Traveller Community

We work closely with Trav­eller Edu­ca­tion to sup­port the access and involve­ment of Trav­eller fam­i­lies in the Cen­tre. We have two Nurs­ery Assis­tants from the Traveller’s Com­mu­nity on the staff who work closely with Trav­eller Fam­i­lies and sup­port com­mu­ni­ca­tion and cul­tural under­stand­ing amongst staff. Staff have also acquired a deeper under­stand­ing of Traveller’s cul­ture through train­ing pro­vided by Eal­ing Trav­ellers Edu­ca­tion Ser­vice and Save the Children.

Chil­dren from Trav­eller fam­i­lies have made excel­lent progress as a result of their involve­ment in Nurs­ery Education.

Our inclu­sive com­mu­nity pro­vides appro­pri­ate sup­port for very young chil­dren and their fam­i­lies from our com­mu­nity of Trav­ellers. Much is to be gained by build­ing upon present prac­tice given the nec­es­sary sup­port, we aim to con­tinue to reach, influ­ence and empower the Trav­eller fam­i­lies we wel­come through our Centre.

Visit the Pavee Point Trav­ellers’ Cen­tre website.

Trav­eller Achieve­ment Service

Green­fields Children’s Cen­tre began work­ing with the Trav­eller Achieve­ment Ser­vice: Eal­ing LA (TAS) some 6 years ago. Through­out that time, the col­lab­o­ra­tion has devel­oped into a reg­u­lar work­ing part­ner­ship com­mit­ted to the full inclu­sion of the local Trav­eller com­mu­ni­ties in nurs­ery education.

Some time ago, in recog­ni­tion of some highly devel­oped child­care skills in the Trav­eller com­mu­ni­ties the TAS began employ­ing young Trav­eller women to work as Teach­ing Assis­tants in schools. Green­fields Children’s Cen­tre, amongst the first group of schools will­ing and able to pro­vide induc­tion and train­ing ses­sions for these young women, was a prime mover in the strat­egy and senior staff in the Nurs­ery became the inter­view­ing panel for new TA appoint­ments to the Trav­eller Achieve­ment Ser­vice. Nowa­days, the Trav­eller Achieve­ment Ser­vice is some­thing of a ‘nurs­ery’ for young Trav­eller women aspir­ing to move on to employ­ment at Greenfields.

Many young Trav­eller women have worked, and con­tinue to work, at Green­fields. Some are seek­ing fur­ther edu­ca­tion and all have ben­e­fited greatly from the inten­sive and empa­thetic train­ing pro­gramme provided.

Along­side this work to pro­mote young Trav­eller women as Nurs­ery staff, there has been a con­certed drive, often spas­mod­i­cally funded, to ensure the involve­ment of under 5 Trav­eller chil­dren at Green­fields. The impor­tance of Trav­eller involve­ment in this phase of edu­ca­tion can­not be over-​emphasised by those of us who are charged with improv­ing Trav­eller attain­ment through­out the edu­ca­tional process. We all too fre­quently see the neg­a­tive effects of late involve­ment in main­stream school­ing, and realise that our col­lab­o­ra­tion with insti­tu­tions such as Green­fields is fun­da­men­tal to our work.

It is a tes­ti­mony of Greenfield’s real com­mit­ment to fully inclu­sive edu­ca­tion that the work with the Trav­eller com­mu­ni­ties has been a suc­cess unri­valled in this area of Lon­don. Indeed, there are enquiries about the Nurs­ery from Trav­eller fam­i­lies liv­ing con­sid­er­able dis­tances away from the Nurs­ery, and from fam­i­lies liv­ing far beyond the Bor­ough boundaries.

Andrew Pritchard
Trav­eller Achieve­ment Ser­vice Man­ager
Lon­don Bor­ough of Ealing