Plowden (1967)

Notes on the text

Volume 2

Preliminary pages Foreword and Contents
Appendix 1 Teachers' questionnaire
Appendix 2 Health of school children

The 1964 National Survey:

Appendix 3 1964 National Survey
Appendix 4 Regression analyses
Appendix 5 Data from the schools
Appendix 6 Infant starters
Appendix 7 Standards of reading of 11 year olds
Annexes to the National Survey

Appendix 8 Social services and primary education
Appendix 9 The Manchester Survey
Appendix 10 National Child Development Study
Appendix 11 School organisation and effects of streaming
Appendix 12 Gypsies and education
Appendix 13 Management of primary schools
Appendix 14 Variation in LEA provision

Volume 1

Report (full text)

Articles

about Plowden

The Plowden Report (1967)
Children and their Primary Schools

A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England)

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Volume 2 Appendix 12
Gypsies and education
[pages 595 - 600]

This note was prepared at the Council's request by Mrs B Adams of the Sociological Research Section, Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Mr DM Smith, Lecturer in Education, City of Leicester College of Education, who have made a study of gypsies in the course of their work for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. It is reproduced here because, although the group of children involved is too small to justify a discussion of this length in the body of our Report, the children's educational needs are nevertheless extreme and largely unmet. Moreover the economic and social handicaps of the group from which they come arise to a large extent from the fact that successive generations of gypsy children are deprived of the education that would enable them to compete on equal terms with the rest of the community. Extreme as they are, the needs of gypsy children cannot be effectively met by measures of the kind we recommend for the more general problems of urban deprivation. They will require special attention and carefully planned action. At the same time, the numbers of children involved are so small that we believe a relatively small expenditure of money and effort, not confined only to the educational services, could rapidly achieve long steps towards a solution of the problems described in this Appendix.

Gypsies and education

by Mrs B Adams, Sociological Research Section, Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Mr DM Smith, Lecturer in Education, City of Leicester College of Education

1. There seems little doubt that the so-called gypsy is a descendant of members of certain wandering Indian tribes: Romany vocabulary is related to languages still spoken in northern India and traditional gypsy occupations - fortune telling, horse dealing, music, dancing, wood carving, smithery - stem from those of low-caste Indian tribes. These nomads were first noted in European countries in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When they arrived in England they travelled with pack horses and lived in tents and it was not until the late eighteenth century that they adopted the covered living wagon. At first they travelled in large bands causing consternation among the settled population and repressive legislation was enacted against them, starting in 1530, which treated them as felons. Present day legislation is less repressive but the 1959 Highways Act, the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, and various private Acts are used by local authorities to discourage gypsies in their area.

2. Few steps have been taken to investigate the living conditions of gypsies in England and Wales. Kent Planning Authority carried out a county enquiry in 1951 which has since been followed by other counties. The investigation by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government has involved three stages. On March 22, 1965, when most families were still in their winter quarters, a census was undertaken by the counties and county boroughs. Later in the year a survey of the sites reported in use was carried out, and a few sites were investigated in detail.

3. The census was not limited to 'true gypsies' or people with Romany blood and it is important to know the criteria adopted in the definition. The persons covered were so-called gypsies and other travelling people living in caravans, huts or tents, usually isolated from the settled community. Although called 'travellers', some have not left their base camp for some time. They usually make a living by dealing in scrap metal, cars, rags and other commodities, doing seasonal agricultural work, log and firewood cutting, casual labouring, hawking and begging, and they rarely take a regular job. Not included in the census were gypsies living in houses, showmen, tramps, boat dwellers and caravan dwellers on residential sites who were typically part of the settled community.

4. It is estimated from the census that the gypsy population of England and Wales is at least 15,000 (1) persons or about 3,400 families. The gypsies were widely scattered in almost every county and in one local authority area in three. The largest concentrations were found in the following counties:

*See Footnote (1).

5. On the day of the enquiry only 19 per cent of the families were camping on licensed or local authority sites; the rest were camping haphazardly on agricultural land, roadside verges, commons, woodlands, quarries and even on refuse tips. The facilities found to be provided were minimal and the majority of families were using stopping places with no facilities whatever. Only 33 per cent had access to running water and 35 per cent to refuse disposal facilities. Twenty-four per cent had hardstandings and 18 per cent electricity. Only 16 per cent of families had access to a water closet on their site. Conditions were generally better on the handful of sites provided by Local Authorities.

6. In the south of England the typical horse-drawn gypsy caravan and the tent have almost gone out of use though in Yorkshire and Humberside in March 1965 over a quarter of the families still lived in this type of accommodation. The trailer caravan is now the most usual dwelling. Caravans are sometimes overcrowded but some of the better off families own extremely large modern caravans with two or three apartments or have two caravans.

7. Moving from place to place is still an integral part of the life of most of these families. Approximately 60 per cent reported that they had travelled around in the preceding year and there are reasons for thinking that this is an underestimate. In March 1965 57 per cent had been on their camp site for six months or less, 21 per cent for less than a week. Travelling mainly occurs in the summer months - all but the most hardy families prefer to stay in one place for the winter, though they are not always able to do so. Twenty-six per cent of the gypsy population said they did not travel: the elderly tend to give up wandering and settle in one spot. The belief that travelling is largely economically motivated was confirmed by the census, for the majority of household heads said they had moved in search of agricultural work or other means of earning a living. However, in many cases movement was involuntary and due to the difficulty of finding a stopping place. Many of the traditional gypsy stopping places on the outskirts of towns have been closed to them since the war, in many cases by development, but in other cases by fencing, tipping or ditching to prevent access.

8. More than half of the men were dealers, mainly in scrap metal. Much of this involves house to house or factory to factory collecting, so that when supplies in one town are exhausted a move to the next is necessary. The second most important occupation was agricultural work which is seasonal and also necessitates moving from place to place. Other occupations mentioned frequently were roadwork, building work, and other labouring. Only two per cent of the men did factory work. Among the women, less than a third said that they went out to work, the largest group being hawkers. The proportion of women under 35 following this occupation was only half that among women over 65 which suggests that hawking is dying out. The relatively narrow range of occupations found among the travelling people reflects not only their traditional crafts and their unwillingness to work for others but also the fact that the vast majority are illiterate and thus unfitted for many occupations.

9. The age distribution of gypsies differs markedly from that of the total population of England and Wales in being abnormally young. It bears a marked resemblance to the age structure of the total population of the country in 1841. The age structure of the Eire tinkers is similar. (2)

*Excluding the Kent gypsies, for whom age data was not collected.

10. Including an estimate for Kent, the number of children under 16 in March 1965 was over 6,000 and two households out of three contained children under 16. The high birth rate among gypsies is reflected in the proportion of children - twice the national figure for 0-4s and half as much again for the 5-15s. A forward projection of the 1965 gypsy population to 1985 suggests that the number of children is likely to double in the twenty year period.

11. The census and the site enquiry were designed solely to provide a basis for policy decisions on accommodation for gypsies. No questions on education were asked. Our information on education is therefore derived from personal experience of gypsies over many years and upon the detailed investigation of a few sites.

12. Before the war the gypsies were virtually unanimous in considering education a waste of time, harmful to health and to be avoided. Little attempt seems to have been made by the authorities at that time to get gypsy children into school.

13. This situation has not changed greatly, though some gypsy parents, probably a majority, do now want their children to go to school. Other parents had brief and unpleasant experiences at school and are determined to protect their children from similar ones. Since the majority of families still travel, staying either from choice or necessity for relatively short periods in each place, normal education is not feasible. Our evidence suggests that less than ten per cent of the children of school age are attending school: the great majority are growing up illiterate. Some of the children who attend school do so only during the winter months when they are settled in winter quarters. There is often a conflict between the permissive attitude of primary schools, where children are usually encouraged to expand their speech and develop initiative in exploring and understanding their environment, and the child's restrictive family background.

14. Most children spend all their time in the family group and kinship bonds are particularly strong. The children are usually indulged and corporal punishment is rare. During the early months of life some children are carried by the mother when she goes hawking. Older children are left behind at the camp when the mother goes out, primarily in the care of the oldest girl and under the supervision of the other women in the extended family group. The children rarely wander from the camp and there is little or no mixing with house-dwelling children. Play tends to be non-projective and often destructive in conclusion. The increasing ownership of television sets may beneficially broaden the children's experience.

15. The children are quick to acquire certain skills. In the past they early became expert with horses or at making clothes pegs. Now, children unable to tell their right hand from their left can recognise and separate copper and alloy from base metal. Many are adept at handling money. In some families the older boys go out with their fathers collecting scrap metal and many do a full day's manual work from the age of 12 or 13.

16. As the family is almost the only socialising agency experienced by the gypsy child in its formative years, this restrictive situation, with relatively few stimulating experiences, tends to inhibit intellectual growth. A study by Gordon (1923) (3) using mental and arithmetical tests showed a significant decline in mental ability with advancing chronological age in a group of gypsy children who occasionally attended school. The following figures from limited studies by students of Avery Hill College of Education give some indication of the possible intellectual growth through educational opportunity of gypsy children.

17. In 1964 Leicester City Council set up a site for itinerant families at Lodge Farm, a large area of derelict land adjacent to the city refuse tips, about 2.5 miles from the city centre and some three hundred yards from the nearest house. Elsan toilets and a refuse disposal service were provided, and water was delivered daily to the site. Itinerant families from several sites in the city were directed to Lodge Farm and at the beginning of 1965 there were over 30 families on the site. In some families none of the children had ever attended school, in others some of the children had attended school but not for any continuous period. While at Lodge Farm, no children attended school. The numbers on the site increased to over 60 families, but the site was closed in the autumn of 1965. Many families moved from Lodge Farm to a traditional stopping place at Anstey Gorse and in January 1966 none of the 37 (approx.) children of school age on Anstey Gorse was attending school. Four Irish tinker families had attempted to enrol their children at a local Catholic school but the waiting list was genuinely over-subscribed. All families have now been moved off Anstey Gorse; no alternative site has been provided.

18. Last year Godstone RDC [Rural District Council] set up a site for gypsies and other caravan dwellers. The site has a tarmacadam road, concrete paths and hardstandings. Each pitch has a water standpipe, small shed and dustbin. There are shared toilets, ablutions block with showers, laundry room with hot water, and a washing machine. There is a resident warden, himself of travelling stock. The children can get a special bus to the local primary school where 50 per cent of the children are from the camp site. There are no special classes for gypsy children but they are sometimes given special coaching in groups. Attendance is not regular and at the slightest excuse they are absent. The headmaster reported that, without the normal home background of play and vocabulary, schooling was very difficult for the children. He is pressing for more equipment for backward children. Although there is no noticeable separation in classes, in the playground the camp children often tire of a game quickly and tend to be withdrawn. It is interesting that the higher up the school the children get, the more their appearance approximates to that of the other children.

19. South-East Buckinghamshire has traditionally accommodated considerable numbers of settled or partly settled gypsy families and at the two teacher village school at Horton several gypsy children of the second generation are now being educated. The staff are sympathetic and the school has a strong craft element. One result of the number of gypsy children in the school has been a prejudice against the school on the part of some house-dwellers. The gypsy children are wholly integrated in the two classes and to the casual visitor are indistinguishable from house-dwellers. The teachers reported that on arrival gypsy children were very withdrawn and some did not speak for three months. They appeared to understand brief verbal communications but not long sentences. However, it was usual for them to be able to read by the age of seven. One child has passed the preliminary test for the eleven plus, but this was exceptional and in most cases attainment is below average. Poor verbal ability persists, perhaps because few of their parents can read or write.

20. A successful attempt at settlement has been made by Eton RDC who in 1964 set up a site at Iver for 32 travelling families with local ties. Each family has a fenced pitch with hardstanding and a brick storage shed. There are parking lots for lorries and rough grazing for ponies. Standpipes, WCs, laundries, and hot water supply are shared. The resident warden is a responsible gypsy, related to many of the residents. The standards and aspirations of the residents have risen notably since they moved on to the site and now all the children of school age are in school. They are usually taken to and from school by lorry. At the Parlaunt School at Langley, the children were originally kept in a single group in the care of a 'helper' closely supervised by the headmistress. This was unsuccessful and the children were then integrated into normal classes, with several in a small remedial class. On arrival their environmental handicap was very evident: many had never used a pencil or a knife and fork and all had a very limited vocabulary. They were clean but oddly dressed. They have gradually become more interested in school work and do not stay away as much now as they did. Though they are still backward, all are making progress and there have been one or two striking successes. Most of the teachers consider the camp children to be of low intellectual capacity but the teacher of the remedial class considers that by the age of 10 or 11 some will overcome their environmental handicap and show average performances. The parents are cooperative, increasingly interested in the school, and say they are anxious for their children to be educated. Nevertheless, some take them away for Ascot week and for several months during the summer when the family goes pea picking, fruit picking and potato lifting.

Conclusion

21. Of the 6,000 gypsy children in England only a small minority is attending school. These are the children living a relatively settled existence, a considerable proportion on sites provided by local authorities. Even when attending school regularly these children have to contend with a severe environmental handicap. The number of gypsy children is likely to double in the next twenty years.

In 1962 the Ministry of Housing and Local Government issued a circular urging authorities to establish sites for gypsies, but the response has been disappointing. A further circular giving the findings of the 1965 inquiry and calling for proposals for the establishment of sites is about to be issued.

Footnotes

(1) Kent had carried out a survey on 1 January 1965 and the county was therefore excluded from the census. Figures for Kent for 1 January are included in the national total.

(2) Report of the Commission on Itinerancy. Dublin 1963.

(3) Gordon H Mental and Scholastic Tests among Retarded Children Education Pamphlet No. 44, 1923.