Felpham Community College hosted their hugely popular annual Youth Action Week from the 8^th – 12^th July. The week is all about fundraising, with students and staff voting for what charities they wish to support. This year Macmillan Cancer Support, St Wilfrid’s Hospital and Chestnut Tree House were chosen as the charities, as well as ‘Improving Facilities for Students’ at FCC.

It was an action-packed week of events, including a Summer Fair, Sponge the Teacher, a Sponsored Swim and a Colour Run. There was also a charity tuck shop running every day selling a wide variety of treats, which grew more popular throughout the week and was a complete sell out on the Friday!

All events were supported by the Sixth Form Charity Committee who help organise and run charity events at FCC throughout the academic year.

Imogen Orde, Student Leadership in charge of charity, commented:
“It has been such a busy week; we are all worn out! We ran 14 Tuck Shops, including 2 evening ones for school events, and it has been great to see so many people supporting us throughout the week. The teachers who did Sponge the Teacher were fantastic as it was a wet and miserable day and they got very cold! It was also the first time we have run a Summer Fair. It was open to year 7 and 8 and we had lots of stalls like a penalty shoot-out, guess the name of the teddy, a tombola and even a hula hoop competition! The Sponsored Swim was really popular this year, we had over 110 students take part which was fantastic.

We are now busy collecting in all the sponsorship from the events and working out how much we have raised, and then next term we will hold a charity cheque presentation ceremony for the charities to come in and hear about our Youth Action Week and get their cheques.”

Felpham Community College hosted their annual Summer Arts evening on Thursday 11^th July.

This is always a popular annual event in the FCC school calendar and this year was no exception – it was hugely successful with lots of students and their families attending, as well as staff, Governors and the general public.

The evening is a showcase of the wealth of talent at FCC, with art, photography, and design and technology work all on display. Works ranged from year 7 students right the way through to A level.  The drama and music departments had performances in the performing arts studio, and the library was busy with poetry readings. Refreshments were provided by food technology students, with lots of comments on how delicious things were and people taking the recipes home with them.

The FCC music department put on a fabulous show in the sixth form quad, including individual musical performances, solo singers, bands, the choir, the school band and the school windband. Guest students from Bishop Tufnell joined the band, to showcase what they had learnt earlier in the week when FCC students visited them for a workshop at their school.

Mrs Tompkins, Curriculum Leader for Art and Photography, commented;
“We love this event as we want everyone to see how talented our students are! It was great to see families attending, and so many students attending to support their peers. It is always a lovely way to end a busy and productive school year, and to appreciate all the work our students have achieved.
Well done to all our students who had their work showcased, or who took part in a performance, or made the delicious food. It was a fabulous evening and a great team effort”

Felpham Community College held their annual Sixth Form Summer Ball on Friday 5^th July at Fontwell Park.

Year 12 and 13 students, plus staff, enjoyed a fun filled evening to celebrate the soon-to-be-finished academic year. It was a glamorous evening filled with laughter, food and dancing.

Mrs Brixey, Sixth Form Leader at FCC commented:
“All the students looked fabulous and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. We have now finished exam season (and FCC!) with year 13, and internal exams with year 12. The Ball is always really popular and a great chance for fun after all the hard work. We are now looking forward to seeing year 13s back for results day – the count down is on!”

The Felpham Community College year 11 Prom took place on Wednesday 26^th June, for the first time at Avisford Park Hotel. Over 250 students and staff attended the event which was fantastic!
With the sun blazing, students arrived to their red-carpet entrance in a variety of show stopping vehicles.

Mocktails, Magic Mirror photos and a fabulous buffet were all on offer to the students. The year group awards went down well and students danced the night away. Prom King and Queen, as voted for by students, was given to Lucy Lobley and Fin Patterson.

Mr James and Mrs Irish, Year 11 Year Office commented:
“It was a great way to say goodbye to the year group after all their hard work in the run up to their exams. We received extremely positive feedback from the hotel and the Magic Mirror company, both saying what a fantastic bunch of students we have at FCC – as if we didn’t know that already!
Thank you to the year group for all the fabulous memories made in the last 5 years. We are now looking forward to seeing them back at FCC for results day in August, and then welcoming lots of them back again in September to start at our FCC Sixth Form.”

Congratulations to Bella Cook and Athena Maltby, both year 8 students at Felpham Community College, who have joined other writers around the county with their winning entries to the ‘Screen Your Story 2024’ national competition.

‘Screen Your Story’ runs annually, giving young people the opportunity to submit a story of 1500 words – with this year’s theme being ‘an unforgettable place’. Entries are split into age categories, with FCC submitting 200  this year. Nationally, thousands of stories were submitted across the age ranges. The winning entries chosen by the judges are then published in a book – ‘Stories from the Young’.

As well as being published, the winners are invited to a Gala in London at the end of June where they are presented with a copy of the book. One overall winner from the book – announced at the Gala – will have their story made into a film later this year.

Mrs Wills, Assistant Curriculum Leader for English, commented:
Well done girls, your stories were brilliant and thoroughly deserve to be published! Good luck with the Gala, we are keeping our fingers crossed that one of yours is the winning one which is going to be made into a film. An FCC student won this prize previously so we want to go for it again!”

On Thursday 20^th and also Thursday 27^th June, FCC held Welcome Days for year 6 students. On each day, half of the September year 7 cohort visited Felpham for the day, to familiarise themselves with FCC and to take part in a number of activities including team games, food technology and music. It was great to see them all making friends, enjoying the activities and interacting with Felpham students.
On Monday 24^th June, FCC held a year 5 Magic Day with Rose Green Junior school, with students working in our Religion Philosophy and Ethics department looking at ‘What would you wish upon a Stone’. The final year 5 Magic Day for the year then took place on Wednesday 26^th June, this time with Edward Bryant – with students working in science to become Dragon Tamers!

Coming up for the rest of this term, FCC have New Intake Day on Wednesday 3^rd July for the whole year group, and then New Intake Evening on the 8th July.

In addition to the above, FCC Sports Leader students have been busy working with primary schools to support their Sports Day events, and Felpham have also hosted events for primary students at FCC – like year 6 Bishop Tufnell students attending for Football Rounders last week.

So definitely a busy few weeks for younger students!

On Thursday 20^th June, the Arun Youth Council Representatives from Felpham Community College, attended the opening of the Community Garden they have been involved with since the beginning of this academic year.

Plans for the garden started back in October, working with other Youth Council Reps from The Regis, Angmering and Littlehampton Academy. Meeting regularly face-to-face with activity workshops, or via online planning meetings, they have spent time most weeks working on the project with Artswork.

Artswork is a national charity that supports, develops and delivers projects and programmes to help young people explore and fulfil their potential in arts, culture and heritage.

The group of students have spent the year planning the community project – from choosing to do the garden, to choosing the location of where it would best meet the needs of the public– The Phoenix Centre in Bognor – to designing what they wanted in it. They looked at various locations, worked with a landscaper and also worked with artists to design wall art for the space. They developed how they wanted the pond, the seating area, the information board, and a mosaic tiled patio area. The garden was officially opened on the 20^th June, by the students and the Mayor of Bognor. Families of the students involved and the general public were invited to attend, to see the finished garden and appreciate all the hard work that had been put into it!

Felpham Community College also supported the event by providing entertainment – Manny Makinson performed to the group his crowd-pleasing balloon modelling act, and Eloise Lyons and Libby Wood (both year 12 students) who sang / played keyboard for the guests.

Tali Swain, Year 10 Student at FCC commented:
“It has been a great project to be involved with as we have actually seen the finished garden and how good it is! I opened the garden with a speech about everything we have done this year to help with it. Thank you to Artswork for giving us this opportunity.”

Students involved with the project: Harry Searle, Katie Pullen, Mia Blakeney, Tayla Petter, Tali Swain, Evie Colwell, Grace Dixon, Kurtis Allies