Support for Service Children and their Families

At CPS just over 30% of our pupils are from a Service Family.  It is important to us to ensure any Service children that are joining or leaving CPS are supported and provided with a smooth and easy transition.

During lunchtimes we aim to run Keeping in Touch (KiT) Clubs to support any Service children who have a parent away from home - this could be due to deployment, detachment, training or just due to the nature of their parent's job role. Children are invited to attend the KiT Club sessions whenever a parent is away no matter how long or short this may be. They stay with us for as long as they need after a parent has returned home as these times can also be very tricky and just as hard for children. Children with parents who are frequently away due to their job have an open invitation to come along whenever they would like to. Activities include sending letters, emails & blueys, creating artwork and using resources provided by Service charities to allow children to share their thoughts and feelings. There is also plenty of time for children to chat to others in the same situation.

We keep in close contact with the HiVE, the Community Support Team at RAF Brize Norton and other services and professionals within the community and local area. We have lots of information from service charities and organisations so do get in touch if you require further information.

For the school to best support your child it is important to keep the lines of communication open, so please do keep your child's teacher updated with any information regarding moving house, deployments or time away. If you feel your child will be facing something for which they may need help or reassurance, please let us know as we do understand the issues you face on a day-to-day basis. Being aware of your child's emotions and changes they may be facing will help us to support your child and your family through what can be a tricky time for you all.

Service Children's Pupil Voice Conference

A selection of Year 5 Service children took part in an amazing event at the Kassam Stadium.  The event was put together by Oxfordshire County Council to celebrate and bring together all the Service children from across the county. We took part in a variety of activities where the children explored and shared stories and experiences of their military lives, created a wooden montage which will be hung somewhere important as a legacy of the day and a creative arts workshop with a practitioner from the Never Such Innocence charity where the children created a poem. The children had a fantastic day and we were very proud of them all and they way they represented CPS!

Never Such Innocence Songwriting Workshop with HEZEN (Sarah)

Year 5 and 6 Service children had the most amazing opportunity provided by the Service charity Never Such Innocence to take part in a songwriting workshop with Sarah Hezen. Hezen is an self-taught, award-winning music producer and singer/songwriter who has released many songs and collaborations, which can be found on spotify with over 2 million streams! She has also created music for many adverts and songs which feature in television programmes.

The children worked in small groups to create lyrics drawing on their own experiences and feelings of being a Service child and their military life. Hezen then worked with each group to help them put their lyrics to the backing track that she had created for our school prior to the workshop. As the groups added their lyrics to the backing track the song slowly came together and we were able to listen to the song that the children had created! It was an amazing experience for our children and we very much look forward to working with the Service charity Never Such Innocence again. A few days later Hezen sent across our finished piece - it is a fantastic song and we are very proud of how our children worked together to create such a brilliant piece!

Month of the Military Child - April

During the month of April, CPS celebrated our military children with lots of exciting activities! We ran a number of clubs for our service children where they were able to share their military lives and experiences and take part in a variety of games and activities to develop friendships and teamwork.

We were very lucky to be able to take some service children to RAF Brize Norton to see the fantastic RAF Falcons display - and what a display it was! (See photos below)

We celebrated our military children by wearing a purple accessory for 'Purple Up Day'.  It was so lovely to see the colour purple all around the school to show our support for our military children. During 'Purple Up Day' all children took part in class assemblies/circle times where the service children were able to share their military lives and experiences with their classmates. More lunchtime groups were also set up on this day providing our service children with more talking time activities and games.

Although we are now in May, we are finishing off our Month of the Military Child with a Songwriting Workshop for all service children in Years 4, 5 & 6. We are extremely lucky to have a professional music practitioner come into our school to lead this workshop where we will create a song which will be entered into the Never Such Innocence Charity Competition! Please watch this space for photos, videos and more of this fantastic opportunity!