Dear parents and carers,

I hope you have had a great week.

A big thank you to our Eco-coordinator, Ms Simon-House, who led an engaging trip to Tide Mills Beach in Newhaven for a very motivated group of students in Key Stage 3. They worked on a Beach Litter Audit and it was great to see some proactive work around our Eco strand of the school.

I have mentioned in previous communications that we have had a marketing vacancy which has affected our social communications. I am delighted that we have appointed Ms Freeborn 1 day a week, and have immediately started work on a plan to revitalise this area.
 

Amongst many things happening in the Summer Term, it is an important time as we review our school budget for next year. Put simply, finances continue to be extremely challenging and it is a credit to the students and teachers that the school continues to perform so well in a very difficult national landscape. I also note a number of continued challenges locally in Sussex, for example, a rise in required improvement or inadequate Ofsted reports, suspensions up to three times the national average, attendance below the national average and teaching vacancies at a high. Thankfully, despite the financial, local and national challenges, we are still significantly bucking the trend in all these areas and more. We have a happy and safe school (as our students and staff tell us each term), consistently strong outcomes, the highest applicants to the school on record, a large number of appeals to get into the school and a motivated staff body who we again (fingers crossed) look to be heading into September fully staffed. We are not perfect and continually look to improve based on the resources we have. Our key area of focus remains improving attendance to consistently above national average as this gives our students the best chances of success in comparison to their peers nationally. I thank you again for your support during this challenging time for education.

You will be hearing more soon about the following:

• The Principal's excellence awards

• Our new student council

• An enhanced achievement strategy and developments in our belonging strategy.

Have a great weekend

Best wishes,

Mr Harvey

Beach Litter Audit - Tide Mills Beach, Newhaven

15 students from KS3 were joined by Andy and Beverly from Strandliners https://strandliners.org and Mrs Simon-House and Mr Duckworth to audit the rubbish on Tide Mills beach. 

It was a pretty chilly morning following the warmer weather we have recently had, with a cold wind and the beach appeared to be quite clean when we turned up, but on closer inspection we collected quite a lot of waste found on the beach that had appeared due to human activity. After collecting from a 100m stretch, we collaborated our finds and went through the process of identifying and recording and finally weighing them. 

The data collected by our students will be fed into the Marine Conservation Society’s database to provide an overview of the state of Britain's shorelines and provide the evidence to lobby for change at both local and national levels.

Our haul included (but was not limited to) many small unidentifiable bits of plastic, fishing nets, cable ties, watermelon and sweetcorn, a shotgun cartridge, a lighter, a couple of pens, a hairband.

The most interesting find was a 12 cm section of plastic that originated from Boston, USA. This is a section of detonation cord also known as shock tubing which has been washing up on our shores following the enlargement of Boston Harbour, USA in June 2021 to accommodate larger container ships which use explosive devices. More information about this can be found at https://strandliners.org/2023/12/03/detonation-cord-from-the-usa/

What did we learn? We learnt to ask why… Really look at what the item is - What are the identifiable features? What might it be? Why is it on the beach? Where was the source of its journey? How did it get here? We learnt that ocean currents can carry ocean pollution many thousands of miles across oceans around the world. Human activity is the main cause of marine pollution. Data means there is evidence, which means there can be lobbies for change.

If you would like to be involved, Strandliners  organise public beach cleans throughout the year. And have a Young Strandliners group for 10-18 year olds.  Please see the website above for more info.

 

Mrs Simon-House

Message from the Science Department - request for (washed up) used margarine and ice cream tubs

The Science Department is in DESPERATE need of (washed-up) used margarine and ice cream tubs. They would be used for STEM projects, science practical work and faux storage compartments for the gratnell trays amongst many other things....

As many donations as possible would be welcome - they need loads!

Many thanks and kind regards,

The whole science department!

 

Careers News

Year 10 taster days for year 10 are now open to book. Please go to the local colleges' individual websites if you would like to book a place. You must then let the school know that your child will be absent for that day. You will need to organise your own travel arrangements to and from the college.

If you are unable to attend or feel it is too soon, there will be open evenings at all the colleges in the autumn term which will provide all the information and guidance for our new year 11’s.

Varndean College - https://www.varndean.ac.uk/year10/ 

 

Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week – 14 to 21 June 2025

Please note the following information shared by ESCC with all parents and carers.

As the weather gets warmer and, in the lead up to Drowning Prevention Week, please note the latest important water safety messages for families, young people, and children. For further information and to download the latest water safety poster, please see Water safety.

Further information can be found at Royal Life Saving Society UK's Drowning Prevention Week.

 

Bee’s and Honey Competition for this year’s South of England Summer show, 6th – 8th June 2025. 

If you are attending this year, please do remember to come and visit the Bees and Honey tent on Friday 6th as there will be a special young person-oriented beekeeping demo.

 

1st Barcombe Scouts – would you like to join?

Do you like the outdoors?  Do you like to do activities with friends?

Well, scouts is the place to be.  Scouts offer a wide range of activities for children aged 10-14. One of your local groups is 1st Barcombe Scouts. 

The wonderful volunteers that help out take their young people to various camps, which include:

• Bivi camp - where you get the chance to sleep under the stars.

• District camp - where most scout groups from around Sussex come together as one.

• Scout camp - where young people spend a week as a unit reaffirming friendships and making stronger bonds and also learning more survival skills. 

At scouts, they take everyone’s ideas and opinions into account and place them into their programme, so everyone gets a say.

Would you like to join? If yes, please contact 1st Barcombe by following this link - https://www.scouts.org.uk/groups/10015425?loc=Bn85fj&slug=1st-Barcombe 

Archery – would you like to try a new sport?

Saturday 21 June, 10am to 4pm at Barnsgate Manor Vineyard