Educational inclusion: meeting the needs of all traveller pupils

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a critical insight into Travellers’ experiences of school, to highlight inequality and press for improvements. The difficulties Gypsies and Travellers experience within the mainstream education system are historic and well-documented in research and reports. As early as 1967, the Plowden Report described Travellers’ underachievement as a cause for concern, as their ‘educational needs are extreme and largely unmet’ (DES, 1967, p. 595). At this time, problems centred mainly on access to school: attendance was irregular, and many Travellers received no schooling at all (Reiss, 1975).