On Friday 9^th February, staff and students at Felpham Community College ended a busy and successful start to 2024, by hosting a non-school uniform day, raising money for unicef.

As part of UK Parliament week back in November, everyone at FCC was given the opportunity to nominate and then vote for what charities the school should support this academic year – with a wide range of local, national and international charities being chosen.

Isabelle Isitt, Student Leadership i/c Charity commented:
“Non-uniform is a fun way to end the half term and fundraise at the same time. We were redesignated as a Gold Rights Respecting School last term, an award which is run by unicef. This was a great opportunity to raise awareness of the amazing work the charity co-ordinates world-wide. We are now busy planning our charity event for next half term – an FCC Talent Show fundraising for the local community interest project ‘Save the Post Office’ in Felpham.

The Languages department at Felpham Community College hosted their own ‘International Week’ from the 5^th to the 9^th February, celebrating language diversity and culture at FCC.  The week is organised in recognition of the United Nations International Day of Education, held on the 24^th January each year.

The hugely popular ‘International Bake Off’ took place on the 7^th February, with over 90 entries received. Students and staff had their own competitions, with anyone wishing to enter picking a country to research and represent through a cake/pudding. Congratulations to Eva Johnson Deacon and Sophie Lee for their amazing Brazilian cake!

On the 8^th February, the ‘International Just Dance’ competition proved great fun, and throughout the week both staff and students enjoyed taking part in the ‘Guess the Teacher and Language’ competition.

Mr Cauchy-Duval, Curriculum Leader for Modern Languages, commented:
“The objective of International Week is to raise awareness of the importance of studying a language in a multi-cultural society. Both staff and students have really enjoyed taking part in all the activities we planned, especially the wide range of sweet treats we received which were incredible and completely delicious! The week has been a great success, thank you to all the staff and students who have got involved and joined in.”

International Day of Education | UNESCO

Well done and congratulations to the cast and crew of the Felpham Community College production of ‘Annie – The Musical.’

The sell-out show performed on the evenings of the 7^th and 8^th February, to a packed audience of students, staff and families of the cast.

Miss Coney, Curriculum Leader for Performing Arts, commented:
“Our students have worked really hard on the musical, we started rehearsals in our extra-curricular club back in October. We had to have a couple of last minute changes to the cast, students adapted really well and in a very mature way.  We are really proud of the effort, enthusiasm and talent they have shown. The cast and crew were from years 7 through to 10 and all put in huge amounts of their own time learning their parts. We are now looking forward to, and planning, the next events – after half term we have our dance team performing at Dance House (all year groups), and National Theatre Connections for year 10 and 11 performing arts students.

Scarlett Turvey, Year 8 Student, commented:
“I played Annie and it has been a great production to be involved with. It has been nice working with kids from other year groups and making friends, as you all have a shared interest. We were all quite nervous before the actual show, as we have been rehearsing for so long it seemed crazy that it had actually arrived! I really enjoy drama, dance and singing. I have been a part of the British Theatre for over 2 years now, I currently go up to London every Sunday for it. I have performed in numerous shows around the South, including Frozen, Shrek, Annie and Moana.

Felpham Community College would like to say a massive good luck and well done to Phil Turner, who will be appearing on the next series of The Apprentice, starting on the 1st February on BBC1.

Phil is an ex-student of FCC and is part of our Alumni. Earlier this month he came in to support us with year 11 careers interviews and the year 9 careers carousel, by being an interviewer and a guest speaker.

Good luck Phil, we will all be rooting for you!

On Thursday 18^th January, students from years 7 and 8 at Felpham Community College, took part in an educational workshop run by ‘Smashed’ – an interactive theatrical experience which tours schools across the UK.  

The workshop looked at the social and emotional causes of underage drinking, it’s impact on young lives, social influence and decision-making, and where and how to help yourself and others. 

Miss Tetra, Curriculum Leader for Citizenship, commented: 
“Workshops like these are fab as they explore issues affecting young people in a dynamic and interactive way, so students get a lot from them. Our Citizenship curriculum covers a wide variety of topics at Felpham, tailored to each year group, looking at everything from politics / puberty / drug and alcohol abuse / internet safety / religious beliefs / mental health and more. As well as classroom-based learning, we host a number of workshops like today, to help educate our students on important issues they face growing up in today’s society.   

Maison, year 8 student commented: 
“The workshop was really good as it made you realise the consequences of doing something that you might think ok ( like under-age drinking) and the reasons why alcohol has an 18-age limit. It also looked at peer pressure, and that its not uncool to be different to your friends and stand up for yourself if you don’t want to do something.”  

More information on the Smashed Project is available here.

Thank you to the year 5 students from Bishop Tufnell who visited us on Wednesday 17^th January to experience what secondary school life is like. They worked in groups to investigate ‘The Forest Murder Mystery’, and even had time at the end of their session to act out their findings and show us their drama skills.

A group of year 9 FCC students supported them for their visit and gave them a tour of the school and a question and answer session.

The idea of these events is for younger students to see how secondary school is different from primary, and that moving up to secondary is exciting and not something to be nervous about. We continue the events at the end of the month with Bersted Green Primary School.

Mr Leadley, Teacher of History, commented:
“The students worked really hard and were doing the work we use with year 7 and 8 students. They had to decide whether the event was a murder or an accident and their ideas, and acting skills, were brilliant. It was lovely to see them making friends with our year 9 students and asking lots of questions about Felpham – homework, new friends and the canteen were popular conversations going on!”

Wednesday 10^th January was a busy day for careers at Felpham Community College. In the morning, FCC hosted the final year 11 Mock Interviews. Following their CV writing last term, all year 11 students at Felpham were invited to attend a mock interview, to give them some experience of what to expect for a real interview and how to sell themselves. Students did brilliantly, with lots enjoying their interview and coming out feeling positive, after initially being dubious about attending!

Following these, the school held the first Careers Carousel for year 9 students. Students worked in small groups to discuss careers and opportunities, with a wide range of volunteers working their way round the student groups. There were volunteers from local businesses, the army, the fire service, cabin crew, a drone pilot, an author-and the medical profession. It was a great opportunity to find out more about what is out there in the world of careers.

A huge thank you to the volunteers, many of them ex-students of FCC, who gave up their time to come in and inspire our students. And a well done to students who gave both events maximum effort and enthusiasm.

Felpham Community College celebrated the end to a busy and productive term by hosting a variety of festive events. The Christmas Craft Fair was a great success at the end of November, and following this there was the annual Carol Service at St Mary’s Church in Felpham, on Wednesday 13^th December. This was a community event and included FCC pianists, the school choir, orchestra, staff choir and a performance from some of the sixth form students. It was lovely to see so many people attending and joining in.

On Thursday 7^th December, staff held a staff Christmas jumper day, raising money for Save the Children. Then on the last day of term – Friday 15^th December – students and staff were invited to wear non-uniform for the day to fundraise for Stonepillow. Sixth form students got involved and wore festive clothes!

Finally, the FCC Rights Respecting Schools Ambassador Miss Jarvis has been running a Christmas card act of craftivism. A group of students have spent time making Christmas cards that will be sent to Chestnut Tree House and others in need during the festive season, to spread festive spirit!

Toby Clegg, Head Student at FCC commented:
“It has been a really busy term. Welcoming our new year 7 students in September seems like so long ago but in other ways the term has gone really fast! We have done lots of charity events this term and it was nice to finish off by raising money for both local and international charities.”

Charities we are raising money for:
Save the Children
Stonepillow
Chestnut Tree House

At the beginning of November, a group of the FCC Student Council visited Bognor Foodbank, to find out first-hand how it operates. Following this, the Student Council promoted a school-wide donation drive for the Foodbank across year groups and including staff.

Mr Summers, Assistant Headteacher commented:
“It has been great to see how many items we managed to get donated from the FCC school community – from dog food to Christmas biscuits! We sorted it all out into categories at school and then delivered it to the Foodbank on the 7^th December. We only just managed to fit it all into our minibus with the students. Our Student Council really enjoyed getting involved and want to do it even bigger and better next year!”

The Sixth Form Charity Committee organise a wide variety of community and charity events throughout the academic year. This term, they wanted to remind people that charity is not just about fundraising, but also about giving up your time.  

On Wednesday 6^th December, 5 of the committee visited Autumn Lodge Care Home in Aldwick, to socialise with the residents and play Christmas games. Another 5 visited Sainbury’s in Bognor Regis, to help shoppers with their Christmas packing at the check-out tills.

Olivia Vine, Student Leadership i/c of Community Action commented:
“I visited the Care Home and we really enjoyed it, it was fun talking to the residents and they were really competitive with the games! They have asked us to go back after Christmas as we were chatting about school trips and they want to hear all about our recent Geography trip to Iceland. A few of my friends went to Sainsbury’s and they said it was funny how some of the people didn’t believe they were just doing it to be nice, and didn’t want paying for the help!”