Improving attendance in Sutton and Merton schools
Kate Evans is head of the Traveller education service for Sutton and Merton LAs, which is based at the Chaucer Professional Development Centre. Kate works with a secondary advisory teacher, and together they lead on Black and minority ethnic achievement for the local authorities. The focus of the team is transition, attendance and liaison.
Enabling smooth transition
Kate’s team supports the parents of children of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) heritage during the process of secondary transfer.
They help parents fill in forms, and accompany them to:
- trips to schools
- parents’ evenings
- appeal hearings regarding secondary school choice.
They also support parents with transfer between key stages 3 and 4 and hold a database of alternative provision. They advise schools on how to be flexible with the curriculum in order to meet the needs of young learners of GRT heritage.
Attendance and continuity
The Traveller education service uses the protocol for ‘missing’ children to manage non-attendance. The protocol applies equally to GRT parents and carers and all other members of the community, but has only recently been used to ensure that Travelling children are attending school and safe.
Parents need to tell the school when they will be travelling and who the child’s carer will be at this time. They also have to give a contact number. If this information has not been provided, the child may fall into the missing child category under the missing children protocol.
Kate sees this consistency in practice as important and says:
‘Travellers can legitimately travel – but we need to know that children are safe.’
Liaison
An early years outreach project employs a community outreach worker to coordinate support for parents of pre-school children.
At Lonesome School in Mitcham there are plans to build a children’s centre focused on families of GRT heritage. Currently. the community outreach worker visits the local site, modelling positive play and promoting literacy for pre-school children. This relationship is nurtured through reception age at the school. A structured reading programme is also taught in reception.
The service is producing resources for use by mainstream teachers.and a DVD in which parents of GRT heritage talk about the value of secondary education, their aspirations and hopes for their children.
For more information about the work of the Traveller education service in Sutton and Merton, please contact kate.evans@sutton.gov.uk
