Holy Trinity Academy of Priorslee
Pupils in school: 888
Number of Services children: 14
According to the Department for Education ‘How schools secure the progress of children from the armed forces families: Good practice guidance’, children from armed forces families may be distinctive from other groups of children in a number of ways. These include:
· Mobility The children are more likely than their peers to attend a number of different schools as they progress through the primary and secondary years
· Social and emotional Children may experience stress or greater social and emotional pressures than their peers. One parent may be away from home for long periods of time and may be serving in a war zone.
· Attendance The children may have lower attendance rates than their peers. Parents often request the child’s compassionate leave from school before or after a posting.
· Parental involvement Parents may be reticent about taking on a long-term commitment to a school, such as taking a role as governor or on a Parent Teachers Association (PTA), simply because they expect to have to move.
| Already in place/ funded | Proposed actions | |
| Staff salary (AWE; WV)SMHWGCSE Pod | Monitoring of Services children’s progress compared to the wider school population to ensure that they learn, develop and achieve their own expected level of progress. Intervention strategies and support are put into place by departments, to support their learning. Strategies and good practice shared at regular intervals. Enrichment activities to enable Services children to take part in certain activities that may not have been available to them due to the absence of one of their key adults. Services children to be given priority over non- Services/ non- PP students. HTA is now an MKC Heroes school. Monitoring of Services students’ attendance by pastoral staff (including back-to-school meetings). Consideration/ reflection on transition arrangements for Y6 students – offered tours/ other opportunities for students and parents to ensure a smoother transition for Services children. Reading Force resources – free books and scrapbooks for Services children; promoting literacy skills. KS4 students as Forces Student Champions in school; 1 Year 11 and 1 Year 10 student appointed in September 2023. Staff Forces Student Champions appointed (R. Welsh and B. Olner) Staff awareness – tutor monitoring of Services children especially those with parents posted away. Ideas for ways to support shared in the staff bulletin. Forces Student Champions to liaise with staff to develop better understanding of the impact of deployments on students. Pastoral support – pastoral support officers to make termly contact with families of Services students to offer support, be aware of deployment plans, etc. Mentoring – WV will be mentoring Services students on a fortnightly basis. WV will meet with Y7-11 Services students in school and produce/ update pupil passports for them; these will be shared with the relevant staff (and updated to Provision Maps) to aid with the provision of support for these students. |