Date of next Trustees Meetings.
Sept 30th Saturday 1.00pm. near Llangammarch Wells, Powys. Was quorate, and
Lasted into the Evening.
Next in December near Cardigan, at Kayes. In the Precelly Mountains,
Pembrokeshire.
Lucy. Sping 2000 Newsletter extracts:
Hello, from Fiona,
and welcome to the year 2000!. It has been a while since the last newsletter.
Reasons include:
- lack of funds
- not much happening
- me working too hard
- inquorate trustee meetings
However, the new year has started well. Card Aid gave funds towards this
newsletter, post and phone expenses, the last meeting, and and some publications.
Thanks very much to them.
Ross and Adele have been working at points through the winter, and the summer
plans are under way.
I have been concentrating on fundraising applications and networking.
We have reprinted various publications, and the computers have been sent
to a specialist who can make them operate on alternative technology. If you
are on a site that could make use of them, please get in touch, as they now
need to be out, and in use.
For Insurance purposes, a responsible adult must be nominated on a site,
then the computers will be lent out for a month at a time.
A number of projects for small children are being planned on a variety of
sites, so if you have toys, books, or games that you are able to donate,
we'd love to hear from you.
Enjoy the Equinox.
I have received a grant from the Family Learning Millennium Awards Scheme which will fund the collation of approximately 350 work packs of materials for pre-school traveller children and their parents.
The packs are likely to include advisory booklets for parents, as well as culture-friendly stories and activities, and some stationery.
Their aim is to provide young children and their families with ideas on both work and play. If the children later enter the state education system, they are less likely to be disadvantaged by the fact that nursery schooling is often inaccessible to traveller children.
If you are able to contribute ideas or resources, contact T.S.C. a.s.a.p.
The National Playbus Association have published a small book entitled
' Working with Travellers' £10. £5. to members.
I worked with Steve Witt to collate various ideas and practical suggestions,
and hope that it will be useful.
The book can be ordered from:
National Training Conference
Twenty six Member Projects attended this year's National Training Conference. The feedback we had was very positive and the evaluation forms concluded that everybody had a great time!
A variety of workshops were offered which catered for mobile organisations working with children, young people and other community groups.
There was plenty of time for networking in Regional Workshops and at the Member's Conference, where amongst other issues, there was a chance for member projects to discuss the priorities for the NPA in 2000.
The National Playbus Association gained an enormous amount of positive input from projects wanting to get involved with the Millennium Event - The Big Bus Bash (held in Bristol earlier this year). The member's conference encouraged people to focus on what their project hoped to get from the Big Bus Bash, and what their project could bring to the event.
KAYE SAYS...
Hello, I have been raising money by running a cafe at parties in Wales this
winter. after 4 parties, we had £125 to spend on supplies for our children.
there are about 10 on our site, and it rains a lot up here in the Preseli
mountains.
I ordered the goods from NES Arnold Supplies people just after the
solstice.Unfortunatelyy, they have not arrived yet, but there will be the
following:
100 jotters, some hand hugger pencils, crayons, paper, felt, scissors, glue,
powder paints, air drying clay, jigsaws, alphabet & nature puzzles, brushes,
and frog models.
I would attend more events if I were invited. All the food I serve is organic
and vegan. The brandy coffees are strong, and we don't close at night.
Future projects I would like to fund are:
woodcarving, basket making, paper making & printing, a puppet theatre.
Please write to :
Henparcau Farm,
Dw ch-y-groes,
Boncath,
Cardigan,
Wales.
Any donations gratefully received.
With a team depleted from 10 to 6, we had a very busy week. The T.S.C. set up beside Jezz and Caroline on the Big Fun Drum Bus, and created an under 5's area for play. Lucy's marquee was for craft - and an amazing dragon emerged on the last day for a bucketing parade. The dome held toys, and there was a toddler space under the gazebo. Ed and Rupert built a paddling pool of bales, which was a great success in the scorching heat of the week. The Scrapstore also set up with us, and the area was bright, lively and busy. We'd collected a dozen outdoor toys, from trikes to a tractor and trailer, which were also very popular.
The drums from Jezz and Caroline tended to be used for rolling in and on, rather than drumming, and the bales for the sandpit were quickly trashed, and made straw entertainment for days.
The kids also enjoyed the day they "decorated" the caravan Ed had brought from Devon, and the puppet show which arrived one afternoon.
The event as a whole was bigger than last year, but still much smaller than
the southern event. The live show was particularly impressive each night,
and there was a wide variety of bands.
T.S.C. raised £200 there.
I drove about 500 miles to get to the camp, from Co. Sligo in Eire. We broke down near Newport, air got in the fuel system. We were really buzzing when we arrived about midnight because we'd fixed the truck and it had been a long journey.
I don't remember doing very much in the first few days, what with recovering from my long drive and doing days' of washing up! I did take dozens of children swimming and coordinated life-jacket donning procedures. My dinghy takes about 5 people but I was being very careful not to overload it with non-swimmers. The weather was hot and we spent many hours down there.
Cath and I built a sandpit which cheered up the toddlers. We took 2 days to fix her vehicle. It required some intimate attention having had the wrong clutch plate fitted. We managed to see the show put on by Sue and children in Nickys' marquee.
Mostly. the weather was very hot so Nickys; marquee came in very useful for shaded activities. I got out my judo mats and we did a good session of kick-boxing and Aikido in there.
I supervised the fire show on the first night, Jackie on the second and Emma on the third. Some children show considerable skill in in this field. Cath made some really good 'pretend' fire chains, for practise, with strings and tennis balls.
We also picked berries and made jam, jelly and crumble.
Personally, I would like to see more traditional skills being displayed, eg. spinning, knitting, wood carving and, yes, I am looking for somewhere to hold children's camps to provide the quieter environment that these skills necessitate.
Choice has been sent details of the Staff Booklet for Derby and Derbyshire Traveller Support Service. Which is a consortium between Derby City and Derbyshire County Council led by Derby City council.
In it says on page 6 the following:-
Service Policy Towards: Education Otherwise Than At School
"It is, however the policy of the Traveller Support Service to take care not to support or provide information about Education Otherwise as an option and to actively discourage Traveller parents from following this route where they express an interest in doing so. The service believes that ALL children are entitled to a high quality and broadly basedprofessionallyy supported education of the kind that canbestt be gained through regular attendance in school. It is therefore encouraging that there are NO current records of Traveller children being educated otherwise than at school in Derby or Derbyshire and we are anxious that this should continue to be the case."
"Please seek advice/inform the Co-ordinator immediately should EOTAS become an issue."
This is fascism plain and simple. Gypsy / Travellers are by far the largest group among Travelling communities in the UK and constitute a recognised minority ethnic group for the purposes of the 1976 Race Relations Act. This makes it illegal to discriminate against a person on racial grounds. Choice in Education immediately informed the Home Education Support List, Gypsy Council for Education Culture Welfare & Civil Rights, national Gypsy Council, The Travellers' School Charity and the Commission for Racial Equality.
Head of Traveller Education Support Service is Nigel Broom. He has confirmed that the offending Staff Booklet is genuine. He also confirms that he is responsible for writing it. He accepts full responsibility and has stated that all copies will now be withdrawn.
If anyone would like to contact him with their views, I'm sure he will be delighted to hear from you.
Nigel Broom
Head of Traveller Education Support Services
Middleton House
27 St Mary's Gate
Derby
DE1 3NN
Appleby sits just off the A66 Scotch Corner to Penrith road. For seven days
in June this usually sleepy little town is bursting at the seams with the
arrival of hundreds of travelling folk and their horses for the annual Appleby
Horse Fair, along standing tradition for more than 300 years.
I'd heard tales of this fair, the ritual gathering of the horses on the river
Eden and the unofficial harness racing through the streets so I made my the
trip from Keswick to see for myself.
Small groups of travellers and their ponies camped at the roadsides were
evidence that the fair was already underway.
In the town horses were being paraded for all to see. Young children riding
their ponies bareback scattered the crowds as they raced through the streets
at breakneck speeds.
I only caught sight of one pony in the river, the heavy rains had raised
the water level enough for the RSPCA officers to call a halt to the proceedings.
I made for Fair Hill where, for as far as the eye could see, brightly painted
gypsy caravans mingled with modern caravans and transit vans more commonly
associated with todays travelling folk.
Fair Hill, Where the horse dealing is done, is a chaotic mixture of horse
and human.
Don't expect to see rides at this fair, it's more an event at which to see
and be seen.
For more information on the event contact:-
Appleby Tourist Office Tel: 01768 351177
The Camping and Caravanning Club Tel: 01342 326944 Reservations:316101
Advance (Dec-Mar only):327490
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The Travellers' School Charity,
P.O. Box 2, Goodwick,Pembrokeshire. SA64 0ZQ
UK Registered Charity No. 327731