This paper aims to explore how school leaders and practitioners within the urban educational settings in UK with different cultural backgrounds to the learners bring about change in school practices (Hofstede, 1991), especially allied to meeting the needs of new arrivals into schools. The term new arrivals, which usually refers to learners who have arrived in England from abroad with very little or no English (DfE, 2007). These may include refugees and asylum seekers.  Whatever their background, each learner and their family needs to feel as welcomed as possible by the setting embracing their culture, Education in a new context and culture can be daunting for any learner especially with the added complication of being taught a new language with different rules and expectations.  By focusing on the responses, attitudes and actions of leaders and practitioners in different types of urban primary schools in England, this study seeks to add to our understanding of this process.  Any study based on cultural aspects will need to explore the contested definitions of culture and develop a critical viewpoint on how one factor could be deemed to raise standards to improve outcome of diverse learners (Reyes et al.,1999; Bell and Stevenson, 2006;  Heystek and van Louw, 2010).  The specific focus is on how leaders are meeting the needs of pupils who have English as Additional Language (EAL).  I define EAL as those pupils who are learning English in addition to their home or first language.  Furthermore, I am investigating how leaders develop policy in their schools in pursuit of cultural objectives.  My assumption is that the policy is likely to be shaped by the values, beliefs and attitudes of staff within the school, but also by the specific local context of the school and of the moral leadership.  Booth et al. (2000:9) have linked high achievement of students to ethos of inclusive cultures.  Whether there is ethnically diverse population or a more homogenous population, arguably, inclusion is less problematic in the latter but this is not the focus here, as the sample schools are all ethnically diverse.

The diverse learner population in England has increased consistently, especially in the urban regions, and with it the demand for different types of provision allied to new patterns of immigration and inter-group power relations (Sachdev and Bouris, 1985).  In particular the increase of migrants from Europe into the urban areas of England has had a direct impact on the way in which the leaders tailor their provision for these pupils who have EAL.  Research has indicated that a diverse workforce tend to have better understanding and awareness of the needs of diverse groups of students than indigenous, homogeneous groups of the workforce.  The idea being that leadership need to harness the skills, languages and cultural awareness so important for understanding and relating to diverse student groups (Lumby et al., 2005; Lumby and Coleman, 2008).

Research through the TDA and NALDIC (TDA/NALDIC, 2009) has shown that there is a mismatch in the available resources for pupils who have EAL and the leaders’ understanding of how to use this provision effectively.  This puts an added pressure to personalising learning for pupils who have EAL with limited and may even undermine the principles of inclusion and equality of opportunity for diverse learners.  The new inspection framework (Ofsted, 2010) in England places judgments on attainment and the quality of pupils’ learning and their progress by looking at outcomes for individuals and groups of pupils.  Findings from recent section 5 inspection reports (Ofsted, 2010) suggest that the context of each school is crucial in making informed judgments on raising standards.

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