Oxfordshire County Council

Service Families December 2023

Oxfordshire County Council’s Learning & School Improvement Service seeks to increase Service pupils’ attainment, by the end of Key Stage 2, and to support the county’s schools in strengthening their provision for their Armed Forces children.

They were awarded £50,000 for their ‘Maximising outcomes for Service Pupils’ project, which contains four key outcomes aimed at having a significant impact on improving both academic and wider outcomes for Service pupils and builds on a track record of success in this area.

Kim James MBE, Head of Service, Learning & School Improvement, Children, Education & Families (CEF) at Oxfordshire County Council described the project’s outcomes:

“The first outcome will involve providing quality assurance for up to ten schools, drawing on evidence-based materials developed by the national Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance. As well as providing clear steps for improvement for each of the schools involved. Examples of good practice will be gathered and shared across the wider network of schools.

Pupils at Carterton school work on the Hangar Time publication

Outcome two will focus specifically on commissioning additional support in the teaching of writing to Service children who have been identified as being below National Curriculum ‘age-related expectations’ in Years 2 and 6 from targeted schools.

The third outcome will involve undertaking a school-to-school transition assessment project, which it is hoped will be supported by researchers within Higher Education. This will support the challenging issue facing so many of the nation’s Service children, namely the risk of learning loss and educational disruption because of regularly moving schools due to military postings.

Finally, outcome number four will involve training for, and sharing good practice with, school leaders (including Governors) through:

  • the production of termly newsletters for all Oxfordshire schools
  • developing an up-to-date toolkit of support materials
  • providing website guidance for schools and parents
  • hosting two conferences.”
Find out more

Discover more of the projects funded through the Armed Forces Families Fund programmes, here.