Witham St Hughs Academy is located on the site of RAF Swinderby that was closed in 1993 and has many RAF bases in the local area. Currently, the Academy has approximately 12% of pupils who are from a Forces family. Due to the nature of the surrounding bases, the academy has a low number of pupils transitioning to alternate settings due to new postings, however deployments of family members are regular.
In April 2011, the Department for Education introduced the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) in recognition of the specific challenges children from service families can face. State schools, academies and free schools in England receive £310 per pupil that meets the eligibility criteria. The purpose of the Service Pupil Premium funding is so that we can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment.
Service Pupil Premium Funding Report 2023-24
At Witham St Hughs Academy we do lots to support our Forces community and build important links and quality time across and within Forces families.
This year has already seen another highly successful Remembrance display and service led by our Forces pupils and a very well-attended ‘Forces Family Breakfast’. Our Forces book club is well up and running each week, and is being used by lots of our Forces pupils. Individual support is of course in place for pupils and families where this is needed.