The following message went out to parents on Monday 14 July.
As the Summer Term draws to a close, we wanted to flag up some information for the end of this term and the start of next. It will soon be September again, with a new school year ahead of us, so to help move towards that this email will cover:
* End of Term Arrangements
* Year 13 Results Day
* Year 11 Results Day
* September 2025 Start
* Environmental Focus
* School Budgets & Staffing
End of Summer Term Arrangements
The plan is to finish the term with our usual arrangement of a 12.00pm finish.
This early finish is designed to allow teachers to stay behind and sort our classrooms for re-decoration and refurbishment, support with site preparation for the various works going on over the Summer, and to ensure everything is in place for the fresh, new term in September.
All students will have access to the school canteen between 11.10am-11.40am so that they can get food if they need to. This particularly supports those children on Free School Meals.
All of the school buses are promising to pick up at the early end of day time, aside from the 819 which will not be available.
Any children not able to get home can be accommodated in school till 3.10pm. Just let us know via office@friaryschool.co.uk if this applies to your child.
Year 13 Results Day
The school will be open for Y13 Results Day on Thursday 14 August 2025 between 8.00am-10.00am. Students enter via the Library entrance.
Staff will be on hand to support students with the post-18 routes wherever required.
Year 11 Results Day
The school will be open for Y11 Results Day on Thursday 21 August 2025 between 9.00am-10.30am. Students enter via the Library entrance.
Again, staff will be on hand to support students with the post-16 routes wherever required.
September 2025 Start
The new school year begins for students on Wednesday 3 September. The school’s term dates for 2025-2026 can be seen here.
The first day at school will see a normal start time of 8.40am.
All students will initially join their tutor group to receive all the information they need for the year ahead before setting off to the Period 2 lesson.
Environmental Focus
Next year we will be pushing the theme of Environmental Protection & Welfare through our Focus Week programme. This is to make students aware of the challenges our planet is facing and to give practical and fun ways by which they can make a positive contribution.
The Focus Weeks will include many national days and weeks related to this theme including Second-Hand September, Go Green Week, Fashion Revolution Week and Endangered Species Week.
If you can contribute and talk to your children about what is happening – and maybe take up or flag up some steps at home – it would be a big help. The full programme will be published on our school website for the start of September – you’ll be able to view it here.
Budgets, Staffing & Events
The last few weeks have been hectic with so many events going on that our heads have been spinning.
Just as a partial snapshot – we have seen Year 9 in Normandy, circus skills rewards, students are still sailing around the south-coast, Rewards Day, the Summer Sizzler, Eswatini returns on Thursday, Year 11 Prom, ‘Bugsy Malone’, and a RE mosque trip goes out today, and the list goes on and on.
We’ll be working hard to retain this buzz and energy next year for your children – getting them to buy in makes school a happier and more fun place to be.
We have also managed to make sure our classrooms are fully staffed for September – no mean feat with teacher recruitment on its knees – so you’ll know we won’t have huge gaps in lessons from the off.
However, school budgets are in a perilous state, with more unfunded pay costs, and we will be cutting our cloth tighter than usual to manage with what we have.
To this end, we would ask you to support our PTFA events, and if this is not possible you could simply sign up for £1 per week for a ticket to our PTFA School Lottery here. This gives you a weekly chance to win, more than covering a year’s entry, as well as entry into national draw that can reach up to £25,000.
We will also be looking to set up a route for parents to donate to the school, potentially in a tax-deductible way. There will be more details to follow on this.
All funds raised go to pay for the wonderful events and opportunities we offer. We are striving to ensure that every child has the maximum experiences we can provide but we will need your help to achieve this.
We know you will do whatever you can.
To Finalise…
We have seen so many of you over the last few weeks – whether queuing at the Sizzler bar, doing an early hours drop off in our car-park for a trip, or at a targeted parents evening after-school – and it is this partnership that enables your children to be so successful.
Huge thanks for this – our school is only as good as the sum of its parts and you as parents are critical to any success we achieve.
For now, have a great summer, and we’ll see you again in September.
Matt Allman
Headteacher
