At Hadleigh Community Primary School we work alongside parents who are members of HM Forces to welcome and support families and children to the school.
Miss Sparrow and Mrs Angel run a club, Military Mates, exclusively for pupils whose parent or parents are members of HM Forces. It is not compulsory for pupils to attend and is available as a drop-in club as and when pupils wish to attend. Some children attend every week.
We meet on Thursdays (times TBC).
We have a Military Mates display board with a world map showing where pupils Mums or Dads who are serving may be. We also use clocks showing relevant times zones, in line with current overseas deployments. The children have the opportunity to count down on the big calendar to their parents return.
Children can come simply for a chat with others who are in a similar situations or to take part in a variety of activities, some of which are listed below:
- Make personal I.D badges.
- Write letters and draw pictures for parents who are overseas.
- Make memory scrapbooks.
- Find out where in the world their parent/s are and some information about this area.
- Play games like snakes and ladders, ping – pong and card games like Top Trumps.
- Participate within Art and Craft activities
- On occasion we may also attend the schools forest and access the outside jungle run.
Useful Links
- Little Troopers: A registered charity supporting children whose parents are serving in the British Armed Forces - littletroopers.net
- Little Troopers Treasures: Little Troopers teamed up with Harper Collins Children's books to create an app which allows serving personal to record themselves reading a story which can then be sent to their loved ones - littletroopers.net/treasures
- Supporting children, young people and families during periods of deployment: Supporting children, young people and families during periods of deployment: A booklet of information about how to support your child, family and yourself during the period of deployment - raf.mod.uk/.../help-for-parents-children-during-deployment/
- Reading Force: The shared reading activity for forces families https://www.readingforce.org.uk/
