Resources for schools with Forces children

Resources for schools

This page is intended to provide resources that might be useful for schools with Service children.

Festival of Friends Case Studies

Service Children Progression Alliance

This is the link to the SCiP website which schools often find useful, in particular the Thriving Lives toolkit that you can sign up to https://www.scipalliance.org/thriving-lives-toolkit. There are also some case studies on the website and you can sign up to join your local SCiP hub.

You don’t need to be signed up to the Toolkit to access the SCiP CPD materials. There are 7 self-directed narrated PowerPoints, one per Principle. When you click on each of the Principles to expand it. For example, for Principle 1 -Our Approach is Clear

The narrated powerpoint slides for Principles 2,4 and 7 are probably best for staff training. All can be downloaded as ‘read-only’ and played with the sound off – using a print out of the ‘notes’ under the slides as a script for the presenter – this is the best way for whole staff training sessions.

Service Children in State Schools

This is the SCISS (Service Children in State Schools) website – https://www.sciss.org.uk/

Other Charities with Resources

This is a Scottish website but has some useful links and information regardless of location – https://forceschildrenseducation.org.uk/educators

If you’re not already aware of them, a couple of great charities to look at for more ideas are Little Troopers (https://www.littletroopers.net/) and Reading Force (https://www.readingforce.org.uk/).

Service Pupil Premium

The following links relate to Service Pupil Premium best practice and give some ideas as to what others do to support service children.

Army Families Federation – Service Pupil Premium

MOD -Service Pupil Premium

Naval Families Federation – Guide for Primary and Secondary School

RAF Families Federation – Service Pupil Premium

Headteacher Update – Service Pupil Premium

Non statutory guidance on SPP and it can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance. Annex D para 7 explains that pupils who meet the criteria for Service Pupil Premium (SPP) funding can also be eligible for the disadvantage pupil premium (PP) funding, if they are currently in receipt of benefits-based free school meals or have been recorded as eligible in the last 6 years.

SEND animations

Over the past couple of years, eight schools serving Catterick Garrison have been working on an initiative called the Garrison ASSIST Project (GAP). Collectively, almost two-thirds of the 1250 or so of their pupils are Service children – and about a quarter of these have Special Education Needs and / or Disabilities (SEND), bringing additional challenges to these schools.

During the project, a parents’ forum was established. Most of its members have struggled tonavigate SEND processes for their children and speak of how military lifestyle has exacerbated many of the SEND challenges they have faced. A common challenge heard bythe project’s lead was the parents’ view that school staff often ‘don’t get it’ – particularly ifthey have limited experience of military lifestyle themselves. This, they feel, often leads to frustrations of not being understood which, in turn, can damage home to school relations.

Consequently, working with the Project Lead, a group of these parents collaborated with a filmmaker to create a series of five short animations to help staff, and other professionals, gain a greater awareness of the difficulties that some Armed Forces families with children with SEND face. The films cover the following aspects and are aimed at providing discussion topics for staff teams:

Introductory video – https://vimeo.com/1035656228/7c1393bc9c?share=copy

Episode 1: Posting Moves (20 minutes) – https://vimeo.com/1035655902/e233635da7?share=copy

Episode 2: Relationships (9 minutes) – https://vimeo.com/1035655747/e7041944e7

Episode 3: Parental Separation (19 minutes) – https://vimeo.com/1035655399/ebfd324818?share=copy

Episode 4: Language, labels and the challenges of getting a diagnosis (15 minutes) – https://vimeo.com/1035655061/9a30368a4f?share=copy

Episode 5: Trauma and Burnout (9 minutes) – https://vimeo.com/1035654830/2654a8f717?share=copy