After what seems to have been months of wrangling with the entertainment section of the education pack, I’ve had a significant breakthrough. It’s such a relief. I was, quite literally, staring at a blank screen for weeks, unsure how to address the dense and diverse world of entertainment in the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community. And then the thunderbolt of inspiration struck!

The entertainment section of the pack is anomalous when compared with the the rest of the project: every other theme’s activities are built around people talking about these aspects of their lives, such as going to school or where they live. No one talks about entertainment, which is odd but true. As a consequence, I couldn’t approach it and attempt to use the standard format of the pack. It needed to be original.

This is why the entertainment section pack is centred around a story-telling project. Story-telling is of course something that is widely practised amongst the Gypsy/Romany/Community and it is a wonderful skill. The idea is, therefore, to encourage learners to consider the entire genre of story-telling: why we do it, what the origins of telling stories is, what makes a good told story, and finally telling a story oneself.

I’m proud of it; I hope that everyone who comes to use it enjoys it as much.

– Daniela