EAL Aspirations Conference: 26 November 2025
On Wednesday 26 November, 22 of our Roma students from Years 8 to 10 joined Mrs Woodhouse, Miss McEvoy, Mrs Lazar and Mr Carr at The Hold in Ipswich. This opportunity came about as a result of an EAL Aspirations Conference organised by Union Romani Voice.
The theme of the conference was ‘Aspiration’ and its core purpose was to celebrate the potential, identity and voice of Roma and Romanian young people in Ipswich. It brought together community members and representatives from local authorities to promote youth confidence, aspirations and empowerment.
At the conference, we were joined by a number of speakers including: Simona Lazar (CEO of Union Romani Voice), Pat Bruce-Brown (Deputy Mayor of Ipswich) and Tim Passmore (Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner), all of whom reiterated the core message of ‘Be Proud of Who You Are’ and talked to students about aspiring to be the best you can be, being proud of your identity and the importance of belonging.
Two of our students were interviewed by BBC journalist, Jon Wright, who has very generously offered his time to come in to run a session about journalism with our Roma students and will be working with them to make their own podcast.
You can find the BBC News item here online and a recording of the radio interview:
Roma students in Ipswich urged to be proud of their identity – BBC News
