Category: ACERT

This month the spotlight is on EC member Tim Everson. 

Shouts of applause arose through the smoke filled air as a young boy, no older than seven, launched into another burst of melodic notes on an electronic keyboard as he lead the band, of perhaps the most famous virtuoso Gypsy musicians in the world, who followed the melody on violin, cimbalom, accordion and double bass……. writes EC member Tim Everson.

As the music rose to a crescendo, cries of encouragement were followed by the appreciative audience of Gypsy and gauje on lookers throwing down fifty, one hundred lei notes onto the child’s keyboard!

I was in Romania, in the village of Clejani, home to the Gypsy band Taraf De Haidouks and staying with the family of the accordionist, Todei and his wife. This was the last stop on a trip to Romania living with Roma musicians accompanied by a small group of aficionados of Eastern European Gypsy music. Continue reading “Living with Gypsy Musicians…..Rom mania!”

Ofsted, the schools inspectors, are updating their guideline about what they look for when they visit schools. Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are mentioned in the current framework, but it could be much stronger.

ACERT will be making a submission which we will post on the website but the more unique voices they hear, the more influential we shall be.

The consultation closes on the 5^thApril 2019. Have your say and find out more here.

“We are proposing an evolutionary shift that rebalances inspection to look rather more closely at the substance of education: what is taught and how it is taught, with test and exam outcomes looked at in that context, not in isolation.

Outcomes clearly matter and will of course continue to be considered, in the context of what is being taught. But we all know that too much weight placed on performance measures alone can lead to a degree of distortion, both in what is taught and not taught, and in other aspects of how a provider is managed. We also know that those who come to education with a disadvantage of any kind are more likely to be directly affected when these distortions happen.”

ACERT welcomes Ofsted changes as we know Gypsy Roma and Traveller pupils are disproportionately impacted by poor practices such as these. We hope this shift will encourage schools to focus more on the quality of education received by children rather than the outcome they will be held accountable to fostering more inclusive practices.