News@Com Spring 2018

NEWS COM ISSUE 47, SPRING 2018

The magazine of Comberton Village College

www.combertonvc.org & www.combertonsixthform.org

Spamalot — Pages 4 & 5

Trip of a lifetime awaits COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Student wins incredible journey A fantastic few weeks for student Matthew O’Leary just got even better.

Having had the chance to attend his beloved Tottenham Hotspur’s home game against Huddersfield at Wembley just days after collecting a distinction in his cooking exam, he has now won the trip of a lifetime.

The visually impaired Year 11 has been chosen as one of a group of students to travel with The Journey of a Lifetime Trust (JOLT).

Matthew said: “I am very lucky to have been chosen to travel with The Journey of a Lifetime Trust, which is a charity based in Harrow in London.

“Every two years they offer 15-20 students the opportunity to visit different countries and to try new experiences. I was interviewed and got chosen.

“The students that they take are living with a disability like me, or are disadvantaged in some other way. I was nominated by my consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and this summer I will be visiting Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.”

He added: “ Earlier this month I went to see my favourite football team at the iconic Wembley Stadium.

“I went with a teacher, who knows me very well, and her husband. Before the match we went into the 120 Club, which is an exclusive club for all members at Wembley, where we were given food and drink. The treatment we received in the 120 Club was second to none. We heard interviews with former Spurs legends, including Paul Allen and one of the best goalkeepers English football has ever known, Ray Clemence.

“The first half of the match was entertaining with an injury early on. However, it was not one of the players having to make an early exit, instead it was the referee Mike Jones, who was injured in the pre-match warm up and was quickly replaced by fourth official Kevin Friend. This led to another problem, with Friend having replaced Jones the match now needed a new fourth official. This meant that the crowd at Wembley heard an unusual announcement saying that they were looking for qualified referees in the crowd. A qualified supporter was found, but shortly after this another announcement confirmed that Jones was happy to carry on.

“Kevin Friend resumed as fourth official while the supporter went back to his seat.

At least he can say he walked on the pitch at Wembley and met some professional footballers!

“Dele Allis missed a one-on-one with the Huddersfield keeper and although Spurs

CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION: Matthew’s celebration menu earned him another distinction.

q Charity Challenge — Page 3 q Upping Recycling — Page 3 q A Very Funny Knight Out — Pages 4 and 5 q University Insight — Page 5 q Excellent Outcomes — Page 5

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TOP MAN: A chance to meet the man of the match, Son Heungmin, after the game.

fans are used to Harry Kane making the headlines it was Son Heung-min who calmly took his chance for the first goal of the day.

“At half time we returned to the 120 Club where I was very surprised to be greeted with the news, from the Commercial Manager of Tottenham, that after the game I would be given the chance to go to the Players’ Lounge where I could meet the Man of the Match.

“When Kane isn’t scoring goals you can always rely on him to create them and he set up Son to make it 2-0.

“With no other goals we headed back to the 120 Club until we were called to the Players’ Lounge where we heard many club legends being interviewed. After this I was given the opportunity to meet them and they signed my shirt and match day programme. I met many players including former Spurs captain Ledley King, Gary Mabbutt and former FA Cup winner ‘Ozzie’ Ardiles as well as Ray Clemence and Pat Jennings. The day was topped off when I met man-of-the-match Son. I was even invited to ask him a question, which, by the way, he couldn’t answer.

“This topped off a great week for me as I am currently in Year 11 studying for my GCSEs and a few days before received a distinction in my V Cert practical exam.

V Cert is a vocational Level 1 certificate in food and cookery. It is made up of four units each of which must be passed. So far, I have completed three of the four units at distinction, including a written exam and a practical assessment. During the practical assessment I was given a brief to design a celebration menu for two people. I decided to make Irish stew and soda bread followed by Irish apple tarts with single cream to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Staff and students tasted the final product and I had some excellent comments. There were only crumbs left.”

MEETING A LEGEND: Matthew with former England and Spurs goalkeeper Ray Clemence.

Contents

q New Head Prefects — Page 6 q NCS Recruits — Page 6 q Trust News — Page 7 q Focus on Food — Page 8 q Languages Round-up — Page 9 q DofE News — Page 10

q Sixth Form — Pages 11-14 q Technology Latest — Page 15 q Sun Shines — Page 16 q Science News — Pages 16-17 q SCSSP Update — Pages 18-19 q Sport — Pages 20-24

A very funny knight out!

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

You really missed a treat if you didn’t catch a performance of Spamalot earlier this term.

This pacey performance danced through its quest for a grail. With plenty to enjoy for fans of Python’s dialogue the show really shone for its ensemble qualities. There were stunning contributions left, right, and centre stage. Whether from singers or dancers or musicians, there was a busy dynamism everywhere.

The Spamalot storyline shuffles in the well-known scenes from the source film — it’s based on Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail — but blended with a cast trying to produce a musical. What was perfectly clear is how the show unashamedly relishes in every musical theatre cliché possible, from self-referential dialogue to song selection, to breaking the fourth wall. It’s arguably the most self-aware musical to grace the Comberton stage.

The adventure centres around King Arthur, played by the likeable and indefatigable Ollie Payne, who goes on a quest to find some loyal knights, a grail, and put on a musical. While about these tasks, he is not alone.

Tim Easy’s Patsy is the perfect side-kick with plenty of knowing smiles as well as helpful suggestions and he’s not bad at banging coconut shells either.

The leading ‘Lady of the Lake’ (played alternately by Chloe Hall and Imogen Lewis) floated about with grace and many a loving line for Arthur.

Owen Shields and Isobel Norman conveyed energetic loyalty and offered plenty of quips for the cause as Galahad and Bedevere. The impetuous and sometimes violent Lancelot (Rhys Edmunds) revealed some amusing indecisiveness in matters pertaining to gender. A wonderful surprise moment was the Lancelot dance-a-lot sequence complete with Vegas Cabaret interlude. Oli Wilkinson, as Sir Robin, provided plenty of laughs and delivered a fantastic rendition of ‘You Won’t Succeed in Showbiz’.

Zac Bowyer (Prince Herbert) delivered his role with panache and a most amusing sense of ‘demure confidence.’

Prince Herbert’s opportunistic father (Toby Robson) captured the original film’s humour with ease, while Theo Lancaster offered great range and comic timing as the unfortunate Fred.

There were so many other notable cameos that it’s impossible to comment on all of them, but included: Elliott Noble (the Historian), Jayden Yeomans (The Black Knight), Conor Waldock (The Knight that says Ni), Alex Zaoui (Tim the Enchanter), Louise Blandford (Sir Bors and rabbit fodder), Nick Mobin (Concorde), Ben Roberts (Galahad’s mum) and Evy Payne (Brother Maynard).

The real driver of the show might have been the dancing. Everyone’s movement contributed to the fun and games, but the Principal Chorus were especially brilliant. They lifted scenes, supported the humour, and were clinically accomplished across a range of dance styles. Their jaunty japes really elevated the mood.

The Ensemble, equally impressive, added depth and richness in their supporting function. An ebullient orchestra packed with student talent played with joyous celebration and cheeky irreverence.

Clever sound effects and amusing screen projections added further depth and contrast to the work of the performers. The set was minimal and reminded one of two rooks left standing on an empty chessboard, leaving space for staging that was balanced and vibrant.

Grenades, curtains and horse-riding all had their place, as did longstemmed flowers wielded with more menace than some of the sword play! Costuming, whether shades of peasant brown or white-cloaked knights (with crests true to the film), was effective and always willing to flash a departure from the medieval setting. In fact the whole musical was unashamedly anachronistic.

Without doubt, the production left audiences feeling jubilant. With many memorable hits from the Python repertoire and some brilliant Broadway spoofs, there were songs for everyone.

Overall this exuberant production probably left audiences singing along with the bouncing grail.

Mike Ryall, English Dept

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COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

It’s good to talk . . .

This February saw the launch of an exciting new, Trust-wide business and enterprise challenge which involves a dynamic team of Year 8 Comberton students.

Comberton’s after-school talks series is beginning to really take off, with 50 people attending Lloyd Peck’s outstanding talk about his career as a marine biologist in the British Antarctic Survey.

The second talk, which took place last week, saw former students Josie Wastell and Hazel Thornton, from the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre talk about their work.

Both work in the marine department of this partnership between the UN and a leading UK conservation charity, and are involved in a number of projects to assess conservation efforts from the Aegean to Monserrat.

If you watched Blue Planet 2 and wondered what you could do about the awful state of the planet’s oceans, these two women answered some of those questions as well as showing how to turn a passion for ecology and conservation into a career.

Early next term, on Friday April 20th (3-4pm in the Sixth Form Lecture Theatre) Roger Thornton will talk about how he designs characterises and tests new hardware for Raspberry Pi. He has hinted at bringing some giveaways with him but for anybody interested in computers this will be a must-attend talk anyway.

It will also be interesting for anyone studying or teaching business, and wanting to know more about what makes an ultrasuccessful start-up company.

BIN IT RIGHT: New recycling bins have been strategically placed around the college.

Comberton staff and students have taken new steps to improve recycling.

Four new recycling points have been set up around the site for cans, plastic bottles and plastic cups in an effort to reduce the weight of waste going to landfill.

If this is successful — and putting the wrong waste into the bins can be avoided — it is hoped the scheme, championed by the college’s Green Group can be expanded.

The school council is also in discussions with the college about the provision of additional water fountains across the site as a way of reducing the amount of bottled water purchased.

At the same time Comberton Sports and Arts have announced that they will no longer sell water in plastic bottles once their current supply has run out. They are also advising gym users to bring their own re-usable bottles to fill as plastic cups will no longer be provided, again once existing supplies have been exhausted.

Centre Manager Jamie Shaw has also pledged to look into alternatives to the plastic-lined cups currently used for hot drinks, but meanwhile is asking people to bring their own mugs when purchasing tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

Team United in charity challenge

FUNDRAISERS: Comberton’s Enterprise Challenge team visit Cambridge United for their induction event.

The purpose of the competition is to raise as much money as possible for the Cambridge Utd Community Trust, which helps people across Cambridgeshire, from youngsters in primary schools to senior citizens in lunch clubs; from Cerebral Palsy Football to Walking Football.

The 10 students have been given the challenge to work as a team to market and promote discounted match day tickets for a number of selected Cambridge Utd home games, with the help and support of business mentors from Grant Thornton, one of the world’s largest accountancy and consulting firms. The team will be competing against Year 8 teams from Melbourn Village College and St Peter’s School, Huntingdon, and comprises Megan Clark, Sarah Thomas, Eloise Allen, Serena Blackwood, Amelie Martin, Mark Etkind, Ben Whiddett, Finlay Kay, Archie Rowbotham and Cosmo Gomori.

Last month, the team attended an induction event at the Abbey Stadium, where they were introduced to the competition and given a history of the football club. This was followed by a brief tour of the stadium (the pitch was under cover because of the cold weather) and a question and answer session with the interim Assistant Head Coach, Mark Bonner.

The students then worked together to establish team roles, an initial communication plan and a pricing strategy. As the competition progresses, the students will need to think creatively and commercially by developing their marketing strategies and financial skills, in response to customer demand and external influences.

The group then worked towards their first match day campaign, which was against Swindon Town on Saturday March 17th. Keep an eye out for future marketing campaigns — we are anticipating tickets to sell out quickly!

More information can be found about the Cambridge Utd Community Trust can be found at www.cuctrust.co.uk Chris Warrington, Head of Business Education

Stepping up on recycling effort at CVC

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Students gain university insight

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

At the start of February, 15 of us from Year 10 had the chance to visit Peterhouse, the oldest college in the University of Cambridge.

We spent the day learning about A-level and pre-university choices from the admissions team and a few undergraduates.

This included two lectures, a tour of the college and hearing from current students in a Q&A session. I really enjoyed my day there, meeting people in the university and it helped me to think about the many possible places where I could study, as well as the variety of subjects offered.

Emma Hayward (10T)

LEARNING: Students heard from the admissions team and current undergraduates.

Cakes tell tasty tale

We had great fun celebrating World Book Day this year! English teachers took off their normal gear and put on their glad rags instead, each dressing up as a different fairytale character.

Students enjoyed a baked treat at break and we had our first ever book-themed baking competition!

Huge congratulations go to winners Emily Taylor and Rosanna Poll as well as all the other students who baked such impressive creations!

Charity benefits . . .

CAKE BOOKS: Literary-inspired creations.

A monster cake sale by Year 10 raised £226 for the year group’s chosen charity, Cancer Research.

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Excellence recognised COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Comberton Village College has been recognised nationally for its excellent results in 2017.

Based on data from the Department of Education and Ofsted, analysed by SSAT (the Schools, Students and Teachers network), Comberton was found to be among the best performing secondary schools in the country.

They have received two awards for being in the top 10% of non-selective schools nationally for attainment and progress — for the third year running.

The SSAT Educational Outcomes database compares all state-funded schools in England with the highest performing for a range of key measures presented with SSAT Educational Outcomes Awards, sponsored by Lexonik.

Comberton Village College will be presented with

SSAT EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AWARDS 2017 AW SPONSORED BY

their awards in the summer term at a ceremony attended by winners from across the region.

Head of School Peter Law said: “I am delighted that for the third year running Comberton Village College has been awarded the SSAT Educational Outcomes Awards for both Attainment and Progress, having

achieved in the top 10% of all secondary schools on both measures.

“This excellent set of achievements is testament to the fantastic work from pupils and staff and the support from parents and the wider community; many congratulations to all involved!”

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT, said: “I am delighted that Comberton Village College has won two Educational Outcomes Awards.

“This recognises an important aspect of the school’s work, but, as we know, there is much more to recognise in a good school like Comberton.

“SSAT is pleased to recognise the quality of leadership and the hard work of all staff to ensure the success of every child. A big thank you and well done to pupils, parents, staff and governors.”

Tough choice to select team

CVC is place to be

Comberton continues to be as popular as ever.

The numbers applying to join the college in Year 7 in September again far exceed the official admission number (PAN) of 240.

Head of School Peter Law said: “We are delighted so many children want to come to Comberton and we are working very hard on ways to admit as many of them as possible without compromising the excellent education that we intend to provide for every single student.”

Eight Year 10 students were interviewed for the prestigious Head Prefect positions. The interview process culminated in two boys and two girls being chosen as Head Prefects.

To get to this stage all the applicants had to complete an application form and write an application letter to Mr Law. There was an excellent field of applicants, and so many worthy candidates from across the year group.

The eight then had to participate in two interviews.

The first, a formal interview with Mr Law, Ms Phull and a school governor, and the second a presentation that was prepared by each THE NEW TEAM: Comberton’s new head prefects will take over after candidate and delivered to the Easter holidays.

Miss Healy, Miss Tyrell, the and confidently and presenting themselves as excellent role current head prefects and two members of school council. models to others.

The topics of the presentations ranged from the World Scout Both interview panels had a hard time choosing between the Jamboree to cheating in sport. Issues around equality and candidates but eventually selected the four students to diversity were popular presentation topics as well, which become the new Head Prefects. They will take over from the links to Comberton’s focus on being a Rights Respecting current Head Prefects at Easter. The four Year 10 Head School. All the students taking part did an extremely Prefects are: Claudia Bazyk, Sama Malik, Tom Sharrock impressive job in both of the interviews, speaking clearly and Sam Whinney.

Games help spread the word about NCS

The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all Year 11 and 12 students — and up to age 25 for those young people with SEND — that builds life skills, confidence and helps to get ahead in work and life.

NCS have been into Comberton Village College delivering a Year 11 assembly and several lunch stands, where young people have engaged in fun activities, such as sweet pong and guess how many sweets in a jar, to win sweets and gift cards.

NCS is all about taking opportunities when they present themselves and we have been in school to embed this ethos into students.

The programme also helps young people connect to their local community through social action projects designed and delivered by the young people themselves. It is NCS’s ambition to ensure as many young people as possible, regardless of background, ability or ambitions, get the chance to experience and reap the rewards of being part of the challenge.

Cambridgeshire County Council have four waves of NCS running across the county this summer with each programme lasting for four weeks.

Spaces are still available, but they are filling up fast, so grab your place while you can.

For more information please contact Natalie Taylor, the NCS Co-ordinator, on 07825905841 or via email natalie.taylor@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

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THAT’S SWEET: Year 11 students play for rewards.

Forging new friendships THE CAM ACADEMY TRUST NEWS

In January I was fortunate to have a brief visit to Beijing with two colleagues.

The main purpose of the trip with Rachel Hawkes, the Trust’s Director of International Education, and Peter Law, Head of School at Comberton, was to establish a future exchange programme for pupils from some of our secondary schools with a named school in Beijing. The hope is to establish an ongoing annual exchange which can enrich greatly the educational experience of many young people here and in China.

The whole programme, including the initial visit, is supported by funding from the Beijing Education Authority.

Of course, this builds on the great work going on at Melbourn Village College, where learning Mandarin is now part of the curriculum. This work is now developing a national role and reputation.

China is a fascinating place. It is absolutely true that the food is significantly different from much of any standard western diet (it was at breakfast that I found this most challenging) and there is so much to see and to learn.

As well as historical sites such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, the whole history of the country is extremely interesting. The section on the modern history of China in the vast official National Museum next to Tiananmen Square should not be missed. We hope many students in our Trust schools will be able to benefit from these excellent educational opportunities.

In addition to seeking to establish a school-based exchange programme, we also engaged with teacher training institutions in Beijing. It was interesting to compare notes and approaches between our countries.

We attended (and contributed to) a conference being held for over 1000 teachers from various parts of China where the key theme — and much of the professional development for teachers in Beijing (and perhaps China more generally) — was the need to introduce creativity into the teaching and learning process.

There was a recognition that Chinese pupils are very effective at certain styles of

learning and memorising but not so good at thinking creatively. The same might be said of the approaches to teaching.

It followed from this that there was strong interest in learning how to develop creativity in the education process and how this is done effectively in British schools.

In this, there is some irony. There has been recent interest in learning from Chinese schools about how to perform better in certain educational outcomes (such as in international measurements of Maths tests). Teachers visit Chinese schools to learn the techniques and then apply them in our schools.

This has been an important aspect of the work of the Maths Hub that we lead in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Now we are being asked to help Chinese teachers become more creative.

All these things are part of the key international theme of the educational experience that we consider so important for all our pupils. They are also good examples of how our staff can work with and learn from others to enrich and strengthen the education provided in all our schools.

Stephen Munday, CEO

Pilot for new IT strategy gets under way

IN DISCUSSION: The Trust delegation meet their opposite numbers in Beijing.

Sean Sumner, Deputy Principal at Cambourne Village College, now spends At the heart of everything we seek to do with all schools in The Cam Academy Trust is to ensure that every pupil gets a truly excellent education. two days a week helping to oversee the development and roll out of this strategy.

In this pursuit, we will look to take on new developments when we are clear Mr Sumner has strong experience of that there is potential to improve the leading IT strategies and of using IT to educational experience of our pupils. strengthen teaching and learning.

This is the starting point for the Trust IT A programme is being developed that Strategy that we are seeking to will see a series of pilots in each school develop. We believe that embracing before the potential introduction of the more fully the potential of the use of IT approach with one year group at a time. in the education process can help to: At Cambourne, 80 Year 7 pupils and 25 l Learn powerfully staff are working through a pilot phase l Learn for life to confirm the possibilities of using l Learn from each other personal devices effectively. Staff in At its heart is an intention to enable other schools have also been using personal devices to be used by our devices to find out what is possible (as pupils in ways that support the well as discovering potential pitfalls). education process both inside and outside of school.

TESTING: Cambourne Year 7 students use iPads in lessons. We hope soon to be able to communicate further with families and Coupled with this is looking to enable pupils across our schools about how and what we may be able to do to all our staff to share educational resources effectively, regardless of the enable pupils to benefit from this approach. Stephen Munday school in which they are based.

Playing a leading role in training teachers

In addition to teaching students, The Cam Academy Trust is also involved in educating teachers, as part of the Cambridge Teaching Schools’ Network.

Teaching Schools give outstanding schools a leading role in the training and professional development of teachers, and support staff, as well as contributing to the raising of standards through school-to-school support.

The Trust works with a network of other Teaching Schools that includes, in addition to Cambourne and Comberton Village Colleges, Saffron Walden County High School, Swavesey Village College and Histon and Impington Junior School.

Different schools lead on different aspects of the key roles of the teaching school, such as professional development, or research and development.

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Comberton leads the School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme.

A SCITT training route provides a school-based approach to teacher training that is led by local schools, and is particularly geared to training the teachers needed in the local schools involved.

We offer both primary and secondary courses, currently training 50 teachers. Past experience suggests that the majority of these trainees will find jobs in local schools.

A key feature of the SCITT is that the senior tutor team are all experienced teachers, drawn from the lead schools involved, which means that the training programme is grounded in authentic professional practice, although trainees are also grateful for the depth of understanding of the theoretical aspects of

teaching taught through the Professional Studies strand of their training, including the opportunity for Master’s level qualification.

We are developing a strong partnership with Anglia Ruskin University, helping to teach the Primary Education Studies degree course, and looking to develop further collaboration in both undergraduate and postgraduate study.

We have submitted an expression of interest to be involved in the development of new Teaching Apprenticeships, which will enable more trainees to be paid while they are in training.

If you know anyone who might be thinking of a career in teaching, then get in touch via email COMITTINFO@catrust.co.uk Martin Lee, Director of Teacher Education

For job vacancies across the Trust, visit the CAT website at www.catrust.co.uk

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Super feedback for young chef

After winning both the school heats and the local finals of FutureChef, Sophie Shaw (Year 10) went on to represent Comberton at the regional finals for the East of England at Bedford College.

Following her win at the local finals in November, Sophie was matched with a chef to mentor her through this stage.

Martin Nisbet, currently chef/owner at the Bushel and Strike, stepped up and supported Sophie as she developed her two-course meal.

They met and discussed her plans, and Sophie cooked with Martin watching and mentoring in his pub kitchen in Ashwell. Martin and Mrs Goodson attended the final with Sophie. Competition was fierce and it was clear on arrival that all of the finalists were determined to work hard for the coveted place at the national final in London.

Sophie started well, but a momentary lapse meant she nicked her finger with her mandolin and a first aider had to attend. Once she was patched up, Sophie bravely continued.

Despite producing two delicious courses that looked absolutely beautiful, Sophie was just pipped to the post by a competitor from Norfolk, who had a faultless round.

Sophie should be incredibly proud of herself; her commitment to this competition has been most impressive and the standard of her work and the skills she demonstrated on the day of the competition were extraordinary. The feedback she received from the judges was excellent.

Congratulations Sophie.

Students really cut it!

MENTORING: Tips from Martin Nisbet.

The Year 10 Hospitality and Catering class went for a butchery masterclass at Crumps, the butcher in Ashwell.

Jonathan Crump opened his doors for the students on a day when the butcher’s was closed to the public. He started by discussing the type of pork he chooses and the quality assurance process before showing the students how to break down a whole side of pork into its main parts.

He also explained how the sensory qualities of the meat, such as texture and flavour, are determined from where on the carcass they come from.

Jonathan explained how waste is minimised — trotters are used in catering, trimmed meat is used in sausages and some of the fat removed can be used to add fat to sausages if the meat is particularly lean.

Each student was then given a whole shoulder to work with. They were led, by Jonathan, step by step through the stages of preparation.

They did a fantastic job and all tried really hard to master new skills, including

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using saws and boning knives.

The students also had an opportunity to practise their new, quite complicated, knots once they had successful removed the meat from the carcass and had to roll and tie the shoulder joints.

Everyone took home a joint of pork that they had butchered and rolled themselves. Their homework was to prepare a meal using it!

This rare opportunity provided our students with not only the opportunity to develop some new skills, but to begin to understand where the meat we buy comes from and why its provenance is important, the importance of quality assurance and standards, and the benefits of choosing to use local butchers and suppliers.

We’d all like to thank Jonathan Crump for his time and efforts — his support of our students’ education really has made a difference.

Emily Goodson, Head of Food and HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE: For Hospitality Nutrition and Catering students.

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CLASS OVER: After the lesson at Crumps.

Made to feel so welcome

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Our adventure started on Thursday morning and the journey itself started to feel real when we met the Cambourne students who were also going on the exchange with us.

I was curious as to who they were and wanted to meet them properly.

We were very excited to see the sunshine when we landed in Zaragoza, although by now a little nervous to meet our partners. I can't really fully explain the welcome we were given, but in one word it was unforgettable.

I felt so anxious as we drove through the school gate and wondered what I had got myself into, but once I was finally off the coach my fears vanished.

The next day I was up bright and early ready for school. In Rosa Molas lessons start at 8.00. We spent the morning in lessons and helped some Year 7 and 8 students with their interviews in English.

Happily, school finishes at lunchtime on a Friday, so after that we all went off home.

My partner and I went out with a big group to the shopping centre and had dinner very late. The rest of the weekend followed, full of shopping and monuments to visit! Sunday was the day to visit the amusement park, and plenty more delicious food followed.

SEEING THE SIGHTS: Out and about in Zaragoza.

On Monday we went on a walking tour of Zaragoza and topped it off with a volleyball match in the afternoon. It was great to see the English and Spanish students bond over common rivalries! We also visited Roman Zaragoza and had a day trip to Huesca and Loarre and the week went far too fast! We will look forward to meeting our partners again soon in Comberton.

Izzy Jackson (9B)

Bee creates a real buzz

HELPING: Comberton students help their Spanish hosts with English.

A big well done is due to all the contestants in the school competition, whose hard work and excellent preparation meant that the school final was a very tense affair!

Your efforts are very much appreciated and meant that the final result was nail-bitingly close. It was great to see how supportive you were of each other.

Many congratulations to all the class finalists: Stacy Pang, Zihong He, Ines Lappin, Emily Mitchell, Olivia Lydon, Max Prince, Katie Rehm, Evie Crossley, Emmy Bowyer, Aya Skinner, Giulia Porretta, Beth Parker, Danny Queen, Vedika Jhawar, Rylan Upton, Emily Talbot, Bethany Shufflebotham, and Lowenna Cotton.

Particular congratulations are also due to the school finalists: Bethany, Rylan and Emily T. We can’t wait to see how you do in the upcoming regionals!

“We have been participating in the Year 7 spelling bee. We had to learn a series of 100 words to say and spell. On Tuesday lunchtimes we have been going to the Spelling Bee club, where Year 8s have been helping us learn the words and testing us on them.

“The school competition was very difficult but everyone did amazingly!” Evie Crossley, Aya Skinner and Beth Parker.

Teachers make study trip

The British Council-funded Erasmus+ project is a Europe-wide initiative aimed at teaching language in context. So a range of teachers from across The Cam Academy Trust and its partner primary schools have signed up to look at teaching some of their own subject’s lessons in Spanish.

Part of the funding was used to send seven teachers from the Trust, including Comberton’s Vicki Dunn (English/drama) and Patrick Gordon (maths), to partners Maria Rosa Molas school in Zaragoza earlier this term.

Mr Gordon explained: “The mornings were spent observing lessons (in Spanish), doing some team teaching and then in the afternoons we had three hours of Spanish classes. It was a rewarding though tiring week and we made strong links with teachers in the school there as well as improving our levels of Spanish considerably.”

The next steps are for teachers to plan their own FLAME lessons to teach selected KS3 classes.

In addition, our Spanish partner school is sending a group of teachers to spend a week with us in the summer term. They will improve their English and do some team teaching with their partner teachers.

The FLAME project (Foreign Language as a Medium of Education) aims for all KS3 students to have at least one half-term of learning another curriculum subject through Spanish by 2020.

Some of our European counterparts have bilingual sections in schools in which students have 70% their curriculum taught in English.

However, these initiatives are usually only for a small, identified cohort of students. It is our intention to build a modest, but significant, FLAME component into the curriculum experience for all our students, in accordance with our overarching principle of providing a broad, balanced curriculum and delivering high quality education to all of our students.

BACK TO LESSONS: English teachers spent time in Zaragoza improving their Spanish.

9

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Earl has a Real target

TOP TIPS: On Real Tennis from The Earl of Wessex during his visit to Cambridge earlier this term.

Throughout 2018 HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex will seek to play every Real Tennis court in the world — to raise significant funds to enable more young people to start their DofE journey, both in the UK and abroad.

HRH The Earl of Wessex is no different to other Award holders and, more than 30 years after from achieving his Gold Award, is continuing to improve on skills learned during his Physical section activity, playing Real Tennis.

His aim now, however, is to support a new generation of DofE participants to experience the DofE’s life-changing benefits.

The vital funds that The Earl — the youngest son of The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh — raises will help the DofE Charity to transform the lives of young

people from all backgrounds and circumstances, across the globe; equipping them with the skills and attributes to reach their potential in life and work.

Earlier this term students from Comberton Village College, were invited to attend the first Real Tennis fixture in the Earl’s calendar.

The day comprised of a coaching session at the Cambridge University Real Tennis Club, where the Earl played while a student at Jesus College, followed by soup and sandwiches on court with the Earl.

It was a unique experience and students took a while to get used to the old fashioned equipment and bizarre rules combining squash, tennis and a strange scoring system.

The Earl spent time with each student attending the day and offered some coaching points, which were gratefully received despite one of our students hitting one of the members of his entourage!

OVER THE RAINBOW: Students head out to practise navigation skills.

Search for pot of Gold

The Year 12 and 13 Gold DofE students embarked on their expedition journey this March in the undulating Cambridgeshire countryside.

Students spent the weekend working alongside staff and volunteers to recap their basic navigation skills and camp craft, in preparation for their practice expedition in the Lake District next month.

The weekend began with a physical challenge, students completing a solo walk around Grafham Water to collect their meeting point grid reference. Students had to navigate to find a member of staff in the Cambridgeshire wilderness to begin their navigation training.

Staff and volunteers worked closely with students through to the evening as they walked to the campsite, testing their knowledge of grid references, bearings and timings.

On arrival at the campsite, students pitched their tests and cooked their dinner, with many of them testing out their new stoves purchased for the Gold expedition, while staff enjoyed the local fish and chips! Students spent the rest of the evening socialising in their groups and getting some sleep before day two of the weekend.

On the Sunday, students walked in their expedition groups back to their starting point, with some zig zags to ensure their route met the minimum eight-hour criteria. It was a SLOW start for many of the groups as they remembered the key skills forgotten from Bronze and Silver, as well as underestimating just how long it takes to get ready in the mornings!

Students arrived happily back to the car park where they were met by parents waiting to take them home (via McDonalds for some!) Lots of lessons learned and lots of mistakes made in preparation for the future expeditions.

The Gold group will be heading to the Lake District for their Practice Expedition before they embark on their assessed expedition in July 2018.

Jo Pattrick, DofE Co-Ordinator

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Finishers honoured

Young people from across Cambridgeshire gathered for a special ceremony at Comberton Village College to mark their achievement in gaining Duke of Edinburgh Gold awards.

The Vice Lord Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, Richard Barnwell presented the young people with certificates of commendation at the ceremony at Comberton Village College.

The event was chaired by Siobhan Wilson. She was also among several Award recipients who gave speeches about their experiences, which highlighted the breadth and variety of the activities they had enjoyed to attain their awards. two former students, Adam Hannaford and Charlotte Davies, were among those to receive certificates.

To achieve their Gold award participants had to take part in a physical activity (Physical section), pursue a personal interest (Skill section), spend a minimum of 12 months volunteering (Volunteering section), complete a four-day expedition (Expedition section) and join a five-day residential experience (Residential section).

The final stage will be to receive their Gold certificates at a Royal presentation in St James’s Palace in London, where they will meet HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex.

Getting into training

Year 10 students are currently preparing to begin their DofE expedition journey with their Bronze Practice Expeditions.

These weekends provide an opportunity for students to receive training from staff and volunteers in the Chiltern Hills as they get to grips with map reading, camp craft, navigation and route planning skills.

We currently have 146 students signed up for the award with many of them working hard on completing the other sections of the award.

The DofE programme is not just about the expeditions and students have to complete regular physical, skill-based and volunteering activities as part of the award. Twenty per cent of the participants have already completed the other sections, which leaves just the expedition to complete.

Outstanding applicants

SIXTH FORM

We are very pleased to report on what is proving to be an incredibly successful university applications cycle this year, with 119 of our Upper Sixth students currently enrolled in the UCAS process, the mechanism through which applications are made to gain places to study at Higher Education institutions.

While some students are still in the process of hearing back from their chosen universities, many have already received offers of places at all five of their university choices and are now taking advice on what to hold as their first and second choices.

Our students will be embarking on a vast array of different courses in the autumn, from traditional academic subjects such as Theoretical Physics at York and Languages at Leeds, to more vocational routes such as Architecture at Bath, Physiotherapy at Birmingham, and Sports and Exercise Science at Loughborough.

In addition, we are particularly pleased to report an exceptional year for our students who applied early through UCAS to some of the country’s most elite courses and institutions.

We are delighted that Emma Shield and Stefan Rogers have secured Music Conservatoire offers from all the prestigious music colleges to which they applied and that Coralie Bell and Rebecca Walford have secured offers to study Medicine and Veterinary Medicine respectively.

After successfully negotiating the demanding Oxbridge selection process, Melissa Jakes has received an offer to study History at Somerville College, Oxford; Joseph Wills an offer to study English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Cade Hall an offer to study Maths at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; and Amy Selby

MUSIC MAESTRO: Emma Shield (and Stefan Rogers) have Music Conservatoire offers from all the prestigious music colleges to which they applied. an offer to study Natural Sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge. These welldeserved offers, as well as those received by all our students, continue to reflect the hard work of both the students themselves at Comberton Sixth Form and the exceptional and dedicated Sixth Form teaching staff.

We congratulate all our university applicants on their successes thus far and wish them well with the remainder of their studies.

Sixth Form Leadership Team

Top tips for the next cohort . . .

Peterhouse, the oldest of the Cambridge colleges, played host to a group of 15 Year 12 students. The aim of the day was to introduce them to the university application process and, in particular, the unique system for Oxbridge applications.

The students had a tour of some accommodation and social facilities such as the bar and gym and even got to have lunch in the refectory to give, quite literally, a taste of student life.

After some fascinating talks, either with a humanities or science bias, the Year 12s met current Cambridge students and asked them questions about their experience of the application process and life at the University.

Maddie Shohet said: “I found the day particularly

useful in telling me how the college system works and how to choose a college.

“I feel much more confident and prepared in how to apply to Oxbridge and what they are looking for in the UCAS and interview process.

“It was also great to see Peterhouse and what the students actually thought about living and studying in Cambridge.”

Armed with information on how to make the best of their personal statement and anxiety over the interview process hopefully laid to rest, the Year 12s left energised to begin the UCAS process and optimistic about their future plans.

Emily Hodge commented: “The sessions about subject choices and the application process were very helpful as the skills they mentioned could

be used at interviews for any university. The food was very good too!”

While Oxbridge may not be the choice for all, the general messages of the day were applicable to most university applications. The students enjoyed the trip, with many saying just how much it has highlighted the fact they too will be facing university choices shortly.

The UCAS preparation process continued for all year 12s with a full day’s progression conference on March 14. This included advice on how the application system works, talks from a University Admissions tutor, opportunities to research possible future routes, as well as input from expupils. l Progression Day — Page 14

Up with the best nationally

The sixth form is celebrating following the publication of the Department of Education performance tables. It has been confirmed that Comberton A-Level students on average make more progress than students at any other statefunded school or college in Cambridgeshire and more than those in many of the independent schools. A value added figure of 0.31 places Comberton within the top 5% nationally (both state and independent) for the second year in a row.

Applications hit record high

AMAZING PROGRESS: Department for Education figures show Comberton’s A Level

students make the best progress in Cambridgeshire.

The sixth form has received a record 726 applications for this September, of which 372 identified Comberton as their first choice. We are delighted that so many young people are choosing to come to the sixth form.

11

Incredible week for all SIXTH FORM

In the early hours of the first day of the half-term holiday eight sixth formers, Mr Southcoat and Señorita Vazquez departed from Comberton.

Destination: Valencia, España.

We spent a whirlwind five days completely immersing ourselves in Spanish culture and language at every opportunity possible — both in Spanish schools and during our visits to the plentiful tourist attractions in and around Valencia.

Our introduction to Valencia began with ‘una ginkana’ (a treasure hunt) around the city. We spent our first few hours in Spain getting to know our partners and familiarising ourselves with our home for the next few days by completing a set of educational activities in the various plazas dotted around the city.

As a reward for our efforts in exploring Valencia we then went to an authentic Valencian horchateria to taste test churros con chocolate, which is always a favourite of both the English and Spanish partners, but also a new delicacy for some: Horchata Valenciana.

Days in Spain are very long and although some stayed out until the early hours of the morning (!!) further immersing themselves, I think most of the group can agree we were very tired after this short COOKERY SCHOOL: A Spanish cookery class was among the highlights. taster of what was to come for the rest of the week.

In the afternoon we went out to places such as the Bioparc (where we all fell in Sunday was a day spent with Spanish families. While Eden went to her first love with the elephants), the museum of ‘Las Fallas’ (a Valencian fiesta) and to experience of Spanish church, Georgie spent a (rather mild) day admiring the Albufera on a rather windy but still enjoyable boat ride. beautiful scenery of Peniscola beach and Maddie went hiking in the mountains, Highlights of the trip also included a bike ride in the sun through the ‘central park’ many of us relaxed and indulged in una paella Valenciana back at home. of Valencia, and a Spanish cookery class, where we all worked together to make Much like a Sunday roast, on Sundays in Spain it is very common to invite the a three-course meal of gazpacho, paella and, of course, cake. family round and spend the afternoon nattering over a huge dish of homemade Tears were definitely shed at the airport when we had to leave our new Spanish paella. friends, and many siestas were taken on the plane back after such a jam-packed Stuffed with both incredible Spanish food and the knowledge gained over the day week. we all slept very well that night.

However, I think we can all agree that the trip greatly improved our Spanish But it was not all just a holiday! For the next few days we spent mornings waking speaking skills as well as our knowledge of Spain and its varied cultures. up early and attending school with our partners.

Many of us are hoping that our partners will be able to visit us over the summer, Lessons in Spanish (and sometimes Valenciano) were indeed hard but many of or even that we can return to relive the incredible week in Valencia! us were surprised at how much we could understand and even contribute to in the Imogen Lewis (L6-RJ) lessons, and this only improved every day.

Code-breakers aim to unravel mystery

OUT AND ABOUT: Activities included a bike ride in Valencia’s ‘central park’ and a boat trip to Albufera.

12

This year we had several teams from Comberton Sixth Form participate in the National Cipher Challenge run by the University of Southampton.

It is a nationwide, online codebreaking competition, which ran from October-January.

The competition, which has been running since 2002 and regularly attracts entries from teams from more than 1000 UK schools and colleges, can be tackled in teams or by students individually.

The competition was structured as series of encrypted messages which told a story. This year the competitors were trying to unravel the mystery of Rome’s Lost Legion, which vanished in Northern Britain in 108 AD. The reason for their disappearance and the nature of the treasure they guarded has been lost for centuries

and it was participants’ job to uncover the truth.

There were four teams from Comberton Sixth Form who competed — Crypto Commandos (Rosie Lewis and Katy Topple) finished 128th, According to all known Laws of Aviation (Aaron Rook and Cade Hall) and Password1234 (Annemarie Verwoerd, Melissa Slade, Rebecca Wilkinson and Connie Roughan) both finished 245th, with The Chocolate Raisin Team (Jasper Husmann, Oscar Bristow, and Callum Masson) finishing 320th.

Well done to all of those participated and completed the challenge. Given that there were more than 1000 teams that competed nationally, all teams can be proud of their achievement.

SIXTH FORM

Science in the real world

WORKING THROUGH THE STAGES: Students hard at work at the Launchpad event.

Five intrepid Year 12 students were not deterred by the snow and attended a Launchpad event at TTP on the Melbourn Science Park.

In order to attend, the students had to apply in the form of a video explaining benefits and drawbacks of different handles and levers, such as door locks and pool cover wheels, for a range of users. Size, ergonomics and how much force was required had to be considered.

On arrival the mood was definitely competitive, with our team wanting to beat other local sixth form colleges, but the organisers had cleverly made mixed teams of CSF, Long Road and Hills Road students, so competition became collaboration.

The task was to design a new delivery device for the reconstruction of facial features. As it turned out this was a real commission for TTP a few years ago and students were shown the prototypes which the professionals had come up with, many of them included features the sixth formers had incorporated too.

It was fantastic to watch the students develop their ideas from talking to ‘surgeons’ to find out what was working and the drawbacks of the current equipment, then moving on to actually making the prototypes out of materials on a craft table.

One of the skills we don’t have enough time for in college is critically evaluating the work that has been carried out, but for the development of novel equipment this is a valuable stage, and the students were given time to peer and selfevaluate their prototypes, allowing them the opportunity to fine tune their designs.

The final task was to present their prototypes and explain why they as a team had chosen the final design; I was proud at how well our students presented with confidence in front of peers as well as professional product designers!

And the winners… were a mixed team representing all sixth forms, of whom two, Ruby Barnard and Joe Cary, were from CSF and there were also two former students, so I think we did pretty well!

Carolyn Meadows, Science Department

Because our students are faced with many challenging situations during their time in the Sixth Form, we have decided to introduce mindfulness practice at the college.

Mindfulness is a simple yet powerful tool for awakening inner resources that potentially live inside everyone.

The practice is focused on freeing one’s mind from troublesome thoughts about the past or the future, and instead becoming more present in the ‘here and now’.

The skill gained from such practice can help to build resilience, which makes it easier to survive the storms of stress and adversity.

Mindfulness can also foster the sort of compassion and kindness that can help our students to become less judgemental towards themselves and others, all leading to a better mental wellbeing. Because infusing life with mindfulness takes some training and practice, we are now holding weekly meditation sessions for sixth formers in college on Monday mornings with Anna Hunn, the sixth form counsellor.

Helping to awaken valuable inner resources

Dedication from Modern take on Bard’s work maths aces

Annemarie Verwoerd and Bryan Tan, both Year 13 students at Comberton Sixth Form, participated in the UK Mathematics Trust’s Senior Mathematics Kangaroo.

This showed particular dedication and a love of mathematics given the event took place on a training day and students were not required to be in school.

The Senior Challenge is aimed at pupils aged 1619 studying maths and not yet at University.

They qualified for the Senior Kangaroo after achieving a qualifying score of between 85 and 103 in the individual Senior Mathematical Challenge.

Only the top 10% of entrants to the Senior Mathematical Challenge achieved the qualifying standard for the Senior Kangaroo, so this is a massive achievement for them and for Comberton Sixth Form.

Both Annemarie and Bryan are planning to read Mathematics at university.

A group of Sixth Form Literature students went to London to watch a matinée performance of ‘Othello’, adapted

by Frantic Assembly and performed by the National Youth Theatre.

Shakespeare’s original writing was largely preserved, but thrust into the 21st Century, more specifically into the middle of a turf war focused on a pub: The Cyprus.

This was achieved by using modern clothing, music and contemporary dance.

Eden Alarcon summed up many of our thoughts when she declared, “the choreography was magnificent and the set design worked brilliantly in both its simplicity and creativity” in depicting images of a Britain broken by racial discrimination.

The presence of feisty female characters was refreshing and Iago really engaged the audience making them complicit in his villainous schemes.

In addition, the audience was completely enthralled by the dramatic energies of skilled young actors.

Unsurprisingly, by transposing the play into modern day, some scenes were lost — in particular much of Desdemona and Emilia’s private talks as well as the setting change from Venice to Cyprus. However, this didn’t detract from the quality of the performance, described by Eden as, “marvellous!”

AT THE THEATRE: Students wait for the Our thanks to Mrs Lefroy and Ms Hillman for accompanying us.

Georgia Davison (L6-RJ) performance of Othello.

13

A chance to SIXTH FORM

catch up . . .

The sixth form new year began with a celebration as the class of 2017 returned in early January for their reunion evening.

There was an air of excitement as students shared stories of gap year adventures, their first term as university students and life in the work place, all while enjoying a fine selection of drinks and nibbles.

Since then, it’s been a busy term for both Year 12 and Year 13 with mock exams, coursework, practical exams and fieldtrips taking up much of their time, not to mention the lessons and homework.

But it’s not all been work, work, work: the drama enrichment group have been working on a very entertaining rendition of The Play That Goes Wrong, the football team embarked on a welcome winning streak and students studying Spanish have enjoyed a trip to Valencia, to list but a few of the many extra-curricular activities the students have enjoyed this term.

As the term draws to an end our attention is focused on the forthcoming exams. We wish the students a relaxing, but productive Easter and look forward to welcoming them back for the final term of the year.

GEARING UP: For a season of international competition.

Counting down to international events

Former President heads for the bar

SHARING STORIES: Comberton’s class of 2017 returned for a reunion.

The Sixth Form team continue to offer support to our past students long after their time with us comes to an end.

It is always exciting to receive news from our alumni, to offer them ongoing support to achieve their career goals and to hear of their successes.

Recently, we were delighted to be able to provide a series of academic and character references for one of our first student presidents, Molly Farrow, who attended Comberton Sixth Form as part of the first cohort, studying A-levels in Psychology, Religious Studies (Philosophy and Ethics) and Spanish as well as the Pre-U in Global Perspectives.

Molly graduated from the London School of Economics last summer with a First Class Honours degree in Philosophy and is now pursuing a career as a barrister.

Molly has recently secured places at all the institutions to which she has applied to complete the Bar Professional Training Course and she has also secured the prestigious and highly competitive Bacon Award from Gray’s Inn, which guarantees a minimum of £10,000 towards the cost of her training. This is a fantastic achievement and we wish Molly every MOLLY FARROW: success.

Training to be a barrister.

14

Sixth Former Lexi Day heads for France during the Easter holidays to compete for England at an international equestrian vaulting competition.

It is the first serious outing of the new season for Lexi, who trains both in Cambridge and in Warwickshire with the national squad, up to four days a week. She will compete both as part of the national team and as an individual.

She also hopes to compete in Belgium in May in a sport best described as gymnastics on horseback, before returning to the UK to compete in an international event in Rugby then the English and British Championships.

It promises to be another busy year for Lexi, who took up the sport four years ago and has previously won English national titles and finished well placed in the British competitions.

Guidance for next step

The process for guiding our next cohort of students to make decisions about life beyond Comberton Sixth Form began when all students took part in the annual Progression Conference held at the college a couple of weeks ago.

The day gave Year 12 students the opportunity to research university courses, apprenticeships and workplace opportunities, to begin to prepare for the applications process, and to go through their personalised Centigrade Higher Education programme report.

The report, which students completed a questionnaire to produce, includes course selection worksheets, a wealth of course data and a commentary to affirm or challenge a student’s suitability for each course.

Students also had the opportunity to hear from Robbie Pickles, an Admissions Tutor at the University of Bath, and Rosie Benfield, a former student now working at Ernst & Young, who explained the merits of graduate recruitment opportunities and school leavers’ programmes.

Students will continue this work in earnest through work with their tutors and a taster experience at Leicester University, a UCAS convention where they will have the opportunity to meet representatives from Universities across the UK, and a UCAS Information Evening for parents are all planned to take place following the AS examination period in the summer term.

Tapping into technology

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

A new Technology Forum has been launched for students at Comberton Village College.

Students in Years 7-13 were invited to the inaugural meeting and the 50 who attended heard speakers from Microsoft Research, ARM and Trinity College, Cambridge.

The new forum has been designed to encourage students to study and work in computing and technology and they received useful information on how to enhance university and employment applications, both through subject choice and wider work experience.

Students heard how everyone in the room had an Arm processor in their phone, and how Arm is now going into different markets such as the car industry.

They were told about developments at Microsoft Research and then heard a student perspective from Jade Lam, of Trinity College.

She is studying Computer Science at university but did not take it at A Level. Jade explained what her course had covered, what her interests are and applying to study for a Masters.

Both Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, from Microsoft, and Sara Russo, from Arm, explained that there is huge employment potential in computing and technology, especially in the area of IT security.

They also said that in all other sectors and industries, those with IT skills will be needed, just as much as those with the sector-specific industry skills and knowledge.

Students were also recommended to look at subjects such as maths and physics if they were interested in taking Computer Science or a related subject at university, but were not taking it for A level. Extra-curricular programming was also recommended although being able to work in a team is seen as almost as important as technical knowledge and ability.

‘Live’ data reveals Year 8’s online habits

One day in December all Year 8 students took part in an electronic voting survey based on online safety.

The survey compiled the online activity of all students present and has since been analysed.

Below are some key statistics from this survey. It worth noting that these are not national statistics but are instead as close to “live data” as possible as they are taken from Year 8 students at Comberton Village College this academic year.

General details about the number of social network users and how they access their accounts. l 86% of year 8 students have access to at least one social network account. l 92% of those who use a social network account do so via their mobile phone.

It is unlikely to surprise you that year on year more and more students in Year 8 have at least one social network account.

The advice of allowing students access to the online world but only from a fixed location such as a family computer is not viable in today’s world as many have phones which enable them to connect to the web.

It is therefore vital to have conversations about proper use of social networks.

Sharing of information l 10% didn’t know how to change their privacy settings on their most used account l 8% of those who knew how to change their settings have left their account as public. l 24% have other social network accounts which are not set to private. l 24% of students have not had any contact with more than 50% of their online friends.

If privacy settings are not correctly applied students could be sharing their personal information with a huge numbers of people online.

All the major social networks have privacy settings but in general all are set as default to public.

A quick search on how to change privacy settings is often the quickest way to finding out how to make changes. In almost all cases there are video tutorials on YouTube if the written instructions are not clear.

Dangers related to being a target for unwanted contact l 53% had accepted a friend request/follow from someone they don’t know in the real world l 26% had actively sort out people they don’t know in the real world to be their friend/follow online.

Worryingly there are still a large number of students who accept friend requests/follows from people who they don’t know who they are.

A large number also actively seek out online friendship from people based on profiles.

FIRST FORUM: Students were able to hear from and meet a panel of experts in the technology field.

There is evidence that online predators create profiles in a way which appeals to students in the hope that they are friended or followed.

Cyberbullying l 53% had received/seen something

related to them which has upset them.

Given over half of students have been upset by something directly relating to them it’s obvious that cyberbullying is a very real problem for young people.

Depending upon the type, Cyberbullying is a crime which can breach up to five laws in the UK. Cyberbullying can and should be reported to the police.

Images l 23% have taken an inappropriate image using their phone. l 13% have posted an inappropriate image online. l 21% have shared an inappropriate image via a text or direct message.

Another worrying trend is the number of inappropriate images which are being taken and shared either via a social network or peer to peer (phone to phone).

Inappropriate images can range from taking a picture in school uniform and posting this online to sexting. Sexting relates to images which are sexual in nature and are sometimes referred to as nudies. It is against the law to take, store or share a sexually explicit image of anyone under 18.

What can be done to help protect young people?

Education and communication are absolutely essential.

The school has in place a number of key assemblies and specific periods of input which cover a huge range of online safety issues. Please do talk to your son/daughter about their online usage.

It may be almost impossible to keep up to date with every new social networking application or site but this isn’t always necessary.

In many ways the format they are using isn’t important but what they are doing via the format.

During many of the assemblies or periods of input these four points make a regular appearance and are designed to be remind students about good use of social networking. l Profiles — keep them secure and don’t share personal information l Know who you are talking to — make sure online friends are people you know in the real world l Think before you post — could this upset someone? l Do I really want to share this image? Would I be happy if a member of my family saw the image?

For more support search online for ThinkUKnow — https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

15

Sun shines in challenge COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

NATIONAL RUNNER-UP: Kai Sun receives his certificate from Peter Millican, Professor at Hertford College, University of Oxford.

Talented student Kai Sun (9N) hit the heights in his age group in a national computing competition.

He was joint runner-up in The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge held at the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University last month.

This is an impressive achievement, as 71,146 students entered the first round of the Intermediate age group category (Years 8 & 9 for England and Wales). Out of those, 48 top-achieving students attended the final for the Intermediate age group and this included a second Comberton student, Ben Chung (9B).

Kai was presented with a second place certificate at a prize-giving ceremony at Hertford College and Ben received a finalist’s certificate at the ceremony.

Comberton Head of Computer Science Will Grey said: “Once again I would like to congratulate Kai Sun and Ben Chung for their success in the UK Bebras challenge.

“This is a significant achievement. Both these students are very hard-working and deserve their success.

“They are a privilege to teach and I look forward to continuing to teach and support them in their studies in computer science.”

The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, supported by Google, is

designed to get students excited about computing and computational thinking. It is a problem-solving contest with questions inspired by topics in computer science.

In the first round, held in their own schools, students have to try and solve as many problems as possible in the allotted time.

There are six age categories. The highest scoring students from the four oldest age groups (Elite, Senior, Junior and Intermediate) were then invited to the Department of Computer Science at Oxford for the finals.

Lego builders look forward to space launch

Dr Harding and 10 Year 7, 8 and 9 students participated in the regional final of the FIRST® LEGO® League 2017-18 ‘Hydro Dynamics’ Tournament in Cambridge University's Department of Engineering.

The students had designed, built and programmed a Lego Mindstorms robot to autonomously compete missions on a specially-built Lego table for the worldwide league’s first stage of competition.

On the day teams had two-and-a-half minutes to complete missions on the competition field and to score points.

The students also presented a research project they had carried out. The project involved researching an innovative solution to a real-world problem connected to the competitions hydrodynamics theme.

Our team decided to focus on the highly topical problem of micro plastics in the ocean.

It was the first time the school had participated in this competition so it was a steep learning curve for everyone involved.

Although on this occasion we did not get chosen to be put forward to the national finals, everybody learnt a tremendous amount from participating in the competition and we are soon going to start preparations for next year’s competition which is based on the theme of space.

The idea of the competition is to inject fun and imagination into students’ learning of STEM (science, engineering, technology and maths) concepts and get them to think like scientists and engineers. Participants are also encouraged to develop critical thinking, team-building, presentation skills and creativity. They are also expected to practice the league’s core values of celebrating discovery, teamwork and gracious professionalism.

MINOR ADJUSTMENTS: To the Comberton robot.

16

Talks and tips inspire

ROBOT AT WORK: The Comberton creation is put through its paces.

GCSE scientists

Year 10 and 11 students braved the snow to attend the GCSE Live lectures in Birmingham. The day involved inspiring talks from some well-known scientists, including Prof Robert Winston, Prof Andrea Sella, Dr Kate Lancaster, Prof Steve Jones and Prof Lucie Green on topics ranging from the science of the sun to reproduction and fertility treatments.

There were also practical exam preparation tips from a GCSE science examiner.

All students totally enjoyed the day and returned to school full of inspiration and renewed enthusiasm for their studies.

LEADING LIGHT: Professor Robert Winston talks to students.

Escape to victory!

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

A team of enthusiastic young scientists from Comberton turned top inventors and engineers as they ‘escaped to victory’ at the Faraday Challenge.

The Challenge, organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and held in the Performance Hall, tasked Year 8 students from Comberton, Melbourn and Bassingbourn Village Colleges as well as St Peter’s School, Huntingdon, with coming up a new ride for Thorpe Park.

The brief was that it should be an alternative to the ‘scary’ rides and the students had to work on their teamwork, design, production and presentation skills. They were given a virtual budget to buy equipment and included designing the product to a finished article then making a presentation about it.

The winning team of Adithya Arun, Joshua Beecroft, Josh Upton, Mark Etkind, James Barker and Sam Hartwright came up with an Escape Room design which included an intricate and impressive working circuit. However, they were also praised for their ‘can-do’ attitude and effective communication.

DANCING THE DAY AWAY: At the Year 8 disco.

LEADING THE WAY: The winning team from Comberton.

Disco has charity benefits On the penultimate day of the autumn term, it is tradition for each year group to enjoy a social event following the Christmas meal. This year, Year 8 danced the afternoon away at a Day Disco!

Organised, promoted and with songs selected by the Year 8 Charity Reps, in addition to being great fun, the disco’s main aim was to raise money for this year’s Year 8 charity - Guide Dogs UK. Through ticket and tuck-shop sales, the disco raised £375, which will be further added to via additional fundraising events and donated to Guide Dogs UK at the end of the school year.

Matthew Knight, Assistant Head of Year 8, said: “The Charity Reps did an amazing job organising and promoting the day disco.

“Not only did the 135 Year 8s in attendance have fun for the afternoon, but the disco enabled us to raise an incredible £375 for a truly worthy cause, Guide Dogs UK, so all in all the disco was a huge success.”

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17

Regional date for team Round-up of the latest news from the South Cambs SSP

Meldreth Primary School will be flying the flag for Cambridgeshire football after winning the ESFA Small Schools County finals.

The small schools final was held at Impington Village College, and had seven teams taking part in the round-robin competition, for which teams had qualified from their district events.

Harston & Newton and Meldreth represented South Cambs School Sports Partnership, St Alban’s and William Westley represented Cambridge, Upwood and Great Paxton were from the Huntingdon region and Little Thetford carried the Fenland colours.

Meldreth won five of their six games, drawing against St Alban’s, and that was enough to give them the crown ahead of Harston & Newton, who lost to

Meldreth and drew with Great Paxton, but won their

other matches.

GOING THROUGH:

The Meldreth team.

Meldreth went forward to represent Cambridgeshire in the small schools regional finals in March.

“They played some really good football,” said Claire McDonnell, the South Cambs SSP manager. “They only conceded one goal in six matches and scored eight; Meldreth also had a girl in their team, which was great to see.

“There were some really competitive matches but played in really good spirit.

“Cambridge United scholars from Cambridge Regional College refereed all the matches for us so they were really good and looked the part, which helped them establish their authority.”

She added: “It was a good standard of competition played in a really good spirit and we will see how Meldreth get on at the regional finals.”

Youngsters showcase best moves

Teams of Year 3 and 4 gymnasts from 12 South Cambs primary schools took part in the annual School Games Gymnastics Competition at Comberton Village College.

The gymnasium was silent and the atmosphere concentrated while the children demonstrated their skills on the vault and floor in front of the judges and spectators.

At stake was the chance to represent South Cambs SSP at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough School Games Spring Festival, with the top two schools qualifying to take on the best from across the county.

After a welcome and warm-up led by the partnership’s sports leaders, the competition started. The mixed teams of six children from Great Abington, Castle Camps, Thriplow, Cottenham, Coton, Linton Heights, Harston & Newton, Haslingfield, Meridian and Barnabas Oley schools all had to perform a vault and then either a floor or body management routine with each performance judged and given a score out of 10. Each child’s individual scores were then combined to give an overall team score.

The competition was fierce and fewer than two points separated the top four teams! Previous winners Linton Heights Junior School claimed the title, with defending champions Castle Camps close behind. Both teams went forward to Spring Festival finals at Huntingdon Gymnastics Club.

Qualified young judges from Comberton, Cambourne and Linton Village Colleges did an excellent job in scoring the performances, keeping the competition running smoothly and encouraging and supporting the young gymnasts.

The ‘Spirit of the Games’ award, which recognises the team that has best demonstrated the sporting values of respect, determination, teamwork,

honesty, passion and self-belief, was awarded to Coton Primary School, who showed great selfbelief and passion throughout the afternoon. Individual Spirit of the Games awards were also presented to Maisy and Bryony, from Haslingfield Primary, for showing great determination in their performances and displaying positive attitudes while competing with big smiles on their faces.

SCENE IS SET: Judges and Claire McDonnell, South Cambs School Games Organiser, said: “It competitors at the gymnastics. was another great competition. It’s nice to offer children the opportunity to represent their school and compete in a more artistic type of event such as gymnastics. It always amazes me how well the children perform under quite intense pressure, it is so quiet in the gym and there are lots of other children, staff and parents watching on. All of the children did exceptionally well and should be proud of themselves.

“The young judges also did an exceptional job, we couldn’t have run the competition without them; they were focused and efficient throughout.”

The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted its first New Age Kurling competition and the event was a great success.

Teams of children from eight schools took part in the event at Bassingbourn Village College and organised on the day by an excellent group of sports leaders from the college.

New Age Kurling is an exciting target game with teams playing a tactical game of position with the stones.

Adapted from the original curling game played on ice, the sport is played indoors on a smooth flat surface, such as a sports hall, making it perfect for able-bodied and disabled people of all ages.

School Games Organiser, Claire McDonnell, said: “We decided to offer this competition for 2017-18 with the aim of introducing a new fully inclusive sport which would be suitable for children with SEND or additional needs, but also, hopefully, appeal to a group of young people who might not like your more traditional sports and therefore perhaps don’t get an opportunity to represent their school in sporting competition.”

Teams of two players from Bassingbourn, Histon & Impington Juniors, Fen Drayton, Waterbeach, Bar Hill, Caldecote, Petersfield (Orwell) and Swavesey Primary School took part in the event which was played over eight courts.

Teams played in a round robin format and took on the other schools in their group. Players took it in turns to push their stones along the ground towards the target with the idea being to get as many stones closer to the centre of the target than their opponents.

Winners on the day were presented with medals and included teams from Fen Drayton, Swavesey, Caldecote, Bar Hill and Bassingbourn.

‘Spirit of the Games’ awards were also given out, with one of the recipients being Alex from Fen Drayton who was nominated for ‘showing respect towards his opponents, giving his teammate helpful advice and encouragement and trying his very best throughout the competition’.

Final results: 1 Linton Heights, 2 Castle Camps, 3 Gt Abington, 4 Harston & Newton A, 5 Coton, 6 Harston & Newton B, 7 Meridian, 8 Cottenham, 9 Barnabas Oley, 10 Haslingfield A, 11 Thriplow, 12 Haslingfield B.

And now for something completely different . . .

18

FIRST EVENT: Students compete at New Age Kurling.

Round-up of the latest news from the South Cambs SSP

STICKING AT IT: Meldreth players tackle the target-shooting challenge (left), Harston’s medal-winning teams (centre) and Barton sport their new kit (right).

Quick march to finals!

It was an action-packed day of hockey as the South Cambs School Sports Partnership welcomed a record 45 teams to their annual Year 5/6 Quicksticks Hockey competition.

To accommodate all the entries, the competition, which took place at Comberton Village College, was split into a morning and afternoon event.

Teams from the 27 schools taking part were organised with their A teams playing in a Cup competition and schools’ B, C and D teams playing in a Plate competition. Teams then played in a round robin format, playing all the other schools in their pool in seven-minute matches.

The event was part of the county-wide School Games programme with the top four schools qualifying to represent South Cambs SSP at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough School Games Spring where they took on the winning schools from Cambridge, East Cambs & Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough.

There were plenty of competitive matches and close-scoring games across the six pitches and at the end it was Swavesey, Harston & Newton, Elsworth and Meldreth who booked their county final places.

In the Plate competitions it was the B teams from Linton Heights, Harston &

Newton and Steeple Morden that came out on top and were delighted to receive their winners’ medals.

Claire McDonnell, South Cambs SSP Partnership Development Manager, said: “It was great to see so many children playing and enjoying the game of hockey and it was nice to see a number of new schools taking part for the first time.

“Quicksticks is a great introductory version of the sport with children playing in four-a-side mixed teams. There are no goalkeepers and the game uses a slightly bigger and lighter ball, all of which makes the game more accessible to primary schools and much more fun and enjoyable for the children with lots of end to end action and generally plenty of goals.”

The ‘Spirit of the Games’ award that recognises the team that has shown good sportsmanship and best demonstrated one or more of the sporting values of respect, determination, teamwork, honesty, passion and self-belief was awarded to the teams from Bar Hill, Coton, Fen Drayton and Steeple Morden. Steeple Morden’s award was nominated by one of the sports leaders from Comberton Village College, who also umpired all the matches, and was given for ‘working well as a team, always encouraging one another, thanking the umpires at the end of matches and always trying their hardest no matter what the score.’

Students take on new sporting challenges BOCCIA ACTION: At the multi-sport competition.

BEST BAT FORWARD: The polybat event in progress.

The annual Adapted Multi Sport Competition for secondary school pupils took place on at Impington Village College with pupils from across the Cambridge & South Cambs School Sports Partnerships taking part.

More than 60 youngsters with additional needs, which could be physical, learning, sensory, or a combination of these took part in the event and included youngsters from the Trust schools of Cambourne, Melbourn and Comberton Village Colleges.

The morning was full of energy and activity as pupils competed in pairs in four different sports: Polybat, Boccia, Table Cricket and New Age Kurling. In each sport youngsters competed in matches against pairs from other schools with their scores from each event added together to give each pair an overall total score.

The winning pair on the day were Kit Gowar-Thomas and Leanne Register, from Impington Village College, and in joint second place were Bryn Imms Williams and Joshua Dorkin, from Granta School, and Natasha Kent and Megan Webb, from Cambourne Village College, These three pairs will now join together and form a team along with some of

the other top scoring pairs to go forward and compete as a South Cambs representative team at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough School Games Summer Festival on 29th June, we wish them the best of luck!

Partnership Manager, Claire McDonnell, said: “It was great to see so many youngsters taking part in this event. We had a record number of entries this year and it was nice to see some schools taking part for the first time. It’s important we provide opportunities for all young people to take part in physical activity and sport so that they can experience the enjoyment and benefits it can bring and this event certainly helped to do that.”

Comberton’s Freddie Greenfield (8I) said: “We played many sports such as Polybat, Table Cricket, New Age Curling and Boccia. I enjoyed the Table Cricket the most because I liked hitting the ball with the bat. I managed to score the highest points on this event.

“Afterwards we ate our lunch in the sports hall and were all given certificates. We then made our way back to the minibus and came home.

“The journey home was noisy because the girls were singing Christmas Carols loudly even though it is March.”

19

Success in the spotlight COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Students and staff were recognised at the annual South Cambridgeshire District Council Community Awards.

Evie Joseph (10B) and Ella Darrington (8R) were among 29 athletes awarded grants under the council’s Elite Athlete Award School and were officially presented with their grants during the ceremony held at South Cambridgeshire Hall in Cambourne. Local scientist Dame Mary Archer was the keynote speaker.

The programme is designed to assist able-bodied and disabled athletes from South Cambs who are aiming to represent Team GB at world-class events like the Olympics and Paralympics.

Trampolinist Evie last autumn made her international debut for Great Britain while Ella is an aspiring oarswoman who has previously won age group titles at the British Indoor Rowing Championships.

Also among the athletes recognised were former Comberton students Millie Emmans and Rebecca Burton, who are both swimmers.

Meanwhile Deputy Head of PE Julia Scarboro was honoured for her effort in setting up Papworth Runners four years ago by winning the Wellbeing Award.

She initially advertised to see if anybody wanted to run with her and five people turned up. Now the club has 215 members who are all feeling the benefits of exercise.

As well as meeting for runs — which included a group completing the Cambridge half marathon earlier this month and a personal best time for Mrs Scarboro — the club also raises money for local good causes.

This has included buying a defibrillator for Papworth, helping the Papworth Trust as well as a child in the village who needs specialist healthcare.

Last-match agony

HARD WORK IS REWARDED: Grants were given to the students, with Mrs Scarboro recognised for setting up a running club.

This March, our Under-15 girls competed in the Lady Taverner’s cricket competition at The Leys School.

Many of the girls were Year 9s and so were younger than some of their opposition. They are hoping to return next year to compete for the title!

The girls’ first match was against St Bede’s. Excellent batting from Sammy Borcoski and Sasha Tristram meant that this game was won comfortably and set the girls off to a good start.

They then took on the team from Netherhall, which proved to be closer, but great running from Sasha Bottali and Eloise Borcoski meant that they were able to secure the win.

The final group game was against Stephen Perse, who had also won all of their games, meaning that this was effectively the decider for the final.

The Comberton girls fielded well, particularly Mansi Patel as wicketkeeper (who was voted player of the tournament), but strong hitting from Stephen Perse allowed them to set a high score.

Strategic batting from Elly Robinson and excellent fielding from Emma Stewart and Maddy Parker meant that Comberton carded a reasonable score, but unfortunately not enough to take them through to the final round.

Congratulations to all girls involved.

Harriet Shipley and Abbey Cotton, PE Dept

SO CLOSE: Last-match defeat cost Comberton’s girls a place in the finals.

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REGULARS: Year 10 students knew what to expect at the National Junior Indoor Championships.

Students show pulling power Comberton students took part in the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships at Lee Valley Athletics Stadium.

The event was attended by schools and rowing clubs from all over the country, with boys and girls from Years 7-13 competing.

The event was held in the athletics stadium itself which made for a fantastic atmosphere for the competitors.

Pupils competed in heats within their age groups, with gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to the top 3 boys and girls in each age group across all the heats.

The event was also attended by a number of National Governing Bodies and sports clubs, including England Hockey and West Ham United, who

provided activities for the competitors to try while they were not competing.

There were also stands about career and progression in rowing and stands with rowing merchandise for purchase.

For our Year 7 boys, it was their first experience competing at the event.

They commented on the excellent organisation of the event and enjoyed competing against such a number of others schools. The boys did an excellent job and finished fifth and seventh in their heats.

Our Year 10s are regular competitors and had a good knowledge of what to expect. Our Year 10 girls finished first and seventh in their heats and our Year 10 boys had two entrants within the top 10 in theirs. Congratulations to all pupils who took part.

Hard work pays off

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

After-school badminton club is one of the most popular sports clubs at CVC, and pupils are starting to see the rewards of all their hard work.

Both the KS3 and KS4 boys and girls teams won the first round of the School Games competitions, to secure them a place at the County schools competition at the University sports centre in Cambridge.

The teams were — KS3 Boys: Kai Sun, Ethan Davy, Thomas Hufford and Freddie De La Sayette; KS3 Girls: Charlene Goh, Lidia Ong Rodriguez, Emma Stewart and Eloise Borcoski; KS4 Boys: Matt Peer, Ben Wannop, Alex Anderson and Zichen He; KS4 Girls: Lizzie Carter, Chaaya Malik, Ellis Miller and Katie Hartwright.

There’s all to play for

The inter-form competition is really hotting up heading into the final term of the year-long competition for students in KS3.

Years 7 and 8 still have tug-of-war, the swimming gala and sports day to change the fortunes of their tutor groups in the overall standings while the year 9 honours will be decided at their sports day in July.

With results from this term’s competition, which have included a cross-country run, dodgeball, hockey and football still being collated, the current standings could still change.

As it is, B lead the Year 7 rankings two points clear of R with O, M and V locked together in third a further two points behind. However, it’s still all very close with only five points separating the rest of the chasing pack.

The opening events for the newest students in the school were exciting affairs with Lola Briggs (B) winning the girls’ cross-country in a time of 9 mins 8 seconds, ahead of Kate Gaskill (M) and Rosie Woodward (M). B finished top of the table for the best combined team score.

O and V contested the boys’ rugby final, giving the crowd an entertaining fixture.

MEET THE TEAMS: The CVC county qualifiers

The wet weather made for tricky handling conditions but excellent for tackling.

The rest of the year group watched and supported as a thrilling competition came down to the final minutes with O sneaking through and scoring a try to be crowned inter-form rugby champions.

B are also ahead in Year 8, three points clear of T with M and R two points further behind after the girls have contested two runs and a hockey tournament while the boys have locked horns in rugby — where the introduction of contested scrums for the first time made for a great spectacle — dodgeball and football.

O and N won their respective half years at rugby, O and T were top at dodgeball with B and T the football champions.

Jessica Westcott (E), Emily Williams (V) and Kirsten Donnelly (R) twice filled the first three slots in the 8Y run, while Jana Banaerjee (C) won the first 8X race but missed the second allowing first-race runner-up Teagan Blake (I) to win ahead of first-race bronze-medallist Ruby Sanders (B).

Lily Goodwin (E) set a course record in the first Year 9 run, completing the 1.2mile course in an incredible 7 min 36 seconds but it is O who currently top the overall table from C with V just a point behind in third.

ON THE RUN: At the recent National Champs.

Wheeler flies the flag

BATTLERS: The Year 7 rugby finalists (top) and Year 8 girls celebrate at the end of their first run.

Joseph Wheeler represented Cambridgeshire at the English Schools National Cross-Country Championships in Leeds earlier this month following impressive performances in the previous rounds.

Having got through the District and Cambridgeshire rounds, he won his place in the county squad after his run at the Anglian Schools Championships at The Royal Hospital School in Norfolk.

He was the seventh Cambs finisher as he came in 32nd overall in the junior section for Years 8 and 9.

Three other Comberton students also represented the county at the Anglian event. Minors (Year 7) Emily Talbot was 28th in the girls race with Ryan Howe finishing 39th in the boys’. Senior Freddie Minney (Year 13) was 30th in his event.

21

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22

Festival dates for Harry

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Harry Walkow-Foster has a busy summer of dance ahead — after winning a place in the English National Ballet Youth Company by chance.

The Year 10 student had missed the auditions for inclusion but, after attending an intensive week-long course last summer, was invited to join anyway.

Now he will be dancing at the Lift Off festival and in Dance Journeys at Sadler’s Wells in a schools’ programme which will see him participate in three dances.

That follows participation in Move It, the UK’s biggest dance and performing arts event, at the Excel arena earlier this month. There the ENB Youth Company presented Life of The Party, based on the full company’s production Song of the Earth which toured nationally.

“It was so cool to get into English National Ballet Youth Company,” said Harry. “I wasn’t expecting it as when I went in the summer most people at the intensive were already in as I’d missed the auditions.”

A coveted place is the latest recognition for Harry who returned to dancing when he joined Comberton. By Year 8 the talented teenager, who dances mostly contemporary, had won a place at the Centre for Advanced Training which involves training for six hours in London every Saturday.

With ENB training taking place every Friday evening and one Sunday a month, also in London, alongside his Cambridge commitments with King Slocombe School of Dance and GCSE dance at Comberton, it is no surprise Harry is aiming for a professional career.

COVETED PLACE: In the English He intends to audition for dance degree courses once he is 16 but if he doesn’t get in then will take A levels and re-apply aged 18.

National Ballet Youth Company.

Showcasing CVC talent on a bigger stage

Backstage was a great time to relax and practice.

Last month 60 pupils performed at the Bodywork we have liked watching the other dancers and The atmosphere was cheerful, and the audience Outreach show at The Leys School, Performance presenting our dances for new people to watch. were very supportive. Performing was nerveHall.

We have also enjoyed the whole experience of racking but thrilling at the same time.” Lily Herring After a successful tech run, pupils from Years 7 outreach and hope to do it again.” Evie Baker (7T), Alice Caudwell (7O) and Ria Warren-Green to 10, including the GCSE Dance group, (10V) and Maddison Golder (10E) (7O) showcased their talent in a fantastic show.

“The night we performed was an amazing “Before we performed we had a tech run on the The pupils enjoyed watching the other experience and we all really enjoyed it! It was so stage. It was really fun and interesting to practise performers from different schools, finding fun, and we would love to do it again. in The Leys’ performance hall and it was an inspiration from the breadth of dance in the “It was a chance to show off our hard work. unforgettable experience to dance in front of so Outreach show. many people in such a large Following the performance, and professional theatre some of the pupils shared their area. experience which provides a “In the time between the tech true insight to the night! run and the show we all sat “On Tuesday night we in a dance studio and took performed our dance to many photos and practised our people at The Leys for the dances. It was really Outreach show. This was a enjoyable because we got to great opportunity to show our perform our dances again in dances to other people and an amazing theatre.” Aarohi watch different types dance which other schools have Vira (9B) and Alice Fogerty (9O) performed.

Huge congratulations to “We first went through the everyone who performed in dance in a tech run to see the show. staging, spacing and lighting.

DANCE CREW: The performers from Comberton at The Outreach Show.

We enjoyed our time there as Miss Tyrrell and Miss Cox

Getting together!

BIRDSONG: Year 2 pupils from Haslingfield perform their penguin dance.

Comberton once again hosted its annual dance share event.

This year’s programme included 13 primary school dances, with performers aged from reception up to Year 6 from Comberton and Cambourne Village College’s partner primaries of Barnabas Oley, Coton, Gamlingay First School, Haslingfield, Meridian, Caldecote, The Vine, Jeavons Wood and Monkfield Park.

These performances were followed by six Key Stage 3 dances involving whole PE classes, and two dances from our KS4 dancers.

As always, the primary schools brought some fantastic pieces, with two different schools performing dances based on penguins!

Two students from the Year 12 BTEC Sport programme, Amelia Luck and Georgia Berry, helped with the organisation and did a fantastic job of preparing the event and announcing the acts on the day.

A huge congratulations and thank you to all schools and classes involved with the event, and to all Harriet Shipley, PE Dept

23

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

SPORTING SUCCESS: Year 11 who have reached at least county level in their chosen sport can receive a Roy Burrell award.

Excellence is rewarded

England rugby hopeful Kayde Silvester was named as runner-up to the Sportsman of the Year at the annual Roy Burrell Awards.

The Year 11 student , who has captained Northampton Saints’ under-16 team and is currently playing in the under-18 Rugby Academy League, just missed top spot to a footballer from Bottisham Village College.

Kayde, who has attended England training camps at both under-17 and under-18 level, was one of 20 Comberton students to receive medals at the presentation evening at Netherhall School earlier this month.

Roy Burrell was Deputy Headmaster at Chesterton Community College until his untimely death at the age of 49. He was passionate about sport and engaging young people in it.

The awards, presented by the Cambridge and District School Sports Association to nominated Year 11 student who have reached at least county standard in their chosen discipline, not only commemorate Roy Burrell but also celebrate the excellence, participation and sportsmanship that is characteristic of sport in the area.

The other students are: Dan Toyer (Football), Kate Taylor (Equestrian vaulting), Corey James (Dance), Tyler Perkins (Cricket), Millie Banks (Squash), Lucia Hayward (Dance), Albert Borrell (Roller Hockey), Mollie Coupar (Football), Imogen Sutherland (Fencing), Gemma Gostick (Dance), Lucy Coutinho (Dance), Alice Heydinger (Dance), Rosie Reade (Dance), Alicja Emmans (Dance), Gaby McKeown (Dance), Matt Peer (Golf), Ella Tomsett (Judo & BMX), Adam Lightfoot (Cycling) and Lily Callaghan (Leadership).

Students bounce to handful of medals RISING STAR: Of rugby.

Five Comberton students competed at the first Cambridge and District Trampoline Competition — and all returned with at least one medal.

Held at Sawston Village College earlier this month, the event, set up primarily to enable GCSE PE students to bounce competitively as part of the criteria for the new specification, attracted students from both KS3 and KS4 at a range of levels from novice to elite.

Ollie Austin (11C) started Comberton’s medal haul when he won the KS4 advanced boys class. He was followed by success in the KS4 intermediate girls as Ellen Smith (11N) topped the section with Chelsie Alderman (11V) second and, with Kate Taylor (11O) the trio secured team gold. An extra half twist in her second routine undoubtedly cost Kate an individual podium place.

That left Evie Baker, the only Comberton Year 10 attending, under pressure to keep up the momentum in the KS4 novice girls. And although she was kicking herself that a slight error lost her top spot, she should be pleased with her silver after only taking up the sport a year ago.

MEDALS FOR ALL: After success for Comberton at a new trampolining competition.

24