A force for good

Pupils with parents in the Armed Forces often face the upheaval of changing schools, alongside parents being posted away for months at a time. Year 9 student ISLA DE WIT reports on a range of activities at RGS which allow students to share their experiences of being in a military family while providing valuable support

ONE of the first things we did as a group of students from military families was to put together a presentation to share our experiences with the teachers here.

This was to help non-military teachers understand our perspective and how this may affect how we are feeling at times, and our learning.

Around seven students created a mix of personal stories, statistics and interviews about what some teachers think about the life of a service child.

This was all very educational, with teachers hearing real life personal stories to help them understand and support children.

We as service children also felt reassured to know we aren’t the only people who have had these experiences.

A group of 14 RGS service children also went to a local village primary school event to celebrate VE day, where military personnel set up stands to show military children equipment and share experiences.

We set up our own stalls for the younger children which included various arts and crafts, a map of where we have been in the world and a fun picture scrap book area.

There was also a fighter jet fly over which everybody thought was really cool!

RGS service children also enjoyed a trip to the North Yorkshire Water Park in Scarborough, one of the main things we had been looking forward to all year. Assistant head Mr Fearnley and Maggie, our services welfare officer, worked hard to organise this trip for about 16 of us.\

There were so many amazing activities - raft building, aqua park and laser tag – and we all had so much fun!!