'London Effect' down to EAL learners and their families

A new report, Understanding the Success of London Schools, by Simon Burgess of 'The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, argues that the improved performance of London students, which is now significantly outstripping the rest of the country, is down to the positive attitude to education of recently arrived ethnic minority students and their families.

The Report states: ... the children of relatively recent immigrants typically have greater hopes and expectations of education, and are, on average, consequently likely to be more engaged with their school work. These results help to explain the ‘London Effect’; they do not explain it away. My argument is that the London effect is a very positive thing, but much of the praise for this should be allocated to the pupils and parents of London for creating a successful multi-ethnic school system. By the same token, there is less evidence that education policies and practices had a large part to play in terms of innovative policies.

Correlation is not causation, of course, and the report has already attracted some criticism along these lines, but we welcome this positive recognition of the contribution EAL learners and their families make and it is heartening to see a focus on the positive and aspirational nature of these children and their parents rather than the more typical demonising of them we see in some sections of the media and body (cadaver?) politic.