Parents, Carers & Students,

Goodbye!

Today is my last day as Headteacher of Felpham Community College.

Since my appointment in 2010, it has been an honour and a privilege to lead the school over the last 13 years. Being Headteacher of a large secondary school is not always an easy job, but I have been extremely fortunate to be supported by an outstanding team of staff, school Governors and brilliant students.

Michelle Kelly will be Acting Headteacher during the summer term with the new permanent Headteacher, Suzanne Pike, starting in September.

Finally, I would like to thank our students and parents for your support over the years and wish you every success and happiness in the future.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Anstiss
Headteacher

On the afternoon of the 29th March, we held a Student Celebration Event at FCC. It was a chance for us to say thank you and well done to some of our students who regularly go above and beyond with their commitment to the FCC community.

Carl Belcher, School Governor, and Ms Kelly, Deputy Headteacher, presented students with certificates and congratulated them all on what they have achieved this year and the efforts they have put in.

The tea and cake also went down a treat with students. Well done to everyone who was nominated, we are now planning on making the event bigger and better next year!

Mr Carl Belcher, Governor commented: “It was lovely to see so many students doing really valuable things to benefit our school community, and for them to be recognised whilst celebrating their achievements!”

Please see below details of who attend and why they were put forward to attend.

Student Leadership Team – For being outstanding in their Leadership Roles and achieving so much:
Lucy Oliver, Head Student
Zalia Ali, Deputy Head Student
Adam Hughes, Assistant Head Student i/c of Charity Action and Year 7 Link
Georgia Robson, Assistant Head Student i/c of Charity and Year 9 Link
Maddie Long, Assistant Head Student i/c of Rights Respecting Schools and Year 11 Link
Ollie Denman, Assistant Head Student i/c of Youth Action and Year 9 Link

Arun Youth Award Nominees – The Awards were held on the 22^nd March, for schools across the locality. FCC students were nominated for:
Adam H – Above and beyond commitment to FCC
Georgia R – Leadership and organising and promoting the charity committee
Oliver DH and Ester B – Volunteering work outside FCC
Tati E, Kiera N, Katie S, Chris S, Josie K – For always going above and beyond with the commitment to the charity committee

Eco Team – For their continued hard work, dedicated and determination at making FCC a greener community:
Adam H, Adam F, Kaleo A, Finley C, Katy P

Arun Youth Councillors – For volunteering to be on the Council and being the young people’s voice for the Felpham area:
Ollie D, Tayla P, Tanisha A, Joe W, Mia B, Luke M, Grace D, Ana-Marie L, Henry M

Sixth Form Student Charity Committee – For their continued support and dedication with the committee:
Georgia R, Heather L, Beth H, Maya S, Tati E, Keira N, Katie S , Chris S, Daisy M, Lucy O, Teagan S, Isabelle I, Olivia V, Adam H, Zalia A, Ollie D, Toby C, Abbie T, Louis S, Ciara M, Natalia C, Miriam S, Anna PH

Student Council – For their on-going hard work and support with leading the Student Council:
Evie G, Sophie K, Dom S, Imran A, Piotr K, Jenny R, Tali S, Matti E, Sam S, Millie T, Harunyan K

Resilience Ambassadors – For running the ‘safe space for everyone’ club and for putting themselves forward to support others:
Talia S, Rory L, Kiera C, Emilia H

Sixth Form Super Support – For going above and beyond and helping with things like first aid, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, playing at school concerts, tours of FCC and volunteering:
Emma B, Zalia A, Daisy M, Teagan S, Millie T, Oliver T, Ruby R, Katie S, Harry C, Mata S

Felpham Community College are celebrating a busy and productive end to the Spring Term.

On Monday 27^th April, the year 7/8 girls football team celebrated becoming East Hampshire Schools champions for the second year running. Following an excellent half term of football, where 17 fixtures across 6 weeks of school were played, the team have celebrated this week coming top of the league overall for another year.

Tuesday 28^th April was a busy day within the textile department – with over 80 year 5 students from Edward Bryant visiting FCC for a practical workshop exploring the magic of colour. These events are run at Felpham throughout the school year, as an opportunity for primary school students to experience what secondary school is like.

On the afternoon of the 29th March, FCC held a Student Celebration Event. This was a chance to say thank you and well done to some of the students who regularly go above and beyond with their commitment to the FCC community.

Also, on the 29^th March, the extra-curricular National Theatre Connections group performed at Chichester Festival Theatre. The FCC performance this year was called Model Behaviour and was based on the model united nations. After months of rehearsals, they performed on the 8^th March at FCC to a packed audience, which included a mentor from the National Theatre and a representative from Chichester Festival Theatre. They then performed at the Theatre on the 29^th March. They were incredible and should be really proud of themselves!

On Thursday 30^th March, the amazing FCC year 13 Student Leadership Team handed over the reigns to the new team who will take over next term. The Team have a wide range of roles within the school community including speaking at events, running the School Council, leading on the Rights Respecting Schools Award, running the charity and community programme of events and also linking to different year groups to support younger students.

Friday 31^st March saw students and staff fundraising for Grandad’s Front Room, a local Bognor based charity, by holding a non-school uniform day. It was also the day FCC said goodbye to their long serving Headteacher, Mr Anstiss.

Mr Whiffin Deputy Headteacher, commented:
“We have had an extremely busy term and it has been excellent to finish the last week with so many events celebrating our students and their achievements, and complete some fundraising as well!  Our students have accomplished so much – from charity events to student council events, PE fixtures to drama performances, on top of all their curriculum achievements – we are proud of them all”.

As you will be aware, our current Headteacher, Mark Anstiss, will be retiring and leaving the school at Easter.

Following a thorough and rigorous recruitment and interview process, I am delighted to announce that the Governing Body have appointed Suzanne Pike as the new Headteacher.  Suzanne is a very experienced school leader and currently Vice-Principal at The Littlehampton Academy.

Suzanne will take up post from September 2023 with Michelle Kelly taking the role of Acting Headteacher in the summer term.

Yours faithfully

Ken Lloyd
Chair of Governors

I had hoped that the remaining two planned days of industrial action by the National Education Union (NEU) could be averted if negotiations between the union and Department for Education (DfE) had been fruitful. Unfortunately, this has not transpired. Therefore, regrettably, I am writing to inform you that there will be two further days of industrial action next week.  

As I have previously said, at FCC, a very large proportion of our teachers are members of the NEU, (currently over 80%). We remain committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all our students, and feel that we would be unable to provide this with the very limited staff we will have available. I am sorry to have to inform you that Felpham Community College will be closed on Wednesday 15^th and Thursday 16^th March for the majority of students, and we are asking you not to send your child into school on these two days.

On the days of the strike, students may wish to work at home on their set homework tasks, or alternatively work on education platforms such as The Oak National Academy or BBC Bitesize.

As we can only accommodate a limited number of students on the days of the strike, we will prioritise students with exams this summer:

• Year 11 – we will be running an additional mock exam and supervised revision sessions for Y11, and they should attend school from 8:30am until 2:00pm on both days. (The canteen will be open at lunchtime with a limited selection available.)
• Year 12 & 13 – the Sixth Form Hub will be open for private study.
• Children of critical workers and our most vulnerable children – if you wish to book a place, please complete the form here.

I am sorry that you will have to make alternative arrangements for your child next Wednesday and Thursday, and that they will experience disruption to their education. It is still possible that the industrial action will be called off, and if this were to happen, we will contact parents to confirm that the school will be open.

If you have any questions, please contact the school and I will do my best to respond.

Mark Anstiss
Headteacher