Appendix 1

Croydon Learning and Inclusion
Factsheet Autumn 2013
Information about Traveller pupils in Croydon
Context
At present, we have 369 known GRT pupils on our database. Many of these have left Croydon to continue travelling, moved out of the borough or have disappeared under the radar. Of this number, a small proportion attend out of borough schools (in spring 2013 this number was 15) are elected educated at home, awaiting school places or placed in alternative educational provision.
Schools with Traveller pupils continue to be spread throughout the entire borough with many schools having one to three pupils each. However, some of our schools continue to have relative high numbers of Traveller pupils.
Primary schools with larger numbers of Irish Travellers continue to be in the Addington area.
Likely reasons for this are that there are a good number of Traveller sites situated in Layhams Road, which is just over the Croydon border in Bromley Borough. Additionally, there is a history of Traveller communities within this sector of the borough. Such schools are Fairchildes Primary, Applegarth Academy, Castlehill Primary and Good Shepherd R.C. Primary. The remaining primary schools include a fair mix of Irish Travellers and Eastern European Roma with some English gypsies, while the Eastern European Roma form the bulk of secondary school attendees. Within the Secondary sector, once again schools with GRT pupils tend to be spread across the borough, although many of our known Eastern European Roma live in housed accommodation in the North of the borough
Primary schools with larger numbers of GRT pupils include:
  • Applegarth Primary - 7
  • Fairchildes Primary - 10
  • Good Shepherd - 6
  • Castlehill Primary - 11
  • Rowdown - 4
  • Kingsley Primary – 5
Secondary Schools with larger numbers of GRT pupils include:
  • St. Mary’s High with 20 pupils -mainly Roma
  • Addington High with 5 pupils –mainly Irish Traveller
  • Harris Academy Purley with 5 pupils – mainly Roma
Whilst a higher percentage of GRT pupils attend primary school, the same cannot be said of GRT pupils going to secondary school. There are competing priorities within the families that affect attendance, e.g. employment, housing and family care. Families find it easier for younger children to attend, but as their children turn twelve or so they begin to play an economic role within the family. Irish Traveller boys especially work alongside their fathers learning life skills. Traveller girls are also likely to be helping with childcare and girls tend to get married at a very young age. With many of the GRT families, there are low educational expectations and formal education is not a priority.Many GRT families have a fear of secondary education as they believe it will have a negative influence on their children e.g. more exposure to drug culture and promiscuity.
Special Note.
Exact figures are very hard to determine as there is a large suppression of ethnic identity which may be due to the following factors:
  • Negative discrimination in home countries
  • High mobility of GRT families
  • Suspicion and or disengagement with officials and bureaucracy
  • GRT families have very individual cultures and customs and tend to be closed communities.

Data
Although GRT pupils comprise of very different ethnic communities, the issues are common to all GRT groups – low importance attached to education, lower aspirations, lower attendance levels, access problems, low achievement rates, early drop-out and cultural norms.
There is a lack of local quantitative data in regards to GRT pupils. At present, Gypsy/Roma pupils and pupils of Irish Traveller heritage (GRT) are among the lowest-achieving groups at every Key Stage of education, although individual pupils can and do achieve very well.
Croydon Inclusion School Improvement teams priorities
  • To support GRT pupils secure school places.
  • Promoting regular school attendance, limiting fixed penalties and exclusions.
  • Supporting new to school Traveller pupils.
  • Supporting complex family cases where mainstream education is not available.
  • Fostering good home/school/TES relationships and raising awareness of GRT culture.
  • Tracking of Traveller Pupils.
  • Participating and contributing to Housing Needs Assessment survey of Croydon Travellers.
  • Collection of data, educational assessment of Transient Traveller children.
  • Assisting with investigating and reinstating children missing from education.
  • Offering of training concerning Traveller pupil/family issues and concerns

Impact on learners’ progress
Traveller pupils are amongst the least attaining within the group of vulnerable pupils and will fall even further behind without the support of this service. Impact on learners’ progress is hard to quantify, however, below are three examples of success stories.
Example 1:
A Roma pupil identified who, although had been living in the UK for 3 ½ years, had never attended school either in their home country or the UK. The parents believed that as they had no official documentation, their child could not attend school. The TES working with the local school and the family have now enrolled and sustained school attendance for the pupil. Although the pupil’s learning is currently substantially lower than that of his peers, the school has been given support, guidance and resources to enhance the pupils learning. Good family home/school relationships have been established and are being maintained. The family are now in receipt of entitled benefits and being offered support with their college-aged child. The family have also been offered and encouraged to extend their own English language skills and in so can be given further educational opportunities for them to take up and in so increase their employment prospects.
Example 2:
Two Roma twins who have been known to TES for a number of years and have always found accessing education very challenging. A need for SEN statements recognised in early primary years did not materialise due to constant travelling and several school changes. The mother of the twins was extremely apprehensive and non-co-operative about the children transferring to secondary school. The TES working collaboratively with the local school, the family and the pupils did ensure the transition to secondary school. Support and educational assessments were provided to support the SEN statement applications. One of the twins does now have a SEN statement and is in the process of being transferred to a more appropriate setting where they will receive the specialist support they require. The other is soon to also receive a SEN statement and is also being given extensive additional support. Pupil attendance has also been improved directly following home/school support with the TES. Both the mother and the father of the twins have been encouraged to attend literacy classes and are endeavouring to improve their own learning and achievement.
Example 3:
Over the past year, Croydon has had high numbers of transient Travellers, permanently illegally encamped within the borough together with other families visiting the borough sporadically.
During this time, the TES has enabled many of these children to attain and sustain school places both within Croydon and its neighbouring borough schools. The children are all from highly mobile families that face constant eviction orders. Due to this constant upheaval, parents face extreme difficulties in getting their children to school regularly and on time. In many cases this has happened and is continuing due only to the involvement, help, cooperation, flexible approach of the schools involved and the TES teams’ constant communication and negotiation with senior leaders in the school.
All of these transient Traveller pupils previously has no or very little education within the state education school system.
Future priorities/Challenges
Priorities
  • Accelerating the admission procedures, thus enabling Traveller pupils to be allocated school places more quickly
  • Investigate the use of Pupil Premium funding in order to improve Traveller pupils learning and achievement
  • Increase the number of Traveller pupils participating and finishing their secondary education together with more vocational training opportunities made available and completing these successfully.
Challenges
  • General lack of documentation within the Traveller communities resulting in families not always receiving entitled benefits and welfare payments.
  • There is a definite need for a Transient Traveller site within Croydon, which would enable more transient Travellers to secure and maintain school places.

Team Details
The GRT team comprises of two members based on
4th Floor, Bernard Weatherill House, 8 Mint Walk, Croydon CR0 1EA
Sarah Clark– Full time.
Contact details:
Tel: 020 87266000 x88670
Pauline Barry - Part-time (0.6)
Contact details:
Tel: 020 87266000 x63255

Inclusion Factsheet: Pauline Barry and Sarah Clark December2013