad. This is a school for 11 to 19 year olds. Surely the problem started in what in my day were called Primary Schools ? It seems that this School is having to pick up the pieces of a poor primary education.

[ummmm]

Street talk. They forget what's proper, innit.

[emmie]

there has always been slang and not just for school children, however if the native born children are struggling with English, then that is an epic fail on our eduction system. Not to mention that if the school has endless pupils who have to be taught English, how can that not impact on the rest.
My friend is a head teacher, and she has expressed the points about the problems of endless enrolment of non English speakers into her school.

[emmie]

and she doesn't work in an inner city school, but out in the countryside.

[EDDIE51]

I saw an official notice in the doctors surgery yesterday, it was about the rights of under 18s when consulting a doctor, it was written in 'text speak'.
'The doctor shud talk 2U not just UR parents' ' U can C the doctor on UR own'
To such people English IS a foreign language.

[emmie]

Eddie, don't you think that was wrong,

[ummmm]

My son would find that quite insulting, Eddie...

He'd probably tell them as well.

[TWR]

Would any other country go to these extreams? G.B.! It was.

[emmie]

very few i expect. Surely it's not without merit that people who move to Britain who do not speak the language pay for it themselves if necessary and their children to learn the language, i honestly don't see why schools have to. If you move to live in Spain, France, Germany, its unlikely they will pay for you to learn their language.

[EDDIE51]

i was shocked that an official document was written in what is in effect a foreign language but aimed at 'English' speakers. I found it hard to understand.

[emmie]

someone should have a word with the person who thought that idiocy up