Newsletter July 2015

July 2015

Amber Rudd Briefed On Need To Rebuild Rye College Last week, local MP Amber Rudd visited Rye College to be briefed on the Rye Academy Trust’s need to rebuild the college.

Amber was shown the difficulties facing the college - the old buildings and infrastructure. Amber commented: “I support the plans of the Rye Academy Trust to request funds to build a school fit for the 21st century on the lower school site. I will certainly be putting their case to the Secretary of State for Education”.

The Rye Academy Trust has already expressed an interest in purchasing the lower school site in Rye to Sainsbury's and Tesco. The Chair of the Trust, Jacqui Lait, said “We want to push ahead with this as fast as we can and to have Amber’s support in enormously welcome”.

Rye College is made of a number of different buildings of different ages and suffers from old cabling and a lack of access for disabled people.

Executive Principal, Ann Cockerham, said “It is vital that we are able to offer future students top quality facilities in order to give them the best possible chance in their future lives”.

Photos: Amber is pictured working with teachers at Rye College in the Milligan Theatre.

Year 7 Students Visit Astrodome Year 7 students finished off their work on the solar system with a visit to the Astrodome. Here they had the chance to experience space in 180 degrees. The students experienced space shuttle launches, travelled past planets and learned about the night sky and the universe.

Rye College Awards Evening 2015 Monday 6th July was the annual awards evening for year 7 - 10. The evening was extremely well attended with over 80 students, 150 parents, friends and dignitaries attending. Students were awarded for excellence in subject areas, progress, and personal achievement, as well as for their contribution to college and the local community.

Guests were also welcomed by Tom Pickering on the piano, and were also entertained by Year 10 drama students, Year 10 dancers, and Year 9 and 10 musicians who put on fantastic performances. Rye College would like to thank the Foundation Governors as always for their generous donations.

i-go Leisure Card Get ready for summer apply now for a free i-go leisure card for your child i-go is for under 25s with special needs or disabilities. With the card you get special offers and the information to plan a hassle-free visit. Use the i-go card with 85 leisure partners across East Sussex including leisure centres, attractions, activities and clubs. For more information or to apply www.eastsussex.gov.uk/igo or telephone Information for Families on 0345 60 80 192.

Student Medication at Rye College Please be reminded that students should not be carrying their own medication, or anybody else's, of any kind on their person whilst at Rye College. If your child requires medication please call Reception on 01797 222545 to organise filling in and signing the relevant forms. Medication will then be handed in to main reception for it to be administered by a qualified member of staff. Please note that students are permitted to carry certain items such as asthma inhalers with prior consent. Please call main reception for more information or advice if needed.

Like us on Facebook There are loads of photos, events & messages on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ryecollegeuk

Product Design Year 7 have whipped up a robot storm in Product Design this term!

They’ve hacked a LEGO helicopter, made a robo-bird, a punk robot, a spooky graveyard, a haunted house and two unicorns (one listening to an iPod!). All of the models were built from a range of materials and were controlled using mini servos and Arduinos (microcontroller boards).

During the project the class went through the design process, learning skills such as rendering, isometric drawing, computer aided design modelling in Sketchup, analysing existing products and card engineering.

They produced creative and splendid models!

Year 10 Careers Day Year 10 had a whole day of Careers Education, Advice and Guidance in June in preparation for the decisions that they will have to make in year 11 for their post-16 studies. This event was run by My Future Starts Here. Students attended a careers fair, and employability workshop and a workplace skills drama workshop in the morning. In the afternoon students selected 3 careers insight workshops that they would like to attend. These included Sports Therapy, Hair and Beauty, Finance, Martial Arts, Art and Design and Animal Medicine.

Passport to Success A group of Year 10 students took part in the Passport to Success mentoring scheme in collaboration with STEM Sussex. Students met with their mentors fortnightly to discuss their progress and ways to overcome barriers to success. All students found this beneficial, and highlighted personal improvements such as time management and organisational skills.

The students were extremely grateful for their mentors for taking the time out of their busy schedules to meet with them.

Year 7 Enterprise Day ‘Haunted Rye’ Year 7 students worked in teams on 13th July, to create products, services or events with the theme ‘Haunted Rye’. Students were given roles such as Project Managers, PR/Marketing Lead, Researchers, Presenters and Administrators. Some excellent work was produced and judged by Foundation Governor and Local Historian, Mrs Kirkham, along with MFSH (My Future Starts Here) colleagues, Pru and Carrie & Mrs Starkey of Rye College.

Follow us on Twitter Stay up to date with all things Rye College by Following us on Twitter @ryecollegeuk

Students Enjoy Irving Berlin Workshop The Grade 6 Music Theatre pupils enjoyed an Irving Berlin Workshop on 20th July. The workshop was led by Lucy Ashenden who is currently performing in the UK Tour of Top Hat. The current Rye College Grade 6 Music Theatre students are: Holly Holt, Indi Harlott, Jodie Ryding, Holly Eldridge, Sofia Cox, Izzi Riggs, Oliver Hopkins, Robert Eldridge and Tom Pickering.

Art & Photography Exhibition 2015

Nathan Halliday

Rye College’s annual GCSE Art and Photography Exhibition has showcased another year of exceptional young talent and hard work. The show, which is exhibited to students, parents and the wider community, showed a breadth of skills and exploration from the Year 11 students at Rye College. The Rye Society of Artists once again generously donated prizes to be given to the students. The prize winners, selected by Davida Smith and Steve Duffy, were Christine-Anne Brown, Asia Low and Amy Crisford, with Bethany Le Port, Olivia Waters and Nathan Halliday being Highly Commended. The Photography prizes were kindly donated by David Purdie from the Purdie Gallery, and went to Emily Barden, Fern Adams and Jade Ryding. The Head of Art of Rye College, Lauren Loveless, commented “We are so grateful to the Rye Society of Artists, Rye Art Gallery and the Purdie Gallery for their continued support of our young artists. It is such a privilege for our students to have their work recognised and celebrated by practising artists from our local community. The Exhibition this year showed a great deal of talent, and I am so proud of how our students developed and rose to the challenge - the growth in their skills and confidence has been a joy to see”. Thanks to Jane Fenn and the Trustees of Rye Art Gallery, a selection of work from the Rye College students will be exhibited at Rye Art Gallery from Saturday 18th July until the end of August.

Asia Low

Amy Crisford

American Organist Visits RWA Students Our Rye Wurlitzer Academy students enjoyed a special visit from top American organist Tony Wilson, who left his day job as co-owner and vice president of a company providing props to around 150 - 200 Hollywood films a year, to fly over from L.A. to give a group masterclass, some one to one sessions and to raise funds for the RWA. The students all loved meeting him and our evening concert of ‘Pizza and Pipes’ featuring Tony with RWA tutor Michael Wooldridge and some of our students playing and singing, was a great success. Our National Young Theatre Organist of the Year competition winner, Thomas Pickering (Year 10) also joined Tony in concert at the Singing Hills Wurlitzer at Albourne, near Brighton.

Student Trip to London Our day began with a very prompt 6.45am departure and our annual trip organised by the Special Educational Needs Team had begun. By 9.30am we had boarded our River Thames Cruise boat bound for the Tower of London.

The students were awe struck as our boat bobbed around in the shadow of Big Ben and the London Eye. We cruised past Traitors Gate, “though not through it,” the way less fortunate people had in bygone days. Once in the Tower we had booked 2 workshops. “Who Killed the Princes in the Tower?” and “Imprisonment & Escape”. Should you be curious, King Richard did kill the Princes! This was the general consensus of our students, who after hearing the evidence and having had the opportunity to question the King themselves, put it to the vote. The story of an unfortunate Nobleman, whose attempt to escape went horribly wrong was particularly entertaining. Apparently, he got his feet caught in the sheets he was using as a rope, he fell from a high window and landed hard on his head. When he was discovered his head had gone inside his body and was found in his stomach. True! So we were told. So envy the Nobleman, whose escape was successful, because his landing was a soft pool of human sewage, he was left with just his dignity damaged! Stories from history aimed to enthral and entertain, with the desired effect. The Special Needs Team would like to thank parents and carers for their continued support, particularly with our early mornings. But also thank our brilliant students who joined us on yet another enjoyable and successful Summer outing. They were a credit to themselves and Rye College.

Year 10 Arts Day On Friday 17th July, Year 10 students took part in an Arts Day looking at the importance of the Arts in education, society and life. They worked on creating a Rye College Arts Manifesto to highlight why the Arts were important to them and came up with some profound, wonderful and exciting ideas! Through the Speakers for Schools initiative, we were lucky enough to welcome Victoria Pomery OBE, Director of the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate, as our guest speaker. Victoria gave an inspirational and insightful speech about the Arts and their importance to everyone in society. The students were thrilled to be able to meet and speak with somebody who is so passionate abut the Arts and being able to take part in a Q&A session with someone so influential in the Arts industry was an amazing opportunity for them. A really wonderful day for all of us!

- Miss L Loveless, Head of Art

Uniform Donations If you have any Rye College uniform of PE kit which is in good condition but no longer needed, we would gratefully accept it as a donation. If you would like to donate uniform, please contact Dawn Archer in Student Reception. We keep a supply in the office for students who forget or lose items but our supplies are diminishing, so any donations would be gratefully received.

Year 6 Transition Days Year 6 students, due to join Rye College in September, enjoyed 3 transition days at the start of July. We are really looking forward to working with you all.

Rye College Table Tennis Star Year 9 student Daniel Lane excelled at the Eastbourne Junior Banded Development Tournament at the beginning of July.

Daniel earned a Silver in the AM Tournament and managed to go one better in the afternoon when he earnt a Gold! A massive well done from everyone at Rye College!

Year 11 Leavers Prom 2015 Thursday 9th July saw Bannatyne’s Hotel in Hastings once again host the annual Year 11 Leavers Prom. The well attended event was a huge success as always with awards given to both students and staff. Photos from the event are now online and are available to view for free as well as an option to purchase professional prints of your favourites!

Visit: www.photoboxgallery.com/RCCProm15 to view all the photos from the evening.

Rye College Cup Challenge On Friday 17th July the inaugural Rye College Cup Challenge day took place. 17 different events were set up for the students to choose from. Throughout the day points were awarded and after the final events which culminated in teachers races, Globe Community were announced the winners. A great day was had by staff and students.

Rye College Twirling Star Lucy Swindail, of Rye College, competed in the BBTSA Selections on April 25th and was selected to represent England in Junior Woman Freestyle at the European Championships which are being held in Slovenia in July. Lucy is a member of the BBTSA (British Baton Twirling Sports Association) and has been twirling with The Scenic Twirlers who are based in Ashford for more than 10 years. This is Lucy’s second year in the England Squad, she was also selected last year to represent England in Junior Women Freestyle at the Germany Grand Prix and she was also one half of the Junior England Pair for the WBTF (World Baton Twirling Championships) held in Nottingham last August.

Inset Day Our July Inset Day was slightly different to our usual format with Rye College staff being invited to take part in an activity based team building day. Mixed discipline teams worked to produce transport vehicles and bridges. Communication skills were tested with a blindfolded, backwards facing, team ski session which encouraged staff to think outside the box.

Ardeche Trip 2015 40 Year 9 students travelled to Ardeche and Mimosa in the South of France in June. The students experienced canoeing down the Ardeche river wind surfing in the Mediterranean Sea amongst other activities including the banana boat and a day in Aqualand. Mr Farlow commented, “All the students had a fantastic experience and were a great credit to the school.”