Traveller Education in the Mainstream: The Litmus Test (2010)
Brian Foster and Anne Walker
Examining the changing face of Traveller Education Services in 2010. The authors are well renowned in Traveller Education and have used their extensive experience to provide an up-to-date resource for all those involved in the education of Gypsy Traveller Young People. The information is organised in accessible, cross-referenced sections so readers can go straight to the section most relevant to their needs.
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Teaching Traveller Children: Maximising Learning Outcomes
Patrick Alan Danaher, Phyllida Coombes, Cathy Kiddle (2007).
In Teaching Traveller Chrildren educationists reflect on their professional and personal identites and the strategies they use to maximise the learning outcomes of Traveller children. Qualitative interviews with 26 heads of service and teachers in nineteen English Traveller Education Support Services (TESS) illumine this account. The Services ranged from metropolitan London and the regional northwest: the participants ranged from people who had worked in Traveller education for decades to those new to the field.
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Learning is fun (2005)
Early Education for Traveller Children
Produced by the Liverpool Traveller Education Services to inform parents and carers from the Traveller Comunity about the learning opportunities availbale ofr their children within Early Years setting and encourage them to access the provision.
To obtain a copy, please email John Cole, Liverpool Traveller Education Service
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Working with Travellers, A practical guide for play, youth and community groups.
National Playbus Association. 46pp.
This book outlines the history and culture of the three major Travelling groups (Irish, Roma, New Travellers) and examines practical ways of working with each of the groups.
£10 including P&P from:
Juliet Wilson, Development Officer (Scotland).
National Playbus Association, Norton Park, 57 Albion Road, EDINBURGH, EH7 5QY
Email: julietw@playbus.org.uk
Or order it from the playbus website or amazon.co.uk
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Gypsy Traveller Children’s Books are available from Robert Dawson’s website and Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group. Titles include: Moving On Series; Boxing; Finches; Gypsy horses; how rabbits came to England; Jack and the Troll; and more….
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Gypsy Traveller Students in Secondary Schools: Culture, Identity and Achievement, by: Chris Derrington and Sally Kendall, published by Trentham Books
The authors tracked 44 Traveller children from the age of 11 to 16 and found that only three of them (7 per cent) achieved five or more A*-C GCSEs this summer (the national average was 61 per cent). In total, 10 of the 44 gained five or more A*-G GCSEs (23 per cent, compared with a national average of 98 per cent).
However, the overall achievement rates for the teenagers are almost certainly worse than even these disappointing figures because most of the young people tracked by the study team were living either on official sites or in houses and had good primary-school attendance records.
The researchers, who presented their findings at the European Conference on Educational Research, said only 13 of the 44 had completed key stage 4. The other 31 youngsters had dropped out for a range of reasons.
More than half the parents expected their children to fulfil traditional, gender-based roles in adult life. These parents assumed their sons and daughters would leave school by the age of 14. One girl, who was still 12 at the time, told the researchers: “Next year, I’ll be at home learning how to clean up & helping my mum. We don’t really get jobs. We usually stay at home until we’re 18 or 19 and then get married and be a housewife.”
(TES, 16 September 2005)
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Educating Gypsy and Traveller pupils
This 16-page pamphlet highlights the key issues associated with the education of children and young people from the Gypsy and Traveller communities – a group described by Ofsted as !the children most at risk in the education system. They are too often ‘out of sight and out of mind’!. It describes the different groups making up the Traveller community, the prejudice and discrimination from which they suffer, their view of school education, what schools and local authorities can do and the work of Traveller Education Services.
Download the booklet as a PDF here
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Traveller Education: changing times, changing technologies, by: Ken Marks
Price £10.99 , September 2004
This report is the outcome of the Linksing and Mobility project (E-LAMP) which was sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation and coordinated by the National association of the Teachers of Travellers. Many Circus, Fairground and Gypsy children miss out on schooling opportunities during their travelling seasons. E-LAMP set out to explore the potential of developments in ICT to enhance distance learning provision for these children.
The study looked at the role of LEA-based Traveller Education Support Services and schools in supporting these children as well as examining Linksing developments for other children in out-of-school situations, such as children with medical needs and excluded pupils. This exercise suggested growth points for future development but also highlighted important practical and policy issues which will need to be addressed if progress is to be made, particularly within the secondary sector.
The report contains suggestions and recommendations from the E-Lamp steering group and also includes an interim evaluation of an important new project, E-LAMP2, and a parallel project in Leicestershire. Both projects are exploring the use of laptops with data cards which can link young Traveller learners to the internet and to their schools.
The author Ken Marks is a research Associate within the “Inclusive Education and Equality Research Centre” which is part of the structure of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Sheffield. He has been working with the department for the past eight years and has a particular interest in the use of new technologies to support Traveller children. Most of his work has had a European focus, supporting initiatives developed by the European Federation for the Education of the Children of Occupational Travellers (EFECOT) until 2003 when its operational role ceased.
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Traveller Education: accounts of good practice, edited by: Chris Tyler, Price £16.99, February 2005
This is a handbook for all schools that have Traveller pupils. It moves beyond the issues surrounding their low educational attainment and attendance in schools to outline good practice, based on proven success in schools.
Chapters deal with principles of inclusion, meeting the needs of Traveller pupils, tackling access and attendance, supporting mobile pupils. The sectors are each considered: opportunities for early years education, resources at foundation and key stage 1, Literacy for All and other curriculum partnerships at key stage 2, good cross phase practice, overcoming the barriers to secondary students effectively. Other chapters are devoted to housed Travellers and supporting distance learning.
The contributors are Arthur Ivatts; Brian Foster and Hilary Horton; Lucy Beckett; Claire Norris, Carol Ward and Sue Itzinger; Anne Jefford and Kate Stockdale; Kanta Wild-Smith; Lorna Daymond; Margaret Wood; Sue Green and Louise Stokoe; Barbara Blaney; Jim Donovan; Ken Marks; the Bucks METAS. Their professionalism and successful approaches are models for practitioners wanting to enhance the educational attainment of what is still the lowest achieving group in schools. The collection will be invaluable to everyone involved in the education of Traveller children, providers, trainers and workers in related fields.
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Here to Stay: The Gypsies and Travellers of Britain
by Colin Clark & Margaret Greenfields £14.99 (Previously published as /Moving On/ in 1999)
An up-to-date, challenging and insightful look at Gypsies in Britain today.
Here to Stay is a completely new edition of the standard introduction for professionals. Part One describes the Gypsies and Travellers as people, their origins and their different groups, Part Two considers government policy and its effect on the Gypsy community, Part Three discusses their place in British society, and Part Four looks at human rights within the European dimension.
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