Royal Caledonian Education TrustWe are delighted to announce that we have received £10,000 from the Scottish Children’s Lottery to support the running of our Education Programme across Scotland.
RCET’s Education Programme exists to mitigate some of the barriers that can and do prevent from Armed Forces children and young people from reaching their full potential and progressing into employment or further education.
The grant will support RCET’s Education Programme Manager Moira to deliver a number of new initiatives in 2020 including working with young people to deliver the next phase of our Teen Talks suite of resources providing young people-led content about how best to support them as they move on from compulsory education and into employment or further education.
Research from the Service Children’s Progression Alliance, of which we chair the Scotland Hub, shows that four out of ten Service children who have the ability to progress into higher education are unlikely to do so. (McCullouch and Hall, 2016)
Furthermore, Armed Forces children tell us that school can be a struggle for a number of reasons. By Secondary School age most Armed Forces children have moved on average at least 5 times across different schools, curriculums, countries and sometimes even continents! This can make keeping up at school difficult as well as making and maintaining important peer relationships. They also tell us that often, teachers or other professionals don’t understand the impacts of being an Armed Forces young person particularly when a parent is deployed.
As a result of funding from the Scottish Children’s Lottery we will also be working with the National Transitions Officer (ADES) and Education Scotland to create an online Continuous Professional Module (CPD) for educationalists to give them a better understanding of the issues that Armed Forces children may experience, and how to provide better support to them within a school setting.
Colin Flinn, Chief Executive of the Royal Caledonian Education Trust said “We are absolutely delighted to have received £10,000 towards our Education Programme from the Scottish Children’s Lottery under their Chance to Study strand. Our Education Programme forms an important part of achieving our mission that all Armed Forces children have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and THRIVE. Thank you to all the players of Scottish Children’s Lottery for enabling this Programme to run.”
Ken Barclay, Chair of Trustees for the Scottish Children’s Lottery said “I am delighted that we have been able to provide funding to The Royal Caledonian Education Trust from the monies generated from the Scottish Children’s Lottery which was established to promote and support the development and potential of children and young people in Scotland. Thank you to those who play the Scottish Children’s Lottery; you are helping to support the great work that our charities undertake.”