Black and minority ethnic pupils comprise 5.9% of Cambridgeshire’s total school population, with Bangladeshi, Chinese and Indian as the largest groups at 0.5% each.
The total Black population in schools is 0.7%, which includes Black Caribbean and Black African children and those who identify themselves as ‘Black other’.
There are more Black and minority ethnic children currently in primary schools (6.5%) than in secondary (5.3%). The Black and minority ethnic population varies greatly across the county: 17.5% of Cambridge City’s school population are from Black and minority ethnic communities, compared with 2.5% in Fenland schools. However, Black and minority ethnic communities are growing in all areas of the county.
Educational achievement of the various Black and minority ethnic groups in Cambridgeshire is similar to national achievement trends.
Chinese and Indian heritage groups achieve above the county average across primary and secondary school, while Bangladeshi, Black African, Black Caribbean and Pakistani heritage groups achieve below. This does not mean that individual children from these ethnic groups do not achieve well.
Cambridgeshire’s Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) funding is targeted at raising the achievement levels of these particular groups. In addition, there are projects which provide additional support, such as learning mentoring.