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ON the top floor of Annette Street Primary, a group of children are singing Flower of Scotland.

Two flights below, garlands of lion rampant and Saltire bunting are strung across the vestibule, at the centre of which hangs a banner bearing the words: “One Scotland Many Cultures.”

At the end of the hall, Miss Simons, from Belgium, is leading a language class of eight and nine-year-olds through a lesson based on the stories of children’s character Katie Morag.

“Her room is a midden,” shouts Denis, a Slovakian boy whose family brought him to Scotland when he was three.

The youngsters launch into a chorus of Oor Wee School Is The Best Wee School.

“Put your hand up if you’re Scottish,” prompts the teacher.

Half the group emphatically raise a hand. None of them are white or red-haired.

In this educational hub in one of Glasgow’s most economically challenged communities, the seeds of a multicultural future are being sown.

But last week, the Govanhill school was at the centre of a storm – branded “the school with no Scottish pupils”.

It was sparked by a Crowdfunder website set up to help Annette Street raise money for playground equipment and educational trips.

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But highlighting the school’s diverse nature brought calls to head Shirley Taylor from worldwide media – and attracted unwelcome attention.

One scathing report on the multiply deprived and ethnically diverse community referred to an "unfolding disaster".

In these times of heightened reaction to complex issues like the refugee crisis and Islamophobia, this place of learning for 222 children became an easy target for a right-wing agenda.

But the headlines were wrong.

Annette Street Primary might well have only three parents who consider English as their family’s first language.

The ethnic profile of its register might not include a single child born to conventional white Scottish parents.

But the children who populate its diverse roll, a number of whom were born on these shores, are keenly aware of the culture of their city, country, homeland and heritage, as well as those of their classmates.

Each of the pupils has a working knowledge of at least three languages. And they are taught by teachers from Scotland, England, Europe and Pakistan.

The school sits in an area with a proud history of migration where Irish and Polish families once settled in search of new lives.

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Annette Street's children are taught by teachers from Scotland, England, Europe and Pakistan. Some of their number speak multiple languages to the children, in lessons taught just yards from fee-paying Hutchesons' Grammar.

Within its 129-year-old walls, we met a multi-lingual global diaspora and saw evidence of their colourful studies on all manner of Scottish subjects.

Each class knows itself not by the standard primary set-up of P1-7 but instead by the names of Scotland’s Munros.

Down a corridor of stairs decorated with projects on the life and legacy of Robert Burns, there are pictures of Hebridean island life signed by each pupil: Huzaifa, Hamza, Manuel, Numa, Ayoub.

Behind the door of Ben Cruachan, Scottish Pakistani teacher Yasmin Shafi is preparing a class for a sunny day outing at Govanhill Park.

The teacher, a former pupil, will end an association with Annette Street which stretches back five decades when she retires at the end of this academic year.

Her class, Ben Cruachan, chatter in anticipation as they wrap their picnics in napkins bearing the design of the St Andrew’s flag.

Next door, pupils from Ben Nevis are striving to outdo each other in a race to name as many lochs as possible.

Safwan, an 11-year-old Celtic fan from Pakistan, and Mahreeb, a Rangers supporter of the same age from Glasgow, are part of a group of boys discussing the legend of the Scottish Kelpie.

“It’s a hybrid of a fish and a horse,” one offers.

Their classmate, 10-year-old Daniella, from Brazil, can recount the mythology behind the tree, the fish and the bird and the bell – a feat many a born and bred Glaswegian might struggle to match.

She tells how she went to Hampden to see Scotland play Denmark in March, singing the national anthem on the way, reducing a Glasgow wifey to tears.

In her office – the door to which bears the words “head teacher” in nine different languages – Shirley Taylor has just waved a busload of kids off on an outing to Finlaystone Country Estate in Renfrewshire, on a language and environmental trip.

Another group are on a litter-picking mission, collecting rubbish from the streets nearby.

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The school was the first in Glasgow to earn a green Flag for Eco Schools environmentalism. It now has six.

Shirley said: “We have children who are Scottish Pakistani, we have Roma children who were born in Scotland, and although their families might originate in Slovakia or Romania or elsewhere, we very much view them as Scottish.

“But to me, it’s actually not important which children were born in Scotland.

We do a lot of work in the school about Scotland and Glasgow.

We get the kids out and around Glasgow, we teach them about their city, their country.

“We educate them about Scottish culture and traditions but not at the expense of their own.

“There’s a commonality of language used in the school. We look for ways to develop them in all sorts of ways.

"Citizenship is a huge part of that.

“Our children take small steps and make huge achievements with them.”

Despite the right-wing sneering, the crowdfunding is on target to raise more than £6000 in a week.

There will be more playground equipment and more educational trips.

Unlike some Scots, these kids can sing all three verses of Flower of Scotland. They sing our – their – national anthem with obvious pride.

Theirs is the voice of a modern country.

Wherever they go, Scotland will be a part of their story.

And they are a welcome part of ours.