MONTH OF THE MILITARY CHILD POETRY WORKSHOPS – 50 RICHMOND STUDENTS TAKE PART 

April is known as Month of the Military Child. Each April, we get to recognise the important role that service children play in the Armed Forces family. We work closely with NeverSuchInnocence who provide special opportunities for service children to have their voices heard and we always look forward to the opportunities they provide our service students in school; not only for military children but their peers too.  

Earlier in March, a group of 50 service students and their peers took part in two poetry workshops led by Andy Craven-Griffiths, a poetry practioner who works closely with NeverSuchInnocence leading workshops around the country. 

Students actively engaged in Andy’s workshop where he creatively led them on a discussion of memories and what that means for each of them. In groups, students worked hard, sharing ideas based around the senses and how they linked to different memories, which in turn enabled students to work towards this year’s theme: ‘Memories’. Students created some lovely thought-provoking work entirely on their own, some of which will be submitted to the Month of the Military Child competition run by NeverSuchInnocence.  

Mrs Cheesbrough, Service Children’s Advocate, was accompanied at the workshop by Angela Campbell, Service Children’s Champion and Emma Niblett from Wellbeing in Mind. The team were so impressed by the students’ engagement and creativity in the session. It was lovely to see the students talking about their family lives and the involvement they have or have recently had within our armed forces. Their memories were not just limited to their own individual experiences, but those of their grandparents, aunts, uncles and new friends. Living in such proximity to Catterick Garrison, most of our students will have a link with a service family or event in some way. It was also inspiring to see students with previously no link to the military learn about the upheavals and challenges service families often face – all students discussed their memories with real maturity.  

The collaborative teamwork shown within the session was lovely to see, with service students and their peers from different year groups coming together and genuinely connecting.” 

If any students would like to submit their poetry on the theme of memories, the competition opens on April 1st. Entries can be passed on to Mrs Cheesbrough.