Schools and education facilities provide care and support to our military children and their parents.
As we have a dispersed population our schools tend to have only a few military children each. Therefore, the children require even more assistance as they are distanced from the Armed Forces Community and the welfare support of a camp.
The following organisations can provide information, tools and resources to support Service Children:
Service Children in State Schools Alliance – SCISS
SCISS is an affiliation of up to 6,000 state-maintained schools in England, which have service children on roll. It is led by a National Executive Advisory Committee (NEAC) of headteachers, Local Authority officers and advisers together with personnel from the DfE and MOD's Directorate for Children and Young People (DCYP).
Service Children's Progression (SCIP) Alliance
The Service Children's Progression (SCIP) Alliance is a partnership of organisations focused on improving outcomes for service children and is funded by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It is their mission to champion the progression of service children so they can make informed and confident transitions through further and higher education, into thriving adult lives and careers.
Little Troopers
Little Troopers are a national charity supporting all children of HM Armed Forces. They can provide school resource packs and information sheets to help support a military child through a deployment. They also provide resources to assist with best practice on spending the Service Pupil Premium.
In addition to this they arrange family days, holidays and weekend events and packs for parents to make deployment and separation that little bit easier.
Reading Force
A shared reading initiative that encourages families to read and talk about a book, improving communication and enriching relationships with books and other families.
The charity provides a book, scrapbook and activities to do whilst reading the book to support conversations through shared reading. This service can also be used in school as a junior book club to bring military and civilian children closer.
Military Kids Club Heroes
Previously known as HMS Heroes, the club started in Plymouth to provide peer to peer support for military children. Now the national initiative has been taken on by the Royal British Legion.
The project helps facilitate schools to set up their own Military Kids Club, which provides support to military children, activities and events to improve community cohesion and wellbeing of the children.
The groups can meet at various times either once a week or once a term. They are facilitated by a responsible adult but very much driven by the children themselves. For more information on setting up your own club please visit the Royal British Legion website:
MOD of Directorate Children and Young People (DCYP)
DCYP provides appropriate professional direction, support and advice in order to ensure that children and young people are provided with every opportunity to achieve the best possible outcomes and fulfil their potential.
Children's Education Advisory Service (CEAS)
CEAS provides impartial advice about the education of service children.
Children's commissioner
Tasked with being the 'Voice of Children' and standing up for children's rights, the commission has recently carried out extensive research into lives of service children. Their report is due to be published in July 2018 and will be accessible on their website:
Northamptonshire Educational Psychology Service
Locally, the Educational Pyschology Service is working with the covenant board to become more aware of the needs of service children so that they can support the schools and their families going forward. To access their services visit the Northamptonshire County Council website: