On the move with Scotland’s Travelling
Communities:
Supporting learning and teaching; Connecting
learners and teachers.

Gypsy and Traveller Communities across the
UK
• Scottish Travellers - Gypsies/Travellers
Scotland’s oldest indigenous ethnic minority
• Irish Travellers, Romani or Romanichals from
England & South Wales
• European Roma Gypsies - 20th & 21st centuries
(EAL)
• Occupational Travellers; Fair and Show
Travellers, circus Travellers
• New Travellers
• People not belonging to any of above who live in
caravans

Where do Travellers live?
Where do Travellers live?
• Local authority sites, private sites,
roadside encampments, yards and houses
• Many Traveller families live in houses for
all or part of the year, but retain their
diverse cultural identities and family-based
lifestyles

How many Gypsy and Traveller pupils attend
Scottish schools?
• National statistics on ethnicity
• Unreliable figures due to non- disclosure
• Why Traveller families hide their cultural
identities?

Gypsies and Travellers
barriers to education
• Many non-Travellers still view
discrimination of Travellers as socially
acceptable racism
• Shared feature of differentiated
histories, cultures and family based life-
styles
- mobility
-experience of interrupted learning
• Traveller pupils’ learning needs are as
diverse as many mainstream pupil
population

Highly mobile children may find it difficult to
access a ‘school-based’ education
• Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act (2000) –
entitlement to ‘a school education’
• National Guidance- Inclusive Education for Gypsies
and Travellers (2003)
• Additional Support for Learning Act (2004) &
Code of Practice (2006)
• HMIe’s HGIOS -Taking a closer look at Inclusion
and Equality: Meeting the needs of Gypsies and
Travellers (2005)
• Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000)

Encouraging families to send children & young people
to school?
Outreach working with families to make and
maintain trust between families and:
– Designated teachers (also called
dedicated)
– Site managers
– School staff
– Colleagues from other agencies offering
support
Interagency working within a local
authority and across local authority
boundaries

The long way round – a case study

Good communications are vital!
• Designated staff
– accompany school staff to home visits
– accompany parents to meetings at school
• School staff
- establish direct communications between
Traveller family and school staff
- Travellers may not read or understand
written communications - including school
booklets
- Pick up the phone - be a good listener -
respect privacy of information - regularly
update emergency contacts

Multi-agency working
• Clearly identify role
• Issues that impact on education
• Facilitate access to information and
services
• Networks of support – local and national
• Sharing of information
• Transference of trust

Traveller parents’ concerns about schools
• Personal experience
• Their own lack of literacy
• Security of children away from family
• Social exclusion, bullying and racism
• Different values and expectations
• Cultural differences

Enrolment - flexible beginnings
Offer help (sensitively) if required with the
following:
• Which school?
• Transport from site
• Form filling for uniforms for meals
• Attendance and absence (STEP DVD)
• Let family know that school staff
understand about travelling lifestyles
• & that child’s return is welcomed by the
school

Curriculum for Excellence
• Be aware of and celebrate skills valued by
Gypsy and Traveller families
• Many pupils within their own communities
are well on their way:

successful learners

confident individuals

responsible citizens

effective contributors

Assessment is for
Learning - reflecting
achievement
Would children from non-
Traveller
communities be able to identify
• A lurcher
• A Weippert
• A screeve
• Standard formal testing
often inappropriate as
culturally irrelevant &
insufficiently flexible

Mismatch between
learning priorities & skills
• Formal literacy/numeracy - shaped by age/stage
approaches - clash with Oral cultures
• Interrupted learning or learning difficulties?
• Ask a pupil “what do you feel you need to learn?”
• Children learning formal skills at a later stage may
progress quickly - prioritise
• Place according to ability rather than level of
attainment - RELAX many ways to record success!!!

Inclusive educational approaches
Class teachers support?
• Colleagues at school
• Learning Support
• Support Services - designated teacher
• Scottish Traveller Education Programme
• Traveller Education Network (TENET)
• LTScotland - Inclusive education
• HMIe

Inclusive educational strategies
• Relax and allow a settling in period
• Assessment is for Learning - specialist
resources e.g. IRAG
• Flexible placing & timetabling, regardless
of age/stage
• Working with others - buddies
• explaining the school day, scribing, helping
with reading instructions, paired reading,
sharing ICT literacy support - just what
you would do for all pupils

Children feel included if lifestyles are
reflected in class room resources & displays
• Resources representing Gypsy and
Traveller cultures available for all pupils
• Resources to meet differences between
age and stage available for all pupils with
interrupted learning

Homework - additional support needs?
Offer same opportunities as for other pupils, BUT -
• Be understanding about non-completion
– Family not able to support
– May not have resources for homework
• Opportunity for school to be creative in use of
Additional Support for Learning - good practice
- Review homework help for all pupils
- Homework club on site?

Alternative provision
• Learning in out of school settings
• Avoidance of racism – safe environment
• Learning seen as relevant
• Limited provision – dependant on time
provision and resources
• Maintain contact – lifelong learning
• Access to accreditation?

Distance learning - ICT supported futures
• Gypsy and Traveller learners (and others with
interrupted learning)
• Gypsy & Traveller families
• class and designated teachers of Travellers
(TENET)
• ICT development and support officers
• Education Authorities
• GLOW services
• LTScotland
• Scottish Traveller Education Programme
• Voluntary Organisations supporting Travellers
• Scottish Government

Useful websites
www.scottishtravellered.net
(STEP’s website providing contacts, networks,
publications, papers, cultural information and
resources for teachers)
www.natt.org
Professional organisation of teachers of
Travellers sharing good practice, information and
resources.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/2808393
2/0 (for statistics)