Minister’s defence of commitments fails to convince

Lord Avebury, ACERT president, has received a response from Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister to the letter he wrote on July 2nd expressing concern about Ofsted’s response to two of the commitments of the Ministerial Working Group.

While the minister claims to be “strongly committed to tackling the inequalities experienced by pupils from these communities”, the letter suggests there will be no changes in Ofsted practice; “[w]here an inspection discovers that particular groups of pupils are not making good progress, Ofsted will take this seriously and investigate fully.” The minister assures Lord Avebury that the changes to the inspection framework (which downgraded Gypsies, Roma and Travellers to a footnote) do not represent a weakening of Ofsted’s commitment. Even if this is the case, the Ministerial Working Group Commitments aim to reduce inequality not maintain the status quo. There are many ways in which Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils can fall through this net; isolated learners, children moving between schools, those who do not choose to identify themselves to the Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage ethnic categories so ACERT expected positive action, focused inspections and better training of the inspectorate. Ofsted is carrying out its legal duties under the Equalities Act and no more, and the Government feels that that is sufficient.

Lord Avebury’s letter pointed out that Ofsted had also failed to highlight the problem of racist-bullying experienced by many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in its thematic review “No place for bullying.” This figured in Commitment 5 of the progress report. The Minister again offered the assurance that “the recommendations made in the document apply to all vulnerable pupils, including Gypsies, Roma and Travellers.” Again, no specific focus or positive action.

The Minister concludes by acknowledging that the Government has limited control over what Ofsted says and does, and encourages Avebury to write directly to the Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. The inspectorate is, rightly, independent of Government (with some notable exceptions) but the question then arises, should the Ministerial Working Group be making Commitments on its behalf. Was there any consultation, we wonder, with Ofsted before the commitments were made, or is the progress report a paper-thin cosmetic exercise which is beginning to fall apart?

ACERT 2012 AGM Agenda

This day will enable us to review current Government policy and plan for future action.

All who support ACERT’s aims and objectives are welcome to attend.

Click here to see map and book your place.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Saturday 22 September 2012

The Community Rooms, 50 Millman St London WC1N 3EW

The entrance to the community Rooms is a little obscure. It lies between 34-38 Millman Street and you need to look out for an entrance door with a security buzzer that lies back from the line of the buildings. There will be an ACERT poster on the door.

Morning Session

9.30 to 10.00 Coffee and Registration

10.00 to 11.00 AGM

AGM business

Welcome and Apologies
Chairs Report
Treasurers Report
Adoption of Accounts
Election of Officers
Election of Committee

Priorities for 2012 -2013

11.00 to 11.15 Eric Avebury – President of ACERT – Parliamentary context

11.15 to 11.45 Sue Clarke – Head of Education and Learning, Devon County Council -Local Authority perspective on educational aspects of the Ministerial Working Group Progress Report followed by discussion

12.00 to 12.30 Janette McCormick – Traveller Lead for the Association of Chief Police officers -Tackling Hate Crime

12.30 to 13.00 Conn MacGabhann – Irish Chaplaincy – Improving approaches to care and rehabilitation of offenders from Gypsies, Roma and Travellers communities.

13.00 to 14.00 Lunch

14.00 to 14.30 Yvonne McNamara – Irish Travellers Movement in Britain – Inclusion of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in Health provision.

14.30 to 15.00 Bill Forester – Head of Kent Gypsy and Traveller Unit – Planning and site provision

15.00 to 15.30 General discussion – ACERT’s priorities for 2012-13

15.30 Close

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ACERT-AGM invite

2012 AGM agenda

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

Just added to the Links Library

The NUT has produced a set of resources for teaching about the holocaust including a poster and leaflet specifically relating to Gypsies. You will find a link to these materials under links – TEACHING

Throughout history, the Romany and Sinti people (commonly referred to as “Gypsies”) have been discriminated against and treated differently in the countries they have settled in. During the period of 1933-1945 the level of persecution was increased considerably, as the prejudice of the Nazi regime and its collaborators led to widespread violence and even murder. This experience is usually referred to by Gypsies as the “porrajmos” – the “devouring” or the “destruction”.