Bully for you

They were built as places where minds would be opened, but new research has shown that for far too many Gypsies and Travellers, schools remain places of pain and torture. As Britain marks anti-bullying week, research from the National Foundation for Education Research has revealed that almost 60% of young Gypsies and Travellers do not complete their basic schooling. We also have the worst academic results of any ethnic group.

For decades teachers and academics have fretted over how to improve the education of the Gypsy and Traveller community. Numerous reports, hundreds of Traveller Education staff and millions of pounds have been spent trying to get Gypsy and Traveller kids to complete their schooling. Yet the recently released report suggests that the biggest problems are the ones that can’t be reached by money, staff and goodwill. Racism in schools still leads to the natural result that Gypsy and Traveller parents often feel that schools are not places where their children should be.

The report, Improving the Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils, makes worrying reading for any parent who hopes their child will get a good formal education. It suggests that those who do well in school are overcoming terrible odds.

Among its many findings, the report has shown:

• Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils have lower levels of achievement than other ethnic groups at all key stages
• The rate of permanent exclusion in 2007/08 was highest for Gypsy/Roma pupils and Travellers of Irish heritage
• Just over half of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers who start secondary school finish secondary school

Route to failure: the graph from the report compares the percentage of non-traveller pupils (pink) finishing secondary school compared to Gypsy and Traveller pupils (blue).

One bit of good news in the report suggests that all the effort to ensure that Gypsy and Traveller kids transfer from primary to secondary school is having some effect. The report found that 80% of kids are now going from primary to secondary school.

The report authors conclude: “Whilst focused efforts and targeted interventions aimed at improving low educational outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are beginning to make an impact, as a group, these pupils remain amongst the most vulnerable in the education system.”

They add: “There is some evidence that, as a community, there is a growing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller middle class with a number of educationally successful pupils, [but] our data reveals that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils tend to be concentrated in schools with below average results and make considerably less progress than their peers.”

Improving the Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils can be found here:

http://www.education.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DFE-RR043-WEB.pdf