Press Release - 'The Unseen Victims of War'

There are an estimated 175,000 service children in the UK for whom everyday is a struggle. With media coverage of the war in Afghanistan at all time high, is anyone thinking about Scotland’s service children?

New studies into the impact of the war on children have addressed the long-term behavioural problems that families and schools now have to deal with:

• Impact on child of living in a one-parent family for
• significant periods of time
• Influence of the media
• Adjustments to family life when the parent returns
• Impact of moving homes, schools and communities
• Stigma of being a 'Service child'
• Dealing with bereavement
• Dealing with parental illness or injury
• Dealing with divorce and family breakdown

There are no official statistics on how many Scottish service children there are and where they are based. Carolyn MacLeod from the Royal Schools Caledonian Trust states the Government’s lack of available information on how many Scottish children are affected by the war is

“not good enough. It is imperative for Scotland to have tangible research on the number of service children in their schools to identify, locate and support them to achieve at such a turbulent time."

The Trust's Education Wellbeing Project, one that has been recently launched in Fife is one of the ways the charity is supporting service children. This project aims to educate teachers about the impact of war on service children and supply tools to enable them to deal effectively with children who are affected by the war. The 18 members of the project, including teachers, educational psychologists and service personnel feel that the project will enable them to offer more support to these vulnerable children.

Carolyn MacLeod goes on to say that:

"each service child should have a 'passport' so that if they are relocated, the new school can see at a glance a progress report instead of a child having to constantly re-sit entry exams. Each school should have training and systems in place to help service families and most importantly schools should have a 'critical plan' in response to tragedy."

The Royal Caledonian Schools Trust was established nearly 200 years ago to help educate the sons and daughters of Scots who were serving. It is a crucial time for the charity and they desperately need your help. If you are able to make a donation to the Trust please visit www.rcst.org.uk or make cheques payable to Royal Caledonian Schools Trust and send to: Unit 75 WENTA Business Park, Colne Way, Watford, Herts. WD24 7ND or call 01923 215350.

Thank You.

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