An online forum on Educating Service Children run by the House of Commons Defence Committee

Service Families

We would like to hear your views on the quality of the education provided in Service schools abroad. The schools we saw in Germany were very good: is this true for all schools, for all ages? How about services for older children?

We have heard that Service families can experience problems when moving back to the UK, or to another place in the UK. In particular, we have heard that there can be problems in getting a school place if you do not have an address.

  • What has been your experience with Service Children’s Education schools abroad? How do you think they could be improved?
  • What has been your experience of moving schools, when transferring to and within the UK? How could this be improved?
  • We would also like to know of any other issues you think we should address. For example, what are the issues facing those who want to use boarding schools in the UK? Is the Boarding School Allowance adequate?

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Transferring schools

Posted by Juliette Bellingall on 26/05/2006 - 05:50

After 4 years in Germany my husband was posted back to the UK and we were allocated a quarter in West Byfleet, Surrey. I applied for places in the schools I wanted the children to go to. Having taught in the area before I was married I had some local knowledge.
I found:
1. All the popular schools with good SATS results, Ofsted reports or good Value Added scores were full or could not offer me places for all of my 3 children.
2. All 3 children were offered a place in an undesirable school.
3. Because my youngest child was in Key Stage 2, where class sizes have a strict limit of 30, there was no flexibility to offer me a place.
4. I applied from Germany, so a place would not be held for me because I did not live in the area and I did not have an address.
5. I had to start the appeal process in my chosen school to gain a place.

Solution:
The admissions policy for a school local to a quarter area should allocate a fixed number of places which should be kept 'free' for service children . This would mean if one service child moved away there would be a place available to someone moving in rather than to a local child. This would mean our children are not disadvantaged by the fact they cannot get their names on waiting lists.

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