The News Magazine of Cambourne Village College
ISSUE 2, SPRING 2014
BROUGHT TO LIFE: Cambourne staff (And students, below) in costume on World Book Day, part of the college’s Book Week.
Read all about it What do the Woman in Black, the Mad Hatter, Gothic Alice in Wonderland and Thing 1 and Thing 2 all have in common? They all made an appearance at Cambourne Village College for World Book Day. The Year 7 pupils at Cambourne enjoyed a week of activities and competitions, all celebrating stories in all their forms — oral, illustrated and written. Book Week also saw the launch of a pupil versus staff reading challenge, based on the “Writes of Passage” — the top 50 books to read as a teenager, which was compiled by the organisers of World Book Day in a national vote through the World Book Day website. Cambourne are going to see who can read all of the books off the list (with a few alterations and additions) before the start of the new school year in September. If any parents would like to get involved the list will be published on the school website! Book Week itself was a hive of activities, competitions and events to highlight the importance of reading and stories to the
year group. The Monday kicked off with making some book bunting in the library, while on the Tuesday, clues to a character were stuck on the doors to staff work spaces and classrooms with pupils having to guess whom the clues led to. Wednesday morning started with an assembly where pupils and staff wrote suggestions of what other people might enjoy reading, reflecting a wide variety
in reading preferences from “TinTin” to “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In the afternoon, author and Cambourne VC Patron of Reading, Marcus Sedgwick, ran a creative writing workshop with some students, which produced some lovely work.
After school Mr Sedgwick and some parents watched pupils perform their drama work, which was inspired by his book, “The Foreshadowing”. As well as performing, students also read excerpts from their own creative writing — letters from soldiers on the front to loved ones at home. Thursday was a book-related non-uniform day, with staff and pupils alike dressing up as their favourite book characters, Chef Rob and his ketchup helpers served up a wonderful bookinspired lunch, the highlight being a Wimpy Kid Cheese Touch burger! On Friday, the school welcomed storyteller Patrick Ryan and illustrator Richard Morgan, who both ran excellent sessions with the pupils. Ms Tarrant went to The Vine on 28th February to judge the finalists from their creative writing competition. The standard was very high, but Molly Blair was declared the winner, and was invited to join the Year 7s at Cambourne for this wonderful performance. Read the start of her story on Page 17. Geography teacher, Miss Leaning, also ran a lunchtime session with some pupils looking at literacy and reading rates from around the globe, which provided some fun but thought provoking facts.
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