Learning Away from School

A talk by Olivia Sheldon

My name is Olivia Sheldon.  I’m 13 and I go to Ribston Grammar School.  I live in a big trailer with my mum, dad and little sister Zoe, who goes to Haresfield School.

We’re a Showman family and from April to November we travel around the country with our trailer, 3 lorries, staff trailer, kids ride and Twister ride.  In the winter we live at my Grandma’s site with my Grandma and Grandad, Aunts and Uncles and my Great Grandparents.

So, because of all this travelling, my sister and me have always had to do most of our schoolwork through Distance Learning Packs, which our Traveller teacher and the teachers at school put together for us.  At a few of the places where we go a Traveller teacher comes to help us with our work, but most of the time we work on our own.

Since I’ve been at Ribston, this has got harder because of all the different subjects I have to learn.  Last year I was given a massive box of work, it weighed a ton!  I still got it done though, and I think I do just as well out of school as I do when I’m in.

Last year, the school gave me a laptop and my mum got me a datacard so that I could email my teachers to let them know how I was getting on and to ask for help if I needed it.

I worked hard last year and when I got back to school, I was a month or two ahead of my class in maths and French.  My favourite school subjects are French and German because they’re easy and I’m quite good at them.

When I leave school I want to carry on travelling and my goal in life is to get my own site to live on in the winter because my Grandma’s site is very full.