After two years, weeks spent writing, days spent listening to audio material, hours spent in meetings, and nights spent worrying, Atching Tan: an educational journey into the world of Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers, our education pack for use at Key Stages 2 and 3, has seen the light of day.

The pack comprises information, activities, and resources. It was really important to me that the pack worked to educate children and young people about Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers, but at the same time developed their skills in other areas; consequently, it has been designed so that it can form a discrete scheme of work or so that individual elements of it can support different elements of the curriculum. For example, the ‘Where to build a Travellers’ site?’ activity in the Homes section could be used in Geography lessons, whilst the ‘Freeze frame’ activity found in the Education section would be great used in a drama lesson.

Teachers also spend enough time doing paperwork, so we tried to make the pack as easy to use as possible. Any sheets that are designed to be photocopied are loose-leaf; different themes are colour-coded; and different activities have easy-to-spot logos on them indicating if they are about speaking, listening, or doing.

If you’d like a copy, please drop me an email and I’ll arrange for one to be sent to you. Alternatively, it is available as a download. However you get it, it’s free.

I’m immensely proud of the pack and I hope that it makes a difference, for teachers, for learners, and for the Gypsy, Romany, Traveller community. We’ve all a long way to go towards creating a more tolerant, more accepting community; this is one step along that road.

I’ve reached the end of my journey with it; I hope that it is the beginning for many other people.

– Daniela