Forces Children's Education

The education of children and young people from Armed Forces families can be affected by frequent school moves – not only to different parts of the UK, but also between countries. On average, an Armed Forces child will experience five school moves, although some experience many more transitions than that. While curricular differences between the devolved nations is fairly well-documented, little was known about the educational experiences of this cohort of learners as expressed by themselves, as opposed to the views of their parents or teachers.

Resources

Exploring experiences

A report Exploring the experiences of children and young people from Armed Forces families in Scottish Schools.

Education professionals were searching for empirical evidence about the experiences of Armed Forces children and young people in Scottish schools but found no Scottish research and a real paucity of UK and International research into this topic. This research was commissioned by the Royal Caledonian Education Trust – now Forces Children Scotland – in 2015 and published in 2018.

Going further

The SCiP Alliance and partners published the Further and Higher Progression for Service Children report.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that young people from Armed Forces families are underrepresented in further and higher education. Research was needed to provide empirical evidence to test out this observation. SCiP Alliance, Winchester University commissioned this research, and it was published in 2016.

Reflective questions

1. Having read the research executive summaries, reflect on your own experience. What barriers might be preventing young people from Armed Forces families choosing a further or higher education pathway post-school?

2. In your opinion, how might these challenges be overcome?

3. To what extent are you aware of the work of Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Developing the Young Workforce (DYWF) and how do you link with these organisations to improve support of your students’ post-school pathways?