Service families

The Government decided to deliver funding straight to schools for certain groups of eligible children. The main priority was to target disadvantaged and vulnerable children with those eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the state.

Children of service families were added to the list. This acknowledged the demands placed on children, families and schools at key times and was an attempt to support service pupils in line with the Armed Forces Community Covenant. Although these children may not be underachieving compared to their peers, the Premium is provided in recognition of the additional, mainly pastoral support children often need.

Our school community contains a significant proportion of military families with approximately 60%-70% of our pupils with one or more parents serving in the Armed Forces. As a school we take our role of supporting our community seriously and offer support and involvement to these families. Strong links with our parents/carers and serving units are important to us and we appreciate their support. We actively encourage Forces involvement with the school.

The Children’s Education Advisory Service website: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-childrens-education-advisory-service-ceas holds a great deal of information for Forces families that you may find useful if you are moving to or away from Bovington Academy.

SSAFA https://www.ssafa.org.uk helps the armed forces community in a number of ways, though their focus is on providing direct support to individuals in need of physical or emotional care.