School transitions and Gypsy/Traveller young people
Improving educational transitions for young people from nomadic communities has been a focus of initiatives and policy for decades, yet national statistics show that education uptake remains low and transition to secondary is poor. Scottish Government statistics show that Gypsy/Traveller attainment and positive transitions and destinations are among the lowest in Scottish education.
Government leavers data revealed that 69.8% of Gypsy/Travellers were in a positive follow-up destination compared to 91.9% of the general population. 2011 Census analysis data showed that 50% of Gypsy/Travellers aged 16 and over had no qualifications compared to 27% of the general population. Only 16% of Gypsy/Travellers held Level 4 or above compared to 26% of the general population. 28.1% of leavers has no qualifications at SCQF level 3 or higher, compared to 1.9% of all other secondary school leavers. Pupils from the Gypsy/Traveller community had the lowest attendance rates of any ethnic group at 79.5% in 2014/15 compared to the 93.7% Scotland average. 48.1% receive additional support for learning and have a significantly higher rate of exclusion (75 per 1000 pupils) compared to the national average in Scotland (27 per 1000). The number of children from Gypsy/Traveller communities enrolled in schools is increasing however the statistics cannot determine whether the increase is due to a growth in the Gypsy/Traveller population in Scotland, increased engagement with education or whether families are more confident to identify as Gypsy/Travellers. When pupils do transition to secondary school, many young people report negative experiences (STEP 2023) and few remain beyond the age of 14 (Derrington and Kendall, 2004). Some studies show that that the average drop-out rate for GRT communities can be even younger with children leaving formal education at 11 years old (Franks and Ureche, 2007). Despite some evidence for improved transition to ELC settings (STEP, SSS 2022), positive transitions remain low.
A range of complex and interlinked issues affect transitions for nomadic communities. While families value education, a key issue is that the education offer does not enable families to preserve their cultural identities, values, traditions and ways of being. Community members have described the education system as lacking flexibility and not acknowledging or valuing Gypsy/Traveller and Roma culture and histories.
In Gypsy/Traveller culture, the family unit is central. This extends to aunts, uncles and cousins. It is important to note that community members have a very strong collective identity. This means that a pupil’s sense of belonging, their motivation, and their stressors are shared with their family. Schools should look at how they can validate the pupil’s culture within the curriculum and in school life.
A history of discrimination has led to a deep-rooted suspicion of institutions, concerns about safety and non-engagement in education. Parents and young people continue to face bullying, racism and discrimination (Anti-bullying Alliance and FFT, 2020; Burchardt et al 2018; Lloyd, G and Stead 2001; National Children’s Bureau 2020; Traveller Movement 2017,Riddell, 2022). The main relational and environmental differences between primary and secondary schooling can be jarring for families such as the unsupervised movement of pupils between classes and beyond the school grounds, multiple teachers and a larger building and school population presenting higher risks.
Parents may worry about relevance of the curriculum and maintaining cultural values, especiaily at secondary stages. Intergenerational cultural dissonance can also feature strongly (Hamilton, 2018) and young people’s desired education and career pathways may be very different from those held by their parents.
Driven by their value of ‘enterprise culture’ (Lloyd and McCluskey 2008), for many families, education at secondary phases may be at tension with traditional pathways where the priority is to teach traditional skills within the extended family with the aim of joining the family business and adopt traditional roles (Hamilton, 2018). Poverty or cultural preferences may play a factor where families need or expect young people to contribute to the household financially as soon as possible rather than spend additional years in full-time education.
Generational non-engagement with formal education means that many families have little experience of schools and the education system (Townsend et al., 2020). Parents may not be unfamiliar with the registration process, school terms or daily routines and expectations that come with these or how they can get support during transitions phases. Parents may not want to share that they are illiterate and/or find form filing challenging due to low reading and writing skills.
Families may not be aware of wider choices around personalised pathways and for example the flexibility of secondary education and options for more vocational qualifications, apprenticeships and part-time attendance.
High mobility can impact effective transitions. Research shows that high rates of transitions has a negative impact on educational outcomes (Evans et al 2018). Pupils can experience learning shock (Griffiths et al 2004) and find it difficult to form or maintain attachments with teachers and peers (Bergen and Bergen 2009; Birch and Ladd, 1997; Jordan and Padfield, 2003) and have a lower level of support provided by a strong social network at school which can provide safety and feeling of belonging (Ladd 1990).
In Scotland, there is no legal requirement to send children to secondary school. But once registered, parents must seek permission to withdraw meaning that it is easier to avoid enrolment altogether. Non-transitions to high school is common practice. Families may fear that once enrolled, their child will always be “monitored in the system” leading to children being ‘missing from education’ as early as nursery and primary stages. In addition, at early years phases, parents from Gypsy/Traveller and Roma communities may see early learning and care as the responsibility of family members and not external settings.
Children and young people can find it challenging to adapt to rules, school culture, and expectations beyond their own community and home. This may include:
- Sitting or focusing on one thing for extended periods
- Large and busy physical environment
- Social practices in class such as raising your hand for attention or asking permission to leave a room or use equipment
- Structured timetables and the role of the school bell
- Changing for PE in front of non-family members
- The concept of homework and the level of adult support required to complete this
- Learning or having lunch separately from siblings or cousins
- Negotiating traditional or more conservative gender roles within a a more liberal classroom environment