The Gypsy and Traveller Achievement Project was set up to raise the attendance and achievement of all Gypsy and Traveller pupils in school, ensuring their educational and social inclusion and also to engage their parents. Six LAs took part, they were Leeds, Dorset, Kent, Greenwich, Herefordshire and Cheshire, each receiving a one off payment of £10,000 for each school participating in the project and £5,000 for centrally incurred costs. The project ran from November 2003 - August 2004.
Each LEA and school were asked to undertake the following:
An analysis of retrospective attendance data and the monitoring of current attendance to identify client priority, any trends in their pattern of attendance, set and monitor realistic and measurable targets;
An analysis of baseline attainment data from primary and current school, set and monitor appropriate and measurable targets;
Engagement of parents/representatives from the wider Travelling communities in the life and work of the school, including possible involvement in governance with the objectives of boosting confidence in ethnic identity.
In addition, they could choose to undertake the following activities:
Conduct pupil interviews - either in group or 1-1 setting to identify thoughts around how they feel about school, the curriculum, responses to bullying/racist incidents as part of the process of evaluating the school's effective implementation of their Race Equality Policy;
The disapplication of the KS3 curriculum, where appropriate in individual cases, with sound and imaginative curriculum alternatives.
Schools were expected to:
Designate responsibility to a Head of Year to oversee the project;
Deliver whole school staff training to increase knowledge of history, culture and values of Gypsy and Traveller communities;
Where appropriate, produce alternative curriculum materials at KS3;
Produce a report;
Participate in an evaluation seminar to discuss outcomes and disseminate good practice;
Be responsible for the sustainability of activities undertaken once the project has ended.
They were also expected to take into account the good practice guidance on raising the achievement of Gypsy and Traveller pupils.
Although not all Gypsy and Traveller children are from a minority ethnic group, this project helped participating LEAs and schools to comply with their statutory requirements under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to monitor and assess the impact of their policies on children from Gypsy Roma and Travellers of Irish Heritage background who constitute a recognised minority ethnic group.
Evaluation
An evaluation to determine the success of the project and to identify good practice has been completed. The final report will soon be published on the website.
