Chester military children take part in charity workshop

A total of 85 children from Upton Heath C of E Primary School and Upton Westlea Primary School, who have parents serving in the British Armed Forces, came together to tune into the two-hour virtual session, which was presented by TV broadcasters Katie Thistleton and Frankie Vu.

Using games, drawings and other fun activities, the children discussed some of the unique challenges that military life can bring, such as having a parent deployed or moving home and school. The theme of the workshop was ‘wellbeing and mindfulness’ and the children were taught ways to explore and communicate their emotions when navigating change, including learning mindfulness techniques.

All of the workshop activities were from the charity’s dedicated Little Troopers at School programme, which was created by education experts to give all schools easily accessible resources to support military children in the classroom.

Students from Upton take part in the Little Troopers workshop.

Kath Carruthurs, headteacher at Upton Westlea Primary School, said: “The children were fully engaged in the sessions and could relate to the topics that were discussed. They were apprehensive to begin with to share their feelings but as the session went on they supported each other as they realised they all had the same worries and experiences.”

The Little Troopers Primary School workshop was made possible thanks to generous grants from ABF The Soldier’s Charity, The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity, The Armed Forces Education Trust and The Grocers Charity.

Louise Fetigan, founder of Little Troopers, added: “As the school holidays approach, many military families will be coping with deployment or preparing to move home, so we thought this was the ideal time for schools to bring together their service children to give them some tools to help them through and celebrate what it means to be a ‘little trooper’.

“By running a virtual workshop, our small charity can reach and benefit as many service children as possible and make them feel part of this special network of military children across our Armed Forces community.”

Little Troopers is a registered charity supporting all children who have a parent or parents serving in the British Armed Forces.

As well as the charity’s school programme, Little Troopers has a number of free resources and initiatives to support children at home the Little Troopers All Together deployment club and the Little Troopers Treasures story recording app which enables military parents to read to their children while they are serving away from home.

For more information, visit www.littletroopers.net