With school budgets desperately stretched at present, schools are having to be creative, make partnerships and cut their cloth to operate.

A key difference for The Friary School is that we have some parents who are prepared to go more than the extra mile for the school.

Following safety concerns laid out by Staffordshire County Council related to woodland at the front of the school – part of which was directed to the school when we academized – and on our substantive site as well – there is statutory respsonbility to manage our site’s trees so that people and property remain safe.

Outside of the challenges of day-to-day operations, our school is currently looking at major projects including a £50,000+ costs on a leaking roof, a failing minibus, an ‘end-of’-life’ heating system, as well as maintaining our focus on providing the bits of fairy-dust that keep our students excited, on board and facing new challenges. This includes aspirations for a school ‘growing’ garden, a radio station and a climbing wall.

Certainly, the tree work was going to amount to a 5-figure sum and totally rule out some of these other projects and schemes. However, HRJ Gould Tree Surgeons Ltd, whose director is a school parent, have generously offered to undertake the work for free simply to support our school.

This latest work adds to the contribution of fantastic parent governors, our small band of PTFA parents who perform miracles, and support from individual parents with electronic equipment for our theatre and funding and items for Disadvantaged children in our cohorts.

Lisa Pratt, School Manager, said: “As a school we work hard at maintaining our trees on site, and push the importance of a healthy and natural environment with our students. The only trees that will be affected have been identified as causing Health & Safety concerns or are dead. The treatment will also provide free wood-chippings for various areas of the site and we are looking at using logs for insect houses and the like. Jeff and his team are fantastic for us and we are incredibly grateful.”

Matt Allman, Headteacher, added: “Our students perform so well in their exams, benefit from intensive pastoral support as external agencies contract, and have wonderful opportunities in school, but this is so hard to maintain and requires a genuine team effort. None of this can be taken for granted. Consequently, we would ask any parents who have trade or professional skills (such as bid writing, legal expertise, painting and decorating, site support, gardeners and landscapers, etc) that they think may benefit the school to contact us via office@friaryschool.co.uk to see if they can support us. Equally, with around 1,250 students, if only one parent from half of the children supported our PTFA events or simply signed up to our school lottery then this would make a massive difference. The overwhelming majority of children leave our school having been successful in their studies but we need as much time, support, help and contributions as help as possible to keep this going and to even get better still.”