Teachers receive little or no help in meeting the needs of children from multi-cultural backgrounds, according to a report compiled by a former teacher in east Oxford.

The report, written by Sahra Bhatti, a former teacher at Larkrise First School, was based on interviews with teachers in east Oxford.

Although 8.1 per cent of pupils in Oxfordshire come from ethnic minority backgrounds, the proportion is much higher in east Oxford. At Lark Rise, for example, 45 per cent of pupils come from ethnic minority backgrounds and 15 different languages are spoken there.

The chief problems identified in the report relate to teaching children with limited English in early years and a lack of resources to do so, integration of children of different ethnic backgrounds into classes, and the absence of relevant training for teachers.

Cultural differences learnt in the home that clash with school activities can also present problems.

Ms Bhatti, who now works for the Asian Women's Helpline, said: "I knew of a young Muslim girl whose parents wouldn't let her take part in swimming classes. Teachers thought she was being difficult and didn't want to take part. Later, she developed an interest in physics and wanted to study it at A-Level, but it clashed with what her parents wanted at home."

Some children who have sought asylum in Britain can have psychological problems from the trauma of fleeing oppression or losing parents. Others struggle to cope with learning in English.

Watchfield Primary School, near Faringdon, receives funding from the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant to help teach children of foreign military officers training at the nearby Defence Academy.

Headteacher Huw Evans said: "It's a problem. Can you imagine 90 children arriving on your doorstep who don't speak English? Here we are geared to the problem. We have two teachers to help them learn English for half an hour a day and our teachers have a strategy to teach the children in different ways suited to their ability."

Few schools, however, are as well-prepared as Watchfield.

Ms Bhatti's report concludes that there is a dearth of multi-lingual resources at many schools and teacher training courses need to concentrate more on providing for multi-cultural pupils' needs, both before and after qualifying.

She said: "The issues are only briefly slotted in at the moment and the teaching is not really up to date or relevant.

"Teachers I spoke to said they wanted ongoing work with training providers from ethnic minorities with recent experience."