to avoid a primary school that has a high proportion of traveller children

[APeePleaseBob]

I live in a catchment area for several primaries so when we were thinking about schools for my DS we started be looking at Ofsted reports for the closest ones.

One of them got a 'good with some outstanding features' report but in the school make-up section it said it had a high number of traveller children in the school. It is near a well-known traveller site so this makes sense.

I have to confess this put me off and I didn't even go to see it. We have since made our selections elsewhere.

I still think about it though - AIBU to be put off? Would you have felt the same?

Party Ring Posse - consider it done!

But jam roll is so dry, really you need to have some ice cream in there as well.
Artic roll that's the business.

Appletrees - would that be the Party Ring at all?

What do you mean by a 'high number'?

I wouldn't want my dcs to go to a school where the majority of dcs were from an ethnic group that stereotypically don't socialise with 'outsiders'. I think it would be very tough on a child being the only non traveller, or one of only a handfull in the school.

It's not racism for gods sake. Travellers are white. I wouldn't want lots of travellers at my children's school and I'm going to admit that despite the pasting I'll get.

Obviously there are going to be exceptions but generally speaking young traveller children's parents wouldn't have the same culture of encouraging their children academically, because 3rd level, and for that matter, the leaving cert or even the junior cert! wouldn't be 'must haves' the way they would be for most other families. Different priorities wrt education. That's not a shock to anybody is it?

Also, and it would be naive to deny this, traveller children have a distrust of the settled community.

At a st patrick's day parade, I found a lost four year old boy (in a suit) and I tried to bring him to a garda who was trying to be kind to the little boy. The boy was terrified of the garda.

Tell me honestly that these traveller children are immune from absorbing their parents mistrust and dislike of settled people.............

MadamCastafiore

I'm not 'calling' you racist, nor am I being PC.

You clearly ARE racist, expressing prejudice against a whole ethnic group on the basis of what you yourself term a negative 'media image'.

You may not care about my opinion, but I don't like racism going unchallenged.

As the mother of mixed race children I don't like prejudice against any ethnic group.

Quite honestly it's shocking that people still think racism against travellers is acceptable when they'd never dare say the same things about black or asian people.

That channel 4 documentary hasn't helped - peddles cliches at every turn, comedy music, patronising voice over....

Your child and obviously your school choice. You want to get it right rather than having to try and move your child further down the line.

I'd want a primary school with high level of parent support so that might be a concern for me if there wasn't a good relationship between all the parents. I'd look at other options but ultimately go on gut instinct and look at the recent successes, how many pupils, faith school or not, the head teacher and whether there is a high turnover of teaching staff.

Travellers are "white british people who decide to live on the road"

Hmm - No there not!

Travellers originate from Southern Ireland.
They are a separatist group/ethnic group as this protects such ethnic groups from genocide/ethnic cleansing.

If you were a gypsy in Europe in the 1930's/40's you would be sent to the concentration camps of Poland/Germany/Latvia

Travellers class themselves as an indigous ethnic minority Appletrees. They perceive they have distinct culture/history/traditions that distinguish them from the sedentary population.

point proved

no one knows a damn thing about it

but we can always make up for it with knee jerk accusations

woo party

It depends entirely on the school although my decision would be coloured by the fact that my experiences with the traveller community have not enamoured them to me on the whole.

What I certainly wouldn't do is go by the Ofsted report though, considering that a TA at a school I withdrew DD1 from after a term because it was appalling tells me that she has "no bloody idea" how her school got rated as "good/some outstanding features".

I will say that is generally the case that schools with a high percentage of middle class children are generally better behaved and have better academic results so there, I suppose, is your answer because I want the best for my children academically and I want them to be in an environment where good behaviour is the norm.

"Many non-travelling white British people are also rancid and violent as hell.

Do you want to prevent your children from hanging out with them too?"

Honestly? Erm, then yes.

Like Biscuits?

party ring posse

And to say you cant be racist to white people is really ignorant!

I'm sure they do Beach, I'm sure they do.

There are a significant but still small % of traveller children at dcs' primary school. I wouldn't know who they are, apart from the one I know personally in dc1's class. It make not a jot of difference but they are 'settled' travellers.

However, in a nearby picturesque village every child is a traveller. The Ofsted report is clear about the difficulties "The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is high. A substantial number of pupils join or leave the school at various times during the year. Attainment on entry is affected by this high mobility. Attendance is well below average due to the custom that some families travel for prolonged periods during the summer months."

The village children all bus into the market town.

sorry that should say in nearby village school

why are people so eager to segretate themselves from others who live in the same areas as they do.

i don't get it

I work with Ethnic minorities. A very large number of the families i work with are travellers.

Most are settled in the area if not one specific site.

They send their children to school because that is the law. Most would prefer to home educate due to the prejudices their children face.

AS a group they are indeed more lilely to have a fight in the playground. Mostly because they are sneered at by the parents as they enter and then bullied by the other children. They then hit out as that is what they know.

It does little to help their reputation but it is a viscious cycle.

As for the commitment to school. well that varies from one family to another, much the same as with the nice middle class white british community.

Whilst some drop off and collect and stay away other than what is necessary others try and involve themselves as much as possible. Helping out at school fayres and even donating extravogant gifts for raffles.

Integration is a slow process for any ethnic group but travellers are becoming increasingly prevelant in our communities and until we realise that to discriminate against them is exactly the same as discriminating against any other minority group, nothing will change

It depends what the report means by a 'high number of traveller children'. We have a school locally which is almost entirely traveller children. It is a lovely school and they do work hard to adapt classes to make them relevant to travellers (maths work based around horse prices etc.) but the small number of non-traveller children are faced with a school of classmates which constantly shifts and changes as children come and go with their families.

I'm not sure I would feel comfortable sending my DCs to this school if there were other local alternatives that offered a more traditional education.

For fucks sake. I went to a lovely school in North London with lots of travellers

Get a grip.

God the hysteria.

I'm glad that there are people like Penelope working with travellers so that they can get a good education and have access to education and jobs if that's what they want. I want them to have that choice.

but, seriously, NOT going to use my children to push back a few boundaries by saying oh yeah, I'm 'cool' with the average standard in my child's class being quite low'

Well I would be concerned about my child attending a school where a lot of children had low attendance or stayed for a short time only. Which means I would also be concerned about my child attending a city school where the population changed a lot or a school with a high forces children population. In the op's case though the school got a good ofsted which means it's attendance must be pretty decent. I fail to see what the issue would be - and as the op didn't even go and look at the school I assume she can't tell us either.