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! Read the rest of this entry »

Hello one and all. I’m sorry it’s been a while. Recently, my life has been devoted to preparing the interviews that will be included as part of the education pack, which has been laborious and extremely time-consuming. As a consequence, it means that I don’t have very much of any great excitement to report. Thankfully, other things have been happening in the company, so I have something to tell you. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent this week listening to another batch of recordings from the reminiscence strand of the project, and working out how best they can be integrated into the education pack. Although this is a fascinating part of the education pack process, it is also incredibly demanding. I find that I listen to a recording an average of three times: I don’t want to miss anything, and I need to be sure that when I assign something to a particular element of the project, it’s the appropriate place for it. By the end of the day, my brain is swirling!

Whilst my home life has been exciting because I’ve moved house, my work life has been fairly normal and I’ve been working on the education pack. If I’m honest, I’m rather relieved about that because I don’t think I could deal with too much going on at once! This month, the excitement has all been in Sinead’s camp, where she’s managed to combine home and work in great bundle.

The workshops that we offer at RTC are available year-round, but, unsurprisingly, there is an increased interest during June, which is Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. The team has ventured north, south, and east to deliver O Romani Tober (The Romany Way) to audiences of children and young people in both schools and young offenders’ institutions. I dropped in and joined them for a performance and workshop session at Notre Dame school in Southwark last Friday.

June is Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. Across the country there are hundreds of events taking place to celebrate the life, culture, and history of people from travelling backgrounds in attempt to help to break down the barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding that exist between the Travelling and the settled communities.

It’s all go at RTC at the moment! The first drafts of season three of the radio series have just been submitted, we’ve amassed our target number of reminiscence recordings, and we’ve selected a designer for the education pack. I see a great deal of editing, across various media, in our future.

At lunchtime today the team gathered for lunch in Ipswich to bid farewell to Jane, our Project Co-ordinator. Jane has worked on the Atching Tan project since October 2008, primarily taking responsibility for fostering and maintaining relationships with our volunteers and with other organisations. Recently she has been our editorial wizard, taking the recordings from the reminiscence strand and whipping them into shape so that we can actually listen to them! She’s moving on to be a Family Support Worker for Suffolk County Council, focusing her attentions on the needs of deaf children and their families.

The past few weeks have seen me do little else than beaver away in the library, working on the content of the education pack. I’m pleased with the progress that I’ve made with it. Seven of the nine sections that explore different elements of Gypsy/Romany/Traveller life have been drafted. There are teachers’ notes, suggested activities to use in lessons, and further resources to support the topics. The rest of the team is currently proofing these sections for me and providing their critical comments. I’m looking forward to reading their opinions and suggestions. I know that the content will change before publication, that’s inevitable. It might even change quite radically in some instances, but having so much definite material is giving me an enormous sense of satisfaction.

This week I have focused entirely on the development of the education pack.

After a long period of contemplation and some discussion with members of the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community, the key themes that the pack will explore have been identified. They have all arisen from the recordings conducted as part of the reminiscence strand of the project, which form the spine of the pack. It is possible that the themes will change, but currently they are: change, hopes and fears; discrimination; entertainment; homes; Romani; school and education; travelling; Traveller identity; and work and employment.