Building a Culture of Connection at Juniors

Meet the UR Strong ‘Friendology’ and ‘Big Sister, Little Sister’ programmes 

At our Junior School, we know that friendships are at the heart of a happy and successful school life. Every day, I see how much joy, confidence, and courage our girls gain from feeling connected to one another. Learning how to make, nurture, and repair friendships is one of the most important life skills they will ever develop, which is why I am so delighted that this year we will be introducing the UR Strong ‘Friendology’ programme. 

Friendology gives our girls a shared language and a toolkit for understanding what healthy friendships look and feel like. It helps them recognise the difference between a small ‘friendship fire’ (those everyday misunderstandings that happen in all relationships), and other more serious friendship issues. Crucially, it empowers them to be able to resolve those ‘friendship fires’ with kindness, confidence, and respect. Over the coming weeks and months, this common language will give our girls greater clarity and courage in their conversations, and enable us all to build a more open, empathetic culture across our school. 

Growing up, girls often feel the pressure to be perfect friends: always kind, always inclusive, never falling out. But, as we all know, even the best friendships have tricky moments. What matters most is how we respond. Through the UR Strong Programme, our pupils will learn that conflict can be handled with honesty and compassion, that it’s okay to make mistakes and that true resilience often comes from working through difficulties together.  

As parents, you can look forward to a focus on this at our Pastoral Coffee Morning later in the year, and I am sure that you will shortly be hearing much from your daughters about how our Junior School girls are building on their skills to become ‘Friendship Ninjas’. 

Alongside Friendology, our ‘Big Sisters and Little Sisters’ initiative has been another wonderful addition to our community. Our Big Sisters take great pride in being role models, guiding their Little Sisters with care and enthusiasm while our younger girls absolutely light up when they see their Big Sister around school. These relationships are bringing such warmth and connection to our corridors and playgrounds. 

One of the ways in which we foster this approach is via our Buddy Group system, which is led by Mrs Cannell. Buddy Groups are groups of girls from across the school, a couple from each year group, who are all in the same house. Each Buddy Group is supervised by a member of staff and meets once per half term to take part in an activity themed according to the time of year. Last Buddy Group session, our older Big Sisters read short stories to the younger members of the group and started to get to know them in a relaxed, informal way. Building connections across the school like this will help our pupils to feel part of something larger and in time they will all get the chance at some stage to be a Big Sister to another pupil.  

We believe that teaching girls how to navigate friendships with confidence and empathy is a vital part of their education. These are the skills that build not only strong friendships, but strong, kind, and courageous young women, ready to be the leaders of the future. 

Written by Ms Comerford, Head of Junior School