MVC News Winter 2015

MVC NEWS

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:34 Page 1

www.mvc.org.uk

01763 223400

https://www.facebook.com/MelbournVillageCollege/

The News Magazine of Melbourn Village College, an Academy of the Comberton Academy Trust

Primary School Students Celebrate Year 4 Day. Full report page 2.

Autumn 2015

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:34 Page 2

MVC NEWS

MVC Welcomes Primary Visitors

Prospective students and their parents flocked to Melbourn Village College’s Open Evening earlier this term.

Visitors had the chance to get involved with a range of activities as they toured the college looking at the different departments.

They tried the steel pans in the Music department, made badges in Modern Languages, tried an assault course in PE, celebrated Diwali in Religious Studies/Ethics and took control of a robotic arm in Computing.

There were also quizzes and challenges for primary pupils to try and young and older alike were amazed by the wonders of science with a ‘magic’ show.

Principal Simon Holmes, new chair of Governors Sue Williamson, the Chief Executive of the Schools’ Network, SSAT, and Comberton Academy Trust Chief Executive Stephen Munday spoke to packed audiences at two talks during the evening.

Mr Holmes said: “It was an excellent evening with a really positive atmosphere and it was a pleasure to see so many MVC students helping out and greeting guests as they went round.”

He added that anybody who missed the evening or who would like another look is welcome at the college during the school day. To arrange a tour please contact reception on 01763 223400 or e-mail office@mvc.org.uk

Almost 100 youngsters were given an early taste of secondary school life when they spent the day at Melbourn Village College.

Talented young dancers

Contents

Proud of their work and special gift to take home

pg 2 Primary Visits Updates pg 3 Languages Day pg 3 Rocket Science pg 3 Medical Mavericks pg 4 MindEd pg 4 Link Hope pg 5 Piece of Cake pg 5 Christmas Card Design Winner

2

Young Artist at Work

The eight and nine-year-olds from six of Melbourn’s feeder primary schools experienced a variety of lessons at a Year 4 day on Tuesday Oct 13.

The pupils were split into mixed groups – named after famous players from the current Rugby World Cup - from across the different schools and, looked after by Melbourn prefects, went around a rotation of lessons which included maths, French, dance, art and English.

In maths the youngsters looked at patterns and sequencing, producing some super designs.

Dance was themed around grafitti and the work of Banksy, English was based around a William Blake poem and the pupils learned the days of the week and a couple of songs in French.

But it was art that took top spot as working with clay based around flower work really captured the imagination. Youngsters produced some amazing pieces after a lesson working with professional artist and Melbourn teacher Nick Juett, who has already taken the MVC ActionArt project to a number of the feeder primary schools.

The visitors all had a memorable day and organiser Kelly Coghlan said: “It was fantastic.

They really enjoyed it and they were all really, really excited about the pottery.”

Each child was also given a Melbourn Village College PE-type bag to carry home their work from the day.

pg 5 World Wars Remembered pg 6 Academy Trust News pg 7 Sports Centre News pg 8 D of E Report pg 9 Sporting News pg 10 Adult Education pg 11 GCSE Dance pg 11 allyance pg 11 Celebration of Ages

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:34 Page 3

All In a Day’s Work

One day of languages was never going to be enough for students at Melbourn Villlage College.

Instead of waiting until Saturday to celebrate the annual European Day of Languages, they took part in a whole week of activities, from quizzes to sampling European food.

Students took part in a range of activities for the annual day, which took place on September 26 including tortilla tasting, a pain au chocolat sale, quizzes and games of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’

A highlight was some Year 9 students putting their Spanish to good use by teaching Year 7s. Languages teacher Ivana Stanley said: “This is a great way for the

It’s not rocket science.... Or is it?

Enjoying a pain au chocolate of course!

The new academic year has seen the continued success of the Thursday lunchtime STEM club.

Many students have returned after their support last year and we have welcomed some Year 7 pupils keen to investigate some scientific problems. We launched with the excitement of screaming jelly babies, and have embarked on our first project: to design an energy-efficient building.

The teams of students have been deciding which resources to use to take on the BP Ultimate Challenge. They will build and test their design on a small scale and report their findings as a presentation to enter into this national competition. They will have the chance to attend a celebratory event at the Science Museum in London and win £500

for the school and Science Museum goodies for themselves. We will be having a visit from a STEM ambassador, a structural engineer, who will advise students on their projects based on his real-life experience.

We will be identifying students in KS3 soon to take part in a new STEM challenge competition between schools in the Comberton Academy Trust, initiated by the Head of Science (Alison Hodgson) at Cambourne VC. The first round will take place in December.

We are also celebrating the exciting venture of the British astronaut Tim Peake to the International Space Station (ISS) by taking part in Rocket Science. This is a nationwide initiative by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency. Two kilograms of rocket seeds (Eruca sativa)

MVC NEWS Year 9s to celebrate and share their Spanish knowledge and learning and to show Y7 how their language skills will develop over the next couple of years.”

Principal Simon Holmes added: “Being able to speak other Languages is an extremely important skill and it is fantastic to see teachers across the whole college getting involved in a whole week of activities. There’s simply no way we could have fitted everything into a single day!”

Staff and students were also encouraged to link European languages into other subjects’ lessons by sharing interesting facts, writing the date in another language and having the lesson’s learning objectives translated.

have been launched into space and will return after 6 months on the ISS. We are one of 10,000 schools to be given some of the ‘space seeds’ to grow along with some from Earth. We will embark on this project in the summer term.

Medical Mavericks

Students became ‘human Guinea Pigs’ for the day when the Medical Mavericks came to Melbourn Village College.

Pupils in Years 9-11 had the chance to have an ECG, test their lung capacity and lung age and have retinal photographs taken as part of the The Human Guinea Pig Show.

Led by Tom Warrender, founder of educational group Medical Mavericks, the show guided students through different careers in heathcare science, such as respiratory physiology, cardiac physiology, neuro physiology and ophthalmic physiology.

Cat Rich, Teacher of Biology said: “The show was engaging, quickpaced and extremely interesting. Our students were enthused and absorbed everything Tom had to offer.”

3

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:34 Page 4

MVC NEWS

Students Dress Down for MindEd

Students at Melbourn Village College have given their charity of the year a three-figure boost.

A non-uniform day at the college has raised £350 for The MindEd Trust, set up in memory of former Melbourn Head Boy Edward Mallen.

Edward, who had moved on to Hills Rd Sixth Form College and had just been offered a place to study at Cambridge University, took his own life in a rail tragedy in February this year following the rapid and catastrophic onset of depressive illness.

His family, who live in Meldreth, have set up The MindEd Trust to campaign for better mental health education and research for young people.

Their stated objective is simple: give the NHS less to do by preventing young people falling into crisis. This will be achieved by adding mental health to the school curriculum to improve resilience, destroy stigma and strengthen care systems.

Melbourn Principal Simon Holmes said: “The MindEd Trust is an organisation which resonates closely with the college and I am delighted the students have chosen to support it. I think it shows the strength of

feeling in the school community that we were able to collect £350 in a single day.

We intend this to be the first of a number of fund-raising ventures by Melbourn Village College to support The MindEd Trust.”

Student turns Business Woman

Steve Mallen, Chair of The MindEd Trust and Edward’s father commented: “Reflecting a special and unique relationship, we are naturally delighted with all the support extended by the College to The Trust and we look forward to developing the Trust’s agenda in partnership with the school.

MindEd is now actively engaged in discussions with around 30 schools in the Herts and Cambs area with a direct view to introducing emotional wellbeing and mental health awareness programmes. At the same time, The Trust has attracted attention from the very highest levels of the NHS, the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Government. Together with many other initiatives and calls for reform, The Trust will continue to support a revolution in mental health training and treatment for the next generation. Melbourn Village College will be amongst the leaders in this endeavour.”

A Melbourn Village College student has launched her own business – just in time for Christmas.

Amélise Burr, who is 15 and in Year 10, recently set up a gift hamper business specialising in products from East Anglia.

The plan is that Cambridge Artisan will operate mainly on-line, but there has already been corpopate and local business interest although the fledgling business was only officially For further information on The MindEd Trust launched last week at the Cambridge Wine or to donate, Steve Mallen (Chairman) may Merchants on Bridge St, Cambridge. be contacted via The Trust’s Facebook page It was a nerve-racking moment for Amélise as (https://www.facebook.com/themindedtrust/) she made a speech to not only influential faces from the food industry, but also to local and industry media.

Including hampers with names such as ‘A Taste or Cambridge’, ‘Student Survival Kit’ and ‘The Diet Can Wait’, prices start from £25 For further information or to order from the Melbourn-based business, go to www.cambridgeartisan.co.uk

Hi Viz is the order of the day

Link to Hope

Students at Melbourn Village College studying construction were given on-site experience when they visited the Trumpington Meadows development just outside Cambridge.

The 13 Year 10 boys were certainly left in no doubt about the importance of Health and Safety, which tied in perfectly with the unit they are currently studying.

Site manager Graham Nott emphasised to the students that anybody arriving without the correct Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) would be asked to leave and regularly

PTA News

repeated the ‘No PPE, no job’ message.

The boys, who are in the first year of a twoyear level 2 Certificate in Constructing the Built Environment, were also given a talk by a scaffolding supervisor who reinforced their class work by explaining what was required of people working on the scaffolding.

Teacher Stephen Reynolds said: “The visit to Trumpington Meadows Construction site was very good; there was a lot to see. I think the students gained a lot from a very short visit.”

Congratulations to the PTA for another successful jumble sale which was well attended and raised a fantastic £346.00. Another is planned in the New Year. The PTA are always on the look out for parents to come and support events, help out beforehand or offer help in a way that suits them. If you would like to know more or have ideas you would like to share please contact afriday@mvc.org.uk or adavis@mvc.org.uk.

4

Students at Melbourn Village College are aiming to bring Christmas cheer to families and the elderly in some of the poorest corners of Europe.

The school signed up to Link To Hope, a charity which initially worked only in Romania, but is now committed to rebuilding lives and communities in Moldova, Albania and Ukraine as well.

We collected shoeboxes not just for children, as another high-profile charity does, but for families and elderly people, who are increasingly being left alone as their children move to try to find work.

Family shoeboxes were given to those who often have to choose between buying food or fuel at Christmas with presents a low priority or distant dream. Many of these families do not have running water, heating or electricity and the whole family lives in one or two rooms.

These boxes include toiletries, sweets and chocolate, games and toys, solar powered and wind-up calculators, torches etc, first aid, sewing and small tool kits as well as hats, scarves and gloves.

The shoeboxes were safely delivered and will be distributed to families in need over the Christmas period.

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 5

It’s a piece of cake Students at a Cambridgeshire primary school have managed to combine art, technology, geography and food technology into one inspiring set of lessons.

Led by Nick Juett, a professional artist and teacher at Melbourn Village College, youngsters at Harston and Newton Primary School have been learning about cakes smf chocolate, painting as well at the Hungarian city of Szeged (twinned with Cambridge) and its buildings.

The result is some spectacular three-dimensional paintings of five of Szeged’s historic buildings as cakes; each one unique and with gloriously different colours.

The paintings have already been exhibited in Szeged where they were widely admired by those who saw them, including then Cambridge Mayor Gerri Bird.

The paintings were also exhibited in the Cambridge Guildhall during half-term. Visitors were invited to see the twin city as they have never seen it before.

The project, funded by Melbourn Village College to allow Mr Juett to work with its feeder primary schools, evolved over a number of weeks.

First the youngsters were given a chocolate, from a

Winning Design

A Christmas card which has been sent all over the world this year has been designed by a student from Melbourn Village College.

The design by Year 7 student Cameron Shepherd won a competition to be the Cameron’s Winning Entry official Season’s Greetings from the Mayor of Cambridge.

Its recipients include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who also feature on the card.

With guidance from Melbourn Head of Art Sarah Heeks and art teacher and artist Nick Juett, four classes of students were invited to design a card around the suggested themes of Prince William and his role as a helicopter pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, his wife and family and the iconic Cambridge landmark of King’s College chapel.

Cameron’s design features Santa in a helicopter with a present parachuting out.

The proud student said: “I was astounded to win. I didn’t think I had a chance. I’m very excited to be meeting the Mayor.”

Mayor Robert Dryden said he and fellow council members chose 11-year-old Cameron’s design “because it follows the theme of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and publicises the East Anglian Air Ambulance, the organisation for which His Royal Highness works.

“This charity is also one of the Mayor’s two selected charities which he is actively supporting throughout his year in office.”

Mr Juett said: “I was struck how lovely it was for a young person to win something so special. I remember as a boy winning something similar and it has stuck with me through the years.”

MVC NEWS

box featuring Szeged Town Hall on the front, and asked to draw it, only being allowed to eat it when they had successfully drawn it.

Next they were shown a painting by American pop artist Wayne Thiebaud, of multi-coloured cakes sitting in a row on spindly cake stands. They had to draw their own cake– with assistance in how to make the cake shape, using a clock face.

Then they chose a picture of one of five of Szeged’s historic buildings and traced it on to their ‘cake’ using the architectural ‘breakdown’ illustrations provided.

The youngsters decorated their cakes after looking at photos of the buildings and thinking about the people inside them.

Finally they were allowed to ‘cut the cake’ to help understand the 3D element as well as the techniques of perspective and foreshortening, the use of watercolour wash, tone and shading which they picked up along the way.

All the youngsters also improved their hand-eye coordination and experimented with individual design when ‘icing’ their creations, resulting in a fabulous collection of 33 pictures of which ‘Mr Nick’ is very proud.

In Remembrance

Year 9 Students at Melbourn Village College have been studying War Poems in their English lessons, ahead of Remembrance Day on November 11, originally for those who were affected, or lost their lives during World War One. Inspired by the literature they have been reading and analysing, the students have produced radio broadcasts to commemorate those in The Great War. Kate King, joint Head of English, said; “They have undertaken the task with great empathy, interest and enthusiasm and as a result, they have produced some excellent responses and thoughts to the poems they have read.

“Please do go to the Melbourn Village College website (www.mvc.org.uk ) and listen to the excellent commemorations of those in WW1, performed by our very talented students.”

In History James Haydock produced a stunning piece of sculpture based on the trenches during WW1.

James said the masterpiece took him most of the half term to complete and we all think it was well worth his efforts.

To commemorate Remembrance Day, four of the college prefects laid a wreath at the memorial service at All Saints’ Church Melbourn.

5

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 6

Trust welcomes plans

COMBERTON ACADEMY TRUST NEWS

The Trustees of the Comberton Academy Trust will allow Gamlingay First School to join the Trust if its plan to convert to Academy Status and admit students in Years 5 and 6 is approved.

At a Trustees’ meeting earlier this term, which followed a presentation by Gamlingay governors and the headteacher, the Trustees unanimously agreed

to the request to join the Trust.

If Gamlingay First School gets the go-ahead, it will become the first primary phase school to join the Trust and will come into the catchment area of Comberton Village College, one of the Trust’s four existing academies.

CAT Chief Executive Stephen Munday said: ““The Comberton Academy Trust is delighted that Gamlingay First School (GFS) is set on a path to move to Academy status and join the Comberton Academy Trust.

“We have liaised fully and carefully with the Governing Body and the Head of GFS in their decision-making process and are very clear about the powerful educational reasons for wishing to take this step.

“We very much look forward to working together to seek to ensure the very best education possible for young people in Gamlingay. The Trust’s stated aim is ‘Excellence for All’ and we are very clear that this is what those overseeing GFS wish to see.”

WORKING TOGETHER: Students from all four of the Trust’s Academies at the Language Leader Training Day.

Students are united in leadership

Year 9 Language Leaders spent the day at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge participating in the first ever Comberton Academy Trust Language Leader Training Day. Students from Comberton, Cambourne, with its first cohort of Year 9 students, Melbourn and The Voyager, who are participating in the Language Leader Award for the first time this year, attended the university day to help them develop their leadership and teamworking skills before going into primary schools to deliver language lessons over the coming academic year.

The Language Leader Award is a prestigious scheme that was created by CAT Director of International Education Dr Rachel Hawkes.

Students develop their language skills as well as their presentation and leadership skills by preparing and delivering at least three language lessons to younger students. Language leaders also assist with events such as Open Evening and the Foreign Language Spelling Bee regional and national finals, which this year will include the regional final at The Voyager, having previously been staged at Comberton.

The day consisted of a series of workshops covering the value of language learning, personality and leadership skills testing, presentation skills as well as

exercises testing team-working and initiative skills.

After this fantastic start to their language learning careers the leaders are now busy preparing, either at lunchtimes or after school, their lessons to pupils in feeder primary schools.

Dr Hawkes said: “The leadership day at Anglia Ruskin University, the home of Routes into Languages, a government-funded languages project that supports innovative ways to raise the profile of language learning in this country, was a fantastic start to the award programme.

“It provided us with an excellent opportunity to bring students from our four academies together with a common purpose.

“The language leader award was created with two overriding principles: first, learning is more deeply embedded when you have to know your material so well you can deliver it to others, and second, taking on a leadership role early develops a high level of selfreflection, building resilience, flexibility and the ability to work constructively with other people.

“Our students really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and work together with students from other schools and they’ve already asked us to provide them with further opportunities to collaborate.”

Experienced head becomes a Trustee An experienced new Trustee has joined the Comberton Academy Trust.

John Hartley, who steps down as head of Saffron Walden County High School and Chief Executive of the Saffron Academy Trust at the end of this term, has become the 10th Trustee of the Comberton Academy Trust.

Like CAT Chief Executive Stephen Munday, Mr Hartley is a National Leader of Education, a role he has held since 2011, and has led and co-ordinated improvement programmes to raise standards in several schools facing challenging circumstances.

His own school, the largest secondary in Essex, was rated outstanding by Osted at its most recent inspection in 2012.

6

Making IT work

Over the last couple of years it has become apparent that the need for staff to work across the Trust’s schools has increased.

With this comes many challenges for IT, not least making it as easy as possible for staff to move from site to site and be able to work.

With this in mind we embarked on a massive program of rebuilding the IT infrastructure across all the schools currently in the Trust.

It was a year in the planning and a further year in implementation, culminating in the mass migration of all 5,000 users from the old network to a new one in the summer The aim was to do this so that very little appeared to change and on returning to school at the end of the summer holidays, staff and students across all schools would be able to log in and just carry on working as if nothing had changed.

I’d like to think that for the most part we accomplished that with the odd hiccup along the way.

The benefits are that users can now log in at any school and can now see all staff and students in all schools in the Outlook Address Book.

For staff, it means they can walk into any of the Trust schools and have their laptop automatically connect to the wireless, access your user areas and the internet without needing to see IT and most importantly for all is the increase in mailbox size from around 250 – 500MB to 50GB (5000MB).

Due to the underlying work carried out we can now start to invest time in improving those services and rolling out some new systems, with the added benefit being that it now only has to be done once for all schools rather than individually across each school.

Paul Middleton, Trust IT Manager NEW

TRUSTEE:

SWCHS head

John Hartley.

The move to join CAT co-incides with Mr Hartley’s house move to South Cambridgeshire although he will conintue to work as Executive Consultant for the Alex Hunter Academy in Braintree.

Mr Munday said: “Of all the schools in the area, I would liken Comberton, with its size, its Sixth Form and its outstanding Ofsted grading, to Saffron Walden County High. We already work closely with them as part of the Teaching School programme and we are delighted John has decided to join our Trust.

“He has been head at SWCHS for 12 years and will bring a wealth of experience with him.”

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

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 7

MELBOURN

MVC NEWS

SPORTS CENTRE news

We had loads on offer this season, with something for the whole community to get involved with the highlights being our Autumn Fair and Hallowe’en Play scheme.

Autumn Fair Hundreds of families, bathed in the autumn sunshine, enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of activities and entertainment at the Melbourn Pavilion & Recreation ground on Sunday.

The Autumn fair, organised by Melbourn Sports Centre, was themed around outdoor activities and countryside awareness and included several local societies and organisations such as the Cambridgehire Butterfly society, a local Wildflower Society, 1st Melbourn Guides & Rainbow group and Wimpole Hall Farm. Also available was a chance to hold and have a photo with an owl, along with pony rides, fairground rides and inflatables.

The main event of the day was ‘Pig Racing’, which consisted of several races throughout the afternoon with a finale of the Melbourn Cup, a contest between local schools, won by Melbourn Village College.

Hallowe’en Play Scheme Ghosts and Ghouls came out to play and joined in with a ‘Halloween themed’ sport and activities day at Melbourn Sports Centre during the recent half term. The event consisted of a colouring competition, trampolining session, pool party and a scary fancy dress competition.

WINTER WONDERLAND!

With Christmas fas approaching, why not book a place on our Christmas KidzFactor activity days, which includes a pool party, trampolining and lots of fun party games or our popular Christmas party, with a very special visitor! And if you’re looking for something different to buy your loved ones this year, then how about one of our Gift Membership Packages or Gift Voucher?

We’re not going to let those long winter nights stop us from enjoying our exercise! As well as our indoor facilities like the swimming pool, squash courts and sports hall, we have loads of classes to keep you fit and healthy, including Boxercise, Swim Clinic, AquaFit, Aerobics and Body Workout. If classes are not your thing, then why not take up a racket sport instead. Sports includes table tennis, tennis, badminton & squash. And they’re all reasonably priced, so the one thing that will stay plump is your purse!

Looking to book a birthday or Christmas party? How about bouncing those cares away with a trampolining party, or have a splashing time with a fun pool party! We also have the adjacent Community Centre available for booking.

We have also signed up to ‘The Swimathon’, a national fundraising event, working in conjunction with Sport Relief. The event’s aim is to try to encourage as many people to swim 1500m – 5k for charity. The event will be held next year but there is no time like the present to start your training.

So come down and grab yourself a timetable and meet our friendly team, who’ll be happy to provide you with information on our competitively priced fitness suite membership, lessons and courses, court hire and party planning.

ACTIVITIES OF THE SEASON – something for everyone

GYMNASTICS COURSE Commencing January 2016 Our recreational gymnastic club is run by an experienced qualified BGA coach. With the emphasis on fun, you’ll be head over heels wanting more!

(Suitable for children from Reception years upwards) Saturday Mornings 09.30 – 10.30 / 10.30 – 11.30

TEEN TRAINING Monday – Friday 15.30 – 16.30 Weekends 14.00 – 15.00 Teen training is a great way to introduce you to exercising in a gym environment. You will be taught how to use a variety of cardiovascular and resistant equipment. In all, we will try to help you understand the benefits that exercise can offer you and in a safe and friendly way.

Suitable for young people aged 14 – 15 years old (school children only) AEROBICS Thursday 19.00 – 20.00 Get fit working out to hits from the 70’s to the modern day!

TRAMPOLINE COURSE Mondays 16.00 – 17.00 (4 - 7 years); 17.00 – 18.00 (8 – 11 years) 18.00 – 19.00 (12 – 16 years) This course is a great way to introduce your child into this fun and energetic sport. Start to learn all the basics including twists, shapes and drops!

SWIMMING LESSONS Age range: from 3 years – adult (all abilities) / Mondays – Saturdays / Various times available

Please contact reception for full details

Melbourn Sports Centre, The Village College, The Moor, Melbourn, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 6EF 01763 263313 / www.mc-sport.co.uk / info@mc-sport.co.uk

7

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 8

MVC NEWS

DofE Bronze Awards all round

In October, 26 Year 11 students from Melbourn Village College joined nearly 100 students from Comberton Village College to spend their weekend roaming the Chiltern Hills for their Bronze Assessed Expedition.

Students completed all of their route planning in September and were prepared for the challenge ahead with accurate maps, timings and route descriptions.

Needless to say this didn’t stop some groups becoming lost along the way, but everyone made it to their final destinations on both the Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately MVC had two students unable to complete on the Sunday due to injuries, which underlines how challenging these expeditions can be.

However students were really lucky with the weather which was extremely kind for the time of year, offering dry and sunny conditions.

It did get very chilly at night, but students were tucked up in their sleeping bags early on both nights, getting as much sleep as possible to prepare for the following day’s challenges.

8

The trip was a great success and could not have happened without the commitment of the staff and volunteers involved in the DofE programme.

We continue to have fantastic support from volunteers from the local community and are always happy to hear from people who are interested in being involved in the programme.

The Year 10 students enrolled on the course will take part in their Bronze Practice Expedition in March/April 2016 before they complete their assessed expedition in October 2016. Details will be sent out via email so it is important that students look out for this. MVC currently has around 50 Year 10 students registered to participate, the most we have ever had, and which represents nearly half the total year group.

Melbourn Village College continues to be very grateful for the support we get from Comberton Village College, without whom we would not be able to offer this valuable opportunity to our students.

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 9

Somebody Special Starts Here....

MVC NEWS

Two former student returned to the College only this time as tutors.

Former Manchester United and Cambridge United striker Luke Chadwick went back to his old school – this time as a teacher.

He was at Melbourn Village College to teach futsal, a version of five-a-side football, usually played indoors.

He and Cambridge United’s Futsal Development Manager, Ross Brooks, ran several sessions, mainly aimed at boys, as part of Cambridge United’s Futsal Education Programme and BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport, which is run in conjunction with Cambridge Regional College.

They are due to return later in the term to run a further session after the success of their first visit when they held40-minute sessions for all Year 7 boys, one Year 8 boys’ group and a mixed Year 11 class.

In these, students took part in a futsalrelated warm-up followed by games during which both Luke and Ross offered support and advice.

Some students are now planning to take part in futsal at Melbourn Community Sports during half-term next week, while the older

students are gearing up for a South Cambs futsal tournament at Swavesey Village College in November.

PE teacher Kelly Coghlan said: “The students loved the sessions and had a great time.”

Emma Reeves left the College in 2009 and after attending specialist training courses Emma now runs not one, but two, successful businesses.

Emma has been at Melbourn Village College instructing Years 10 and 11 in the latest fitness regime “Boogie Bounce”.

Students have been enjoying 30 minute sessions with Emma leading the way. Kelly Coghlan PE Teacher said “this is a fun way for students to keep fit, there is lots of aerobic movement involved and all those that have taken part have asked when Emma can come again”.

The College is proud of all its students and we love to hear what they have been up to since leaving. There are lots of inspiration posters around the school and if you know someone who would like to be featured please contact Alison Friday at afriday@mvc.org.uk.

SPORTING ROUNDUP

Five local Primary Schools teams recently took part in the Melbourn Cluster Schools High 5 Netball League. Thriplow,

Fowlmere, Melbourn and two teams from Harston entered into the spirit of the games.

Melbourn Village College sports leaders helped to run and umpire the matches and they did a great job. The weather wasn't kind, but at the end of the night we had some very wet but happy netball players. Congratulations to Thriplow who were the overall winners.

Haslingfield Primary School have qualified for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Sainsbury’s School Games Spring Finals after finishing as runners-up in the South Cambs SSP ‘Small Schools’ tag rugby competition. In total more than 200 children

participated at Melbourn Village College with 11 schools competing in the ‘small schools’ competition, for schools with fewer than 120 pupils in Key Stage 2, and a further six in the open competition. In the round robin open competition Steeple Morden successfully defended their title with four wins and a draw ensuring they

MVC On the Mark

Melbourn Village College is among a record number of South Cambridgeshire schools rewarded for their commitment to PE. It has been awarded a silver School Games Award for 2014-15 in recognition of its commitment to the development of Physical Education, schools sport and competition across their school and into the community.

topped the group with 13 points. They were pushed hard though and, having only managed a 1-1 draw against their own second team, needed to beat newcomers The Meadow Primary School from Balsham to guarantee victory, which they did 3-1.

Claire McDonnell, Partnership Manager, said: “Despite the damp conditions it was a fantastic afternoon of rugby with some really good performances and not much separating the top four teams in either competition. We hope events like this inspire and motivate the children to play more sport.“Thank you to the leaders from Melbourn Village College and Comberton Sixth Form, who did a great job in officiating and ensuring the event ran smoothly.”

The Year 7 Hockey Tournament took place at Bottisham Village College on

Thursday 12th November. 17 schools attended. Our girls played 7 matches. They came runners up to St Bedes in the first round of matches and were put into the runners up section which they won. PE Teacher Lesley Oxley-Goode said “our students played exceptionally well with great goal keeping by Hannah Smouton, and the most valuable player going to Molly Beesley. The rest of the team was made up of Emily Jelly, Emily Haydock, Victoria Kay, Mikaela Foumaki, Iris Cervanka and Isobel Taylor.

The Sainsbury’s School Games Mark is a Governmentled awards scheme and is awarded at bronze, silver or gold level.

Melbourn’s partners in the Comberton Academy Trust, Comberton Village College, also achieved a silver as did Bassingbourn and Meldreth Primary Schools, with Steeple Morden collecting gold and Guilden Morden bronze.

Claire McDonnell, manager of the South Cambs School Sports Partnership, said: “I am delighted that local

schools are now being recognised and rewarded for their hard work and the excellent opportunities they provide for their pupils to participate in school sport and competition.

“These schools are providing such a broad range of activities and encouraging all pupils to take part and compete in physical activity and sport as well as developing pupils’ leadership skills. This really is a fantastic achievement.”

9

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 10

Tripping the Light Fantastic

The teenagers, who are all studying GCSE Dance at Melbourn Village College, saw a performance of two pieces by the acclaimed company Rambert.

They were particularly privileged to see a piece called Rooster, which is set to music by the Rolling Stones, as it was the first performance of the work for 13 years. It is by famous choreographer Christopher Bruce, whose work is featured in the current GCSE specification.

That followed an interesting and in-depth piece by choreographer Kim Branstrup called Transfigured Night.

The Year 10 students were also given an insight into life as a professional dancer, seeing examples of company class and discussions from both the Rehearsal Director and the Artistic Director.

MVC NEWS

Melbourn dance teacher Jill Douglas said: “Overall the performance was very interesting and the students left feeling inspired and excited. “

The same group of students have also had a taste of student life at the University of Bedfordshire. They took part in an intensive dance day, which involved a range of physical technique classes and interesting creative workshops.

The day culminated in a sharing of what the pupils had learnt, with students given the opportunity to perform in the University's new theatre space. Our pupils responded incredibly well to the day, with a university lecturer commenting on how great they were. Students very much enjoyed the day, but there were some sore muscles on Thursday morning!'

Celebrating All Ages

Talented Dance Students working hard at Bedford University

GCSE Dance Students at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London

Trying out Bedford University’s new theatre space

Senior members of the community mingled with some of the younger ones as Melbourn Village College staged its annual Celebration of Ages Christmas party.

Year 10 students studying Health and Social Care, plus some Year 9 pupils, Head prefect Laura Bartholomew and prefect Imogen Laight served tea and freshly baked cakes to 160 pensioners.

They were transported to the college thanks to funding from Melbourn Parish Council, which also covered the cost of the event.

The visitors were also treated to the MVC Big Band playing a medley of festive songs and each took home a Christmas cake made by Melbourn’s catering manager Lynn Gregory.

allyance make the move to MVC

allyance, as many of you may know is an in-school counselling service, supporting 16 schools across the Bassingbourn, Gamlingay and Melbourn area.

Referrals for the service are made by headteachers from the cluster counselling and is provided free of charge. Any money allyance raises is used to pay for fully qualified therapists as experience has shown that early intervention prevents the escalation of young people’s difficulties and improves learning outcomes.

allyance aims to help children deal with a range of mental health issues in the belief that strong mental health enables young people to contribute to their community, feel inspired, form good relationships, have a desire for learning and to become resilient

employees/employers of the future.

The organisation has moved from its original home at Foxton Primary School and is now based at Melbourn Village College. Jenny Jones who retired as head at Foxton Primary School last Easter, now volunteers for the service and is chair of the steering group. She works closely with Ann Jones the allyance coordinator.

However, the work of allyance is under threat as its future funding is uncertain. It is always looking for ways to raise money – supporters held a wine and canapes evening earlier this month at Queens’ College, Cambridge – and would welcome any suggestions and contributions.

For further information or to discuss how you can help allyance, please contact Ann Jones on ajones@mvc.org.uk

10

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 11

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

MVC NEWS

Battling into county final

GOING THROUGH: Meldreth’s winners, Jeavons Wood’s girls’ team and Harston & Newton, who were pipped by Meldreth.

There was a great turn out for the South Cambridgeshire round of the English Schools FA football competitions.

Jeavons Wood made it to the final unbeaten with four wins and a draw, but they were up against tough opposition, with the Histon girls having scored 20 goals in five wins in their group.

It turned out to be a close match, though, with The event for Under-11 school teams included last year’s county champions Histon & Impington three separate competitions — small schools, edging it to take the winners’ shield and a place girls’ teams and an open 7-a-side competition — in the county final for the third year running. with a total of 39 school teams battling it out for In the seven-a-side competition for ‘big schools’, ON THE SPOT: Meldreth take a penalty. one of the titles.

15 teams competed in three pools of five with the The competition, organised by South Cambs School Sports Partnership was hosted top placed school in each pool and the highest scoring runner up qualifying for the

by Impington Village College with sports leaders from the college assisting with the semi-finals. running of the event alongside a group of Cambridge United FC scholars from In the first semi-final Over beat Histon and Impington Juniors 2-1, while Willingham Cambridge Regional College, who refereed all the matches. saw off Linton Heights 1-0. In the end it was a single goal from Over that earned The three competitions were all played in a round robin format with teams playing them the title. all the other teams in their pool. The top teams from each pool qualified for the final.

The winners and runners-up in each competition go on to to represent South Cambs In the small schools competition, for schools with fewer than 120 pupils in Key in the County Finals in February where they will compete against the winners from Stage 2, it was extremely competitive. In Pool 1, last year’s runners-up Harston and the other districts for the chance to qualify for the ESFA regional finals.

Newton beat Haslingfield to qualify by one point and set up a final against Meldreth.

Claire McDonnell, Partnership Manager, said: “The event was a great success; it Both teams went into the final with four wins and a draw and a highly competitive really does get better every year. affair did not disappoint. It took the drama of a penalty shoot-out to separate the “We were delighted to have almost 400 children involved. They represented their teams, with Meldreth snatching the title 5-4. schools with pride, showed great respect and sportsmanship and left having had a A record 12 teams battled it out in the girls’ competition Histon & Impington Juniors really enjoyable day.” and Jeavons Wood finishing top of the two groups.

Taking the lead . . .

Partnership boost to coaches academy

PACKED PROGRAMME: For students in the County Young Coach Academy.

This year’s County Young Coach Academy was launched in October at Anglia Ruskin University with 14 amazing young coaches involved in the programme.

These youngsters are the coaching workforce of the future and our aim is to provide them with the skills and qualities to become the best coaches they can be and this year our new partnership with ARU means that each young coach has a mentor to help them achieve their goals.

It has been a packed programme from the start for the young coaches with their initial welcome meeting being followed by two days during half-term where they learnt the importance of a warm up and cool down with Richard and Claire from Fit Again Sports Therapy followed by a FUNdamentals of

movement workshop where they developed an understanding of Agility, Balance and Coordination and the importance of these key skills in all sports.

The two days finished with some valuable time spent with their mentor to discuss their coaching goals and how they might achieve them.

Their next workshop is a practical coaching workshop which will cover the importance of developing a session plan, demonstrating how to plan a coaching session and identifying opportunities for observation and feedback.

We will have more workshops booked for the New Year and are looking forward to continuing to work with these young coaches and see them grow.

The South Cambs SSP Leadership Academy has 180 young leaders in it this year, with 33 from Comberton Village College, 41 from Melbourn Village College and the others made up from Swavesey, Cottenham, Bassingbourn and Impington Village Colleges.

During October half term these sports leaders were extremely busy attending leadership and officiating courses to support them in developing their skills, knowledge and confidence to lead and volunteer in school and community sport.

Over the course of the week more than 80 youngsters attended the following courses: Level 1 Award in Hockey Umpiring, Rugby Leaders’ Award, Netball Youth Umpire Award, Inclusive Sport and Junior Football Leaders’ Award.

As well as attending courses they have been busy volunteering at different events, including the Under-11 ESFA Football tournament, South Cambs DC holiday camps and a rugby competition at Melbourn Village College. It is fantastic to see so many leaders volunteering their time and inspiring the younger children they lead.

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION: Rugby leaders.

11

MVC News Autumn 2015_comberton temp.qxp 03/12/2015 14:35 Page 12

MVC NEWS

12