March 7 2016

Over the past few years Seaford Rotary Club has introduced a number of competitions for young people. Young Musicians is now in its fifth year and the 2016 final will take place on the 12th of March. The 2015 winner represented Seaford in the Rotary District finals held on the 27th of February. The second Young Photographers competition has just been judged and winners announced.

New competitions for 2016 are Young Writers, for which the results were announced at a presentation ceremony on the 29th of February and Young Artists for which the closing date is the 9th of April.


Young photographers 2016

Judging has now been completed for Seaford Rotary Club’s second Young Photographer competition. The number of entries received doubled from the initial competition. The aims of the competition were to encourage young people to experiment with photography using digital or traditional methods to show interpretation and expression of their ideas in this medium.

Entries were invited from ages 7 to 10, 11 to 13, and 14 to 17, although, disappointingly, none were received from the youngest group. Competitors were required to submit a portfolio of three photographs based on the theme Our World is Beautiful, and the range of interpretations of this topic gave the independent judge a difficult task.

Winner of the eleven to thirteen age group was Aaron Ruffell, from Northease Manor School with Seaford Head pupils Amy Andrews and Dylan Breeds second and third. Seaford Head students did even better in the upper age group with Joel Tucker taking first place and Luke Harmer second. Third was Dulcie-Maria Dye from Ringmer Community College.

The winners of each section now go forward to the Rotary District competition where it is hoped they will do well.

Pictured: One of the three winning photographs submitted by Aaron Ruffell, from Northease Manor School


Young Writers 2016

This year Seaford Rotary Club inaugurated the Seaford Young Writers Competition for youngsters at Primary School level.

The competition was open to pupils from primary schools in the Seaford area and entries were received from Seaford, Cradle Hill, Alfriston and Annecy Primary Schools. Entrants were asked to write a fiction or non-fiction story or a poem of up to five hundred words entitled Our World is Beautiful.

Each of the four schools were asked to submit their best three entries which were judged by Mrs. Juliet Smith, the High Sheriff of East Sussex and a former teacher of English, Giles Paley-Philips, the local author particularly of books for children, and Paul Johnson, Head of English at Seaford Head School. All the judges commented that the high standard of the entries made it difficult to select the winners.

At a presentation evening at Seaford Head School on the 29th of February, pupils and teachers from the four schools, along with their parents, joined the judges, the Mayor and Mayoress of Seaford, David and Mrs. Argent, Mrs. Helen Key, Acting Head Teacher of Seaford Head School, and Bill Pierce, Seaford Rotary Club Vice President and other members of the Rotary Club to hear the results announced.

The first prize was won by Jessica Coupland from Alfriston Primary School. As the school attended by the winner of the first prize, Alfriston Primary School, also received a cheque for £100. The runner up was Tristan Vale from Seaford Primary School; Holly Hutt from Cradle Hill Primary School was third, and the entry from Poppy Tidey from Annecy Primary School was Highly Commended.

Thanking all who had attended Jim Anderson, Chair of Seaford Rotary Club Youth Committee, said this was just one of the ways in which the Club was aiming to support young people and hoped that all the schools that had taken part would want to do so again.

Pictured: The 12 school entrants


Rotary District Young Musician Final

Matt Flood, the winner of the Rotary Club of Seaford’s Young Musician of the Year in 2015, was runner up in the District Young Musician Final held at St. Martins Church, Epsom, on Saturday the 27th of February.

Matt, 15, who lives in Newhaven and attends Seaford Head School, played Rock Steady, Brazil Overture and Frantic on his drums, and although there was very tough competition from young musicians from Sussex, Surrey and part of Greater London, Matt was judged second overall.

As a result of his success, Matt will now represent the Rotary Club of Seaford in the RIBI Regional Final to be held on Sunday the 20th of March at St. Catherine's School, Station Road, Bramley, Surrey. A Rotary Club of Seaford’s Young Musician of the Year has never become a Regional Finalist before, so this is new territory for Seaford Rotary Club.

The Rotary Club of Seaford sponsored Matt in the District Young Musician competition.

Pictured: Matt Flood receiving his award from Rotary District Governor Peter O’Keefe with competition judges looking on.