Bexhill High awards night

BEXHILL High School's greatest challenge now awaits it, school head Mike Conn has told parents and students. After reviewing a year of all-round achievement at the High at Tuesday evening's awards night ceremony, he outlined the challenge.

"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.