The Festival of Friends is a collaborative programme for supporting Service children. Its key aims are to develop, and then share, good practise in the educational and pastoral support for this group of children. It also aims to promote service children’s progression to further and higher education, thereby improving opportunities and ultimately outcomes.

The project provided opportunities for building links between participating schools to support one another, the sharing of good practise and disseminating professional development across staff teams. It was designed to be of particular benefit to schools that have small numbers of Service children on their rolls, as is the situation involving the majority of the 4495 children (at the time of writing) that attract Service Pupil Premium that attend schools across Lincolnshire. A key element of the project was a requirement for participating schools to use the evidence-based Thriving Lives Toolkit created by the Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance.

The collaborative activity involved in the Festival of Friends promoted the identity of Service children amongst their non-Service peers, raising their profile by celebrating their lived experiences. The project brought together key stakeholders to support Service children’s educational progression and strengthen their integration with their civilian peers, by raising the awareness of their distinctive needs with all.