Back to school at last!
As most of the school children in the UK are now back in school, we wanted to remind you of the resources we have to support teachers, school children and their parents on our website and in our online shop. With most military families moving every two years, a military child could attend 6-7 schools in their school life. These moves along with long periods of separation from a serving parent can affect children in many ways. Our Little Troopers at School project has worked with education and wellbeing specialists to produce a variety of resources. Louise, Founder of the charity said “Thanks to Covid many of us have had our children at home for a long time. While we may want to breathe a sigh of relief that our home schools have closed, many may be settling a child into a new school or facing deployment. We want to ensure that we give parents the information that they need and ensure our schools are ready to support our military children. In our online shop we have: Military Child Wellbeing Course – The comprehensive pack features all the resources needed for the child-friendly, interactive course, which is made up of seven sessions. Topics covered include how to cope with separation, deployment, house moves and living abroad, as well as the personal themes of belonging, identity and mindfulness. The course has been designed to be delivered to small groups of children ranging from 6 -11 years olds, making the material just as relevant to schools with two service children as to those with 100 or more. Primary Resource Pack – Everything within this pack has been carefully planned, created and illustrated to explain more about military children within schools and give you lots of practical ways to support and ensure the military are represented in your education setting. There is a comprehensive information booklet, stories, circle time plans, lesson plans, resources for display boards and role play activities. The pack comes with a USB loaded with resources so that they can be printed as needed. For school libraries you can now buy specific military story books. Our series is complete with stories about the British Army, Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force from children’s perspective. For parents we have Information sheets to help you find new schools, learn more about the pupil premium and weekly planners so you can ensure everyone is where they need to be at the right time. There are also fact sheets for teachers; covering pupil premium, moving on checklists, the affects of separation and more. Louise adds “Our focus up until now has been children of primary school age, but we are just in the final stages of creating resources for Secondary Schools. We are also planning to expand the project and have launched a short questionnaire for military families to share your views and experiences of military child support in education. We’d love to hear about your experiences.” Please take 5 minutes to fill