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Education case studies: Child wellbeing

***This Covenant case study database is still being built. If you have any case studies about child wellbeing, suitable for adding to the database, please submit a case study.***

Thriving Lives Toolkit for schools

Friendship nurture groups

  • Teachers at Walbottle Village Primary School near Newcastle, concerned with ensuring Service children integrated into a new educational environment, worked with a Service child in Year 2 to create an environment where Service children could foster new friendships with children already at the school, to aid their wellbeing and create new support structures. The result was the creation of a ‘friendship nurture group’ which has allowed Service children to create friendships lasting for years.

Service pupils’ champions

  • Service Pupils’ Champion is a role created by North Yorkshire County Council to provide extra support to its large numbers of Service children. There are two Champions in North Yorkshire working to support the emotional wellbeing and social development of children and young people aged 5-18, especially during periods of active deployment, and at times of transition. The Champions aim to strengthen the pupil voice by promoting and developing the work of Military Kids Club Heroes currently established in many of the schools in North Yorkshire. The Champions provide one-to-one support, anxiety workshops, emotional first aid and support for serving parents, events, information outreach to serving parents with children with additional educational needs, and liaison between bases and schools (for example, advanced warning of incoming Service families).

 Additional after school clubs

  • A school in South Cerney identified that Service pupils were not accessing after school clubs, as the bus timetable did not enable Service children, commuting from the local military base, to stay beyond the school day. The school liaised with the local base and set up an after-school club (with a third-party sports provider) on base using its facilities. Recognising this was an issue for other local schools with Service children, any spare spaces were offered to those other schools. This supported the community, maximised use of facilities, and brought Service children together. The club expanded to liaise with serving parents, and to include members of the community to improve civilian-military relations.

Consulting Service children on their needs

  • Oxfordshire County Council organised a conference for Service children to share their experiences of life in a Forces family, and how schools could support them. The Service children raised a number of difficulties, and said they wanted headteachers to:
    • Listen to every Service child, provide someone to talk to, and create a Service pupils’ council which meets with the headteacher.
    • Ease transitions between school and enable introductions with teachers.
    • Provide a buddy system for new school joiners.
    • Provide a space for Service children to think and work through feelings.
    • Set up a school club for Service children for activities and sharing feelings.
    • Have a teacher who is a Service Pupils Champion.
    • Find ways to share what Service life is like with non-Service pupils and staff.
    • Have days where the school celebrates the Armed Forces.

Oxfordshire County Council responded to the feedback and created the Service Pupil Promise on how they would action the feedback received.

Providing a forum for Service children

  • In Autumn 2017, Royal Caledonian Education Trust (now known as Forces Children Scotland) held a series of ‘Teen Talks’ student conferences across Scotland, giving young people from Service families an opportunity to come together and discuss issues important to them. There was an overwhelming view from participants that their views are often overlooked in decisions affecting them. In response, the Trust established and now manages and delivers a Youth Participation Programme which works closely with the Ministry of Defence, community workers and schools, supported by external funding. The programme has seven local forums and a national forum. Groups are led by young people for young people, and increase youth confidence, skills, networking, and opportunities to have a say on policies and services. The programme led to the development of:

Providing information

  • Highland Council has a dedicated group, the Military Liaison Group (Education), which is a partnership of local Armed Forces representatives and specialist providers and experts. The Group works with children, young people, and their families, listening and acting on their views. The Group has a dedicated Armed Forces website providing information, resources, support and training opportunities for families, children and schools. The Group issues a regular newsletter with information updates, links, and resources for families, schools and the Armed Forces Community, which has both a local and national reach.

 

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