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The united nations of our classrooms

The rich depth of Britain's multi-cultural society is perhaps reflected nowhere quite so powerfully as in the classrooms of our schools where the futures of the next generation are shaped.

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Some classrooms have become like mini United Nations where pupils from all over the world are learning together.

While some schools now have no white British pupils on their registers due to changes in the numbers living close by, headteachers say there are huge benefits to children working alongside classmates from other cultures.

Official figures show that two state schools in Walsall and one in Sandwell had no white British pupils in January 2012.

Education experts today said that funding needs to be made available to ensure all children are able to learn English.

And teachers believe that introducing children to others from different ethnic backgrounds and faiths in the classroom is good for their development and for modern multi-cultural communities to learn from each other.

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The Department for Education figures revealed that Palfrey Infants and Palfrey Junior Schools in Walsall had no pupils classed as 'white British' 18 months ago, the latest figures available.

The area has been popular with Asian families for many years and has a Greek Orthodox church in Sun Street, which is also used by people from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and other people from elsewhere in Europe.

Sacred Heart Primary School in Tipton also recorded no white British pupils and 45 per cent of youngsters were of Bangladeshi origin according to last year's figures.

There are 14 languages spoken by the pupils at Palfrey Junior School in total – Arabic, Bengali, Czech, English, French, Gujarati, the Afghan language Pashtu, three forms of Punjabi, Farsi, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu.

A member of staff is responsible for co-ordinating the work to ensure that each child's language is correctly catered for.

Junior school headteacher Gary Thornton said: "My staff have more skills and tools to their hands than teachers have ever had in the past. We are a more sophisticated profession.

"If we have a pupil from Slovakia, who may have limited English, we can still teach that pupil the same topics that the rest of the pupils their age are studying.

"For example, if we're looking at rivers, a Slovakian pupil will still know about river erosion even if they have previously learned about it in another language. We will identify and pick out key phrases, building on whatever experience of the subject they have, and give them support to develop their vocabulary.

"When we have a new arrival in school we will seek to partner the pupil up with someone, perhaps another pupil, who can go around and show them where to hang their coat and other day-to-day things. We call that peer support.We also make sure that parents feel welcome.

"We have teaching assistants who have knowledge of key vocabulary and can help to point out important topics coming up. They will sit with a pupil if he or she needs support with their language skills. The challenge is to find the spark that exists in all children. For children with little or limited English the spark is still there, but finding it needs to be done using finer tools and with greater skill.

"Operating on a patient who needs a new knee can be straightforward or more complicated if the patient has a pre-existing condition.

"Building a wall is straightforward or made trickier if the wall needs to curve around a corner."

The support can now be bought in using the £900 pupil premium given to schools by the government for each child from a low income family.

Mr Thornton added: "The benefits for us as a school come from opening the eyes of the children to different cultures.

"There are times when parts of our communities can feel quite insular because of the recession or other concerns and many people cannot go as far afield as they might like.

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"But the children benefit from each other's experiences and from being a microcosm of the world at school."

Councillor Victoria Whyte, who sent two of her six children to Palfrey's infants and junior schools, praised the work of the schools to help all the pupils who go there.

She said: "The schools do a wonderful job with all children.

"It's a wonderful, mixed community.

"My children went there a long time ago but even then, when one of them was very shy and did not like to speak in class, the head-mistress herself came to see us to help. People make a lot of big deals about this but everyone here lives in harmony and the community gets on with each other."

Across the country there are 84 state funded schools which did not record any white British children.

Most of them, 67, were primary schools while eight were secondaries and nine were special schools or pupil referral units.

Birmingham had the highest number of schools with no white British children – 21 primary schools and one secondary school.

Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, has advised David Cameron to do more to reach out to people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

He said: "What's important for me is not the colour of children but that they are taught traditional British values.

"It's important that they have a high standard of education to give them the skills they need to compete in the 21st century. Traditional values will put them in good stead."

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