The annual Felpham Community College Christmas Fair took place on Wednesday 29^th November and was a brilliant local community event.

Year 7 students ran stalls including selling freshly made popcorn, Christmas biscuit decorating and various  competitions to guess the name or number! Sixth form students ran the hugely popular hook a duck and play your cards right, as well as the tuck shop and refreshment stalls. Local businesses and a fundraising team provided a great selection of craft stalls, and the FCC school choir got everyone in the mood with some fantastic Christmas songs. The raffle ended the night with some popular prizes won – including Spa vouchers, Christmas hampers and tickets to Butlins!

Mr Summers, Assistant Headteacher, commented:
“It was good to see year 7 students running their stalls and having fun, and their families joining them for the evening. The Fair was a great way to start a festive couple of weeks at FCC – we have our year 7 Christmas disco and the Carol Concert now to look forward to. Thank you to all the local businesses who supplied raffle prizes, we really appreciate your continued support, and to everyone who helped us make the evening a success.”

Felpham Community College has been redesignated as Gold by UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting School programme.

The Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation working for children and their rights. The Rights Respecting Schools Award is granted to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school. Gold is the highest accolade given by UNICEF UK and shows a deep and thorough commitment to children’s rights at all levels of school life.

There are now over 600 schools across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales that have received Gold, and Felpham Community College has now held this level since 2017, when we were one of just 22 secondary schools to be awarded the highest level.

Ms Kelly, Deputy Headteacher, commented:
“We are so proud of our students, staff and parents alike, in working collectively to put children’s rights at the heart of FCC. In constantly striving for a truly inclusive community, we have become a vibrant school that celebrates our rich and diverse nature”.

Felpham Community College have been running taster sessions for local year 5 primary schools for over 10 years. Based around the theme of ‘Making Magical Memories’, the events are a chance for year 5 students to experience what secondary school life is like.

This academic year, the programme of events has started with 90 students from Downview Primary School attending FCC on Thursday 16^th November, to ‘Create a Magical Turtle World’ within the art department, using a variety of mixed materials. Year 9 students supported the younger students with their creative pieces, and also gave a tour of the school showcasing all the different curriculum areas.

Mr Whiffin, Deputy Headteacher commented:
“It was lovely to see the Downview students asking lots of questions about secondary school and interacting with our student helpers. The idea of these events is for year 5s to see how a secondary school runs on a normal day, so that they are excited about the thought of the next stage of their education and not worried. The Downview students who came up were great, really enthusiastic and the work they produced was brilliant! We are now looking forward to running further events next term with other local schools.”

On Wednesday 8^th November, Felpham Community College hosted a Cheque Presentation Ceremony at the school, to celebrate the efforts with the annual Youth Action Fundraising Week.

Youth Action Week is held in the Summer Term each year, and is a chance for students to raise some money and have fun at the end of the academic year. Over the week there was a sponsored swim and various afternoon year group events such as sports tournaments, art and craft activities and even karaoke. There was a week-long tuck shop running, the one week in school students are encouraged to bring cash in and indulge in sugar! Sponge the Teacher was also a popular activity, and there was an after-school colour run. The final event from the week took place last half term, when it was cooler, which was the Sponsored 10-mile dog walk – with over 90 students and dogs taking part this year.

The afternoon of the 8^th was a chance for students who went above and beyond with their sponsored events, to meet with the charities and reflect on what they have achieved and what the money will go towards.

This year, students and staff voted to support The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and The Rocking Horse Children’s Charity.

Isabelle Isitt, Student Leadership in charge of Charity, commented:
“It was great to welcome the charities and hear from them about what the money will help with. Some of our students tried really hard with the events, raising lots of money through sponsorship, so it was nice they could come along and see the cheques being presented. We raised in total from the week just over £6300 which was a fantastic achievement. Thank you to everyone who supported us, we want to raise even more next year!”

A group of students from the Felpham Community College School Council visited the Bognor Regis Foodbank on Thursday 9^th November, accompanied by Olivia Vine, Student Leadership in charge of Community Action.

FCC co-ordinate a donation drive in November every year, this year for Bognor Foodbank. The trip was a chance to see how the charity operates on a day to day basis and how people are referred. Following this, they will be Student Ambassadors at Felpham to promote the donation drive across the school and encourage students to bring something in from home if they are able too.

Olivia Vine, Sixth Form Student commented:
“I am in year 13 now and we have done a donation drive every November since before I was in year 7. It is a great opportunity to come together as a community and support others. Going to the Foodbank was really interesting, as we could see first hand what stock they are low on and how they sort everything. We had lists and we had to make up the different parcels for what is given to a single person or a family of 5. It also made us realise that it is not just soup and pasta they need, things like shampoo and pet food are also good to donate.

Our Sixth Form Charity Committee have now delivered bags and posters to all form rooms at FCC, with the aim of students and staff all bringing in a donation each if they can. We are then going to bring it all back to the Foodbank at the beginning of December.”

Students across year groups at Felpham Community College have created a visual memorial for Remembrance Day and The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

The art work is currently displayed at FCC main reception. As well as the display, Student Council Representatives from each year group have been selling poppies around school this week and last week.

On Sunday 12^th November, Ms Pike, Headteacher and Millie Towse, Deputy Head Student, will attend the Remembrance Service at Bognor Town Hall and lay a wreath on behalf of FCC, an event the school takes part in annually.

Mrs Tompkins, Curriculum Leader for Art and Design commented:
“Students from years 7,8,9 and 10 were given the opportunity to design and paint a reflection pebble using the poppy symbol. The visual display is eye catching and we are proud of what they have achieved.”  

Felpham Community College students and staff celebrated the end of a busy and successful first half-term of the academic year by holding a non-school uniform day, fundraising for Dementia Support (Sage House) and improving facilities for students at FCC.

It is a tradition at Felpham that the Sixth Form Charity Committee always choose which charity to support for the first non-uniform day of the academic year. This year, for the October non-uniform day, they voted for Sage House at Tangmere. Sage House is a community hub which brings together local Dementia Support services – providing the latest support, information, advice and activities to those living with Dementia and their families.

Toby Clegg, Head Student at Felpham Community College, commented:
“We have had a really busy and positive start to the new academic year. Non-uniform day is always a great way to relax slightly on the last day and also fundraise. Sixth Form students voted to join in by wearing their PJs to school for the day. We also had our Sponsored Dog walk this week, and we already have lots of charity events planned for next half term, headed up by the Sixth Form Charity Commmittee and the FCC Student Council. These include selling poppies for The Royal British Legion, a donation drive for Bognor Foodbank, a Community Christmas Craft Fayre and a non-uniform day for Stonepillow. It is great that as a community, FCC tries to support both local, national and international charities.”

Year 11 Felpham Community College students Rebecca Holland and Katy Pilling, and Rory Lyne from year 10, were invited to present at the ‘Free and Equal’ Conference on the 13^th October.

Organised through ‘Beyond This’, Rebecca, Katy and Rory were asked to speak alongside representatives from UNICEF; to talk and showcase the power of the Rights Respecting School Award.

The students were asked to speak around the impact that the Rights Respecting Schools initiative has had at FCC and how it has helped in the creation of a safer and more inclusive environment. They attended the conference for the day, therefore allowing time to also participate in a variety of workshops – listening to key note speakers discussing topics of gender, masculinity and power.

Felpham were chosen as the only school to speak, to represent the entire Rights Respecting School program.   They were chosen by the UNICEF team for the schools strong ethos for inclusion and acceptance, and students feeling comfortable to be who they are.

Alice Jarvis, Rights Respecting Schools Ambassador at FCC, commented:
“It was amazing to watch the students talk about how their lives have been changed by our Rights Respecting work, and to see how passionate and empowered they feel – not only from their own speech, but the other speakers they watched as well. As well as the live audience, the conference was streamed to schools across the county which was fantastic. We hope that this talk has encouraged other schools and students to start their own Rights Respecting journey.”

Please see the below links for more information about the conference and the speakers.
https://www.beyondthis.co.uk/free-equal-2023/
https://www.beyondthis.co.uk/2023-conference-speakers/

Over 90 students and staff from Felpham Community College, accompanied by over 80 dogs, completed a 10-mile Sponsored Dog Walk on Tuesday 17^th October.

The team, made up of students from years 7,8,9,10 and headed up by the FCC Sixth Form Charity Committee, walked from Felpham to Middleton to Aldwick and then back to Felpham, in strong winds and with a wide variety of dogs from tiny chihuahuas to labradoodles!

The charity dog walk is held every year and is a firm favourite in the FCC calendar. This year, they were raising money for The Rocking Horse Children’s Charity, The British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK, as well as improving facilities for students at FCC. Money is still being counted, but so far they have raised in excess of £1500 from the event.

Isabelle Isitt, Student Leadership i/c of the Charity Committee, commented:
“It was a really fun day and good to see everyone enjoying themselves and being allowed to spend a day with their dogs! Some kids wanted to give up, 10 miles is a long way.  We all finished apart from two dogs who didn’t quite make it and had to be collected. One dog got stung by a wasp! Everyone was proud of themselves for the walk and raising money.”

The last few weeks have been super busy at FCC with sorting out our Student Council for this academic year. Students across year groups were invited to put themselves forward to join their Year Councils, and they had their first meeting in September as their Year Council.

At these meetings, students nominated their Whole School Council Representatives. The FCC Whole School Council comprises of 3 students from each year group, as well as the Year 13 Student Leadership Team. They are responsible for student voice at FCC. Over the last few years, they have been influential with a wide range of ideas and initiatives – from the decision to have a second Snack Shack, to more benches around the school site, to opinions on the curriculum and ideas about well-being.

We are excited to start planning what they will be working on this year!