Children from armed forces families have unique needs and face uncommon challenges. Yet their experiences are under-researched and too frequently overlooked in UK educational policy and practice. My research aim is to sharpen our understanding of service children’s needs and inform policy and practice in schools. Using an ethnographic and participant, task-centred approach I seek to explore children’s experiences, identities and agency, and how these intersect with policy and practice in schools and the military.  My personal history informs this research, as a former service child and a teacher in a school that serves an RAF community.