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SSCE Cymru journal

North Wales Forces Festival

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North Wales Forces Festival

November 2023

Service children and young people from schools across North Wales come together for the first Forces Festival in North Wales hosted by SSCE Cymru at RAF Valley.

The third Forces Festival in Wales took place on Monday 20th of November at RAF Valley for Service children in North Wales. The event saw over 70 Service children come together from six different schools across Wales for a day of fun activities and workshops. Children were given opportunities to share their experiences of being a Service child and make friends with children from other schools who also share their way of life.

 

We had some fantastic organisations from across Wales come together to deliver the workshops including the Oriel Mon, Never Such Innocence, Woodies Lodge, the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum and Forces Fitness. Service children were given opportunities to write their own poem, develop their team building skills, learn about World Wars through storytelling, dressing up and fantastic discussions throughout the day.

 

Thank you to all the children and staff who attended and made the day such a success by engaging so well with the activities. Thank you to all organisations who delivered fantastic workshops on the day which were enjoyed by all. Thank you to RAF Valley for opening up their doors for the day to enable us to host this event and allow the children to visit the military base. And lastly, I’d like to say a big thank you to Dean Clarke, Community Development Officer at RAF Valley, for all of his support in the planning and preparation of the event and during the event to ensure all involved had a fan

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Service children’s quotes

"As soon as we get used to a house, you get moved - I’ve been to four schools and moved six times."

Aiden

"I lived in Nepal, then we went to Brunei, then Malaysia."

Ashim

"In my eyes, you have hundreds of friends in different places."

Chloe

"I’m used to moving now and mixing with the children... I’ve done it so many times, it’s just a normal thing now."

Chloe

"It's ok talking over skype and that, but sometimes you just want a hug when Dad is away."

Georgia

"I’ve enjoyed going around to lots of places around the world, it's adventurous and exciting."

Harry

"In my eyes, you have hundreds of friends in different places."

Ieuan

"My mum got a chalk board and it says how many sleeps on it with chalk, every minute it’s getting closer for him coming home."

Mia

"I don’t want him to get promoted... I want him to get promoted but I don’t want to leave."

Oliver

"I might be going to boarding school so that I don’t change schools every few years."

Ryan

"I've been to seven different schools; I’ve not stayed put in one school long enough."

Shana

"He has been away for six months and he is back for two weeks, then he goes away again."

Sianed

"My parents were in the Army. My mum is a like a nurse and my dad went to the war in Afghanistan. I actually didn’t really know what he was doing so I was like, ‘Cool Dad, go there,’ but then I found out and thought, 'Thank God he came back alive.'"

Sanjog

"He signed off last week, so he will be done by the end of this year. He’s done 24 years. I find that better because he will be around a lot. He likes watching us playing rugby, so he will get to see us more."

Lewis

"I’m going to a new place entirely. They don’t know anything about me and that’s a big restart and that’s really good for me."

Piaras

"I moved to Wales because my dad was posted in the Army. I thought I would get bullied and I was shy when you meet new people, but I made some friends."

Dan