Ar
med Forces Families
Support for Armed Forces families
Although we are not a military school approximately 40% of our children are from military families. We now have two different ways of offering enhanced support to these families following discussion with them.
The first is our lovely military bear, Reg, which children are able to take home if a serving parent is away for any length of time. He can be taken home and shown to Mum or Dad before they leave. Reg needs to return to school when parents are back and we love to see photos of adventures he has while he is on ‘holiday’ from school so we can add to his scrap book.
Our second form of support is a special school ‘camo’ wristband. The aim of this is for the child to wear the wristband when Mum or Dad is away so that all staff in school can instantly see and be ready to look out for a child not ‘being themselves’ and offer the relevant support. This really helps us to help families as not being a ‘military’ school we do not always know about deployments or absence through military channels. Also we are aware that absence can be sporadic and intermittent and the use of the wristband helps us to keep track.
Neither of these methods is intended to be a substitute for conversation; parents should always feel confident to talk to us about any particular concerns. However they help all staff offer the best support when your child needs it most.