A display created by young learners highlighting Appleby Fair
The Widening Participation team recently celebrated Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) History Month by hosting an event with learners from a local primary school known to have a higher-than-average number of students from the Traveller community. Children were awarded certificates and received reading resources for their homework club, including books reflecting their cultural interests, practice and history as a result of becoming engaged readers at their school.
The initiative, a collaboration between the Local Authority Traveller Education Support Unit (TESU), the primary school leadership team, national advocacy charity Friends, Families, and Travellers and the University of Sussex, is now in its third year. It supports children reading in an informal manner with a friend for pleasure, addressing some of the issues contributing to poor progress through formal education amongst these communities, as raised in research by Sussex academics Emily Danvers and Tamsin Hinton-Smith in 2022.
GRT History Month traditionally takes place in June, and this year’s theme is role models, asking the question: ‘Heroes: who inspires you?’. We held the award evening for learners and their families in May, as many of the children will be travelling to Appleby Fair in June as part of their cultural practice.
The University also delivered other activities supporting the school during May. Widening Participation hosted a ‘storytelling day’ on campus focused on Priscilla, the cob horse statue outside Jubilee lecture theatre. Additionally, third year Media, Arts and Humanities undergraduates delivered in-school workshops as part of their ‘Championing Literacy’ module which contributes to their BA degree awards.