The Traveller Education Service were delighted to host events in both Sutton & Merton to celebrate and promote Gypsy, Roma & Traveller History Month (GRTHM) for June 2023.
We were joined by Traveller pupils and their families, representatives from their schools, educational colleagues from Merton and Cognus, councillors and the Deputy Mayor of Sutton.
Thank you to everyone who came to the events to join in with the celebrations, show their support for raising awareness of Gypsy, Roma & Traveller culture and history and for making our GRT families feel recognised and valued as part of our local communities.
There were various displays at the events including all the entries from the competition we ran; information about Traveller history, culture and language; statistics about the community and the challenges they face; and some artefacts and photos.
Many thanks to Sutton Central Library and Mitcham Library and their wonderfully helpful and friendly staff who helped us to host our events there and agreed to display our exhibitions for the whole of June for GRTHM. In case you did not get a chance to go and see them for yourself, here are some photos from the event…
Traveller Education Service GRTHM2023 display in Mitcham Library
Sutton competition entries
Merton competition entries
Artefacts, photos and ‘The Travelling People’ book on display in The Gallery at Sutton Central Library
Merton Presentation Event in The Arts Space at Mitcham Library
Sutton Presentation Event in The Gallery at Sutton Central Library
Our KS1 winner from Merton and his mum with Helen Gasparelli (Head of Inclusion – Cognus Ltd) on the left and Alison Cramp (Teaching and Learning Adviser for Equalities – Merton) on the right
Our KS3 winners from Sutton with (left to right) the Deputy Mayor of Sutton – Louise Phelan; the Leader of Sutton Council – Councillor Ruth Dombey; and the Managing Director of Cognus Ltd – Joanna Cassey
Cognus’ Traveller Education Service with the competition winners from Sutton