Thursday, May 16, 2013

Circus performers fear education revamp will endanger jobs
from:  thestage.co.uk
By: Matthew Hemley
May 9, 2013
Hundreds of circus performers could be forced to give up their jobs if planned education reforms are introduced.

Equity is warning that a proposal to remove a section of the Education Act, which allows travelling performers to educate their children on the road, would “have a huge knock-on effect not just for child performers but also for experienced professional performers with families who could be forced to give up their careers”.

The union’s concerns are shared by circus impresario Gerry Cottle, who has called on the government to recognise that “there are certain professions or ways of life where the rules have got to be more elastic”.

Currently, the Education Act of 1996 makes it an offence for a parent to fail to ensure their child’s regular attendance at a school where the child is registered.

However, section 444(6) of the act gives parents a defence in which they cannot be found guilty of a school attendance offence, provided that their child is of no fixed abode and that they, as parents, are engaged in a “trade or business of such a nature as to require them to travel from place to place”.

This means that children of traveller parents can be registered at one UK school and keep that place even while on the road, using 444(6) as a protection from prosecution.

Now, the government is proposing to repeal the exemption in a bid to boost attendances at schools.
read more:
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2013/05/circus-performers-fear-education-revamp-will-endanger-jobs/

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