Romany Gypsy Day at Hook Infant School:
a photo album

By Dawn Walters

Most years we have a small number of Romany Gypsy families in our school. For the last year, one of them was in my Year R class. When Claire Barker from EMTAS came in to deliver training after school one day, I was very surprised by how little I knew about Romany Gypsy families. Over the years I have always included multicultural festivals into the Early Years curriculum but have never thought about teaching the class about Romany Gypsies. Claire had told us about the range of resources that can be lent to schools, and I arranged for these to be delivered to school.

I planned an entire day of activities for the children to take part in, to help them understand more about the Romany Gypsy culture. The mum of the child in my class was very supportive and was keen to help as much as she could, she provided us with an album of photos of her family and more information about the language and way of life. The older brother of the child in my class was in the Junior School next door and he was able to come over in his break time to teach the class some Romany Gypsy language.

The Role Play Area became a Bender Tent for the day, complete with a Romany Gypsy Flag. The children were fascinated with the flag and what the symbolism of the colours and picture were.

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Alongside the Bender Tent there was an area where children could make a camp fire to cook their food.

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The child in my class had a grandad who used to make pegs and paper flowers to sell, when he was a child. The two activities to go with this were peg doll making (a little bit tenuous! But suited to the interests of the children) and paper flower making. All the children had a go at these and couldn’t wait to take them home!

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We borrowed many items from EMTAS, the most popular was the Romany Wagon which the children used (under supervision!) for small world play.

The children enjoyed decorating pictures of a wagon ...

.... and exploring the many artefacts.

Hampshire EMTAS have a wide selection of books and the children enjoyed listening to all the stories.

All of the class enjoyed the Persona Doll, especially dressing her up!