Ethnic minorities propel rise in pupils

ETHNIC minority pupils account for almost three quarters of the rise in primary school numbers, official figures show.

Between January 2015 and January 2016 there was an increase of 104,860 pupils in primary schools of which 74,450 (71 per cent) came from ethnic minority families.

Separately, the number of super-sized primary schools – those with more than 800 pupils – rose from 87 to 109 as figures from the Department for Education revealed the number of schools overall fell by 29 to 24,288.

Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “The tendency of the ethnic minorities to have large families is having a considerable impact on our schools.

“Local authorities are struggling to keep up with the increased demand for places. The tradition of small primary schools close to homes to ease the transition of young children from home to the wider world is being abandoned in favour of very large, so-called titan, schools.”

The figures also showed that in primary schools 20 per cent of pupils are exposed to a language known or believed to be other than English in their home, an increase of nearly one percentage point since January 2015. In secondary schools, nearly 16 per cent of pupils are exposed to a non-English language in their home, the same rise.