GATE: Gypsy and Traveller Education Support Service

For centuries, Scotland has been home to a large population of travelling and showground communities. Today these communities include Scottish and Irish Travellers, Romany Gypsies, circus and fairground Travellers and New Age Travellers. Most non-Travellers know or understand very little of these traditional lifestyles and distinctive cultures; sites are often on the edges of towns and cities, with little or no interaction between the settled community and Travellers.

Encouraging Traveller children to attend school

At the Auchterderran Centre, near Cardenden in Fife, a small group of dedicated Gypsy and Traveller Teachers are working to encourage and motivate the children of all Gypsy/Traveller communities in Fife to attend their local schools.

First contact is usually made at one of the three Council sites near Cupar, Thornton and Kelty, and at the private site in Lochgelly. There are also many Traveller families housed in all areas of Fife for different periods throughout the year. Between 100 and 200 children visit these sites over the course of a typical year, staying anything from a few hours, days or weeks to several months. Most arrive without prior warning and the likely duration of their stay is always flexible. Families within each Traveller group also have different views on the education of their children.

The Council’s site managers often provide a valuable link between the families and the team. They can advise when a family has arrived at their site, allowing one of the team to visit families in their own setting. Over time, some families then feel comfortable enough to get in touch with the team or the school when they first arrive.

Traditionally, many Gypsy and Traveller communities have been viewed with suspicion by settled populations and it is not difficult to understand why Traveller parents may have been unwilling to send their children to school, perhaps to be subjected to racism and bullying. Today, things are beginning to change from all perspectives.

Aims of the GATE Support Service

The main aims of the GATE Support Service are, in collaboration with schools, parents and other agencies, to:

• raise the achievement and attainment of school-age Gypsies and Travellers
• assist young Gypsies and Travellers to gain socially and emotionally from school education
• ensure that the culture, language and aspirations of Gypsies and Travellers are respected
• foster respect and understanding among the whole school population of Gypsies and Travellers and their lifestyle
• eliminate racial discrimination and promote equal opportunities and good relations between differing groups in the community
• ensure that racist or bullying incidents are recorded, monitored and dealt with effectively.

It’s a very big job for a small team. Each Traveller group has its own individual culture and travelling pattern. Circus and fairground communities, for example, are more likely to visit the same cities at the same time each year and schools can plan ahead. Others may have no pattern at all. There’s also a wide range of age groups to cater for - from pre-school children, through primary and secondary education, to early teens.

Flexible support

Support is available in a variety of ways. The team can advise on assessment, resources and teaching strategies, give direct support, teach collaboratively, deliver CPD, advise on Home Education strategies, liaise with other agencies and much, much more. Children may worry that they can’t read or write like the rest of the class. They may want to hide where they are from to try to fit in.

For many reasons school may not be an option for some teenage Travellers but this is no barrier to learning. Traveller teachers can also be found in portakabins, with laptops and other resources, offering lessons on site. They can also provide support work and distance learning packs as well as contact with others who work with Traveller children.

And it’s not just the children who need support. Parents also have their own fears and expectations. Many parents have never been to school themselves or if they did attend, even for a short time, their idea of life at school is very different from that of the classroom today.

Within their community, some of the skills taught in schools are simply not seen as necessary in their working or daily lives. Other abilities are of more value. Negotiating skills are highly prized for trading and to secure self-employed work such as roofing, fencing and painting. Calculating figures quickly and accurately, and physical skills for circus and fairground work are all mastered from an early age.

Many of the children are adept at jobs most other children will never encounter: the mechanics of an engine, helping to dismantle or construct fairground rides, running a stall, for example. But these skills are not easily recognised or valued in a school curriculum.

Benefits and opportunities

Making the decision to go to school is a difficult one for the whole family. Parents often have a different starting point, depending on their own experience. Highlighting practical uses for skills learned at school has proved a useful approach for the team. For example, becoming competent at IT packages can offer valuable tools in many areas of life:

• researching information
• communication
• making business cards
• printing leaflets.

Families can see the benefits of using computers and can link these to jobs within their own community.

The key for the team is to take a long-term view. It is important that young Travellers appreciate the opportunities that are open to them and the choices they can make while preserving their distinctive lifestyle. GATE can help by opening doors, giving support and providing all the relevant information. It may not be the first or second child in a family who attends school. Changes happen in small, incremental steps. Over time, the decision may be made to send a child to school. If all goes well, when that child grows up and has a family they too will give their children the benefit of a formal education.

Schools and teachers benefit greatly from the team’s support. Given good communication between Traveller families and the school, a support plan can be developed for each child’s educational needs. Video was used in some schools recently to enable parents with little literacy to participate fully in this planning process. It was a huge success and helped the parents to feel much more comfortable about their children’s schooling. The schools too were very positive about the constructive support for the Traveller families.

In 2005, the GATE Support Service team won a Scottish Education Award in the Closing the Gap category, a well-deserved reward for their dedication, commitment and innovative work in promoting inclusion for Gypsy and Traveller pupils and their families.