How does your school or trust support service children?

Do you know how many pupils at your school or trust have parents in the Armed Forces?

Service children often face unique challenges and your school has a legal duty to support them. One way this happens is through the Service Pupil Premium (SPP). However, when schools only have one or two eligible pupils, knowing how to spend this grant effectively can be tough.

For ‘Month of the Military Child’, we spoke to Victoria Fisher, of the Service Children’s Progression Alliance (SCiP Alliance), to explore how governors and trustees can make sure this funding has real impact, no matter the budget size.

Firstly Victoria, please can you tell us a bit more about your organisation, SCiP Alliance, and what it does?

The Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance is a partnership of organisations focused on improving outcomes for children from Armed Forces families. We bring together practitioners, researchers, policymakers and funders to build a stronger evidence-base, better policy, and enhanced support for service children’s education and progression, placing their voices at the heart of all we do.

We are hosted by the University of Winchester and supported by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Our main resource is the Thriving Lives Toolkit—a free, evidence-based self-review tool for schools. Once registered, schools assess their provision for service children against seven principles of effective support, helping them identify priorities and spend their Service Pupil Premium (SPP) wisely.

How the Thriving Lives Toolkit works

Schools are asked to grade their current provision for service children over seven different principles of effective support. If a school discovers that one or two areas of provision are coming out lower than the others, that’s where the toolkit will suggest that money is best allocated. It also provides 50 different case studies so schools can look at what other schools are doing and explore best practice.

Schools upload all of their evidence, files and information into the toolkit - and it’s important to mention that we don’t see anything or have access to any data. I spoke to a school recently who had shared the toolkit with Ofsted in order to evidence the planning, provision and support they were providing (they had 70 per cent of pupils entitled to the SPP funding).

We also provide an interactive map so schools can see how many service children there are in the local area. Plus we currently have a webinar series that’s aligned to the toolkit where we schools and other organisations share best practice.

Finally, we have an annual conference every year which is usually in November. We invite all stakeholders and it’s a great opportunity to come and learn about what’s happening in the sector. It’s open to governors and trustees as well.

Useful background: service pupil premium funding and eligibility

Service Pupil Premium (SPP) rates:

£340 per eligible pupil in 2024–2025

£350 per eligible pupil in 2025–2026

Eligibility includes:

Pupils with a parent currently serving in the UK or overseas armed forces
Pupils whose parent has served in the past six years
Children receiving a pension after a parent died while in service
Pupils with a parent serving in a foreign armed force stationed in England

Some schools may only have one or two pupils who’re eligible for this funding but they still deserve the same level of support.

What are some of the barriers that these pupils face that governors or trustees might not be aware of?

Firstly, deployment. Sometimes parents are deployed at short notice and a child isn’t allowed to know where they’ve gone and it might be somewhere dangerous. The child may have no contact with that parent for long periods of time. You might also have parents all week and only home for weekends.

It can also be quite difficult when a parent comes back after being away for long periods of time. That transition can be tricky. Sometimes service children have to pick up more at home due to an absent parent - caring for siblings for example.

Some Service children experience frequent school moves, both within the UK and internationally, often with minimal notice. These abrupt transitions can significantly disrupt a child’s education, social life, and extracurricular involvement, making it difficult to re-establish routines, friendships, and interests. This level of discontinuity can impact a child’s sense of stability and belonging.

However, it is important to note that some children enjoy this aspect of Service life, embracing the opportunity to experience new places and cultures, and developing the ability to form new friendships with ease.

There's been a lot of research on service children with SEND because that's another layer of complexity. For example, Service Children in State Schools (SCISS) recently conducted a survey as part of wider project :

‘Schools with larger Service child cohorts and/or British Army cohorts were more likely to report greater communication challenges regarding support for Service children with an EHCP than for other pupils with an EHCP. Mobility is likely to be a key factor in these greater challenges.’

Voices of Schools SEND Project, April 2024

For children from Armed Forces families, certain aspects of the school curriculum can present unique emotional challenges. For example, watching current news reports or studying contemporary geopolitics in

the classroom may carry heightened significance for a child whose parent is currently deployed. Similarly, topics such as the Second World War, often covered in history lessons, can be particularly sensitive.

Finally, transitioning out of the Armed Forces can be a significant adjustment for some families, particularly when their identity and lifestyle have been closely connected to military service over many years. This shift can present a range of practical and emotional challenges, including securing stable housing—especially for those previously living in military accommodation.. Additionally, families may face difficulties integrating into civilian communities, where established support structures and shared experiences may be less readily available.

Do you have any examples of how schools are using the funding to provide effective support to service children?

Sometimes schools with large numbers of service children will employ a learning support assistant who can do 1:1 sessions with pupils. Some host ‘little troopers’ clubs or ‘deployment clubs’ which provide peer support to service children. You can find best practice case studies in the latest government guidance.

Are schools aware that they have access to this free toolkit?

As with everything, awareness could be higher. We know that school leaders are time poor and have a high workload. The toolkit is there to help them and a good start is often just taking a look choosing one of the seven principles and watching a short video on it.

The toolkit also includes Powerpoints that school leaders can use for training or for an inset day. We recommend that governing boards:

Ask school leaders how many pupils are eligible for SPP

Ensure the funding is ringfenced and targeted

Review how your school is using the Thriving Lives Toolkit

Consider attending the SCiP Alliance annual conference, webinars or other events
Encourage school leaders to access free training materials in the toolkit

About Victoria

Victoria is the SCiP Alliance Engagement Manager, working to increase the scale and depth of engagement of schools and other partners with the online Thriving Lives Toolkit and the wider community, helping them to develop and continually enhance their support for Service children. She also works closely with the Hub Leads from the SCiP Alliance's network of regional hubs, bringing together partnerships which connect stakeholders. This role is kindly funded by the Veterans Foundation and Armed Forces Education Trust.

Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn