Traveller children: On the road

Building trust in the pre-school years can encourage traveller families into the formal education system, writes Judith Napier

Staff expected a handful of under-fives to come along to their experimental new playgroup at a Scottish travellers site. But when they opened the doors, all ages - from toddlers to teenagers - piled in.

Dave Simmers, from the Travellers Education and Information Project (North East) in Aberdeen, recalls, 'Things like finger painting appealed just as much to over-fives as under-fives, because it was a new experience for them. Children up to early teens were coming along and enjoying it.'

But, despite the scheme's decade of success, traveller children receive only one weekly session. Dave says that, as in every other sort of provision, accessing pre-school resources is more difficult for travellers than the settled community.

'Our services are not designed for itinerant communities, and anyway travellers are very much about their own organised community. Their culture of family, for example, is much stronger than our own, so it is difficult for travellers to engage in normal pre-school provision. Plus, of course, they face incredible stigma and a degree of hatred that I have never come across working with other minority groups.'

It is issues such as these that need to be addressed if traveller children are ever to be successfully steered into full-time, compulsory education. There is a variety of different traveller groups in Britain, leading nomadic or partially-settled lives - Romany gypsies (whose UK ancestry dates back 600 years), Irish travellers, Scottish gypsies, showground travellers and new travellers, now into their second or third generation. These groups can expect to experience higher infant mortality, lower rates of literacy, and suffer lower life expectancy than the mainstream population. A scarcity of safe sites makes their traditional way of life increasingly fragile. Traditional stopping places are blocked off, eviction is rife, and designated sites are often in poor locations, such as by waste tips or under motorways.

The most recent figures (DfEE, 1997-98) record 28,000 school-age traveller children, plus 8,500 in the birth to five age range. Despite the efforts of LEAs' Traveller Education Services, school attendance is notoriously patchy - partly for reasons of mobility - but also because parents fear bullying or outside influences.

Jackie Whitford, head of the East Sussex Traveller Education Service, says encouraging reluctant families into compulsory education is a long-term project. 'With certain groups, we are condensing 100 years of compulsory education into a decade.'

She believes building trust in the pre-school years gives children a better chance of integration when formal schooling must begin. 'When I started, we could not wean mums away from children until about age seven, and then only for four years of intermittent schooling. Now, we are seeing children start when they are rising five, and all transferring to secondary,' she says.

'Their upbringing means they have learned lots of things, such as how to work with animals, but if you have not had access to materials such as Lego or sorted out a triangle from a square, then you cannot begin to tell "p" from "b". So, at statutory school age, children were at a disadvantage.'

Her comments echo the experience of one nursery operator with a two-year-old gypsy boy. He was placed there by his mother who was so keen to see him develop literacy skills that, when the family moved after four months, she found another nursery for him.

The boy was initially uncommunicative and difficult. Staff wondered if he had hearing difficulties - until he responded instantly to the sound of a male voice. His strictly gender-based culture meant women staff were not allowed to see him during nappy-changing. Other beliefs, such as cleanliness and animal-handling, had to be respected, too.

A nursery spokeswoman says, 'It took a long time to build up trust, but once we managed, we found it really rewarding. Every painting the little boy took home absolutely made his mother's day. And the child gained so much from it.'

Staff were helped by a specialist course in working with traveller children. However, it was discouraging to see that of the 50 children on the site nearby, only one attended nursery.

Michael Dawtry, a volunteer student playworker at a family centre in South West Wales, believes encouraging children into a deliberately informal environment is key.

Michael is himself an occasional traveller and describes traveller children as a positive asset in the nursery. 'There is no rushing around trying to make them read or write, it's more relaxed. It is a pleasure to have them, and see them benefiting from the input of trained staff.

'Generally, life on site is enriching, there is a lot of community, which really helps children's social development. But resources such as paint, glue or books tend to come only from donations or what you can get from charity.' Michael says the lack of provision for pre-schoolers, along with unsympathetic treatment, means travellers set up their own nurseries on site, home educate, or even move to Europe where the conditions are less hostile.

Reports on schools that have successfully forged links with travellers highlight efforts such as preparing explanatory videos or welcoming displays featuring the cultural background of gypsy traveller families.

The Travellers School Charity prepares educational resources that include images familiar to traveller children, such as benders and tepees - small gestures that could be a vital first step.

Jackie Whitford describes one such breakthrough, when an early years colleague visited a traveller toddler with special needs. For a long time, in the face of indifference from the family, she would unpack toys and play with them by herself, but very gradually the mother, the grandmother and even the child became more and more intrigued.

'The teacher played a lacing game, then she handed it over to them. She wished she had a camera, because there were the three generations, all playing with this toy. When life is tough, playing is a luxury, and they had never had a chance to play before.'