Service Children at SRPA
At Sir Robert Pattinson Academy, we recognise the challenges children from Service families face and we strive to mitigate the potential negative impact on Service children of family mobility or parental deployment. We have a designated member of staff, Miss A McLellan, who leads our Service provision, alongside Mr A Parkinson as our SLT champion.
As part of our Services provision, we are conscious that the experience of each child with a parent/carer in the armed forces may vary greatly. With the aim of improving support for our Service children, we request further information from parents on each child’s individual situation. If you have not yet provided this information to us, please do so below.
Please click here to view our Service Information Form.
Weekly Support
We have a weekly Service Students’ Club which is primarily run by a student, who is a member of our Sixth Form Student Senior Leadership Team, who is eager to support service students across the Academy, with her own experiences as a service student. The club will also be supported by Miss J Hurk, whose own experiences as a service student at school will be utilised to further support the students. The aim of this club is to provide students with a supportive space to take part in activities, make new friends and share their experiences. Details for the club will be shared in the weekly student bulletin during R2L.
Deployment
We understand deployments impact every individual and every family differently. We ask families who are aware a parent will be deployed to complete a ‘Deployment Form’, so that we can monitor and respond appropriately to the level of need their child requires, to ensure their education isn’t negatively impacted.
Please click here to view our Deployment Form and complete if needed.
Wider opportunities
Throughout their time at SRPA, Services pupils will be able to access a range of opportunities. For example, they are invited to attend an annual ‘Creative Forces Day’, where pupils will engage with higher education through a day of activities at a university campus and to explore their identity as Service Children with others from a similar background but different ages and schools. The most recent Creative Forces Day was held at Bishop Grosseteste University, where pupils took part in activities such as celebrating their identity through coaster painting, learning about student life through a tour and budgeting task, before finishing with a History session examining various military artefacts.
Service Pupil Premium
Please see below government guidance.
Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools with pupils who have parents serving in the armed forces.
Pupils in state-funded schools in England attract the service pupil premium grant, at the rate of:
- £350 per eligible pupil in the 2025 to 2026 financial year
Pupils are eligible if they meet the following 2 criteria:
- one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces, including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full-time reserve service – this includes pupils with a parent who is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England
- they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on any school census in the past 6 years
They would also be eligible if:
- one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme
This funding is primarily to enable schools to offer pastoral support and help mitigate the negative impact of family mobility or parental deployment. It can also be used to help improve the academic progress of eligible pupils if the school deems this to be a priority.
Further information
If parents would like to request additional information or further support for their child, please contact amclellan@srpa.co.uk.
