Abstract
The Department of Education defines an immigrant child as one either born abroad or born in U.K. to a parent or parents whose origin was abroad, and who came to Britain less than ten years ago. This definition does not therefore include children born to immigrant parents of long-standing, or to black parents born here. Mrs Thatcher has proposed a new definition of ‘immigrant child’ from January 1972, which will take into account grand-parents’ country or origin. It should thus be possible to estimate the total population of ‘black’ children in British schools with more accuracy after this date.