Armed Forces: Education
(asked on 30th June 2015) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many visits the armed forces made to (a) state secondary schools, (b) independent schools and (c) colleges in (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales, (iii) England and (iv) Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.
This information is not held in the format requested, but the number of visits in each of the last five years, broken down by Service and Country is detailed below:
Country | Number of Visits by the Royal Navy | Number of Visits by the Army | Number of Visits by the Royal Air Force |
Year 2010-11 | |||
Scotland | 412 | 488 |
101 (see note 3) |
Northern Ireland | 46 | 161 | |
Wales
| No data (see note 1) | 125 |
399 (see note 3) |
England | No data (see note 1) | 5,378 | |
Year 2011-12 | |||
Scotland | 304 | 191 |
84 (see note 3) |
Northern Ireland |
188 |
65 | |
Wales | 146 | 290 | 416
|
England | 1,821 | 2,761 | |
Year 2012-13 | |||
Scotland | 152 | 199 |
118 (see note 3) |
Northern Ireland | 198 | 74 | |
Wales
| 300 | 202 |
120 (see note 3) |
England | 1,382(see note 1) | 2,412 | |
Year 2013-14 | |||
Scotland | 211 | 175 | 142 (see note 3) |
Northern Ireland |
53 | 162 | |
Wales | 298 | 211 | 251 (see note 3) |
England | 2,293 | 3,882 | |
Year 2014-15 | |||
Scotland | 219 | 203 |
217(see note 3) |
Northern Ireland | 57 |
303 | |
Wales | 99 | 246 | 178(see note 3) |
England | 2,050 | 1,960 | |
Note 1: There is no data for England and Wales due to a loss of data when the Royal Navy computer system was updated.
Note 2: This is incomplete data and only includes the South West, Midlands and Northern England.
Note 3: Each Service defines regions and areas in a different way and the Royal Air Force is not able to provide separate details for each Country. The figures group Scotland and Northern Ireland together and then England and Wales together.
These visits can comprise presentations, citizenship talks, meetings with staff, participation in career events, practice interviews and activities with the students, such as science and maths challenges, and other indoor or outdoor exercises.
The Armed Forces never visit schools for recruitment purposes and would only ever visit a school after being invited by a teacher to support school activities. Similar contributions to schools are made by the Police, Fire, Ambulance and other emergency services. The Armed Forces receive numerous requests from schools each year and the three Services take these opportunities to both explain their role, and to assist schools in teaching valuable skills such as leadership, teamwork and citizenship.