Helston Community College is pleased to announce that the Armed Forces Education Trust provided Helston Community College with a grant for this academic year (2025-26) to enable us to employ an Intervention Tutor to support Services Children with 1 to 1 or small group English and Maths tuition. This additional support is designed for individuals identified as having gaps in their knowledge or who have may have fallen behind. The majority is targeted at students in KS3 with additional English support for those in KS4.

Supporting the children of service families at Helston Community College

Service children have unique needs. Whether living in the UK or overseas, they face challenges that often go beyond the experience of the majority of families and children living in the UK. Increased school mobility and the cycle of deployment can bring social, emotional and academic challenges for those children with parents in the armed forces.

Service children are those who have one or both parents currently serving in the armed forces. The Government also recognises that children may still need some support even after their parents have left the forces. 

At Helston Community College, Service children:

•          make up at least 19% of the college population

•          have outperformed their non-service peers in examination performance

•          have higher rates of attendance

•          and have better behavioural statistics compared to their non-service counterparts.

Of course, statistics do not represent every student's individual experience and belonging to a Service family does bring challenges which other children may not encounter. The college, therefore, offers support in a number of ways all of which are underpinned by our values.

We employ a senior leader to oversee the attendance, behaviour and attainment of our service children, supported by a member of support staff (Military Youth Worker) and a teacher. Since 2023, the school has invested in greater levels of pastoral support to help account for the additional needs and support of having high numbers of Service Children. Three additional Heads of Year have been appointed, an additional Pastoral Support Assistant, an additional Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and an additional Attendance Officer.

In addition to this, the college supports the role the armed forces play in our community and seeks to work with them in the wider education of all our students.

Naval Children’s Charity

The Charity was established in 1825 and has a good understanding of the pressures that our Naval Families may face.

Naval Children’s Charity can offer support to all who have served even if you only served for one day. They support anyone who has served in RN/ RM/ Veterans/ RFA and WRNS.

Naval Children’s charity can offer financial support to help with a huge range of needs, they can also signpost to other organisations, if it felt appropriate.

Over the last year they have given grants totalling more than £10 million and have helped over 4000 families.

One of their aims is to promote ‘Life Chances’ to Naval children. This can include support grants towards:

•       The cost of a school trip

•       Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

•       School uniform

•       Energy Costs

•       Specialist disability equipment

•       Support for assessment of needs (including Dyslexia, ASD. To access this support, children do need to have been identified and referred for additional assessment)

The charity also supports a number of Children and Young adults to take part in Tall ships Voyages each year.

The above list is not extensive to the support they can offer. If you feel you have a need they best place to start is their website: https://www.navalchildrenscharity.org.uk/ - there is an online enquire form – it’s simple and will often be responded to quickly.

You can also sign up for their newsletter on the site or follow them on social Media for update.

Helpful Links:

NFF - Supporting organisations  

• This includes information about SCiP Alliance, who last year launched the Thriving Lives Toolkit Online Platform - Resources | SCiP Alliance.
• Service Children in State Schools (SCISS) - SCISS have produced five factsheets which are aimed to help school leaders who might be new to supporting Service children to ensure that they are aware of the many elements that schools supporting Service children may face. 

NFF - Parental Absence and Family Support - Useful Resources

• This includes our Parental Absence Guide for adults supporting children and young people during absence and separation and a Recommended Reading List. It also links to Strengthening Families, an offer of support for all Royal Navy and Royal Marines families.

Further links:

• The New Armed Forces Covenant Duty: What organisations in scope will need to know - Armed Forces Covenant 
• Service pupil premium (SPP) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
• Defence Children Services (DCS) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) - DCS is a Defence delivery organisation. DCS’ function is to support Service children and their Service families with educational needs. DCS provides a single focus for all issues related to Service children and young people, providing high-quality education at 22 schools and settings in locations around the world. DCS also directly supports Service families, providing advice on a wide range of educational matters both overseas and in the UK, delivered by specialist education and advisory teams. 
   
•  Schools, Welfare & Clubs - Reading Force 
•  Military Kids Club | Community | Royal British Legion