Gypsies – ACERT

Early literacies research

Spyros Themelis introduces ROMLIT

What’s the focus?

Understanding the original, multiple and diverse literacies of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers
Recognising the role that children, parents, siblings, community members and early years practitioners play in early years literacies
Identifying and co-creating empowering practices working with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities

What are we doing?

Learning about literacy approaches that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and communities use
Exploring the way Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children navigate different levels of literacy
Identifying strategies to promote positive relationships across communities and settings

How are we doing it?

Working across different regions of England with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
Looking at practice that take place at home, in education and within the community
Working in partnership with communities, settings and experts from across the UK
Producing materials that celebrate and support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children’s needs.

Poor start to implemention of Government’s equalities commitments

The ACERT president, Lord Avebury, has written to the Education Minister, Nick Gibb to express our concern about the first two education commitments in the Ministerial Working Group progress report, both of which involved OFSTED. ACERT had a positive meeting with Christine Gilbert (the then Chief Inspector) last year, but it would seem that Sir Michael Wilshaw (the current head of OFSTED) has different priorities.

Commitment 1 reads: “Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are specifically highlighted as a vulnerable group in the revised Ofsted framework, ensuring that school inspections will pay particular attention to their progress, attainment and attendance”.

The 2012 Framework makes no reference to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, or indeed to any other group of vulnerable children! The associated handbook for school inspection from September 2012 refers to Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in a footnote (15, p23) as those with protected characteristics, as defined by the Equality Act 2010. The previous version of the same paragraph in the evaluation schedule for the inspection of maintained schools and academies on p.5 explicitly included Gypsies, Roma and Travellers so the new version seems weaker than its predecessor.

Commitment 5 (p10) reads: “In line with its Schools White Paper commitment, Ofsted is conducting a survey on prejudiced-based bullying, which is now under way. This will involve inspectors talking to pupils about their experiences of bullying and the way in which it is handled in their schools. Bullying of minority groups will be picked up in this survey, and the results will be published in 2012.”

The survey report “No place for bullying” includes one specific reference to Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: “A third primary school that had an annual influx [sic] of Traveller children for a short period of time prepared all pupils for their arrival, exploring the Travellers’ culture and aiming to ensure smooth integration and a lack of bullying.”

Not only do we consider the word “influx” as indicative of the standpoint of the authors, but also the opportunity to highlight the concerns of many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller parents about racist bullying has been missed.

The text of Lord Avebury’s letter is below.

Letter from ACERT President to Nick Gibb

Do 2011 GCSE results show low achievers suffering from loss of support?

The trend (shown by the dashed line and the right hand axis) in number of pupils registered for GCSE or equivalent examinations at KS4 has continued to rise over the past four years. The gradient is steeper for Gypsy/R0ma pupils, which will be influenced by growing numbers of Roma pupils in the education system. The percentage of Gypsy/Roma reaching the benchmark 5 or more A*-C grades has also shown a significant rise. The fact that the 5+A*-C with English and Maths, has remained relatively flat, suggests that these improvements may be due to increased flexibility in the curriculum at KS4, of which Michael Gove is critical. Newly arrived Roma pupils may also find difficulties reaching level C and above in English.

The table showing Irish Traveller results shows a much more noticeable change in 2010, with the greatest impact being a reduction in the proportion of candidates getting five or more A*-G grades.

We would suggest that the loss of encouragement and mediation from TESSs may have had more effect on these pupils than those heading for A to Cs.

It is important to remember that these figures are based on those pupils ascribing to the ethnic codes Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage; DFE research found 2/3 of Gypsies and Irish Travellers, and 4/5 of Roma, changed their ethnic codes between Y6 and Y11.

Annual Report 2010-11

2010-11 represented the first year of Coalition Government and many challenges for ACERT.

The localism agenda resulted in changes to planning guidance which Lord Avebury, President of ACERT, said would reverse a trend in thereduction in the proportion of the caravan-dwelling Gypsy-Traveller population who are homeless, from a quarter in 2004 to 17% in 2011.
The impact of the Dale Farm eviction, supported financially by the Government, clearly signalled the new climate
The gradual extinction of Traveller Education Support Services and the reliance on the Pupil Premium to meet needs
The Inter-Departmental Ministerial Working Group on Gypsies and Travellers (but not Roma), led by Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

ACERT sought to respond to these challenges providing information to parliamentarians, stakeholders groups and government consultations. In meetings with ministers, OFSTED and the Children’s Commissioner, we sought to ensure that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils remained on the inclusion agenda. We also worked with other organisations, such as the NATT+, ITMB and RSG, to develop effective and coordinated responses to developing policies.

Download ACERTAnnual report 2010-2011