A focus for the Autumn Term for Felpham Community College has been a big drive on attendance, and how every lesson counts. Attendance Awards have been awarded in assembly every fortnight – a trophy to the Form in each year group who has had the best overall attendance for that 2-week period. 

On Thursday 19^th December, FCC held an Attendance Rewards Event for the whole of the Autumn Term.  This was a chance to reward the form group from each year group who has had the best attendance overall for the term. 150 students in total were invited to come and collect a free ice cream and hot chocolate as a well done for having the best attendance within their year group.

Mr Summers, Assistant Headteacher:
“A big well done to all students art Felpham, our attendance has been above the national average this term. Other attendance initiatives we have started include our tutors having 1-2-1 meetings with key students, who may need extra support with getting into school. The strategies we have used range from positive reports to students tracking their own attendance.

Another change we have made at FCC is to the way we talk about attendance. We always use percentages, but this can be misleading as 90% seems great but in fact means 106 lessons have been missed. Therefore, to help students become more successful in this aim, we will start attendance ‘afresh’ from the start of each half term, asking students to maintain 100% for that 6 weeks. Rewards will follow, in celebration assemblies. We hope this will give a boost to those students who have had legitimate reasons for being absent, as they can now more likely attain that magic number.

Thank you to Pinks Ice Cream Parlour in Bognor who came in and supported our end of term event. We are proud of how our students have improved attendance this term and aim to continue next term!”

Our FCC Key Stage 3 Poetry Club has been creating fantastic Christmas poetry and two of our poets wanted to share their poems with the rest of our community:

Caitlin McIntosh (8E)
Carols and bells fill my ears
Joy, laughs, the sound of cheers
Snow falls all winter long
Dancing along to a beautiful song
Friends and family gather round
Their jubilation shakes the ground
Presents hide underneath the tree
Children question what they could be
A toy? A pen? A book? A ball?
In the tree a bird does call
Beautiful firs draped in lights
Tourists admire glorious sights
Christmas dinner ends off the day
Glimmering lights suddenly fade away…

Rosie Lyne (8G)
Fingers blades of ice
Cutting through the gloves
Who cannot save them now
Help! Help!

My brain a snow mush,
my scarf a shield,
rushing of wind
like arrows in a battle

Blue spreads across my skin
like the sea eating the shore
I shiver violently
From my fingers to my toes

Carols ring long into the night
snow flutters down
like butterflies
The church bells ring for Christmas 

Along with the church bells 
A familiar call, a familiar sleigh
Ho! Ho! Ho!
A once in a lifetime experience

It has been a busy few weeks at Felpham Community College with students, their families and staff all getting in the festive spirit with various college events.

On Wednesday 4^th December, a group of the FCC Sixth Form Charity Committee went out into the community to spread the Festive Spirit and remind everyone that charity is about giving up your time, not just donations.

A group visited Oaklands Court in Felpham to make Christmas Gonks and another group went to Autumn Lodge to play Christmas games. Students also delivered Christmas cards to residents from our year 7 students. It was a great afternoon and feedback from the Care Homes was very complimentary.

On Thursday 5^th December, the annual FCC Christmas Fair was a fabulous success, with a fantastic turn out from students and their families attending. As well as local craft stalls, year 7 students ran their own fun and games events, including decorating Christmas biscuits, a human festive fruit machine and even festive hook a duck! Sixth Form students served refreshments and FCC would like to give a big thank you and shout out to all the local businesses who donated raffle prizes (details here).

On Wednesday 11^th December, staff and sixth form students took part in a Christmas Jumper Day, raising money for Save the Children. This will be followed by a local festive event, with the FCC choir performing at the ‘Felpham Village Conservation Society Christmas Lights Switch On’ on the 13^th December.

The last week of term will be another busy week, with the annual FCC Carol Concert taking place on the 18^th December at St Mary’s church in Felpham. Both the FCC staff and student choirs will be performing on the night, with the staff choir singing ‘Carol of Bells’. The evening will be hosted by Tali Swain (year 11), who is also doing a reading, as well as readings from Georgina Moulson-North (year 7) and Kurtis Allies (year 13). There will be musical performances from students across year groups. We are hoping for a packed church and a fantastic community evening!

The final event planned is a non-school uniform day, on the last day of term, with students and staff encouraged to wear their festive Christmas jumpers. Prizes will be awarded for the best ones!

Imogen Orde, Sixth Form Student Leadership i/c of Charity commented:
“It has been a fun and busy end to the Autumn Term! FCC students, their families and staff, voted back in October what charities we wanted to support this year for all of our events. Apart from the Secret Staff and Sixth Form Christmas Jumper Day, and the Foodbank Donation Drive, all of our events this year are going towards My Sisters House, Breast Cancer Now, Dogs for Autism, Ronald Macdonald House, Young Peoples Shop Chichester, Clymping Dog Sanctuary and Improving Facilities for Students at FCC. It is fantastic that we run so many events to get the FCC community involved with, especially at Christmas time and helping get everyone in the festive spirit, as well as fundraising at the same time.”

On Monday 9th December, a group of students from a range of year groups, attended Chessels Farm in Flansham to help plant the new Flansham woodland.

The students represented the Felpham Community College Eco Committee – a new initiative set up at FCC, led by Miss White from the science department. The committee plan on improving the environment around the school campus and also the local community.

Mr Adames, from Chessels Farm, Flansham, invited FCC to be part of a plan he has been working on for a number of years – to convert an area of his farmland, which his family have farmed and owned for over 220 years.

Mr Adames commented:
“The area we are developing will eventually be a predominantly oak woodland, initially being planted to some twenty tree varieties. This way, the area will have protection from any development and be monitored by the Forestry Commission. This will protect the ancient old hamlet of Flansham from further blocks of new housing, which have so spoiled many local villages. It will also mean the wooded area is carbon neutral and the only income to the farm business will be from Carbon Credits – which can be leased to building companies to build elsewhere in the Country. Almost 10,000 trees have been planted on these twenty acres of land, immediately between the Charlie Purley Way and Flansham. I hope the general public will be able to enjoy it all in years to come, but not until the woodland matures a little. We hope the general public will respect the area and its environment.”

Mr Summers, Assistant Headteacher at FCC commented:
“This was a fabulous opportunity for our students to be involved with. We went down to the farm and saw the area which is being turned into the forest, and then our students – along with some local residents – enjoyed planting at least one tree each. This will be a legacy that they can visit in the future. It is inspiring that in the age of so much housing development, Mr Adames wants to put the Felpham community first and help the local environment – making our area greener and cleaner.”

Thank you to EVERYONE who supported the Christmas Fair and Raffle. It was a fantastic event and great to see everyone enjoying themselves and getting festive! We are still counting how much we raised, every penny counts, so thank you !

• We have a large number of raffle prizes still to be claimed
• If you have one of the below tickets, students can bring the ticket to S1A and claim the prize. If it is alcohol, please can an adult come to main reception with the ticket to claim the prize.
• If you have won a prize and do not want it, please let us know
• We also have a large number of pre-sold raffle tickets that still need to be collected. They are in S1A. Please can students collect the tickets asap and then parents can check to see if they have won. Winning unclaimed prizes are below (and are on our website)

Felpham Community College held a month-long donation drive for Bognor Foodbank this November.

Year 7 and 8 Whole School Council Representatives visited the Foodbank at the beginning of the month, to see how it operates and meet with some of the volunteers. They then, along with the rest of the FCC School Council and Charity Committee, promoted the initiative around school for the month, giving every Form Room a donation bag and poster and encouraging everyone – students and staff – to bring in a donation.     

On the 4^th December, Student Council Reps sorted all the donations – more than 20 crates! – filling a mini bus and a car. Year 9 and 10 Whole School Council Representatives then delivered it all to the Foodbank in Bognor.

Claire, Co-ordinator at the Foodbank commented:
“Thank you so much for such an incredible amount donated, it is fantastic to see such a great school effort and it will really help make a difference to local people.”

Mr Summers, Assistant Headteacher at Felpham Community College, commented:
“We run this initiative every year and it is great that our Student Council take such an active role in promoting and running it. We manage to get more donations each year which is a fantastic FCC community effort.”

We would like to give a massive thank you to the local businesses who have kindly donated raffle prizes for our annual Christmas Charity Raffle. We could not run the event without the support from local people so thank you very much! The money raised from the Christmas Fair and the Christmas Raffle will be going to the charities FCC is supporting this year (see separate website post). The draw will take place at 5.15 at the Christmas Fair on the 4^th December.