The Travellers' School In Spain -

El Morreon School

The story so far ....

El Morreon is a beautiful village in the south of Spain, squatted for many years by Spanish "types". In the past few years it has become an increasingly popular autumn-winter destination for European vehicle dwellers. It is a very striking and high energy place, partly due to its ever changing population.

The more permanent residents have, over the last three to four years, rebuilt a ruin and made a school house in the centre of the village. It has gorgeous big windows, a smooth wooden floor and a little balcony. All it lacked was a teacher, so last September (97) I went down with a truck full of books, paints and weird oddments from the Scrap Store, to see what was needed.

About 25 kids live there permanently; most are travellers who have stooped for a year or two. About half are in the local school, not all can or want to attend. "The Parking" is a hive of activity, often children will be there for a few weeks at a time. Most of these children don't attend school regularly. There is a whole range of ages and abilities among them.

School ran from the end of September till the end of December.
This is what happened.

The under 6's came in three to four mornings and afternoons per week.
The older ones came individually or in small groups each morning/afternoon, alternating with the little kids. Some are wanting to start GCSE courses this year.

On Thursday and Friday afternoons all the children were available since there is no school in the village on these days. We had workshops open to everyone and run by different people each week. To give you an idea: acrobalance, puppet making and UV puppet show, costume making, music, drama ....

On Friday afternoons there were also Spanish lessons with Fabi for adults and older children.

Overall, the effect of the school was great. The children made progress and loved the attention and enthusiasm focused on them and their school.

Parents teaching their children themselves had a chance to ask questions and share their worries and to get hold of some excellent T.S.C. teaching materials!

School generated a lot of positive energy for the whole village, especially the workshops which seemed to have a snowball effect, taking off to a silly degree! Most evenings there was someone teaching in the school house, from fire swinging practice to first aid. All in all during the autumn there was a great sense of community at El Morreon.

I'm excited about plans for this coming autumn, and hope this year's El Morreon School will star the T.S.C.'s own Ross Huelin.

Much LOVE and HAPPY SOLSTICE - Angela Hill May 1998

Travellers School in Spain

Ross Huelin

With the help of funding from the Travellers' School Charity and the dedicated energy of many people, a school for the children of El Morreon, in Andalucia, Spain, was set up last November and ran very successfully until mid-May.

The School room had already been cleaned and painted by the time I arrived and our first job was to build the tables, shelves and storage spaces for the various resources I had brought with me and those that were being collected and donated by the people living there.

After a few meetings with people who wanted to be involved in some way or another, a skeleton weekly timetable was drawn up: "School" would run 3 days a week Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in the morning, and the afternoon sessions would focus on various workshops that individuals wanted to offer, ie. circus skills and drama on Wednesday afternoons, games on Fridays and Tuesdays were left open for the unexpected .... someone collecting herbs, building a clay oven, a trip to the river, a spot of mechanics ....

This worked well for a number of weeks and many people poured their energy into the School project, energy which was eagerly soaked up by the children. So much so that it was agreed that Monday would now become a School day as well. (Thursdays are market days and most children go to the local village for market day out and a trip to the Metal Bar!.)

We stopped for just a few days over Christmas and a week over New Year (it was a good party) and when we started again it was with the financial support of parents, each putting in what they could, to ensure us teachers were able to continue with the work that was so much appreciated and enjoy ourselves as well A jumble sale and a party were also organised to raise funds.

A typical school morning ran like this:

We'd start the day with a story (or 4!). Danny (8) would invariably light the burner even if it was 70 degrees F outside (it's so cold in January over there). After stories we would work with individuals or small groups on literacy and numeracy for about an hour, when we would stop for "break time", juice and biscuits outside in the sun followed by games.

When the children had run around enough we would go back in for the final part of the morning, when we would focus on a chosen topic, eg. the Human Body, and base our work around this.

This is a very rough outline and was not steadfastly stuck to. It was important to be totally flexible and take into account the various likes and dislikes, comings and goings, the ups and downs of the childrens and our own lives.

As people's energies waned, someone new would become involved, bringing a whole new energy to the School and their own ideas of how and what to do. It was brilliant, and the School couldn't have survived so long without it.

By mid-May, many of the children had moved on for the summer and the teachers that were left decided that it would be a good idea to stop the School for the summer holidays. The remaining resources that were left were packed up and put into storage and an end of term party was held to celebrate what we had achieved.

For seven and a half months we worked with over 60 children of many nationalities and from a very wide age range. The enthusiasm for the School was incredible, but it would be impossible to mention everyone who was involved and who contributed to its huge success.

I also feel that I've missed loads out of this report, the individual GCSE tuition, the older teenagers who became involved as teachers, the number of qualified teachers living in or passing through the area, the children and parents from other alternative communities who came and got involved .. I could go on and on ..

This winter I hope very much to continue the work that has been started and I am at present back in the UK, trying to secure funding to do so. If anyone has any ideas of how to secure funding for such a project, or if anyone can make any donations of any kind for the School it would be excellent to hear from you. Please do get in touch through the T.S.C.

A big, big thank you to everyone who made it possible and lots of love everyone, everywhere.

Ross. Spring 2000 Newsletter.