More than 400 youngsters entered education since the beginning of the autumn term. Today, the director of education at Peterborough City Council called for parents to get behind them to demand more cash. Chief reporter David Old looks at the impact migration is having on the education system.

A RALLYING call has gone out to parents in Peterborough to help the city council lobby the Government for more cash for education.

Director of children's services Ben Ticehurst is appealing for Evening Telegraph readers to support Peterborough City Council's plea for more money to deal with the spiralling number of migrant children flooding into the city.

As revealed in The ET yesterday, a staggering 428 migrant children enrolled at 53 Peterborough schools in the autumn term last year.

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In yesterday's Evening Telegraph we revealed figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act which reveal that 428 migrant children enrolled in 53 Peterborough schools in the 2007 autumn term, – 272 in the secondary system and 156 in the primary system. They were absorbed by all 10 local authority maintained secondary schools and 43 out of 57 primary schools.
The 428 pupils speak 35 different languages. More statistics and yesterday's article on the issue
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In the city's Fulbridge Primary School alone, youngsters speak 32 different languages and come from all over the world.

The story is similar in many other schools and it is stretching the system to the limits and giving headteachers logistical headaches.

John Gribble is former head of Bretton Woods, which was closed to make way for the Voyager.

He said: "In my experience of the last two to three years the intake of children from Eastern Europe was the biggest.

"They were extremely talented and their learning curve was very sharp.

"But there are a number of additional costs involved if the children are to be properly integrated."

They include having to recruit teaching assistants who speak the language so they can communicate with the parents of the pupils.

"We certainly did that at Bretton Woods for Portuguese, Polish and Lithuanian pupils, and it worked well," he said.

City schools are bracing themselves for a further 250 youngsters looking for a school place by the end of the school year.

The sheer number of Slovakian children in Peterborough schools has prompted the Government there to pay for five teachers to work in three city schools to help cope with the large numbers of its nationals.

While pointing out the positive impact new arrivals bring to the school system, Mr Ticehurst admitted the city was in desperate need of a cash injection from the Government.

Mr Ticehurst said: "The recent wave of immigration into the city does present a practical challenge, simply because it is tricky to assimilate so many new learners with such a diverse range of characteristics in such a short time.

"It also presents a real financial challenge to the council, because Government funding rules don't treat us fairly."

Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson said: "Myself and the city council have been lobbying very hard with the Government for at least the last two years.

"These figures speak for themselves. It really shouldn't take the Slovakian government to be funding education in Peterborough.

"We do need a proper audit to look at the pressures that certain parts of the country are under as a result of migration from EU countries – particularly education and housing.

The Government needs to recognise and respond to these figures and make sure all of the children in Peterborough get a good education and that pressures, particularly in primary school education , don't impact on other children.

"Enormous amounts of resources are being focused on teaching children to speak English where it should be focusing on the core curriculum."

North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara fears the Government is not taking the "rapid changes occurring in the city" into account when allocating funding.

He called on the powers-that-be to consider up-to-date population figures so schools in the area get the funding they need and deserve.