The exchange of information and experiences with models of school provision for travellers between different actors (support services, providers [schools] and traveller families) in order to investigate the feasibility of these models and to come to some guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of models of school provisions for travellers.
3 one day seminars (each of the support services will host 1 seminar. In France, the hosting of the seminars will be a collaborative task of the 2 support services. This means that the seminars will be organised in FR, DE and UK) with workshops and testimonies of pros and cons of specific models of school provision with the purpose to exchange experiences between partners involved in regional/national/European pilot projects (completed or being carried out) in a comparable situation or to inform partners interested in these models of school provision. Examples of themes that could be discussed are the gathering and analysis of data and information, the improvement and better structuring of contacts with travellers, teaching traveller children to read and the follow-up of these children during this process. The determination of the themes of the workshops and the persons who should be invited is a collaborative task of the Steering Group and the providers, which are linked to the support services. For each model of school provision that will be discussed one of the returning items could be the obstacles that were overlooked in a specific project and the ones that were foreseen but did not occur. Depending on the model, instruments used (CD-ROMs, booklets, etc.) could be exchanged.
Each seminar will be analysed and assessed.
Support services and schools involved in the education of traveller children.
Thanks to what they have learnt during the workshops and the guidelines that are developed, support services and schools participating in a regional/national/European pilot project will be able to take decisions more quickly and to adjust their project in time. The chances to succeed will increase; the risk to have delays decrease.
Those not involved in a pilot project will be in a better position to decide on the appropriate model of school provision for travellers and to implement these model in an efficient way.
It goes without saying that the above will have indirect benefits for the travelling children themselves.
The choice of the right models of school provision and the implementation of a specific model without too many problems will certainly have positive results on the educational process of travelling children. All those involved in the educational process of these children will be more motivated and in a better position to support and guide these children.
A Steering Group will consist of 4 national support services , La Cooperazione per lo Siviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE, IT) and EFECOT.
The 4 national support services will be:
Each of these services is linked to a provider of education (schools), f.i. a Stammschule (DE). Since they have a lot of experiences in the field, these providers will be involved in the determination of the programme (themes) of the workshops that will be organised during the different seminars.
COSPE will participate in the seminars. It’s their task to disseminate the results of the seminars towards schools in Southern Europe which are particularly involved in the education of other disadvantaged groups.
EFECOT will, with the support of an external expert, co-ordinate the project and carry out the evaluation of the seminars. Based upon this evaluation, the recommendations and guidelines will be developed. For the preparation of the programme of each seminar, this expert will need to have a least 1 meeting on the spot with the representatives of the support service which hosts the seminar in question.