White British children are now minority in one in four schools

Yahoo

07-06-2025

White British pupils are now the minority in one in four schools in England, official data reveal.
Analysis of school census data, collected from more than 21,500 primaries and secondaries in January, shows that in a quarter of them, the majority of the cohort is recorded as ethnic minority or white non-British.
In 72 schools, no white British pupils are recorded, and in 454, they make up less than 2 per cent of the student body.
The demographic shift is apparent in many of the country's big cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and Leicester.
At Rockwood Academy, in Birmingham, for instance, none of the 1,084 students were recorded in the census as 'white British', while just 12 of the 2,779 pupils at Loxford School, in the London borough of Redbridge, were white British.
The figures, released by the Department of Education this week, have been published as a report predicted that white British people will become a minority in the UK population within the next 40 years.
The Buckingham University study projects a big rise in the proportion of the UK population comprising foreign-born and second-generation immigrants, from below 20 per cent to 33.5 per cent within the next 25 years.
By the end of the century, six in 10 people in the UK will either not have been born in the UK, or will have at least one immigrant parent, and one in five will be Muslim, according to the report by Prof Matt Goodwin.
The dramatic population change raises 'profound questions about the capacity of the UK state to both absorb and manage this scale of demographic change', he claimed.
Concern about legal and illegal immigration levels, and their long-term impact, is fuelling a surge in support for Reform. In this week's Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, in Scotland, Labour prised a win from the SNP but only Reform saw a significant swing in its favour, taking 26.1 per cent of the vote.
The party's performance has led to predictions that Reform is on course to pick up more than 10 seats in next year's Scottish Parliament elections, and poses a real threat in the 2029 general election.
The school census data demonstrates that the white British share of the young population is in decline in many areas. Children in state schools in a third of council areas are now mostly ethnic minority or white non-British, up from about a quarter a decade ago.
In all 32 London boroughs, apart from Bromley, white British children are in a minority. In Bromley, they make up 50.3 per cent. In Newham, just 5 per cent of children were recorded in the school census as white British. The figure in Harrow was 7 per cent.
Other local authority areas in England where the majority of children are not white British include Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry, Luton, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Oldham and Blackburn and Darwen.
The analysis of the school census figures excludes independent schools, schools where a high proportion of students had no ethnicity classification, and those where there were a very low number of pupils.
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, raised the 'scandal' last week of white working-class educational failure, saying that children had been 'betrayed' and 'left behind in society'.
Government data shows that only 21 secondary schools in England where more than a fifth of pupils are white working class had any record of success with this group.
Nick Harrison, the chief executive of the Sutton Trust social mobility charity, said white working class underachievement was 'a ticking time bomb for equality of opportunity in our country'.
In an attempt to steal ground from Reform, Ms Phillipson announced a new independent inquiry into white working class educational outcomes, which will be led by Sir Hamid Patel, the chief executive of a leading academies trust, and Estelle Morris, a former Labour education secretary.
While the issue has been widely researched in the past, it has resulted in little or no action to try and tackle the problem. A comprehensive inquiry undertaken by the Commons education committee in 2021 found a significant educational achievement gap between white working class children and their more advantaged peers, and between this group and their equally disadvantaged ethnic minority counterparts.
According to the report, attainment gaps are fuelled by high concentrations of poverty, inadequate resources, low teacher quality, and a lack of aspiration and investment in disadvantaged areas. Use of the term 'white privilege' was also criticised for potentially alienating disadvantaged white communities
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.