Conference success
The ACERT mini-Conference “Taking a lead”, held at the Friends Meeting House in London on September 19th, was acknowledged by most of those present, to be a positive and uplifting event. The gloomy political context, described by outgoing Chair, Brian Foster, in his opening address, was quickly dispelled by a sequence of passionate and exciting speakers from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Jess Smith, the writer, storyteller and singer, told of her motivation to campaign to save the Tinker’s Heart, while Violet Cannon, a ROMED trained mediator, described the work she was involved in developing a new project for Doncaster CVS, addressing negative stereotyping of Gypsies and Travellers.
Lisa Smith described how she persevered to get an education herself, and how she is using her role in a Traveller Education Service and her studies for a Master Degree, to record the impact of the Academies programme on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families in Worcestershire.
Josie O’Driscoll and Sherrie Smith from Hertfordshire GATE (Gypsy and Traveller Exchange) described their project to build awareness and combat prejudice among school staffs and students.
Following on from the successful seminar at Wadham College in April, Lisa Galloway described also described how she had struggled to gain an education and how as a Further Education lecturer she is committed to creating opportunities for other Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people in the Blackpool area. Brian Belton argued against sentimentality and graphically described the tensions of being a successful lecturer with a strong sense of identity and history.
Mark Haythorne described a project to support the access of Gypsy and Traveller young people to Higher Education, and John Row, a poet and story teller and Ellena Costello, from Irish Chaplaincy, Traveller Equality Project, both explained from different perspectives, their work to improve the education and rights of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller prisoners.
Brian Foster described the work of ACERT during the year, including the ROMED training and the Further and Higher Education Seminar. ACERT has participated in the Department for Education Stakeholder group, although we are increasingly frustrated by the lack of commitment or interest from officers and ministers. Rose McCarthy was unanimously elected as chair, with Valdemar Kalinin and Thomas Acton as Vice-Chairs.
Ethnicity codes
The attached document from the DFE sets out a proposal that would allow schools to use the option of either “Gypsy” or “Roma” to give parents a choice thus hopefully increasing ascription and accuracy of data, while also minimising any burden on schools. Critically, by keeping the new categories (Gypsy and Roma) relatively close to the existing category (Gypsy/Roma) we can with confidence continue to aggregate data and thus there would be no disruption in our ability to compare changes in attainment/attendance over time.
ACERT supports the idea of taken account of first language in the analysis of data in order to assess the impact of language acquisition on achievement of Roma children but we were concerned that the historic link between Romanichal and other Romani groups should be recognised. Our reply recognises this point
Taking the lead – 2015 mini-conference and AGM
19th September 2015
10-00am to 16-00pm
Friends Meeting House
173 Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ
Taking the lead
Invitation to our Annual FREE Conference
Jess Smith
Story Teller
Fresh from her successful campaign to have The Tinkers Heart recognized as a National Monument by the Scottish Government
Brian Belton, Lisa Galloway
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in Further and Higher Education –
The next steps – following on from the Seminar at Wadham College Oxford earlier this year
Lisa Smith
What Traveller Education has meant to me
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Education for Gypsies and Travellers in Prison
John Row, poet/storyteller/writer in residence in prisons