Eastbourne College tell us about a wide variety of projects which enrich their school life and beyond

Eastbourne College is one of thirteen schools/colleges in the Coastal Schools Partnership (East Sussex). We love working together as it provides a high level of benefit for the young people and staff across all our schools; we genuinely are stronger together. The group encompasses schools from Seaford across to Bexhill. There have been many highly successful projects since we started in 2014 encompassing academic, artistic and environmental initiatives.

One initiative is the work started in 2018 by the Your Town, Your Ideas, Your Future project which worked with professionals exploring ideas about how to make Eastbourne a more vibrant place to live in and to visit. Eastbourne Borough Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and Lord and Lady Lucas continue to work with us. Sir Tim Smit from the Eden Project has also been greatly inspired by the commitment of our young people. A working party of young people from across the Partnership, the Reconnect Group, are now actively engaged with making our area a vibrant, environmentally engaged place to live.

We were delighted to be a major partner in the Making Natural History Conference in November 2020. This online conference brought together major environmentalists, with key appearances from Sir Tim Smit, Dr William Bird and Baroness Floella Benjamin. There was also a live stream with Millennium Kids in Australia.

We are presently working with the Environment Agency giving a voice to young people around coastal defences and continue to develop our Pupil Premium engagement project which has successfully started with Saturday morning basketball sessions. We also run an annual dance residency previously with Rambert and this year with Motionhouse Dance Company.

Continuing professional development opportunities for teachers abound at Eastbourne College; we recently hosted a highly successful twilight session focused on SEN strategies and another on the opportunities afforded by the Turner Prize coming to the Towner. We are closely involved with the Towner/Turner Wrap Round Project which will run throughout 2023. Exciting times for our community as the world’s leading prize for contemporary art will be presented at Towner Eastbourne in 2023.

For more information visit eastbourne-college.co.uk

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