Felpham Community College have held a number of successful events this term for visiting younger students.

There have been the final 2 Magic Days, completing a programme which has run throughout the academic year. These events invite year 5 students from across the locality to experience a taste of secondary school life. South Bested and Arundel visited at the beginning of June, and over 90 year 5 students from Rose Green finished the events at the end of June. Activities included ‘Exploring the Magical Powers of Colour’ and ‘Creating a Fantasy Forest’. Students were also given a tour of FCC and a question and answer session with year 9 and sixth form students.

As well as hosting activities for year 5, Felpham Community College has also run a series of day and activities for the year 6 students joining FCC in September. Students have attended a Welcome Day, New Intake Day and New Intake Evening, giving them the chance to see as much of FCC as they can before they start in September. As well as familiarising themselves with the campus, the events are a chance to get to know staff, the way the school works and make some new friends.

As well as having younger students visiting Felpham, FCC Sports Leaders have been out into the locality supporting primary school Sports Days. Sports Leaders at Felpham are chosen from year 8,9 and 10, to support students and lead on PE activities. With the younger students they have enjoyed joining in the activities, encouraging the students and even being some judges!

FCC have also been into 4 local primary schools to run Soccersize workshops for year 6 students, improving their football and team skills and having a lot of fun at the same time!

Mr Whiffin, Deputy Headteacher, commented: “As a large secondary school, it is great that we can organise events to support local primary schools, and in particular year 6 students who may feel nervous about leaving primary school at the end of the year. It is busy to co-ordinate in addition to the FCC events for our year groups. However, we always receive positive feedback from the visiting students, staff and parents of the year 6s so it is a firm favourite when we do our planning for the year”.

As you will have seen in the media, the National Education Union (NEU) are due to hold further days of industrial action in schools across England in July 2023. The strikes are continuing because of a national dispute between the unions and the government over teachers’ pay, and whether or not an increase should be funded by the government or by schools themselves.

As you are aware, a very large proportion of our teachers, at FCC, are members of the NEU, (currently over 80%). As ever, 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 therefore sorry to have to inform you that Felpham Community College will be closed on Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th July for the majority of students, and we are asking you not to send your child into school on this day.

On the days of the industrial action, 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.

The school will remain open for:

• Sixth form – the Hub will be open for private study and some teachers will be leading sessions. Your child will be notified in advance of any sessions that are running.
• Children of critical workers and our most vulnerable children – if you wish to book a place, please email fcc@felpham.org.uk by Friday 30th June.

Should you have children in Year 6, the transition day has been moved from the 5th to Tuesday 4th July, and our Sports Day has been rescheduled to Friday 14th. The sixth form celebration evening at Fontwell will go ahead as planned on Friday 7th July.

I am sorry that you will have to make alternative arrangements for your child, and that they will experience disruption to their education. Should the industrial action be called off, we will, of course, swiftly 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.

Yours faithfully

Michelle Kelly
Acting Headteacher

On Tuesday 23^rd May, the Felpham Community College Dance Team performed their Summer Showcase – . ‘Move It!’ – to a sold-out audience. The performance involved around 30 students from years 7-10, with all participants rehearsing diligently three nights a week since the beginning of the summer term.

Covering a wide range of styles of dance, the showcase began with the opening number from Six The Musical. Following this, the students went on to perform various contemporary, jazz, street dance and ballet pieces. The show also included two numbers that the Dance Team had previously entered into Dance House, a local dance festival, aimed at giving young people the opportunity to perform in a theatre. 

Miss Crocker, Teacher of Dance at FCC, commented:
“I choreographed the show and I am extremely proud of all the students who were involved, including the backstage and technical teams. They showed fabulous commitment and talent and showed us all how passionate young people are, and how we should celebrate this passion!

We are very excited to be offering GCSE dance for the first-time from September, and we hope that many more students will take up the opportunity to be a part of the Dance Team here at Felpham.”