Travelling Children

[Guest]

hi

 

i work in a playgroup on a traveller's site with children aged 2-5 yrs. most of the children when they leave us at 5 do not go to school, so i suggested to leader the older children could start to learn to write there name. she replied ' no point most of the parents cant read or write, it would be a waste of time. personally i dont agree with this.

 

anyone else working with gypsy children.

 

thanks

 

alison

[HappyMaz]

Sorry Alison - am still in shock at reading that comment! If children are showing interest in learning to write their name or in mark making in general, they should be encouraged to do so and be offered the appropriate support to enable them to learn.

 

I have no experience of working with travelling families, but I know that your leader's attitudes aren't necessarily the ones needed to work successfully in this field. How will you go about combating this in your setting, do you think?

 

Maz

[Guest]

thinking after half term when children are drawing picture i will write there name on the top of paper and ask them to go over it with a differnent colour. hopefully will encourage them to try.

[catma]

Have you links with your Gypsy, Roma,Traveller education advisory team in your LA, they will have a wealth of support ideas and resources I expect to identify best practice (if they're anything like ours!).

 

I know they wouldn't be happy if a practitioner was taking the "what's the point" line - it's seems very discriminatory in my opinion.

[Cait]

If they are keen to write their name it goes against all our principles not to encourage them to go to their next steps in learning!

[Guest]

Have you links with your Gypsy, Roma,Traveller education advisory team in your LA, they will have a wealth of support ideas and resources I expect to identify best practice (if they're anything like ours!).

 

I know they wouldn't be happy if a practitioner was taking the "what's the point" line - it's seems very discriminatory in my opinion.

 

 

do you work with travelling children if so do you learn them basic sounds.

[MrsWeasley]

So what she's saying is that children whose parents cannot read or write, don't derserve to be taught? Surely we should be teaching the children to read and write, in order to help their parents. Even if this is just learning to write their name. Would she take this look on children who lived in a permanent house?

 

Why is she working with travelling children if she feels this way?

[catma]

I have done in the past - and I worked with them no them no differently to any other child - start with their strengths, know their next steps and know about their interests and thoughts.

 

But every LA will have a traveller education service or similarly named so try to find out. It will probably be on your council website or similar.

[sienna]

If they are keen to write their name it goes against all our principles not to encourage them to go to their next steps in learning!

 

My thoughts exactly...

 

Every child should be able to reach their full potential regardless of their background.

 

[catma]

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/earlyyea...ch_practice.pdf

 

Have you seen this useful document - gives a lot of guidance and support.

 

Cx

[Gezabel]

As far as I know all county councils have a Traveller Education Service (TES)

 

I used to work for our local one some years ago. My role was slightly different to yours in that I visited different schools supporting children from the travelling community who were attending school.

 

The vast majority of the parents I had the pleasure of meeting could not read or write BUT they DID want their children to learn! I hate to generalise but in the main it was the mothers who 'pushed' for school attendance and education whereas the Dads were usually not so keen.

 

Sorry to say I think your leader is 'mistaken' in her opinion!!!!!

[Guest]

hi

 

i work in a playgroup on a traveller's site with children aged 2-5 yrs. most of the children when they leave us at 5 do not go to school, so i suggested to leader the older children could start to learn to write there name. she replied ' no point most of the parents cant read or write, it would be a waste of time. personally i dont agree with this.

 

anyone else working with gypsy children.

 

thanks

 

alison

that leader of yours should be shot!!

[Guest]

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/earlyyea...ch_practice.pdf

 

Have you seen this useful document - gives a lot of guidance and support.

 

Cx

thanks for that just had a quick peek will go into more depth over holidays..will print this off and show to leader, will let you know what she says.

[Guest Wolfie]

i work in a playgroup on a traveller's site with children aged 2-5 yrs. most of the children when they leave us at 5 do not go to school, so i suggested to leader the older children could start to learn to write there name. she replied ' no point most of the parents cant read or write, it would be a waste of time. personally i dont agree with this.

 

I cannot believe that ANYONE could have, let alone voice, this attitude!

[sunnyday]

hi

 

i work in a playgroup on a traveller's site with children aged 2-5 yrs. most of the children when they leave us at 5 do not go to school, so i suggested to leader the older children could start to learn to write there name. she replied ' no point most of the parents cant read or write, it would be a waste of time. personally i dont agree with this.

 

anyone else working with gypsy children.

 

thanks

 

alison

How sad and misguided - of course all children should be given help and support to make progress in all areas.

 

Sunnyday

[Guest]

Maybe your leader should be considering her career options as she is clearly not suited to her current position. I am disgusted that anyone could think let alone say such blatently discriminatory remarks.

All children and families deserve to be treated with respect and given the opportunity to reach their full potential. In my opinion your leader is failing on both counts.

So much for inclusion!!

[Alison]

thats a big assumption on your leaders part that all the parents cannt read!

 

we have children from the fair and yes the levels of literacy in most is poor but I wouldnt say that all the parents where illiterate.

 

my mom(not a a gypsy) moved house that many times as a child she hardly attended school she left school practically illiterate but because she had been taught some basic starting points at an early age was able as an adult to pick up the pieces she did know and begin to teach herself to read, so there is every point to helping these children if anything there is MORE of a point to helping these children

 

if the children are taught some basic skills then at least they have some starting point to move on from if oportunities arise later in life I would do everthing I could to encourage the children to want to know more about reading and writing so that they would be curious enought to want to learn more when they finished playgroup

 

you say your on a gypsy site and the children dont go up to school do you keep them till the end of foundation stage then?

[Guest]

I agree with all comments (although shooting the leader may be a bit drastic), this type of discrimination does need challenging and hopefully the link that Catma gave you will give you some further knowledge to enable the challenge.

 

I have not had much experience of traveller children and therefore my next comments will be based on assumptions (from snippets of reading etc I've done in the past) and not on fact. I assume that some traveller families are disengaged with our education system, for many reasons, such attitudes from your leader must surely excasserbate(spl?) this. As well as meeting the childrens needs I would see the role of the preschool is to 'engage' parents with their childrens educational experiences, to promote a sense of trust with our education system then maybe more of these children will go on to attend mainstream schooling. Not sure how factual the leaders knowledge is that these children do not go on to attend school, is it fact or another discriminatory, ignorant comment?

 

Peggy

[Guest]

do traveller children have SEN needs? because of the nature of their travelling lifestyle. They are entitled to inclusion as well.

[Guest]

dosen't this sort of behaviour make your blood boil? over the years we have built up a strong relationship with a local community of showmen, they are very keen for their children to have all the oppertunities of a pre schol and then school as well as having to spend alot of the year travelling around the country and abroard, it must be really hard for these families to juggle everything and also come up against prejudice from very narrow minded people who are ment to be caring for these families. as we all work on the basis that each child is unique surely the child wanting to develop and start to explore writing etc. should be encouraged and nurtured not dismissed. sorry to go on but we had to say goobye to a little boy on friday who has gone on tour with mum and dad and won't be back till september when he is off to school they are a wonderful family and yes they find reading and writing a struggle but try really hard to give their boys the best chance in life.

[Guest MaryEMac]

We have built up a good rapport with the traveller families in our area. Some of the parents met me when I worked as a midday supervisor and when they had their own children they came to our group. One mum was so pleased at how her daughter got on with us that she persuaded her daughter in law to send her grandchildren. Her son actually came to us to do his work experience with us from secondary school. We also make use of the CREDS team (cambridgeshire racial, equality and diversity service), they have been a great help with resources.

As far as we are concerned these children are really no different to other children when they are in playgroup. You just have to make a bit more effort to make the parents feel welcome and recognise that for some this is a great big step for them.

Your leader needs to be re-educated as most children from the traveller community go to primary school and more and more are going to secondary school. They should not be written off because of their culture.

 

Mary

[Rea]

Good to hear the equal opps, inclusive practice, and anti discriminatory courses have had an impact.

[catma]

do traveller children have SEN needs? because of the nature of their travelling lifestyle.

 

Many traveller families don't consistently travel much any more, maybe just for family get togethers and weddings and the like. In fact some of my traveller children had better attendance than the governors child who was always being whisked off on holiday during term time. Many got did well in their yr 6 sats and I regularly see them on my way to work, off to secondary school in full uniform looking very smart.

 

Some however had SEN, for different reasons but no more or less than any one else from the settled community.

 

Traveller children however are still amongst the lowest attaining groups in EYFSP outcomes.

 

Our circus children came every year and we were their school whilst in the area. They usually have a base school for the resting months and are usually dual registered for the period of their tours. As are traveller children when they do travel. The whole school was very proud of one of them when they appeared in a Dorling Kindersley book about children around the world!!!

 

 

Cx