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Improving the achievement of minority ethnic groups

Recommendations for improvement

Research has shown that children, particularly boys, from certain ethnic communities get considerably lower results than average on Key Stage tests and GCSEs. These communities include:

  • African and African Caribbean
  • Bangladeshi
  • Pakistani
  • Somali
  • Turkish, Turkish-Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot

Recently organised community forums in London have brought together concerned members and leaders of the affected communities to identify the causes of underperformance. They have come up with nine recommendations for raising achievement in these communities:

  • Parents need information in their own languages on how the school system works, curriculum content and how to support children at school. Leaflets on many related topics can be downloaded here. Several of these leaflets are available to order in different languages.
  • Members from the affected communities should become more involved in schools by working as teachers, teaching assistants, community liaison workers, and through parent associations or by becoming school governors.
  • Parents need to know that frequent absence from school, tolerance of truanting and long visits abroad during term time can cause lasting damage to their children's education.
  • Parents should be encouraged to develop their children's English language skills before a child starts school. Many forum members recommended that parents learn English well enough to confidently deal with the schools and attend parents evenings.
  • Members of the communities should advise on the preparation of teacher training materials to improve understanding of cultural and religious differences. This would help prevent problems caused by differences in the way children expect to be treated or react to discipline.
  • Fathers need to become as involved as mothers in their children's education.
  • Parents and teachers need to have higher achievement expectations of children from ethnic minorities.
  • Parents who are confident in English, and with the school system, should encourage other parents from their community to attend parents' evenings and school events.
  • Parents unfamiliar with the education system need to understand some of its key features. These include the understated nature of school reports, with their emphasis on the positive, and the fact that children move up the school years with their age group, regardless of attainment.

Parents can get advice in multiple languages on many topics related to these recommendations, such as how to help with homework, how to handle parent-teacher evenings and understanding school reports. The leaflets can be downloaded here.

Materials can also be ordered by telephone on 0845 6022260.

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