ACERT "not convinced" scrapping school law will help Traveller students
Gypsies and Travellers and those who work with them have until 22nd February to respond to the Government's plans to axe section 444(6) of the Education Act, which gives a legal defence to the parents of children who miss school because of Travelling.
Below is a statemnt from ACERT, the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers, explaining why they think scrapping this law will not help Travellers do better in school.
ACERT is not convinced by the arguments put forward in the supporting document. We are in absolute agreement that children who attend poorly are unlikely to achieve well, and that this is a major issue affecting the outcomes of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller learners. However, none of the evidence put forward relates specifically to s444(6) defences. Reference is made to Charlie Taylor’s review, which describes a range of situations familiar to those of us who seek to improve attendance of children from these communities, but makes no reference to mobile families.
See the ACERT website and leave a comment.
Distance Learning has been developed over a period of years to enable children from families who move from place to place to seek work to continue to follow the curriculum.
However, support for Distance Learning has been undermined in recent years by:
- cuts to Traveller Education Support Services and/or restrictions on their roles,
- the demise of ELAMP (the Electronic Learning and Mobility Project) and the successor Home Access programmes, other than for pupils with Special Needs
- the increase in the proportion of Secondary Schools no longer under local authority control, and
- the emphasis by the DFE and OFSTED on narrower, school-focused definitions of teaching and learning.
The repeal of s444(6) would add another nail to the coffin, and remove another element of the flexibility that all research has shown to be the key to improving the outcomes of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. Poor attendance by these children is a serious problem, but there is no research evidence to suggest that s444 might be a cause.
Distance Learning is a positive response to the challenge of maintaining educational continuity for nomadic children, but the Government has taken decisions that have undermined it. The repeal of s444 (6) is a negative response to nomadism, which will not contribute to better attendance but will increase the difficulties faced by mobile families.
ACERT believes that the challenges faced in raising the achievement of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are complex and deep-seated. The leave-it-to-schools approach, and OFSTED’s focus on groups are not sufficient to ensure children from these communities reach their full entitlement. Government needs to provide guidance on the range of strategies schools can use to promote good attendance, inclusion and opportunities. Its own research, for example, identified Safety and Trust, Mutual Respect, High Expectations, Working in Partnership, Flexibility and support for Access as the key strands in the practice of schools identified as improving outcomes.
In ACERT's view the repeal of this law undermines all these principles. It encourages parents to opt out of an inflexible education system, which fails to recognise or respect their culture and ways of making their living and ignores the practical problems of mobile parents accessing education on a short-term basis.