Understand the legal requirements
Schools and trusts must consider the needs and challenges faced by the children of serving and former armed services personnel. This is set out in the Armed Forces Covenant Duty.
The Department for Education (DfE)’s definition of service pupils is primarily for allocating the service pupil premium (SPP) funding. The SPP, outlined below, is additional funding to help your school fulfil the above requirement.
But when planning provision under the Armed Forces Covenant Duty, your school needs to consider all children from armed forces families – not just those in the DfE school census.
The DfE's non-statutory guidance on service pupils in schools explains how schools and local authorities (LAs) should provide support to service pupils with their education and wellbeing. We cover this in more detail in the sections below.
Service pupil premium (SPP) funding
Who's eligible
A child is eligible for the SPP for the 2025-26 financial year if they're in any year from reception to year 11, and meet 1 of the following conditions:
- 1 of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces, and this is registered in the most recent autumn school census
- They've been registered as a 'service child' on any school census in the past 6 years (an 'ever 6' service child)
- 1 of their parents died while serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme
- 1 of their parents is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England, and this is registered in the most recent autumn school census
In the financial year 2025-26, schools will receive £350 per eligible pupil.
Pupils continue to be eligible for the SPP for up to 6 years under the DfE's 'ever 6' measure, as long as they were recorded as service children in a school census prior to their parent(s) leaving the forces. The ever 6 measure also applies when service parents divorce or separate, or when a service parent dies in service.
This is set out in the DfE's service pupil premium: what you need to know guidance and pupil premium overview.
Service children can also be eligible for the pupil premium
Pupils who receive the SPP can receive pupil premium funding as well, if they're eligible under those criteria.
This is explained in the pupil premium 2025-26 technical note (section 3).
Read more about eligibility for the pupil premium.
SPP spending
Your school can use the SPP to provide eligible pupils with pastoral support. See examples of this in the section below.
Your school can also use SPP to help improve an eligible pupil's academic progress if this is seen as a priority, as stated in section 4.5 of the conditions of grant.
The SPP should not be used to pay for routine school activities such as trips or music lessons, but you can fund school trips just for service children to help them enjoy their time at school and build an understanding of the role their service parent plays (e.g. with military-specific trips).
This is explained in the guidance on what you need to know about SPP.
Your school shouldn't combine SPP with the main pupil premium funding
Your school should account for the spending of each premium separately. However, your school does not have to keep separate £350 pots for each SPP-eligible pupil.
How your school can support service pupils
Your school or trust has a legal duty to support all service pupils during challenging times and to help reduce the negative impact of:
- Family mobility: children in service families often change schools multiple times, sometimes at short notice and outside normal admission rounds
- Separation: when a service person is assigned to an unaccompanied location, or the family choose to remain at home when the service person is deployed, resulting in their weekly/monthly commutes home and/or extended periods away
- Parental deployment: when a service person is serving away from home for a period of time – this could be a 6- to 9-month tour of duty, a training course or an exercise, which could last for a few weeks
For those pupils who are eligible for SPP, your school leaders have flexibility to decide how to use the funding. Examples of support include:
- Counselling
- 'Skype time' clubs to help pupils communicate with their deployed parents more regularly
- Helping pupils to develop scrapbooks and diaries, highlighting their achievements and daily school life
- Nurture groups
- After-school activities that support the specific needs of armed forces children
Read examples of best practice on how schools have used the SPP.
The needs of service pupils may change over time, with periods of higher need during parental deployment or the transition to a new school. See example case studies from schools who have used funding to effectively support their pupils with:
- Transitions, including:
- Sharing a bespoke pack for the pupil, with a photo and message from their class teacher
- An allocated ‘buddy’ on arrival to the school
- Settling in sessions with the service family pastoral lead
- Monitoring, including:
- A deployment form online, where parents can fill the dates and details of upcoming deployments
- An online parent forum to enable communication between parents and pupils
You can find the case studies in the 'Supporting service pupils' section of the DfE’s non-statutory guidance. Your school leaders can also use The Service Children's Progression Alliance's Thriving lives toolkit to help them support armed forces children. It includes 7 principles to inform your school's practice and a set of CPD resources
Consider appointing a dedicated staff member or governor as a ‘service pupil champion’
If your school has particularly large numbers of service pupils, you could consider assigning someone to oversee their needs, build relationships with service families and connect with the wider military community.
To find out how your Local Authority (LA)’s Service Pupil Champion can assist you and your pupils, contact your LA. For more information, see pages 11 to 12 and annex C of the non-statutory guidance, linked above.
Questions to ask
Ask your senior leaders, or a staff member with pastoral responsibility for service children, these questions. They'll help you monitor your school's support for service pupils and the spending of the SPP.
Support for service pupils
These questions draw on the 7 principles of effective support for service pupils in the Thriving lives toolkit, linked above.
- How do we support service children's mental health and wellbeing?
- How do we tailor support for the varying needs of service children at different times?
- What do we do to maintain continuity of learning and progression for service pupils?
- What support do we put in place to make transitions as seamless as possible for service pupils leaving or arriving at our school?
- How do service children's voices inform the support we offer?
- What do we do to engage service parents?
- What are we doing to help service families feel part of the school community?
- How do we make sure all staff understand the needs of service children in our school?
SPP spending
- How are we currently using the SPP?
- How do we make sure the activities we fund with SPP support the specific needs of service pupils in our school?
- What evidence do we have that our SPP-funded activities are having an impact on service pupil wellbeing or achievement?