Wiltshire's Festival of Friends 2025-2026
Wednesday 9th July 2025
The Festival of Friends is an innovative, year-long project aimed at strengthening provision for Service children across Wiltshire’s schools.
The project is aimed at any school with at least one Service child on its roll
We are very grateful for the financial support from the Armed Forces Education Trust charity, which is funding this project, meaning there are minimal costs to participating schools.
The project has run successfully in other areas including: Portsmouth and Gosport; Hampshire; North Yorkshire; Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire.
What is the Festival of Friends project?
It is a model of collaborative, peer-supported activity for supporting Service children across the area, in partnership with Wiltshire Council. The project aims to develop and share good practice, upskill school staff, and to give a voice to Service children across the county. Additionally, the project will also encourage Service families to consider the benefits that Higher Education can bring post-18, as Service children are an under-represented group at our universities.
The project is aimed at any school that has Service children on its roll, but it will be particularly beneficial to the many Wiltshire schools that educate small numbers of Armed Forces children, since these may not have traditionally given much focus to this potentially vulnerable group in the past. However, schools with large cohorts of Service children are also encouraged to take part to trial national resources, run improvement projects and share their considerable expertise.
The year-long project will culminate in the actual Festival itself - a memorable celebration and awards ceremony to be held in June 2026 and aimed at participating school staff, Council and military welfare staff, VIPs and, most importantly, Service children themselves. It will showcase participating schools’ improvement work during the year and give the attending Service children a very special experience.
How does the project work?
We are currently in the process of recruiting a small number of school staff to support the leadership of the project in different geographical areas of the county (‘hubs’). Matt Blyton, our commissioned Project Leader, will provide half-termly training and support sessions for these Hub Leaders, with supply cover provided. In turn, the Hub Leaders will then coordinate and run four 2-hour Hub Meetings across the year, providing training and support to a nominated Service Children’s Champion from each participating project school (the Spoke schools).
More information about the project can be found on Right Choice, including sign up forms for schools and webinar briefings.
