Research

Acknowledging the huge national school turbulence that the Army draw down from Germany and the national rebasing plan would bring about we wanted to show service children that we understood their unique narrative and to create a resource that would help the children, and the schools around which they moved, to better manage those transitions. 

Over 100 conversations with children of service personnel, their parents, teachers and with school support professionals took place between February and April 2015 and from these conversations came the narratives that went on to form the play, for upper KS2 children, Wherever Home Is.

The play

The play is about how we deal with change, the play is about feeling safe, the play is about resilience. 

Focusing on two 10/11 year old children who have both recently moved to the UK (from previous Armed forces postings in Germany) we hear their stories about previous moves but principally we focus on where they are now and what is possibly happening in the next chapters in their lives. 

And what is happening? The play picks up where one of our children has left his family home on a Saturday morning and is currently missing? He is hiding after running away because there looks likely to be another move on the cards and this one, he reveals, is a step too far… 

The other child is one of the search party looking for him and, in acting as the narrator, Lucy and her family are able to explore the feelings and emotions they go through in their previous and current moves. 

The production takes an overdue and welcome look at the unique reality of living a service family life, but it is not exclusively “for” service children. The play is about change, full stop, and how any of us, civilian or service families, cope with and build resilience through change in our lives, including parental split ups and new family structures that follow this growing reality in our society.

click here for a link to a 10 minute overview of the production and workshop exercises: