Guidance

Education in the UK for service children

Information regarding aspects of education for service children in the UK, this will vary depending on where they live or may move to.

Documents

CEAS consent form (ODT version)

Details

If the school you are applying for is full, you can make an appeal for a place. CEAS can provide advice and guidance to service parents in the making of the appeal case. In order that CEAS can offer you support, they require a completed CEAS consent form to hold your personal information as CEAS retain records of all case details and communications.

England

Admissions and appeals

School admissions vary depending on where you are in the UK, and also whether the school you are applying for conducts its own admissions or whether applications are to the local authority.

Admissions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate differently.

If the school you are applying for is full, you can make an appeal for a place. CEAS can provide advice and guidance to service parents in the making of the appeal case. In order that CEAS can offer you support, they require a completed CEAS consent form to hold your personal information as CEAS retain records of all case details and communications.

Service Pupil Premium

The Department for Education introduced the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) in April 2011 in recognition of the specific challenges children from service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant.

State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of service families in school years Reception to Year 11, can receive the SPP funding. It is designed to assist the school in providing the additional support that these children may need and is currently worth £310 per service child who meets the eligibility criteria.

To read more on SPP please visit the The Service Pupil Premium page.

Pupil Information Profile

The Pupil Information Profile (PIP) will no longer be used for Educational Clearances overseas. This will now been replaced by the Education Overseas Supportability (EOS) form, which will be available shortly. Please contact CEAS or the individual MOD School during this process for more information.

Special Educational Needs and Disability SEN(D) and Additional Needs

The processes for addressing any Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) or Additional Needs (AN) are different in all of the 4 different regions in the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You should look at your child’s school policy, normally available on the website, about what the school does to address the child’s needs.

The CEAS team are able to advise, guide and support service parents regarding their child’s SEND and you can find further information on the Special Educational Needs and Disability information sheet.

Scotland

Queen Victoria School is a MOD school located in Dunblane, you may wish to check their website to see their criteria. See also:

Wales

School admissions and appeals in primary, secondary & middle schools in Wales: information regarding school admissions and appeals in Wales.

Supporting service children in education Wales: information about the support service available to service children in education in Wales.

My local school, Wales: provides access to school data for parents and others with an interest in their local school

Moving school guide and Pupil Passport: these help service parents to support their child when moving schools

Welsh government guidance and information

Special Educational Needs and Disability SEN(D) in Wales

Special Educational Needs Wales: information for families: provides information about the different levels of support available for children with special educational needs.

Northern Ireland

Information regarding children’s education within Northern Ireland can be found on the Department of Education and Education Authority websites.

For those personnel being posted to Northern Ireland, it is recommended that local advice is obtained through the Children’s Education Support Officer located within 38 (Irish) Brigade who can be contacted on:

Email: RC-AWS-N-38X-0mailbox@mod.gov.uk

Telephone: 028 9226 6347

Further information and forms

You can find more information on the DCS and AFFS forms and information page.

Updates to this page

Published 3 October 2018
Last updated 21 October 2021 + show all updates
  1. Amended the page to reflect departmental changes.

  2. Removed the out of date Scotland guide and fixed broken links.

  3. Updated the information under the 'Scotland' and the 'Service Pupil Premium' heading.

  4. Added a notice regarding the new DCYP COVID-19 webpage.

  5. Updated information regarding Pupil Information Profile (PIP).

  6. Added a link to the SCISS page.

  7. Updated links to the Pupil Passport and Moving School Guide for the Wales section.

  8. Added CEAS consent form.

  9. Temporarily removed the CEAS consent form

  10. Updated the CEAS consent form following a change of address.

  11. First published.

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