CHILDREN at Broadmayne First School were given an insight into another culture as a real traveller's caravan pitched up at the school.

The "Vardo" will be on site all week for children to explore, and will be the centrepiece of a series of workshops.

Headteacher Anne Clark said the workshops are being run by a group called the Traveller Experience Service (TES) who were invited to the school as part of its programme to encourage cultural awareness.

She said: "It is part of their brief to help schools and children to understand other ways of life.

"That is why we are looking at it, to give the children an important insight into different aspects of other cultures.

"They will be making tents and going inside the caravan and finding out what it would have been like to live inside.

"They will find out about the ways they travelled and there will be stories for them to read about what happened to the people."

Mrs Clark added: "We are always trying to broaden our children's outlook on life in the broad scheme of things; we call it cultural diversity and racial equality. Tolerance is quite an important aspect of that."