Year 8

We appreciate that it can be daunting making the move from primary school into Year 8 and, at Friends’, we aim to make sure that all settle in as quickly as possible.

We make appointments for individual meetings with parents of all incoming pupils in early June to give an opportunity to talk over all aspects of school life at Friends’. This is followed by an evening for our new Year 8 pupils and their parents in the middle of June. On this evening pupils can meet others in their Collect or registration groups and find out a little about Friends’. The PTA also put on a BBQ and Fun Evening for our new pupils and their families at the end of June.

At the start of term we put on a number of activities in School to allow our new Year 8 pupils to get to know each other, their teachers and, importantly, their way around School. Our new Year 8 pupils come into School before the other pupils for a morning in late August to meet up again with others in their Collect, their Collect and Year Teachers and their Sixth Form Mentors.

In September we build in other days to enable pupils to mix with others in their year outside timetabled classes. For example, this year all of our Year 8 pupils went out on an activity day in Castlewellan which allowed them to build new friendships in a different setting.