Friends, Families and Travellers is a national charity working to end racism and discrimination against Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, culture or background, whether settled or mobile, and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life.
We’ve worked together with the Anti-Bullying Alliance to help tackle bullying in schools, as well as co-producing the research Bullied, not believed and blamed about the bullying of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, and the CPD training on bullying of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.
Romany Gypsies, Roma and Irish Travellers face shocking educational inequalities, with the lowest educational attainment up to and including key stage 4, out of any ethnic groups in the UK. For instance, in the 2021-2022 school year, only 8.5% of Gypsy/Roma pupils got a Grade 5 or above in GCSE English and Maths, and only 14.4% of Irish Travellers (compared to 49.8% for all children). We have produced a briefing on the educational inequalities experienced by the communities we serve. Various research, such as by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the University of Birmingham and Stonewall have found that people held the highest level of prejudice towards Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers out of any protected characteristic groups.
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children have amongst the highest rate of exclusions of all ethnic groups in the UK. In the 20200-2021 school year, Gypsies/Roma had a suspension rate of 15% and Irish Travellers of 11%. Gypsy/Roma pupils also had the highest permanent exclusion rates in the same school year, however many of these are overturned at appeal.
Experience of racist bullying is a factor leading to low educational attainment, and high exclusion rates. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s School Exclusions Inquiry of 2012, ‘They never give up on you’, outlined the high rates of wrongful exclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, stating that:
“Success rates of appeals give a reasonable proxy measure indicating that, for whatever reason, a school has made a mistake in deciding to exclude a pupil. In the course of this Inquiry, we examined success rates for appeals by different groups of pupils in 28 Local Authorities, representing every region of England. The data demonstrate that some groups are much more likely than others to lodge a successful appeal which proves they have been unfairly excluded. In many cases, those most likely to be permanently excluded were also most likely to have successful appeals. For example, for Gypsy and Roma Traveller and Irish Traveller children, who are the most likely ethnic group in the system to be excluded, 100 per cent of appeals were successful”.
A survey conducted by Friends, Families and Travellers in 2019 asked Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people what the biggest challenge they faced in school was, with 86% of pupils reporting that the biggest challenge at school is bullying, followed by racism at 73%.
In our research with the Anti-Bullying Alliance ‘Bullied, Not Believed and Blamed: The experiences of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils: Recommendations for Schools and Other Settings’, the experiences of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people included: being negatively labelled, judged and having presumptions made about them being trouble-makers or not willing to learn; feeling that they were treated differently from other pupils and could not access additional support when they needed it; racist and offensive language about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and communities going unchallenged; not being believed when they reported bullying; presumptions about them having a tendency to bully others; feeling they had to retaliate to bullying or racist language, or hide that they are Gypsy, Roma or Traveller; that they had learned to expect bullying because no action was being taken to prevent or respond to it.
In response, we have been involved in drawing up a Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showmen and Boaters’ Pledge for Schools. The aim of the Pledge is to improve access, retention and outcomes in education for Gypsies, Travellers, Roma, Showmen and Boaters. Suggested actions in the Pledge include monitoring and recording racist incidents against children from the communities, inclusive services training for staff, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history inclusion, including the Roma Holocaust, on the curriculum, and celebrating key dates such as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month in June, and World Fun Fair Month in September.
Guest blog: by Emma Nuttall (Friends, Families and Travellers)