ETHNIC RELATIONS IN A GIRLS’ COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

Friendship patterns in an urban girls’ secondary comprehensive school with nearly 30 per cent immigrant pupils were studied by a sociometric technique. Pupils were found to choose their friends most frequently from their own ethnic groups, but this was more marked in the lower streams and older age groups than in the upper streams and younger age groups. In the upper streams and the sixth form some preference was found, but immigrant pupils tended to be well integrated with British girls in complex friendship groups.