People stereotype travellers too much, says Chantelle

As an Irish traveller going through the education system, she endures daily hostility from her peers and indifference from her teachers, not to mention the pressures that can come from within the travelling community itself.

She's tried over the years to hide her identity as a traveller while at school, and sometimes she even "talks English" to escape the bullying.

But her own accent usually leads to the cries of "pikey" she is all too accustomed to hearing.

Despite all this, having made it to year 10 she is determined to sit her six GSCEs and one GNVQ next year.

Chantelle, who did not want her real name published, has lived in a house in West London for 11 years with her parents and six siblings.

"We used to live on an official travellers site when we were younger. You have different plots for different families and each pays council tax, gas, electric, provides their own home and pays rent.

"The site was hidden down a back road, next to factories and a train track. The authorities try to hide us, they don't want to know about travellers. We still go back there because a lot of our extended family live in caravans.

They would say to (my brother) 'we don't want no pikeys in this school' and eventually he left 'Chantelle' Me and my education

"We moved to a house because I think my mum and dad wanted us to be brought up in a structured environment where we'd get a proper education."

The road to getting an education for a traveller is complex. While Chantelle - who is the only traveller in her school - describes her family as "100% supportive" about her staying on, it's not an easy option.

"Travellers get bullied so much in school there's only so much they can take. The parents know what it's like, and it's up to them whether they send you or not.

"Nearly all get sent to school initially, but it can be so hard because you feel isolated from the rest of the class, you don't get invited places, and you get treated differently by the teachers.

"A lot of Irish people (Irish travellers) go to primary then get half way through high school and leave. My younger brother used to come home with black eyes and bruises everywhere.

"They would say to him 'we don't want no pikeys in this school' and eventually he left."

Accused of stealing

This situation leads to an infuriating vicious circle, in which teachers often don't take travellers seriously because of their poor record of staying on, thereby exacerbating their feelings of isolation and despondency.

"The teachers think there's no point in teaching us, they think it's a waste of time because we're going to leave anyway.

"If I miss a day of school they'll say 'that's because she's Irish', and if I go on holiday they'll say 'that's it now, she's left'.

"My sister kept getting put in the bottom classes even though she was getting Bs and Cs. They said she was Irish so she wouldn't last. She would have got better results if she'd been put in the higher groups."

And travellers are the first to be accused if things go missing at school, says Chantelle.

"I'd get the blame even if I hadn't been in that classroom. I've never stolen in my life, I wasn't brought up that way. But they don't want to know about what our life is really like."

In class discussions Chantelle is ignored when she puts her hand up. She doesn't challenge the teachers because, she says, people say all travellers do is argue and fight.

"They would think they'd won then. I'd rather just get my head down and get to work," she says.

Other travellers will sometimes say to me 'what are you going to school for?' 'Chantelle'

Putting up with the attitudes of her classmates is hard to take though.

"There could be a group of girls sitting in the class and I'd go and join them and say hello, and they'd just look at me, they wouldn't talk to me. When I sit down I can hear them behind me calling me names.

"If they are talking about going places at the weekend, like the cinema or a party, they invite all the girls but I don't get invited, because I'm Irish.

"I ask them why and they say 'you're not coming, you're a pikey, you ain't ruining my party, you'll just start fights."

Besides the treatment from non-travellers, there can be pressures on young people from fellow travellers to concentrate on work, marriage and family life.

"Other travellers will sometimes say to me 'what are you going to school for, you're acting like a country (English) person. What's the point? You'll just get bullied, you can get a job'."

Young women can feel particularly under pressure to settle down and marry - something that is still done at a relatively young age in the travelling community - rather than see school through to the end.

'Scandalised'

Irish travellers operate by a strict moral, and religious, code that means girls mustn't hang around with groups of boys, nor have sex or drink alcohol before marriage, and must not take drugs, explains Chantelle.

"When the girls reach womanhood the families want them to stay at home. They don't want them around boys in school. It's not that they always want them all married off, or whatever it is people think, they just want them safe.

"And obviously when you do get married you're going to have to know how to cook and clean and look after the children."

Traveller education development officer Terry Suddaby has worked with travellers for 15 years and has known Chantelle all of her life.

Young people like Chantelle help Terry talk to schools about their community, in her work for Ealing Travellers' Education Service.

Traveller children are often met with hostility at school

"A lot of women, like Chantelle's mum, say they want their children to achieve and get on, but they also want them to learn traveller ways.

"One thing they hold very dear is that a girl's reputation is crucial, she can't be seen hanging around with a load of boys. She'd get a bad reputation and so would her family. They'd be scandalised," says Terry.

Chantelle adds: "English people I go to school with do these things, but I think if they say travellers are so bad they should take a look at the way they behave."

Chantelle is bright about the future - she is considering working with children when she gets her exams, and is also interested in working with computers. She'd like to "experience life" and travel the world before settling down.

But every now and then she feels ready for packing it all in and leaving school, when things get too much.

"Sometimes I just get so much hassle. I'm trying to get an education, but it's so hard for me. It's alright for them (the English people), they mess around, do what they want, but it's like I'm the one trying to learn and I'm not allowed.