Pompey’s Military Kids is a joint initiative set up by representatives from various schools across the city, in partnership with Portsmouth City Council and the Naval Families Federation. The Naval Families Federation will share good practice from this initiative via its partners with other schools in the UK and overseas in order to improve support for all Royal Navy and Royal Marines children. The Cluster Group was established to support Service children in a number of different ways. Local schools are already sharing good ideas and best practice and working much more collaboratively. The Group also organises events and activities which bring Service children together from across Portsmouth, to encourage them to interact and make new friends. This means that there is now a network of young people who are helping and supporting each other within the wider community.
Most recently, two of the leading reading initiative charities for the Armed Forces, Reading Force and Storybook Waves, organised for author, Philip Ardagh to visit St Jude’s School in Portsmouth. The Naval Families Federation were offered the opportunity to invite Service children from the other Schools in the Pompey’s Military Kids Cluster. In total 40 additional children were able to attend. Each child received a Reading Force Scrapbook and a book which was signed with a personal message from the author.
