Three young people from the Wokingham Borough’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community are among 38 competition winners joining an award ceremony at the Oakwood Centre in Woodley this Friday (December 9, 2011).

For the past four years, the National Association for Teachers of Travellers and Other Professionals (NATT+) has run a national competition during Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. This year’s competition, A Moment in Time, invited children and young people to create a piece of work – a story, poem, painting, photograph, or even a piece of music or song – that captures a moment in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) culture or history.

There were over 1,000 entries submitted from schools all over the country, and competition organisers thought the range of entries was really imaginative and the standard particularly high.  The winners include three Wokingham Borough pupils, one from The Coombes CE Primary School in Arborfield, and two from All Saints CE Primary School. Their entries will all be published in a book which will be available to buy.  The published books of winning entries from NATT+’s previous competitions are now popular resources in schools across the country. 

The winners are also looking forward to an award ceremony which is being hosted this year by officers in Wokingham Borough Council’s traveller education team. The ceremony, funded by NATT+ is open to all the winners and their families. Award winners have also been invited to a celebratory lunch where certificates will be presented by one of the judges, Richard O’Neill, a popular story-teller from the Traveller community.