Bexhill High awards night

"East Sussex County Council has been awarded a Government grant to build a new school as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

"The officers and members agreed that Bexhill High should be this school. It will lead the way as a pathfinder for the creation of new secondary schools in Sussex over the next 10 years.

"The condition of the grant is that we are to create a transformational institution not only modern but also futuristic.

"The new school will open in 2010. I am extremely excited and I look forward to being part of the leading group in the design and creation of this iconic institution. The initial submission is almost complete and will be sent to the DfES at the end of November.

"We will have a final agreement by January and then we will begin one of the largest and fastest consultation processes we have experienced in order that the whole community can play a part in the creation of our new school."

After highlighting a string of sports and arts successes, Mr Conn said: "The school has continued to develop its international dimension. Overseas visits have taken place for a variety of reasons and we will be extending these opportunities during the next year.

"Trips to France and Germany have taken place and a ski trip to Italy also; in the near future a trip to Spain will be taking place. Miss Ellis has started a Comenius project that sees us, partnered with a number of schools in Europe, developing curricular opportunities for cross border co-operation by staff and students.

"At the end of October another group of our students visited the Euro Space Centre in Belgium to take part in the second joint project with our partner Association in the Czech Republic. They spent a week exploring all aspects of space flight including use of the axis chair, moonwalk chair, the nil gravity facility as well as launching, flying, orbiting and landing the shuttle simulator.

"This was a tremendous opportunity for the students to experience something that is truly out of this world. We now see this as an annual activity and will be preparing to send a third group next year.

"We continue enrich our international ethos by offering language lessons in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish as extra curricular activities for the students, staff and parents.

"The determination to make languages more accessible to all by creating courses for the widest ability has resulted in greater uptake of language learning opportunities by the whole community. All year 7 students study Chinese as an enrichment component to the general curriculum."

Mr Conn said: "The school will be a key partner in the pilot phase of the new Vocational Diplomas starting in 2008. A team of our staff is working on the submission to be presented to the DfES at the end of this month.

"The Gifted and Talented programme continues to thrive and for the first time we have had year 11 students completing the extra curricular programme with qualifications equal to A level for university entrance purposes.

"This year the students in year 10 completed the course in the academic year thereby setting themselves up for a place at university this far in advance."

He added: "We continue our ground-breaking work in dealing with bullying. We have, for the third year running, been awarded with the Princess Diana Anti-Bullying Award as a result of the extension of our peer-mentoring programme.

"We have also received the Healthy Schools Silver Award '“ the first school where the entire process was student-led.

"The student voice continues to be an important part of the development of Bexhill High and I congratulate all those who participate so fully in establishing a strong partnership between staff and students in the running of the school.

"In national examinations we have again had a year of success with 62%of students gaining five A*-C grades, this was well above expectations. Tonight we can celebrate their success formally. Many students have gained success in the GCSE and GNVQ programmes.

"The popularity of Bexhill High School is still strong and more than 320 students joined year 7 in September."

In July the High had said goodbye to one of its most dedicated and long-serving teachers. John Kesper had devoted his professional career to the young people of Bexhill for 37 years.

"Words alone cannot express the gratitude of the community and we gave him a warm send off at the end of the summer term. He was also recognised with the presentation of the runner-up prize in the Bexhill Achievers Awards."

The welcome to the awards evening was given by head boy Ian Field and head girl Amy Skippings.