How do we identify Travellers?
If the school has a confident belief that the children in question are likely to be, or have a Traveller heritage, then they should be encouraged to declare it within the context of the ethnic group completion form, but only after establishing, through diplomatic questioning, whether they agree to subscribe to the ethnic status of either Gypsy Roma or Traveller of Irish Heritage. It needs to be noted that there are some groups of people who ascribe themselves as Travellers but who may well not fall within the 2 categories for the purpose of ethnic monitoring. These groups will include fairground, circus, bargee and New Travellers.
