Bedale Church Of England Primary School -

Service Pupils

Being situated between RAF Leeming and Catterick Garrison, our school provides education for a number of service families in the community.

Our school welcomes this and we work to fully support children from these families.

These pupils attract additional Service Premium funding. Full details of our S.P Strategy is on our Premium Funding page (at the end of the P.P strategy).

Every Thursday, for an hour after school, there is Military Kids Club (MKC) which is run by Miss Davies and Mrs Wallace. The MKC gives children of currently serving, and of veterans, the chance to come together and take part in a range of activities, such as: arts & crafts, quizzes, film nights and sports. Running this club allows the children to meet others who may have experienced or who are experiencing similar things to themselves, for example, having a parent who is often away.

In addition to the MKC, all military children are given the opportunity to join a social experience, such as a visit to RAF Leeming to go bowling or going to paint some pottery.

In addition, there is an afternoon session provided for pupils to discuss any key issues that may be worrying them (particularly linked to parents being deployed, posted away). During this time the children have the chance to complete scrapbooks, pin where their parent/carer is on a world map and discuss any worries. We welcome parent partnership with this and a letter is sent out each half term asking for any known dates.

Children who join us through the school year are partnered with a MKC buddy and a welcome letter is sent home to parents. Those who move on receive a certificate and a farewell card to show they will be missed by the club and wider school community. We also support the children in maintaining friendships by giving the opportunity to write letters and liaising with their new school. We aim to support the transition as much as possible.

MKC Assembly

Some of the Military Children proudly shared with the rest of the school what roles their parent/s have or have had in the military. Many children were surprised at how many different opportunities there are, and we only named a handful! They also shared a wide range of countries that the military had taken their parent/s to. We had many hands up when we asked if anybody would be interested in joining the military themselves.

Six of our Military Children were invited to the council chambers in Northallerton to take part in 'The Big Conversation'. The idea of the day was to gather the opinions of Military children in North Yorkshire and to help shape a Military Children's Promise.

The day consisted of three workshops. The first workshop was an art workshop where the children decorated a section of a Military Child's banner that is going to be used at future events and hopefully displayed within the chambers. Up next was the time for our children's voices to be heard, they spoke about their experience of: health and wellbeing, family and friends, community and communication and education. Lastly was a creative writing workshop, led by a rapper! This was the best part of the day for everyone and everyone contributed towards a rap song that will be recorded and used to get the voice of the Military Children heard. We can't wait to hear the final song!

The children made us proud and the day was a success.

Recently, our MKC children visited Studfold Adventure Trail.

They enjoyed: following the trail and looking out for hidden rabbits, finding different clues to solve a question sheet, identifying different things in the area to tick off, and looking at all the different fairy houses. The children also worked very well in their teams to build a den and to find the codes needed to move to the next field. There was also time to go on the Go Karts and in the play area at lunchtime.

All the children were brilliantly behaved and we all had a lovely day! We can't wait for the next MKC visit !

Some of our Military Children were lucky enough to be chosen to attend a special art workshop. The workshop was led by Angela Campbell, the Service Children's Champion for North Yorkshire. Angela is visiting schools to work on an art project that will be used to decorate Ripon Cathedral during the Military Children's Remembrance Service next month. The children were shown how to make mandala-inspired poppies and as you can see, they produced some beautiful work.

When Angela returned to collect the pieces the following day she said 'the children were a credit to the school, behaved brilliantly, and listened well and that she had a lovely morning.' This was lovely to hear and we are very proud of the children.

We are looking forward to taking part in further joint projects in the future.