Language of Learning

To try and understand the 'Nappy Valley' phenomenon, I have been looking at data on the schools in the area. One of the data fields I have, is the proportion of school pupils for whom English is not their main language.

From the census I know that 34% of residents in Tower Hamlets do not think of English as being their main language, so I was a little surprised that 77.5% of pupils in Tower Hamlets state primary schools do not speak English as their main language- this is over twice the level of the general population. In St Katharine's and Wapping ward in 2011, 72% of the population speak English as their main language, yet in the schools (albeit a slightly wider area), only 20% of children speak English as their main language.

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Primary Schools for the Wapping catchment area

The first post in a series on the relative performance of schools in the local area. Here I begin by identifying the relevant primary schools I'll be looking into. In subsequent posts I'll look at their performance before moving onto secondary schools and borough-wide educational issues. Depending on availability I will include information on independent schools, but my focus will be on state funded schools.
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