A Service child is a person whose parent, or carer, serves in the regular armed forces, or as a reservist, or has done at any point during the first 25 years of that person’s life.

At Edith Moorhouse Primary School, we have strong links with the RAF due to our close proximity to RAF Brize Norton. Mrs Lowry (DHT) is our Service Pupil Champion and Mrs Nicklen (LKS2) is our Assistant Service Pupil Champion. 

RAF Brize Norton is the largest RAF Station with approximately 5,800 Service Personnel, 1,200 contractors and 300 civilian staff. 

The Station is home to the RAF's Strategic and Tactical Air Transport (AT) and Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) forces, as well as host to many lodger and reserve units. 

With its mixed fleet of aircraft, RAF Brize Norton provides rapid global mobility in support of UK overseas operations and exercises, as well as AAR support for fast jet aircraft both on operations and in support of UK Homeland Defence.

 All of our pupils and staff are directly impacted by Armed Forces life, either as a serving military family, a friend to a military child or a co-worker with military family, sharing classroom experiences with them in our school.

Many of our children have experienced life in other countries with their serving families bringing a wealth of lived adventures to our school community. We at Edith Moorhouse, thrive to support our serving families as they journey through their education with us. 

Festival of Friends

On September 6th 2022, Edith Moorhouse was invited to join with other schools from across the county to take part in the ‘Festival of Friends’ project. The purpose of ‘Festival of Friends’ was to carry out a school improvement project to build on and strengthen the county’s collective support of our children of Armed Forces Families (Service children). 

As a school, we have always been proud of our offer of support for service families, but as with anything, we can always improve. Mrs Lowry, our Service Pupil Champion, led the project with the support of the whole school community. Our aim was to improve mobility, tracking and transitions. Why choose to improve one area when you can improve three?!

Here’s what we did:

• Introduced the QR code notification form for parents and carers going away. 

• Designed a new arrival transition form that focuses on the wider curriculum 

• Following the results of the military parent/carer survey and service pupil surveys, we designed our service pupil promise

• Raised staff and governors awareness of the lived experiences of service pupils through staff meetings, reports and email publications

• Put up a ‘Say hello/Wave goodbye’ display board in the hall for children joining and leaving us

• Dandelions' after school club - See https://www.edith-moorhouse.oxon.sch.uk/dandelion-club/ 

On the evening of June 22nd, we were invited to share and celebrate our project at Oxford Brookes University for the award ceremony. Seven of our service children from KS2 were invited to join us to represent the school's project, they did so excellently. Here’s what they had to say:

“We had an excellent time at the Festival of Friends. There was a juggler, who came third on Britain's Got Talent. We were also able to explore the campus of Oxford Brookes university, which was very interesting. We also had a look at other school’s stands: they were really good. It was fun to see how many people were involved in the Festival of Friends. Everybody had a really great time.

(Mia-Grace and Leila)

Oxfordshire is home to the second largest community of service children in the UK with over 3000 service children on role in our schools. We could not be more proud of the contribution we have made to supporting the service community through this journey.

As part of our Ark nurture provision, which is run by Mrs Parry and Mrs Payne, we are delighted to be able to support service families with our weekly Friendly Forces Club, held especially for military children with a deployed parent.  We provide fun activities, including games and crafting, followed by a drink and snack together.  The children really enjoy spending time with their peers, sharing similar experiences with parents going away.

In addition to being able to access the Ark Lunchtime Club, daily, all of our service children are invited to attend our Military Children's Club which is held once a fortnight, on a class rota basis.  This addition to our provision is proving to be very popular with our service children throughout the school and again, we have lots of fun playing games, doing crafting activities and enjoying a snack together with our 'Trooper Teddy' mascot.

We started our day with a whole school assembly from preschool to year 5. Guest speakers from our local secondary school, in year 10 and 11, who are service children themselves, shared stories of what it is like to be an older military child and how they found support in their friends and families. They were accompanied by their PE teacher, a former RAF PJI, also a military child, who shared his story. They finished the assembly with a fantastic Q&A session. Throughout the school staff and children embraced the day, dressed in CAMO and took part in a range of service related activities. Some of which were led by serving members of the Royal Air Force from RAF Brize Norton, including aircrew from 47 Sqn teaching drill, a PTI teaching PE and Air and Space Operations Specialists teaching years 5&6 how to plot on air charts. The day came to close with a sell out cake sale. A total of £500 was raised across the day to be split equally between our two charities - Little Troopers and SSAFA.

In support of the service children in our school, 'The Armed Forces Education Trust' generously awarded Edith Moorhouse a grant of £540 to staff, resource and run a service children's after school club, Dandelion Club, for a 10 week programme. Dandelion club sessions will run twice a week, KS2 on a Tuesday and Reception/KS1 on a Thursday until 4pm. Each 10 week programme will be open to a maximum of 15 children per group, run by Mrs Nicklen (LKS2). If this first 10 week programme proves to be popular and successful, we hope to continue running the club in 2023/2024.

Month of the Military Child 2023

During MoTMC (April)we had a whole range of activities taking place across the school, including 30 Service pupils from year 3 and year 5 were invited to watch the first official Falcons parachute display of the season, Dandelion Art Work, PE with an RAF PTI, A cake sale raising nearly £300 and loads more. See our Enrichment page for full details and photo's. A great time was had by all...