{"id":219955,"date":"2025-06-28T00:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219955\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T00:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:30:10","slug":"support-for-service-children-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219955\/","title":{"rendered":"Support for Service children in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The programme currently supports over 2,000 children across Wales<\/a>, thanks to \u00a3270,000 of Welsh Government funding.<\/p>\n

Service children often face unique challenges in education, including disrupted learning due to relocating, interrupted social connections, and concerns about the safety of parents on active duty.<\/p>\n

The grants can be used for a range of activities, such as dedicated school clubs, information for teachers to better understand service children’s experiences, and transition support for pupils who have to change schools, for example setting up a buddy at the new school.<\/p>\n

To mark Armed Forces Day [28 June], Bridgend County Borough Council, with the support of SSCE Cymru, hosted the Bridgend Forces Festival at the Bridgend Army Reserve Centre (160 Company REME HQ). The festival took place over two days and welcomed 182 pupils from 20 schools across Bridgend, 125 of whom were from Armed Forces families.<\/p>\n

The event featured team-building activities and wellbeing sessions, including arts and crafts, sports activities and a water challenge, all designed to foster connections among service children and their friends.<\/p>\n

A service child from Pencoed Primary School said:<\/p>\n

\n

“Moving so often has had a big impact on me, I\u2019ve had to make time to make friends which is hard but you get used to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting other military children has made me realise that I\u2019m not the only one who has to move schools and make new friends and that there are people around to help.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wellbeing Officer Kaye King, who is also the Service Children\u2019s Champion at Pencoed Primary School added:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEvents like today have so many positive outcomes for Service children and their friends. Meeting other people in a similar position and being able to share their experiences is so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Armed Forces Friendly Schools Cymru status and being part of the SSCE Cymru network has enabled us as a school to understand the impact of an Armed Forces lifestyle on the experiences of Service children here at Pencoed Primary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Speaking on Armed Forces Day, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSupporting all children to have to a high standard of education and a happy experience of school is essential. I recognise the particular challenges that Service children can face, which is why the funding offered through Supporting Service Children in Education is so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so pleased to see the range of innovative projects and the community that has been established thanks to the funding we provide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

SSCE Cymru is managed by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA).<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Secretary for Education has recently agreed to broaden the current Welsh Government definition of a service child in education, so that more children are able to benefit from support. Officials are currently working with stakeholders to consider a new definition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The programme currently supports over 2,000 children across Wales, thanks to \u00a3270,000 of Welsh Government funding. Service children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-219955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114758175712158475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}