With almost a third of our school community being a military family, supporting both the children and parents is a key consideration for us. We work closely with the NFF (Naval Families Federation) and Joining Forces for Families citizens advice.
How do we use our Service Family Funding? We use this for a range of purposes, the most important one being the day-to-day running of our Musketeers Club. This is run by our trained and highly experienced ELSA. The children have Musketeers meetings once a week where they are able to share their experiences and make memories with friends in similar situations. We hold regular family fun events and coffee mornings. We also use our funding to provide all children with knitted dolls and stories to support with deployments.
For our children, we have our dedicated service club run by our ELSA Di Bosustow; more details about our Musketeers can be found on our Supporting Our School Community page. Also our Family Liaison Officer, Lisa Noice, works closely with our military families providing support all year round. More details, including her contact information, is available via our Family Support page.
| Musketeers Family Fun! |
| Musketeers Easter – Our next week event will take place on Thursday 30th March. Join us for a themed get together between 15:30 and 17:00. There will be themed activities available as well as refreshments. Please wear something purple to celebrate April being the month of the military child. |
| Service Family Coffee Morning – taking place in the school hall on Thursday 27th April, between 09:00 and 10:00. Along with the tea, coffee and cake we are pleased to have a guest speaker from the MOD who will be sharing a presentation on available support packages. Thursday 27th April is also the day we are celebrating the Month of the Military Child in school by asking all children to come in wearing something purple! |
| Musketeers Summer – In the Summer term we will be hosting another themed family get together, on Thursday 15th June, between 15:30 and 17:00. Further details will be made available nearer the time. |
For our parents, we know there is lots of support available to you but it can be tricky finding it, so we hope the following links are useful;
- Aggies – Aggies can support families in a range of ways, including deployment packs and story books
- Bounce Forward – Ways to support your child at home with anxiety and wellbeing
- Naval Childrens Charity – provide financial support, as well as resources your child might find helpful preparing for and during deployments
- Solent Mind – Anchoring minds have trained professionals who can support the mental health and wellbeing of the whole family
Other links you may find useful;
- Making Sense of the Emotional Cycle of Deployment for Children
- The Overlooked Casualties of Conflict
- Living in our Shoes
- Voice of Schools Survey Report
- Hampshire County Council have put together a resource for schools and families which focusses specifically on supporting pupils from service families. Please click here for the document.
- Aggies have also made us aware of their afterschool club for families that love that outdoors, please click here for more details.
We are currently looking for short videos from deployed parents (or those who work away during the week) to create our ‘live’ board. These will be short, personal messages to your child which they will be able to watch during our Musketeer sessions. Please email these through to r.halbauer@croftonhammond-inf.hants.sch.uk. For more details on how this will work, please click here.