Service Families

The Government decided to deliver funding straight to schools for certain groups of eligible children. The main priority was to target disadvantaged and vulnerable children with those eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the state.

Children of service families were added to the list. This acknowledged the demands placed on children, families and schools at key times and was an attempt to support service pupils in line with the Armed Forces Community Covenant. Although these children may not be underachieving compared to their peers, the Premium is provided in recognition of the additional, mainly pastoral support schools often need.

Our school community contains a significant proportion of military families with approximately 58% of our pupils with one or more parents serving in the Armed Forces.  As a school we take our role of supporting our community seriously and offer support and involvement to these families. 

We are looking at developing links with Parents, for instance inviting them in occasionally for refreshments that the children have made and to meet each other. Strong links with our parents and serving units are important to us and we appreciate their support.

We actively encourage Forces involvement with the school and have enjoyed a great deal of Army support at our Armed Forces Days.

The Pupil Premium we receive is spent in support of our Forces pupils and you can find information about how we spend this budget on our 'Pupil Premium' page.

The Children's Education Advisory Service website https://www.gov.uk/childrens-education-advisory-service holds a great deal of information for Forces families that you may find useful if you are moving to or away from Wallop Primary School. 

Hampshire has the largest population of pupils from Service families of all local authorities, representing all branches of the armed forces.  To support service families Hampshire have produced a useful resource document which you may find useful.

https://hants.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/Chil8684/ES4UzAVfR1pDqkaJhDAGKyMB8N1SAfIbR6t1jLNUuChOCg

Thriving Lives Toolkit

The Service Children’s Progression Alliance conducted a large-scale UKwide consultation which told us that professionals supporting Armed Forces children want to be better connected: with each other, with evidence and with support. The Thriving Lives Toolkit responds directly to this need. Independent, UK-wide research carried out by the International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS) at the University of Derby comprised:

• Literature review

• Surveys in which 493 schools participated

• In-depth, multi-case study investigations with Armed Forces children, senior leaders, teachers and support staff.

The schools were specifically chosen to provide a balance of primary and secondary, proportions of Armed Forces children (from very low to high), while serving all three Armed Forces between them.

The research identified seven principles for effective practice and a framework to help schools undertake evidence-based reflection and identify improvement priorities. Research does not identify any principle to be of more importance than any others. It is important to consider all seven.

The toolkit has been extensively tested across the UK and a steering group of stakeholders settled on the terminology used throughout in the light of differences across the nations. ‘Armed Forces children’ resonates across the UK whereas ‘Service children’ is less common in Scotland.

Welcome from our Forces Liaison Coordinator

Hello, My name is Mrs Pickering and I am the Forces Liaison Coordinator here at Wallop Primary School. I am also the Owls Class Learning Support Assistant and the school's ELSA.

I was part of the military family for seventeen years before my husband made the decision to leave the Army.

My daughter spent her first nine years as a military child, attending four different pre-schools in three different countries, therefore I have an acute understanding of what a massive impact moving house and moving schools can be to you and your children.

Our aim here at Wallop is to make your child's transition here to our school as smooth as possible and ensure that they feel part of our school as quickly as possible.

We have recently started a Forces Club that is run on a Wednesday lunchtime, offering the children time to get to meet other forces children in an informal surrounding. We play games and have circle time where they can talk in a small group about any worries they may have about life as a military child.

We are a very friendly school so we hope that your child/ren will feel happy and settled as soon as possible. Sometimes it takes a little longer to settle, so, please, if you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to meeting you soon.