A TRADITIONAL gipsy caravan will be built at Wroughton Infants' School to help celebrate its work with traveller children.

For the last 30 years the school has worked with the Travellers' Education Council to make sure children staying at the Hay Lane site in Wroughton are happy at the school.

Now a traditional gipsy vardo will be built in the playground. It will be a scale model of a Romany caravan about the size of a Wendy house for children to play in.

Other good news for the school is a £5,000 grant from the National Lottery which will pay for an outdoor classroom with tables and chairs so that children can enjoy fresh air while learning in the summer.

Headteacher Susan Paggett said: "We have some traveller children in school from the Hay Lane site, and they are a valued part of the school, and we get wonderful support from their parents.

"Once the caravan is in place we will let our pupils play in it and see how traveller children live when they are at home, and encourage the ideas of multi-culturalism in the school.

"We are particularly excited about the outdoor classroom. The idea is to replicate a normal class out in the playground, so that children can come out and learn in the fresh air." The vardo is being paid for through private funding, not lottery or Swindon Council money.

Jan Worth, of the Travellers' Education Council, said: "Both schools have been doing exceptional work with traveller children, most of whom live on the Hay Lane site.

"They are the predominant ethnic minority in the schools and it is lovely to see them working to celebrate their traveller heritage in the same way that they would with other ethnic groups.

"The vardo, the traditional brightly painted gipsy caravan pulled by a horse, is quite a rare sight these days. Most travellers have, of course ,moved on to modern caravans and mobile homes

"But it is good for the children to appreciate the history of their culture and for the other children to learn more about how other groups live. It can be quite a tricky issue as some adults find that as soon as they say they are travellers, or mention they are living at Hay Lane, they get discriminated against when it comes to getting jobs.

"The word traveller has now been accepted as an ethnic group to tick on forms, but some adults prefer not to use it because in some people's minds there is a negative connotation to being a traveller."

She added: "Every child will get the benefits of playing in the wagon while they are at the school."

Work has begun on the playground, and the outdoor classroom is scheduled to be finished between September and January next year. The caravan could be in place by the end of March.