TSC NEWSLETTER Summer '02

NEWS

The Travellers’ School Charity is looking for a new logo to replace the one above. Please send in any ideas or suggestions.

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Art Space for Traveller Children, in partnership with TSC, have been successful with their Children's Fund application to run weekly arts based sessions on New Traveller sites in Cornwall this summer. It is hoped that following this pilot scheme ASTC will be able to find funding for regular play sessions throughout the year & will be able to expand & develop on-site activities.

Art Space For Traveller Children can be contacted on 01736 741 151

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The TSC needs more people to get involved, new Trustees, and funding, or it may soon have to fold up.

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- SUMMER SMIILES AND FRESH IDEAS

The mobile Computer Classroom visited Sheffield in July for the 4th Groundswell UK Self-Help Forum. The Classroom demonstrated Renewable Energy as an effective power supply for computers and also provided an opportunity for the general public and Delegates to check out a Travellers home from the inside!!

The event was a major Networking bonanza and thankfully some people pledged their support for the TSC and its projects;

Generator X an impressive mobile power source using Renewable Energy would like to team up with the Computer Classroom Project this winter. 3 Phtovoltaics @ I50 watts each and 2 wind generators mean no more power shortages while they're on site! As long as grant applications are successful the project will resume with phase 2 in October '02. To date plans include; Teaching young Romany mums their Driving Theory Test on Computers and expanding the IT skills of the teenagers living on a site in Bedfordshire. Teaching Renewable Energy Tech. and IT skills to a group of Home-educating Travellers on the Isle of Skye. Improving Literacy Levels amongst Gypsy Children in Herefordshire by working with the Gypsy Liaison Team there.

Also the areas that missed out last year, London, Cornwall, Cambridge etc we need to hear from you, please let us know where we are most needed.

Please get in touch with Kaye Angus Felin Bryn, Brynberian, Crymych, Pembs. SA41 3TL

Big thanks to Piet Dafoe, who has put a lot of energy into keeping the equipment running.

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Reprinted From Excalibur The London Newsletter of The Inland Waterways Association #34

ON THE METREAU: A floating classroom for London

After a break of more than 40 years London's canals once again have their own floating classroom, the first of a new fleet of education canal boats which was launched at Little Venice on Tuesday 16th October 2001. The ceremony was performed by the broadcaster John Craven OBE, formerly the presenter of "John Craven's Newsround" for young people, and now presenter of "Country File" He was assisted by children from Wilberforce Community School, the Chief Executive of BW and the Chairman of the Waterways Trust.

'Beauchamp' is a purpose-built, floating classroom with state-of-the-art education facilities and an electric propulsion system. At 22 metres long and 4.2 metres wide, the boat can carry up to 35 children at a time on cruises along London's canals.

The boat cost £300,000, and has been made possible by a partnership between British Waterways London, The Waterways Trust and Beauchamp Lodge Settlement, with additional funding and support from London's Waterway Partnership,

Paddington Basin Developments Ltd, Cleanaway Ltd, New Life of Paddington and Timeplan Educational Group Ltd.

Owned by The Waterways Trust, Beauchamp will be operated by Beauchamp Lodge Settlement, which appointed a permanent crew and teacher. The boat will operate over a nine-mile stretch of the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal and will be available to schools in the boroughs of Brent, Westminster Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham. In order to help subsidise the cost to the schools, the boat will also be hired out for community and private functions.

'This is the shape of things to come,' said Mark Bensted, Director of British Waterways London. 'We and London's Waterway Partnership plan to have a whole fleet of these boats, offering education services to schools

across London. Our waterways are enjoying an unprecedented revival but regeneration is about more than just bricks and mortar. It is exactly this type of project which will help engage a new generation of canal lovers and deliver a truly sustainable future for our canals and rivers.'

Eleanor Anwyl, Director of Beauchamp Lodge Settlement, said; "The school children will be able to experience and explore the canals and the life they support all year-round using Innovative, hands-on activities. This will expand their horizons and instil a sense of responsibility for their local environment and they will have a great day out into the bargain".

The last (and only known) floating classroom to operate on London's canals, the Elsdale, was launched in Paddington Basin in 1930 by the Bishop of Bermuda. Elsdate was a converted canal barge, paid for - with the encouragement of the London City Mission – by the Grand Union Canal Company (GUCC). The boat was named after Reverend Daniel Elsdale, an Anglican parson, who had striven to improve the lot of the children of the boat people - an itinerant, and increasingly impoverished community which still operated boats on Britain's inland waterways at that time.

It is believed that the GUCC saw the Elsdale as a way to counter the Canal Boats Bill which sought to ban children living on canal boats. If true this reveals a less than generous motive for the company, in attempting to maintain a cheap workforce. After the Elsdale sank in 1939, it was lifted out of the water and placed on dry land, near Bull's Bridge in West London, where it continued to operate as a school until 1960.

SC Trustee Gary has produced 2 booklets called "Tax Xempt" of living vehicles. From Teapot Circus, c/o Albany Cottage,

Gurney Slade, Bath BA3 4TT for £4.00

In order to continue our work we need funding. Not only to meet our core costs, but also to support and encourage proposals from groups and individuals.

So please make a donation.
Subscription Rates:
£5 individuals.
£10 organisations.
£20 supportive subscriptions.
£ lifetime subscription.
£ donation.
£ Total.

Cheques/POs payable to "TSC"

send to:
Kaye Angus, Felin Bryn, Brynberian, Crymych, Pembs, SA41 3TL

Email: hgvkaye@aol.com

Tel. 01239 891343

Design & Layout by Matt Smith

The Travellers’ School Charity’s aim is that Travellers and their children have access to opportunities,

freedom and choice, achieved through education.