Education and service families

A young man and woman drawing with their child

For families who have a parent serving within the Armed Forces, and may need to relocate frequently and at short notice, it’s reassuring to know that there is equal access to school places for their children, alongside other families in an area. The flexible support, available through The Department for Education (DfE) which supports the Armed Forces Covenant, means that service family children receive equal education opportunities, when families are needing to move.

There is support in other ways too, as school places can be allocated in advance, for families moving into an area. An official letter stating the relocation date and a unit postal address/ quartering address is needed alongside the application. Primary schools can also go over the 30 student infant class size, for an Armed Forces child moving into the area, outside of the normal admissions round.

You can find out where schools are in Herefordshire, along with term dates and how to apply for a place, on the Herefordshire Council website. Herefordshire school admissions can be contacted on schooladmissions@herefordshire.gov.uk

Information about Herefordshire schools can be found on the UK Government website.

The specific challenges children from Service families face is recognised. The Service Pupil Premium enables children in state schools, academies and free schools in Reception to Year 11, who meet the eligibility criteria, to receive funding of £310, which is paid directly to the school. The current eligibility criteria can be found on the UK Government website.

The premium is not specifically allocated to individual children, but paid for the total number of Service children as a whole within the school. This enables schools to offer emotional support during challenging times.

It is up to parents to declare to the school if they or their partner serve within the Forces.

As service personnel may relocate more often than the rest of the population and, sometimes, at short notice, it’s important that these times of change are well managed, so that service children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) do not experience delays in having their needs assessed and met.

If you are a service family moving into Herefordshire, and you have a child with a statutory plan of special educational needs, contacting the SEN team as soon as you have a confirmed posting will help with getting everything in place.

The SEN team can be contacted on:

Call: 01432 260178
E-mail: senteam@herefordshire.gov.uk
Post: SEN team, Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 0LE.

Further information can be found on the Herefordshire Council website.

If your child does not have a statutory plan of special educational needs, you can apply for a school place via the Admissions team at Herefordshire Council.

The School Admissions Team can be contacted on:

Call: Reception admissions officers 01432 260926 or 01432 261574
Call: Secondary phase transfer officer 01432 260925
E-mail: schooladmissions@herefordshire.gov.uk
Post: School Admissions, Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane Offices, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 0LE

Once you have been allocated a school place, you can then make contact with the SENCO at the school to ensure they are fully aware of your child's needs and can plan for them.

There is a Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (2015) that provides statutory guidance for many organisations, including local authorities and state-maintained schools and colleges. The organisations are asked to consider the difficulties that service children with SEND may face, which are unique to the nature of their serving parent’s employment. It is recognised that the deployment of serving parents may result in a child experiencing anxiety, dips in educational performance and/or emotional difficulties, and that children may also be affected similarly by siblings’ deployment.

If you require additional support with accessing educational provision for your children, you can contact the MOD’s Children’s Educational Advisory Service (CEAS) for free advice and guidance, but e-mailing RC-DCS-HQ-CEAS@mod.gov.uk. Further information can be found on the UK Government website.

Local support

DMWS (Defence medical welfare service) provide a single point of contact to the Armed Forces Community, offering information, advice and guidance around emotional and practical support. It’s a confidential, free service for serving families and carers and for ex-servicemen and women. Our contact for Herefordshire is Mrs Lee Bayley, Families Welfare Officer, who can be contacted on lbayley@dmws.org.uk

Herefordshire Council Children's Help and Advice Team (CHAT) will listen to your worries, offer advice and guidance and look at how they can support you to access the right help to meet your needs. The CHAT team can be contacted on 01432 260261 (available Monday to Friday, 9am - 4.45pm).

Herefordshire's local offer sets out the support, services and information available for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

National support

The following organisations provide information and support for service families about schools and education.

Children’s Educational Advisory Service (CEAS) provides confidential and impartial advice on a wide range of educational issues, including parental and children or young people’s rights and responsibilities, special educational needs and/or disability and school admissions. CEAS advise service families to allow them to make informed decisions. CEAS have created a moving schools guide for and a Pupil Passport, which encourages young people to tell a new school all about themselves. Download the Moving schools guide.

Families Federations can provide information on a range of topics, including accommodation, education, employment and family life. Families can seek advice and information from their respective Service Families Federation.

Army Families Federation can be contacted on 01264 554004
Naval Families Federation can be contacted on 023 9265 4374
Royal Air Force Families Federation can be contacted on 01780 78165

HIVE Information Centres provide information support on behalf of the Chain of Command Army, to support the whole military community on a wide variety of topics affecting their everyday Service and personal life, including relocation, accommodation, health and wellbeing, finance, Non-UK Nationals, education, employment, deployment, resettlement, military discounts and local area information.

They are a valuable point of contact for serving personnel and families during assignment relocations - through the network of HIVEs across the UK and overseas.

Support is available face-to-face, by telephone and email, and online through the HIVE blogs.