News@com dec 2012

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News@Com The News Magazine of Comberton Village College ISSUE 31, WINTER 2012

BUILDING IS UNDER WAY WORK ON transforming an extremely muddy field into a stateof-the-art secondary school for Cambourne is well under way and on schedule to be handed over to the Comberton Academy Trust next summer.

New Head of School at Cambourne Village College, Claire Coates, recently took the opportunity to visit the site with South Cambridgeshire MP Andrew Lansley and the Executive Principal of both Comberton and Cambourne Village Colleges, Stephen Munday.

Mrs Coates, currently one of the Deputy Principals at Comberton, said: “It’s fascinating to see the transformation of the architect’s plans into the structure we see increasing day by day. “We are working hard at ordering all the new equipment that will be needed, and looking forward to the new cohort of pupils being able to learn in such great new facilities. “It will be inspirational to be teaching in such a wonderful new building. There is lots of interest from current Comberton staff in the new positions.�

New school is right on schedule — Pages 10 and 11

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Students protest!

COMBERTON students recently attended a South Cambridgeshire District Council meeting to lodge their protests against the council’s proposed spending cuts to Arts Development Managers, grants to community groups and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

The young people from CVC were all members of the recent ‘Will We Rock You’ show and turned up at the council meeting in full costume!

As the cast belted out a rendition of ‘We Are the Champions’ they were joined by students from Sawston and Impington, who also attended to protest against the cuts to the Arts Development Managers’ posts.

Year 9 student Aaron Marcus delivered a petition of more than 1400 signatures, which were collected in just three days, showing the large amount of support for the work of the Arts Development Managers across the district. He was also interviewed

by Radio Cambridgeshire.

Currently there are five Arts Development Managers working in seven village colleges across South Cambs. They help with activities both in school and in the community. Together they form stART Arts, which works on districtwide projects. CVC’s Arts Development Manager, Richard Brown, helps with all kinds of school events and productions as well as activities in the community such as Cambourne Youth Festival, theatre at Burwash Manor and village cinemas, as well as running the popular Custard Comedy, Rhubarb Cabaret and other shows at Comberton Sports & Arts.

The council meeting was chaired by Cllr Ray Manning, who asked for a full consultation to take place before he takes the final decision on the future of arts development in February.

RECORDING: Students make a record of their protest.

Protesters fear that if the council does decide to cut the funding for these posts that it jeopardises the links between arts lovers in South Cambs and the village colleges.

Everyone can take part in the consultation which can be found at www.scambs.gov.uk and runs until December 20th.

Cadets join Remembrance Day events LAST month three Comberton Year 11 students took part in the Remembrance Day commemorations in London.

Army Cadets Keegan Farmery, Ella Clark and Sam Ruffels were proud to take part in a Remembrance

parade and ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall.

Sam and Keegan acted as carpet guards to assist the Chelsea Pensioners down the stairs and then joined in with the final muster parade, even appearing briefly on television!

The cadets’ march past Prince Andrew was unfortunately not televised, but a wonderful time was had by all and the school is very proud of the achievements of these three young people.

Jay Richardson (11V)

INSIDE THIS ISSUE CVC Really Rocks — Page 3

CVC Pair Sing for Radio — Page 13

A Passage to India — Page 5

Real Life Origami — Page 14

Learn to Cook Healthily — Page 5

Mysteries of Writing — Page 14 Pupils in Dragons’ Den — Page 14

Speaking with Confidence — Page 6 End for Textbooks? — Page 6 Cake Creations Tickle Tastebuds — Page 6

Science Round-Up — Page 15

Eco Round-Up — Page 7

Collecting Data — Page 17

Making a Promise — Page 8

Trip Aids War Learning — Page 17 Golfers’ Spanish Test — Page 18

Money for Old Clothes — Page 8

Girls Get to Grips — Page 18

Fun Way to Help — Page 9

Connell on course — Page 18

MoBros take Challenge — Page 9

Fightback Too Late — Page 19

Charity’s Cake Cash — Page 9

Hotshots March On — Page 20

Spotlight on Cambourne Village

Boys Foil Opponents — Page 20

College — Pages 10 & 11 A Way with Words — Page 13 Freakily Good Night — Page 13

Scaling New Heights — Page 20 Designed and edited by Judy Czylok.

Contact: publicity@comberton.cambs.sch.uk

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ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING: The cast of ‘We Will Rock You’ in full flow.

CVC really rocks! mentary on the music industry. Ben Sharp as Pop (love the wig), Adam Ganczakowski, as Big Macca, and his Bohemians provided some excellent comic support and a few touching moments too as they represented the old and upcoming generations of rockers. Their shabby costumes reminiscent of 80s music videos were in stark contrast to the neon and white of the Ga-Ga girls and their identi-kit approach to music, clothing and boys. This did make for better dancing though.

There were so many memorable scenes, I won’t even start naming favourites.

The band was impressively tight, with the exception of some two-dimensional playing

by Freddie Mercury! They belted out number after number without tiring and were matched note for note by some great backing singers. The choreography was dazzling, not simply for pure ability, but for the range of styles, the variety of the routines, and the sheer number of dancers flooding the stage. The suggestive set worked perfectly in allowing the huge cast to shine on so many levels. Alas, that health and safety restricted the motorcycle being fired up on stage at the end.

Costumes likewise were excellent. The production crew ensured the night went without a hitch; they were ever-helpful before the show began and professionally invisible once the music started. The direction, both musical and dramatic was slick, always emphasising the emotion and energy of the moment. The enthusiasm and pace kept high throughout so that I was exhausted by the finale.

Having a knowledge of Queen lyrics certainly enhanced the enjoyment of the dialogue, which was indeed something of a pubquiz for musicologists. Particular SCENES: favourites from the catalogue of From the songs were the humour-filled, show.

‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ and the energetic ‘Hammer to Fall’.

However it wasn’t until the final number and titular song that the audience really let loose on opening night. As a show which celebrates the power and irrepressible vitality of the young, Comberton’s ‘We Will Rock You’ certainly did.

Mike Ryall, English Dept

WITH A rainbow of glow-sticks waving back and forth across the audience and plenty of singing along by many in attendance, the opening night of ‘We Will Rock You’ was definitely an evening thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

On Tuesday 13th-Saturday 17th November the Queen Musical rocked the Performance Hall and if the first night was anything to go by, I’d bet the run was a roaring success.

Not knowing this musical at all, it was great to see the plot unfold on several levels.

First and foremost was the coming-of-age tale of the lead pair. The gradual emergence of Will Cox (Galileo) from a shy, bumbling, teenager unsure of his calling, to a confident, strident Rock god would be empowering for any would-be star. The storyline more or less follows this transition, with the inclusion of the love story. Here Galileo discovers a worthy partner in greatness with his intense, mis-fit ‘rock chick,’ Scaramouche. Holly Masters’ powerful voice had the force of a rifle shot and at more than one moment she hit notes to complement the most piercing of guitar riffs. She started as dynamic and never for a moment let up. A second couple Meat and Britney, played by Emily Chadwick and Michael Smith (Yes, Britney is a male name here!) complemented the main pair with, if possible, even more energy. It was a shame that once again in rock, ‘the good die young’ leaving the audience regretting his early departure from the stage.

The storyline operated on a much larger scale with the corruption of the music industry and the control by the imposing presence and voice of the Killer Queen, Rowana Soyza. Her performance was worthy of a Bond villain. Her trusty, illtreated henchman, Kashoggi, played by Ollie Wigg, had a lovely balance of sycophancy and menace to trouble the young, wouldbe rockers. Besides being worthy antagonists, the pair provided the opportunity for some social com-

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A passage to India because of the character of its people, the variety of landscape, and marvellous traditions of faith, history, art and languages. I was surprised to find that only 20% of the population speak Hindi (the biggest single language group) and that there are many other languages spoken.

Interestingly for us, English is the common language and the English education system is imitated in schools throughout, with English international GCSE qualifications being the dominant examination system.

There were many reminders during my stay of both the British Imperial presence before Independence and of Independence itself.

The Indian people hold Britain in great affection while, of course, remaining fiercely proud of their own nation and the freedom they

Education is everything in India as Comberton Deputy Principal Mary Martin discovered during a two-week working visit to the foothills of the Himalayas.

EDUCATION is prized in India by every strand of society, rich and poor.

During my trip to Utterakhand in North East India to explore the possibility of setting up some in-service training for secondary teachers, I stayed in a private school, Kasiga School in Dehra Dun, so the students there were from privileged backgrounds and had high aspirations.

However, all Indians set a very high value on education for their children and make sacrifices beyond what most of us would consider acceptable, in that often parents will go hungry to ensure that their children can attend school. This is sobering and arresting for us who perhaps sometimes take for granted what we have access to.

It is pleasing to see that Year 9 at Comberton have chosen to support India for their charity drive this year. I can assure them that their efforts are needed and will be greatly appreciated on the subcontinent.

When people talk about India, numbers crowd in thick and fast. The population is 1.2 billion, containing a third of the world’s poor, with 350 million people living on 63p a day (internaTEACHING tional definition of absolute poverty).

LINE-UP: Three hundred million people repreMary Martin sent the Middle Class and when with some of India’s marvellous growth figures are bandied about (6/7%), it is probably to the Indian this sector of the population that most teachers she worked of the growth is referring. with this This means that the vast majority of people there are working very hard for term. subsistence only and often not even that. The scale of poverty is striking and the inadequacies of the infrastructure (poor roads, inadequate sewage, insufficient power, contaminated water supplies etc) make this a difficult country to traverse and to live in.

Despite these undoubted difficulties, India is an incredibly inspiring place to visit

achieved on 15th August 1947.

My trip to Dehra Dun (famous in India for the number of schools) was VITAL as a result of my work with the LEARNING: Faculty of Education in Cambridge, Education is but funded by the Helga Todd Foundation. They are working highly together on this project based at the valued by all Commonwealth Centre for Indians.

Education.

I count myself fortunate to have stayed in such a beautiful location in the foothills of the Himalayas and in such a wonderful school with delightfully enthusiastic and welcoming students.

The trip itself was a great success in that we managed to recruit 25 teachers from several schools to attend an Autumn Term weekly session aimed at facilitating reflection on practice, introducing the Cambridge model of blended learning using seminars, school-based tasks and online learning.

My role included co-planning the course, working in India for two weeks and coaching a colleague who then remained in post while continuing the sessions this term.

The course has been highly successful, with the Indian teachers claiming that they have really enjoyed and benefitted from it. This pilot has been useful as part of Cambridge reconnaissance in this field and will hopefully influence future engagement.

Learn to cook healthily — and much more!

IF you are interested in weight management and healthy eating, Comberton’s Community Education department are offering a new Cook4Life cookery course on Monday evenings (7.00-9.00pm) starting January 14th.

Personal Health Trainers will attend the sessions to offer individual support and advice. The fee is £46 for six weeks, but the course is free to anyone

receiving benefits.

There are lots of other courses on offer in January, including Watercolours Absolute Beginners (Wednesdays 11.30-1.00pm), Digital Photography for Improvers (Mondays 7.159.15pm), Mosaic Making (Saturday Feb 2, 104.00pm), Stained Glass (Saturday Feb 23, 10.004.00pm), Wine Tasting (Saturday Feb 2 10.00-

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4.00pm) and Excel Spread Sheets (Saturday Feb 2, 10.00-3.30pm). Please let us know if you would like to try a session (not day schools) before enrolling.

For more details please phone 01223 264721 or e-mail commed@comberton.cambs.sch.uk For a full list of courses please see the College website: www.commed.combertonvc.org

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Speaking with confidence I HAVE recently completed a Masters degree in Teaching Studies, which included a research project conducted at Comberton Village College with a Key Stage 4 class.

Having taken part in a regional Linked Up project that focussed on the development of resources for spontaneous speaking skills in second language learning, I felt that this was an area for further exploration.

Since the introduction of the new GCSE in 2009 there has been a renewed focus on the demand for successful candidates to be able to produce unplanned responses to unpredictable questions, a demand which many students find somewhat daunting.

I carried out a case study on the challenges surrounding the development of spontaneous speaking with my GCSE Spanish class at the time.

I experimented with different techniques to support students in unplanned speaking situations. These included choosing their partner in peer assessed tasks,

BAKE OFF BRILLIANCE: The winning cupcake designs on the Curriculum Extension Days.

working in groups of friends with the Spanish assistant, and class tasks to practise specific strategies to buy time and giving a short period of planning time before a speaking task.

Students were asked for their views in class questionnaires and a small group of students took part in two group interviews where they were asked to explain which strategies they found most/least helpful and why.

The research project saw students’ confidence in unplanned speaking increase over the course of the TALKING: Pupils practise their Spanish project and their ability to respond to spontaneous questions on a given topic improved. This helped not speaking. only their achievement, but also their confidence in speaking controlled assessments.

I continue to implement the more successful strategies I explored in this project as well as the Linked Up project and unplanned speaking plays a key role in most of my GCSE lessons.

Anna Halter, MFL Dept. OVER the last school year I have been running a research project investigating the use of mobile devices (eg tablet computers, iPods and smartphones) as an interactive alternative to textbooks. The system we have developed displays maths questions on pupils' individual screens and allows them to be answered using their touchscreen.

We found a number of exciting advantages over textbooks or worksheets. Firstly, with a computer able to mark many maths questions automatically, pupils get immediate feedback about their progress.

Their teacher sees this feedback in real time so they are able to quickly identify which pupils need additional support.

Secondly, those pupils who are coping well with the work can automatically be given more challenging questions, meaning every pupil is asked to complete a personalised set of questions appropriate to their judged against the whole year’s entries. From there, needs. the judges selected the top 15 and then narrowed I am excited by the future possibilities that this techthem down to a winner and two runners-up. The nology offers, especially as tablets become more overall winners were Megan Caw and Isaak Owen, widespread.

Jamie Freeman, Maths Dept. who made sunflower cupcakes with a ladybird on

The end for textbooks?

Cake creations tickle tastebuds YEAR 9 took part in a 'Great British Bake Off ' style cupcake competition, as part of Curriculum Extension days.

Our task was to create a batch of six cupcakes, with decorations, in two periods. In teams of two, we battled against the clock to create all sorts of elaborate designs.

These ranged from Garfield characters made from icing, to cakes injected with blueberry cream. When all of the cakes were cooled, iced and displayed, our two judges Mary Berry (Mme Burgess) and Paul Hollywood (Mr Munday) chose at least one winner from each form. Those winners were based on both presentation and taste, but all of the cupcakes were very impressive and looked amazing.

The chosen winners' cupcakes then went on to be

top. Following them were Bethany Johnson and Maz Yassen, who made Garfield character cakes, whilst Anna Norgett and Sophia Hague made rose cupcakes which looked like a bouquet of flowers. It was a really fun and enjoyable day for the whole of Year 9 so we would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Jones, Mrs Hall and the Design/Food Technology department for organising the day and making it such a success and not forgetting our judges Mme Burgess and Mr Munday.

Anna Norgett (9B)

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Trash to treasure RECO group, now renamed as ECO group, have been busy this term.

With two brand new clubs starting after

Firstly, we had outside actors entertain Year 8 about reusing your stuff, for example old DVDs.

pupils’ creative abilities to the test.

school, we’ve been putting Key Stage 3 Read more to find out what ECO group have been up to.

Club is fun GRAPHICS Club is brilliant, fun and challenging and we are having a great time.

So far we sprayed stencils, made badges and designed a cartoon character.

For the stencil we had to design and draw our stencils on the computer, cut them LOOK WHAT WE’VE MADE: Members of the Graphics club. using a machine and spray paint a T-shirt or bag.

We have designed and made badges, designed our own fun YEAR 8 got period one off lessons and we made our way to the cartoon characters and now Performance Hall for a special assembly called ‘Love Your Stuff’. some of the people from the The assembly was about reusing your old stuff and how throwing it away is graphics club are starting to bad for the environment. make bird feeders and we are The two actors performed as two friends who have a school project where doing lots more fun things in they have to make something useful out of old objects, such as clothes. the future.

A few jokes made this assembly funny and useful.

Ethan Gower (7N) and Tess Clippingdale (7R) George Blackhurst-Patrick (8M)

Jokes help make point

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FEEDING THE BIRDS: Pupils make fat balls.

Birds feel benefit WE are two members of Trash Club, a new eco club that started this term. So far we have successfully completed an Eco-related stencil and are currently working on making a recycled bird feeder, which, we hope, will go in the wildlife garden.

Our next project is making fat balls to put around the school.

Next term, we will carry out ecology surveys such as pond dipping. But the most exciting thing is that we might be building hedgehog houses and releasing some hedgehogs.

Ella Williams and Josie Allen (7O)

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Making a promise so far raised £1,000 with your support. To boost the funds we have a major event planned for after Christmas.

On Saturday March 9th, 2013 we will be holding an ‘Auction of Promises’ and we need YOUR help!

We would appreciate if you would kindly consider Through various fundraising events (such as the spondonating your unwanted or duplicate Christmas presorship of minibus parts, raffles, Principal's Ball and connected with Art, Geography and History, the Duke sents for us to add to the auction. donations) the Friends of CVC Trust Fund contributed of Edinburgh Award scheme, and many others, within We will be collecting all gifts/donations after Christmas Cambridgeshire and beyond. £7,000 toward the purchase. and further information will be circulated by ParentMail.

Not only do our pupils benefit from the availability of Now the college has approached the Friends of CVC We are also looking for any businesses wishing to minibuses on site, but the College is also able to genTrust Fund again about replacing two old minibuses. donate gift vouchers/services/goods. Previous auction erate income from hiring them to CVC’s feeder primary The College is very fortunate to have four minibuses, items have included offers of gifts/services such as schools. This enables the primary schools to provide enabling the staff to organise trips for the pupils. gardening, hairdressing, lifts to the airport, backstage reasonably priced trips.

It is estimated that the cost of Activities outside the school are a vital part of the outtours of interesting workplaces, a ride in a vintage car, purchasing two nearly new minibuses will be in the standing education provided at CVC. These activities bottles of wine/spirits, vouchers for restaurants, chocoregion of £35,000.The Friends of CVC Trust Fund have include sports events, cultural visits, educational trips lates, plants, one-week rental of a luxury apartment in St Lucia, delicious puddings specially made by Mrs A Jones, various hampers, etc. The more interTHE recent ‘Bags2School’ collection was a great success. esting the auction lots, the closer we will We would like to thank the parents, pupils, friends and CVC staff get to providing minibuses for your chilwho dropped their bags into the school over the last few weeks. dren.

A special thank you to a handful of Sixth Formers, who helped This term the Friends of CVC Trust us to pile up the bags at the front of the school, in preparation Fund have raised £390 from the for the collection, and the Charity Prefects for distributing the Bag2School collection and £198 from a bags. raffle at the recent ‘We Will Rock You’ We always appreciate both the effort of those collecting the show. clothes and the helpers on the day. We raised £390, which was For more information or to offer a a significant increase on our previous collection. gift/donation /match fund please e-mail: These funds will be put towards buying the minibuses that are cvcfriends@gmail.com needed to replace the old existing ones at the college.

Thanking you very much for your supOur next collection will be in April 2013. Any offers of help, or for port. Season’s Greetings! more information, please contact cvcfriends@gmail.com Peter Ganczakowski Vijju Churchman and Heather Robinson, HELPING OUT: Sixth Formers helped pile up the Chair of Friends of CVC Trust Fund Trustees of Friends of CVC Trust Fund bags for collection.

IN 2007 a request was made to the Friends of CVC Trust Fund by the College to help raise funds for a much-needed minibus with full accessibility for users of wheelchairs.

Money for old clothes

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Fun way to help COMBERTON pulled out all the stops for this year’s Children in Need appeal.

Year 7 held a whole week of events, the library went spotty and staff and students alike paid to wear a variety of alternative clothing.

The library ran a two-week competition to put a spot on Pudsey and Blush to win cuddly toys — which went to Sam Pritchard (7B) and Chloe Hall (7M), while Mrs Phelan won the mug.

They also sold out of Children in Need wristbands and badges, raising more than £260 in total..

Year 7 kicked off their fund-raising week with a ‘Where’s Pudsey?’ competition and followed up with name/design a friend for THE HATS HAVE IT: 8R show off their headwear.

Pudsey, Beat the Goalie, Sixth form students each paid £1 to wear their pyjamas guess the number of sweets in the jar and ‘cover to school (or £2 not to), while the rest of the school Pudsey in 10 pence pieces.

All the events cost 10p each with Beat the Goalie provwere invited to accessorise their uniforms with hats ing particularly popular although the staff did emerge and alternatives to school shoes for £1. victorious, saving more goals than the students scored!

The latest total for the amount raised is £1,191.63.

C h a r i t y ’s c a k e c a s h MoBros take up challenge

DURING November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world.

The aim is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

Support for this cause has been fantastically demonstrated among the staff at Comberton with more than 30 MoBros participating in and around the school. We have also had some great help from the Mo Sistas sprouting Mos for a day.

Movember is a great cause growing biggger each year and with more awareness to be spread and money to be raised long may it continue at CVC.

OUR first task of the year was to create the charity team of myself; two charity prefects, Letitia Budu and Laura Filipe, and two charity leaders in each year in the lower school. In our first event this year, we raised a staggering £370 for Macmillan through our cake sale during the Walk for Africa. Our next big event was Children In Need, where we worked alongside the library to run two fundraisers: ‘put a spot on the bear’ and ‘guess your teachers’ favourite songs’.

We have several more events planned for the rest of the year, so stay tuned!

Alice Borrett, Senior Charity Prefect

HAIRY UPPER LIP: Members of staff show their support for Movember.

Work starts here as new council is voted in AFTER a tight competition on the most recent PD day, we are delighted to have elected a new set of school councillors who will represent the school at meetings and events every week.

Together with the head prefect team, they will be discussing issues as varied as uniform and the buttery to help make improvements within the school community.

The successful candidates were Florence Murray, Adam Ganczakowski (Year 10), Emily Dowd, Oliver Lau (Year 9), Alexia Sloane, Sean Purser

(Year 8), Fay Hawkins and Callum HarveyMcMahon (Year 7). All of the new councillors are very strong candidates and we think they are going to do an awesome job over the next year but we’d also like thank everyone who stood because the applications were of very high quality.

Furthermore, we would also like to thank our out-going School Council for the superb job that they’ve done for the last year!

Thomas Denney, Head Prefect OLD & NEW: Out-going and incoming councillors.

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New school is right o THE building work progresses!

When you travel past Cambourne on the A428, the structure of our new Village College can be clearly seen rising from its foundations in Lower Cambourne and building continues ‘on programme’, despite incredibly muddy conditions.

The site is an exciting hive of activity with all manner of trucks, bulldozers and cranes working away with tremendous commitment from Kiers to ensure they hand the building over to us on time next summer.

This is a very busy time off-site as well. We have recruited our Senior Administrative Officer, and from January, a large part of her

role will be to ensure that all the new furnishings and equipment for the new College are in place for September.

Last month we ran a national advertisement to recruit a Deputy Head of School, a Head of Year 7 and a Special Educational Needs Coordinator. Strong interest was expressed in these positions from both within Comberton and externally, and I am delighted that Comberton Assistant Principal Sean Sumner has been appointed as Deputy Head of School, Cambourne, having beaten a very strong field of applicants.

We are currently recruiting Subject Leaders. These positions will be filled by existing Comberton staff — as will the remaining teaching positions, so the majority of the teaching at Cambourne will be by our

THE FINISHED ARTICLE: Artist’s impression of Cambourne Village College.

Open Evening is big success

existing subject specialists, thus guaranteein dards of teaching and learning across the tw Plans for community use of Cambourne Villa apace: we are moving closer to being able t ema facilities and a number of clubs and org approached us with enquiries about the hire Cambourne residents will be consulted abou classes they would like to see offered, and w fully what we will be able to do from the start 2013. It is likely we will begin by opening for or two evenings a week, and will build on this Discussions about the school uniform at Cam

MP ON SITE: Andrew Lansley (second left) at Cambourne with Stephen Munday, Claire Coates, Peter Hains and Graham Howe, Managing Director of Kier Construction (Eastern Region).

Cambour

ON A rainy Thursday evening in October, Comberton opened its doors to the largest number of Year 6 pupils ever as it hosted an open evening for both Comberton and Cambourne Village Colleges.

Year 6 students attended talks about one or both schools, led by Mr Munday, and were able to experience some of the variety of lesson activities at Comberton.

Different subject areas hosted activities as varied as debates in English, foodtasting in FT and custom bookmarks in DT. Students (and their parents!) were incredibly impressed by the variety of lessons and the behaviour of the hundreds of students who volunteered to come in to help out with the evening.

We would therefore like to thank all the students who participated and helped to give a fantastic impression of our school.

CAMBOURNE Village College is set to become t part of the Comberton Academy Trust (CAT) whe 2013.

This follows the acceptance of the Trust’s ‘Free S mer 2012.

The Trust itself was formed at the beginning of 20 PACKED: Parents and Village College to move to Academy status in Fe gible for the freedoms that come with that status.

Year 6 pupils listen In September 2011, The CAT became the sponso Academy in Peterborough. It moved from its prev to the talk Voyager School at that point. This 11-18 Academ about Cambourne seen by the CAT and has a strong partnership w College.

Village Several Comberton staff work closely with staff fr College. op ever higher standards of education for young Despite this, the evening did have its challenges, as we were faced Bretton areas of Peterborough where the Academ with advertising a school that didn’t exist yet at Cambourne.

We were all delighted when the main GCSE mea However, parents left assured that the new school in Cambourne will provide the high quality of education and resources that are cur- pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades includi rose to its highest ever level of 40% in summer 2 rently provided at Comberton.

Year 11 Publicity Prefects outcome of 32% was in 2011.

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on schedule nteeing the same high stanthe two sites. e Village College continue able to provide community cinnd organisations have already e hire of sports venues. d about the range of evening and we are considering caree start of the September term ing for the community on one on this if there is the demand. at Cambourne are well under

way, with consultations in progress about whether we will go with an adaptation of the current Comberton sweatshirt model, or move to something different across the two sites. As you can imagine, this is a subject provoking a great deal of interest, especially among the Year 6 pupils! Full details can be found on both College websites: combertonvc.org and cambournevc.org, with the opportunity there for you to express your views.

A great many staff at Comberton and beyond are giving unstintingly of their time as we continue with the detailed planning involved in opening on a brand new site, and I would like to thank every one of them for their enthusiasm and much valued help.

Claire Coates, Head of School, Cambourne Village College

A faster way to build . . .

h we,

CAMBOURNE Village College is being built using a revolutionary new building system.

This means much of the 7,000 sq metre project will be constructed away from the site and brought in ready-made modules. This reduces the build time is just 35 weeks.

The curriculum wings will be built elsewhere by Yorkon, while a cross laminated timber structure will be used for the central core that houses the large communal spaces such as dining hall and gym.

Kier Construction, who also built Comberton’s Sixth Form, have been awarded the contract for Cambourne Village College and Simon Bates, Contracts Manager at Kier Construction, said: "In order for the new building to be fully operational for the Council's deadline next year, the time available for construction was

reduced.”

The new Yorkon steel-framed building system will reduce the number of modules needed for the teaching areas by around half, to just 60 large 18m long units. They will each be delivered with a pre-installed concrete floor. This solution is more sustainable because it reduces the vehicle movements to site, there will be less cranage and less work on site. There will also be fewer internal columns to facilitate space planning.

The use of the very latest open pour polyurethane insulation technology will deliver even better thermal performance for GOING UP: The central section of the new Cambourne Village lower running costs and reduced carbon College. emissions.

urne to become Trust’s third school come the latest Academy to be T) when it opens in September Free School’ proposal in sumg of 2011 to allow Comberton in February 2011 and to be elistatus. sponsor of The Voyager ts previous position as The cademy is now ultimately overship with Comberton Village staff from The Voyager to develyoung people in the Walton and Academy is located.

E measure, the percentage of ncluding English and Maths, mmer 2012. The previous highest

The figure is set to rise again significantly in the summer of 2013 as The Voyager works hard to secure ever higher standards of pupil achievement.

We have every belief that, over time, this will become a powerful partnership of considerable mutual benefit between two Academies in significantly different contexts.

It was totally fitting that the first ever Open Evening for Cambourne Village College in October took place at Comberton Village College. This was, of course, partly a pragmatic decision.

Cambourne Village College does not yet have any completed facilities and so could not host its own Open Evening.

However, it was also deeply symbolic. The starting point for Cambourne Village College is as a very strong partner Academy to Comberton Village College. The educational philosophy is the same. The curriculum is to be fundamentally the same. The wide-ranging pupil opportunities will be of the same order.

There will be much shared staffing. It will be a Village College like Comberton: a school at the heart of its community and seeking to serve the whole of the community. Given this, if anyone wants to know what Cambourne Village College will be like, then come and visit Comberton Village College. That is your answer.

The Open Evening was a tremendous success, for both Comberton and Cambourne Village Colleges. As always, Comberton Village College’s Open Evening was packed to over-flowing. However, this was also true for Cambourne Village College’s Open Evening. Both of the talks held in the Sixth Form Lecture Theatre were very well attended and the whole evening was extremely well received by both parents and prospective pupils. There was a real sense of excitement from all about the wonderful opportunity to be part of a brand-new high-quality school right from the outset.

We now look forward to Cambourne Village College joining the Comberton Academy Trust. This really is a fantastic opportunity for all of us in the local area to be part of a ground-breaking educational development. All of us involved are utterly committed to make this work well and for the benefit of each of the Academies, and their local communities, in the Comberton Academy Trust.

Stephen Munday, Executive Principal Comberton and Cambourne Village Colleges

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A way with words selves named as the winners. One of the judges, the Argentinean Human Rights lawyer, Ana Guillen, went so far as to say that we had almost convinced The event earlier this term, organised by her that “peace is an unattainable conthe Rotary Club of South Cambridgeshire cept”, despite having campaigned for to mark World Peace Day, involved teams peace herself for years. debating motions in the British We would like to thank Rotarian Mike Parliamentary style, with each motion tied Smith, who organised the event, and to the theme of peace.

Miss Gadd, Mr Leggott, Rob Durant, For our motion, “Peace requires both jusWill Lloyd-Regan, Mark Jose, and the tice and reconciliation,” Maria Gouverneur, other Year 13s who supported us.

Patrick Chindo and I (Molly Farrow) were Molly Farrow (U6-LM) given the difficult task of presenting an Clare Essex, Flora Wilson-Brown and oppositional argument but, with the help of I competed in the ‘Youth Speaks’ public WINNING TEAM: Comberton sixth-formers with their certificates, the some other Year 13 students, our case speaking competition at Sawston judges and Mike Smith, the Rotary organiser of the event. was put together rapidly. However, in a Village College. This involved working format in which each debate could potenas a team, with Flora as Chairperson introducing the speech, myself as the speaker tially last for nearly 45 minutes, we knew we would also need to be able to think fast delivering a six-minute speech on a subject of our choosing, and Clare as the on our feet.

Proposer of the Vote of Thanks, commenting on the speech and thanking the judges Initially, the formalities of the competition frightened us as it was the first time any of and audience. us had debated competitively. However, having been drawn against Impington The subject of our speech was ‘Feminism Today’, and after what was minimal International Sixth Form in our debate, we gave it our all, having taken on board rehearsal to say the least, we all pulled through and were pretty pleased with oursome tips after watching how some of the other colleges before us had argued. selves. Topics from the other six teams ranged from modern art to homophobia to Patrick did particularly well in stepping up to take part in our debate, only hours after technology’s impact on young people. In the end, St Bede’s and Sawston were first being asked to get involved following the withdrawal of one of our team. and second respectively. Obviously we were disappointed, but had a great time anyThe five other colleges — Hills Road, Stephen Perse, Impington, Long Road, and way. We’d highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to enter in future Netherhall — provided stiff competition, so we were somewhat shocked to find ouryears.

Beth Cadwalladr (11R)

A COMBERTON Sixth Form team won a debating competition for sixth form colleges.

A freakily good night . . .

OCTOBER went down a scream for Year 8! To celebrate Halloween, Year 8 partied into the night at the Halloween Disco. The dining hall was unrecognisable; lights flashed, the music pumped out of the speakers and the foam machine was on full blast. To add to the atmosphere, there was a huge array of costumes on show, from jokers and ghosts to corpse brides and even a demon chain-sawing butcher! Mrs Davidson and Mrs Barcz-Morgan joined in with their witches costumes.

Despite the fact that everyone looked so brilliant, the prefects still had to choose a winner of the costume competition. Chloe Rands won that for her excellent 'Woman A LOVE OF SINGING: Members of the King’s Junior Voices choir. in Black' costume. She looked truly creepy and scared us all. An excellent choice of music was played all evening, so the dance floor was nearly always full. Highlights were when everyone joined in for the 'Gangnam Style' dance and 'Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. A TWO Comberton pupils were this week among a group of singers recording an good number of photos original Carol for a national radio station. were taken, perfect for Year 8 students Emma Robinson and Alexia Sloane are members of King’s Junior looking back on what Voices and they are performing the winning song from the King’s Singers/King’s was really an amazing College Choir Christmas Carol competition — A Carol for Christmas. It will be night. I'd like to thank played on Classic FM. our year group prefects, Both girls have been members of King’s Junior Voices for several years. The Mrs Davidson and Mrs choir is a free non-auditioned mixed choir for children aged 7-13 based in Barcz-Morgan for their Cambridge and rehearses every Saturday morning. It started four years ago as hard work in planning part of the Sing Up initiative to encourage youngsters in state schools to sing to and organising the a high standard. disco. It wouldn't have King’s Junior Voices (KJV) have performed in six concerts in King’s College been so much fun withChapel as well as at a number of other venues. out them, and it certainWhen government funding for Sing Up ceased in 2010, KJV became a registered ly made for a Halloween charity. They currently have 85 singers from 16 primary and six state secondary to remember! schools — and a waiting list.

Alex Cooke (8M) MACARENA FOR SPOOKS: The Year 8 disco.

For further information please go to www.kingsjuniorvoices.org

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The mysteries of writing!

FULL-SIZE: A five-fold Yoda.

Real life origami!

EARLIER this term we had Tom Angleberger come to tell Year 8 about his new book series, “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda”.

Tom Angleberger is an ‘American hillbilly nerd’, as he calls himself because he lives in Virginia and, well, he is a nerd.

When Tom gave his presentation about his books he got us all to make a really cool five-fold Yoda that we got to take home. Luckily for me Tom asked for someone who was a funky dancer and I put my hand up and got to go up and make a massive five-fold Yoda with Tom, which then got placed on top of me and I had to show off some of my funky moves to my half year. Tom even said I was the funkiest person he had ever met.

Tom’s book is a case file that a boy called Tommy made to see if origami Yoda was real.

Origami Yoda is a finger puppet that a boy called Dwight made and carried around with him everywhere he went. The strange thing about Yoda is that he gives brilliant advice but Dwight had never said a clever thing all his life.

Also Dwight puts on a really bad Yoda voice to try to add effect. Origami Yoda (Dwight) helps Tommy and his friends out of close scrapes and tricky situations.

There are two more books in this series: Darth Paper Strikes Back, where one of Tommy’s friends gets jealous and makes an origami Darth Vader, who causes havoc at their school. Harvey (Tommy’s friend) gets Dwight into trouble, suspending Dwight from his school and resulting in no Yoda advice to help Tommy and his friends.

The next book is called ‘The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee’. This book is about a fortune-teller coloured in to look like Wookiee (again from Star Wars).

The Wookiee gave people good advice without Yoda or Dwight. This Wookiee was made by Dwight. In this book Darth Paper does not show much and Fortune Wookie saves them from the dark side.

These books are really good and I would recommend this series to any of my friends.

Robert Slatter (8L)

YEAR 7 students had the pleasure of meeting local mystery writer Helen Moss.

Having written their very own mystery stories, students were keen to question Helen about her popular ‘Adventure Island’ series, and came up with some fantastic questions about what inspires her to write.

The visit also enabled students to find out more about the world of publishing and how their favourite books appear on shelves.

Many students grabbed this opportunity to get their very own signed copies of books from the ‘Adventure Island’ series, and it’s great to see these being read all around school.

Overall, the visit was a huge success, and we hope Helen will join us again in the future to TALKING: Helen Moss and Year 7 students. share more top writing tips!

Pupils enter Dragons’ Den BUDDING entrepreneurs in Year 10 had an exciting opportunity to develop a product or service idea of their own before presenting it to Comberton’s own Dragons’ Den! We were fortunate to have a guest speaker on the day, Max McMurdo, who is a previous BBC TV Dragons’ Den winner. Having won investment from Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden, Max was able to share his fascinating experiences as an entrepreneur in developing his own business, Reestore, as well as telling us all about his time on Dragons’ Den before spending some time listening to the student groups and providing advice. You can view Max’s website and find out more about him at www.reestore.com.

Throughout the day, students had to demonstrate excellent teamwork and innovative skills through the development of their own business ideas. Their products were aimed at a particular target market such as 16-18 year olds, 0-5 year olds or 60+ year olds. They needed to produce a marketing campaign and financial plan for their ideas before finally pitching their business to an expert judge. Skills demonstrated on the day included innovation, creativity, decision-making and team working.

It was a very enjoyable day and the winning group, Read-a-Bear (Sasha Wilkins, Felicity Rodger, Maddie Tomlin and Jessica Woor) were able to convince our panel of judges that a story-telling teddy bear would be a commercial success. They were closely followed by Ghost Heels, whose detachable heeled shoe concept, was also judged very favourably.

Congratulations to all Year 10 students on a very productive and enterprising day.

Mr Warrington, Head of Business Education

PITCHING: Pupils try to convince the judges to ‘invest’.

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How it works nal shape. The man who was presenting the Semiconductor Physics Research Group exhibit told us of all the strange things that he had put in the liquid nitrogen. This then led to him being asked aboutthe most dangerous We learnt a lot thing he has done, about physics in which resulted in sevthe working world eral interesting stofrom watching fasries. One of them cinating demonwas being given a strations by physilaser to experiment cists and engiwith, which if it was neers. There were to bounce off anymany different thing, would blind exhibits on offer everyone in the from brain imagroom! ing through to We were also given a atomic weapons demonstration on — the exhibition using an electron had it all! microscope worth GAINING AN INSIGHT: CVC students watch and learn.

One of the six £3m in which we exhibits we saw was by the Atomic Weapons zoomed right on to a five pence coin and a segment Establishment. They showed the vortex cannon. They (a nano metre in length) was extracted. used a large cylindrical container and an elastic At the end of the trip, we were asked to pick our diaphragm to create a fluid vortex. With the help of a favourite activity. The Semiconductor Physics smoke machine, we were able to see the propagation.

Research Group was an all-round favourite. Some They then asked for a volunteer to have a go thempeople from the other group said that their preferred selves, while at the same time trying to knock a plasexhibit was the Mott MacDonald exhibit about tic cup off the teacher’s head! hydropower.

Another of the exhibits we saw was by the Overall it was an extremely interesting trip; it was Semiconductor Physics Research Group, where we great to experience science in the working world. saw demonstrations of several different objects in liqMany people left the exhibit with a new outlook on uid nitrogen. Air filled balloons had been placed in the physics; some are now even considering pursuing a liquid nitrogen, and the molecules became very career in physics when they are older. We are all very densely packed, which meant the volume decreased thankful that we were given the opportunity to go on causing them to shrivel up — they looked a bit like the trip, and we enjoyed it very much. Thanks to Mr raisins! When the balloons were removed from the liqWillder, Mr Squires, Mr Penn and Dr Smith for taking uid nitrogen, they rapidly expanded back to their origius.

Maddy Tomlin (10L) and John Lindley (10E)

A GROUP of Year 10s had the opportunity to visit the Physics at Work exhibition at the Cambridge University Cavendish Laboratory.

Getting to the heart of physics EIGHTEEN Year 12 students spent three days and two nights in and around Geneva, including a day at CERN where not only new fundamental particles are discovered, but where Particle Physicists are trying to recreate the conditions of the big bang. This included a guided tour and the chance to speak to real Particle Physicists.

The following day the group took the train through the Swiss Alps to the beautiful city of Bern where they took a Physics-themed tour of the Einstein museum to gain an insight into his famous work of Special Relativity. The trip is not only relevant to their studies in Year 13 but also aims to show students cutting edge research which has the potential to change how we interpret the Universe.

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Trio’s impressive research YEAR 7 have a lot to live up to after the current Year 8 rose to the Science Challenge.

Last year’s Year 7 were challenged to research or investigate a science topic of their choice.

Of the entries three stood out.

First Prize went to George Blackhurst-Patrick (8M).

His investigation into parachutes was scientifically spot on, but more impressive was his graph work.

The runners-up were Ellen Petre (8V) and Alexia Sloane (8C).

Ellen investigated the speed at which food can rot depending on temperature, while Alexia researched ‘Does extra-terrestrial life exist?'

The Science department are looking forward to see what the current Year 7s will be able do. More information in the Spring term.

The realities of midwifery THIS term there are several 'Beyond School' talks happening; the most recent one was when a midwife from the Rosie Maternity Hospital at Addenbrooke's came to the sixth form to talk about how to become a midwife.

She also described what the realities of the job were, such as long hours and shift work.

Numerous students attended and said that it was an intriguing talk.

Look out for further science talks throughout the year.

Fiorella Nightingale (11N, Science Leader)

How drugs are made A GROUP of Biology and Chemistry Sixth Form students visited NAPP laboratories on the Cambridge Science Park.

We were shown how drugs such as your everyday paracetamol were created and processed through huge metal machines until they are packed and shipped to the shelves.

We were also told of NAPP’s intense cleaning and quality control processes to help to ensure only the best products were produced.

It was a brilliant and interesting experience which I would recommend to anyone interested in a science career.

Jessica Chadwick (L6-PE)

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EVERY year, six pupils from CVC visit Swavesey Village College to participate in science challenges.

The theme this year was Olympics.

The biology challenge was to discover what certain foods were by using their knowledge of food tests., for example that iodine turns blue/black if starch is present.

The six students who attended were Rebecca Luck, Ollie Wigg, Heinrich Verwoerd, Betty Katz, Ewan Frolich and Megan Masters.

The teachers praised their efforts and the pupils said how much they enjoyed the experience.

Fiorella Nightingale (11N)

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Trip aids war learning THERE was definitely a buzz in the air as we waited to get on to the coaches which would take us to Flanders to learn about First World War battles — although it was muted somewhat by the fact that it was 7.45am and most of us were awake in only the most technical sense of the word.

After a lengthy trek through south-east England, the majority of France and a short jump over the border to Belgium, we arrived at our first stop on the Battlefields tour.

This was the largest Allied First World War Cemetery called Tyne Cot. We were confronted with the sea of white headstones, the majority of which mark the grave of an unknown soldier, which made everyone stop and take a minute to think about everyone who had lost

their lives.

We also visited the mass German graves at Langemarck, which were very different with their solemn black marble. Many of us found potential relatives on the memorials to the missing at Thiepval and the Menin Gate in Ypres, where we laid a wreath, as well as watching the Last Post.

Visiting Vimy Ridge and Newfoundland Park on our second day gave us the opportunity to see actual battlefields and see the destruction of the landscape which the war caused; the ground is still covered with shell-holes and old trenches.

Newfoundland Park, in particular, was a vivid reminder of how many died to achieve so little on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Passchendaele and In Flanders Fields Museums provided more information about the war, with the former giving some details

WW1 LANDMARKS: The Comberton group at Vimy Ridge (top), the Allies’ white memorials at Tyne Cot (far right) and the black marble German ones at Langemarke.

about gas attacks that we’d like to forget, and the latter showing a harrowing film about the casualties of the battle.

To round off such an eye-opening few days, to our collective astonishment the hotel that we pulled up to looked incredibly majestic with giant bedrooms where we could spread out and feel at home and a huge dining hall which became our disco hall on the Friday night. Everyone took the opportunity to let their hair down and shake it down on the dance floor, the highlight of which had to be Mr Southcoat and Mrs Burton’s dancing.

On our final day, we experienced what it would have been like for real soldiers in the trenches when visiting Sanctuary Wood at Hill 62. A boggy mess, as described by some classmates.

It has some preserved trenches and tunnels which can be explored, leading to a large group of us setting off down a pitch black tunnel, where we were reduced to taking photos with a flash to find our way, only to discover when we emerged that someone had a torch on their phone!

There was also a particularly wet and muddy shell-hole, which many people took great delight in wading into and almost getting stuck, although no-one fell over, to the relief of the people around them on the coach.

We set off home, having balanced enjoying ourselves with respect for the solemnity of the subject matter and, hopefully, having learned something to help with our GCSEs, not to mention gaining plenty of memories that won’t be forgotten. We have to thank all the teachers for putting up with such a rowdy lot.

Beth Cadwalladr and Jamie Fothergill (11R)

Collecting data of every kind A BUNCH of bleary-eyed Year 11s convened at the front of school to catch the 7:45 from Comberton to Sheringham.

Arriving at around 9:00, we proceeded to cause some consternation among the local avian wildlife by choosing a meeting point near trees and bushes. For the rest of the day we collected litter surveys, land use surveys, traffic surveys and any other applicable survey you could name, while definitely not visiting the arcade.

After a wonderful stay at the Sheringham Youth Hostel, a well-equipped hostel with a pool table and, er, beds, we set off in the morning to collect our own data.

By this time we were right in the middle of the

1940s weekend, an event in which the 1940s in Sheringham is recreated as far as possible, involving many people in waistcoats and cardboard planes ‘crashed’ on the roofs of pubs.

It was a terrifically sunny day, which may have been a factor in Mr Sumner’s decision to attempt to beat the pupils at a game of football on the beach (as if…), and after a hugely enjoyable bus journey back, in which we experimented with the orange glare thrown upon our faces by the curtains, we made it back to Comberton, enormously looking forward to writing our Controlled Assessments for Geography.

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Golfers’ Spanish test THE NATURE OF GOLF: The Sixth Form Academy trip to Spain.

NINE Comberton Golf Academy students plus professional Craig Watson and Assistant Principal Mr Carrick travelled to Desert Springs Resort and Golf Club, Spain.

Desert Springs holds a 72/71 par international championship golf course. The course was inspired by the top quality desert courses of Arizona: visually stunning and very testing. The bright green fairways and greens contrast with the surrounding landscape of cactus, rock and desert which many of us found difficult to play off.

On arrival we quickly settled in to our apartments and then headed to the practice area to make the most of the outstanding facilities. The range was already reserved for us and we started the week hitting balls into a backdrop of mountain scenery. We then moved on to the putting green to get used to the speed of the greens which were nothing like in England. A putting competition followed with Jack Gower coming out on top with his final putt being inside Craig’s by a few cen-

timetres. We finished with some chipping practice and a few games to see who could get the closest to each hole.

Day two included a packed schedule to make the most of our short time using the facilities. Breakfast at 8am was followed by more practice and then a short lunch break leading up to the first round of the trip. We played in teams of three to get used to the course and the scores finished very close with the team of Liam Webber, Jack Gower and Laura Howard beating the other two groups by a point.

Day three was another busy day. Breakfast was followed by more practice as Craig did a video analysis of everyone’s swing to see where improvements could be made and what each individual golfer had to work on.

A short lunch break followed and then the first competitive round of the week. Shot of the day went to Sam Hills on the 17th, who hit a pitching wedge which landed on the top of the slope off the short par 3 and rolled down to a few feet. Jack Gower scored lowest gross of the day, 77, to lead by four and Matt Clark scored the

lowest net with a 73.

Our final day included the same packed schedule and the best weather of the week. Practice first included putting drills followed by another video analysis of our putting strokes by Craig to again find areas we need to work on. This was followed by some key individual practice before the final round. Approaching the last green it was very close. Adam Pedlar and Jack Gower both had putts for an overall total of 158 and I had a putt for 157. I saved my personal shot of the week until last as I holed the 30ft putt to clinch the first Comberton Golf Academy tour by one shot to Adam and two to Jack. Liam Webber won overall net with a great final round of 69.

The tour was a great experience which helped to improve my golf through Craig’s analysis as well as learning to play on a unique type of course in Europe and getting to know everyone in the golf academy a lot better.

Connor Hehir (L6-EW)

Girls get to grips with squash respective age groups in Cambridgeshire from recreational to county level. Regular junior tournaments, Cambridgeshire junior leagues, the county ladder and friendly fixtures are just some of the few ways keen players can get involved. Current initiatives countrywide are encouraging more girls to try squash and enjoy this accessible, energetic and exciting sport and for those with great ambition, TRAILBLAZERS: The girls’ under-15 there is a national bid for squash team. squash to be included in the 2020 Olympics. Why don’t you come along and have a go?

Julie Miller, coach

FOR the first time, Comberton entered a girls’ Under-15 team into the National Schools Squash Championships organised by England Squash.

The team comprises Kate Czylok and Charlotte Davies (Year 10), Fiona Hughes and Izzy Broadbent (Year 9) and Casey Miller (Year 7).

The girls played three other teams, Benendon A and B from Kent and one from High Wycombe this term and next term will either play in the second stage of the main championship or the plate, where they will face three new teams.

The finals are held next Easter, at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.

They are extremely dedicated and the level our CVC girls’ team has reached in just a year is very impressive!

The girls discovered their new sport at the after-school squash club on a Tuesday just for girls. This has become so popular, it has led to further provision with sessions on a Saturday 3.30–4.30pm for years 7-8 and 4.45–6.00pm for years 9–13, providing coaching, games and fun club events.

The more competitive can also attend training on a Sunday. We are very proud of the progress made by all the girls who attend squash sessions and admire their commitment, energy and enthusiasm! New girls are always welcome and it would be fantastic to enter an Under-15 and an Under-19 team in the National Championships 2013!

There are many opportunities for girls to play junior squash within their

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Fightback too late THE FIRST goals that Comberton conceded in the English Schools under-15 girls’ football competition proved their downfall.

The team of Year 9 and 10 pupils could not quite emulate last season’s run to the last 32 of the national competition, going down 3-2 to Sawtry one round earlier.

They did, however, make a fight of the fourth round tie, coming back from 3-0 down to make the final score 3-2. Comberton had plenty of chances to equalise but just couldn’t find the net.

Team manager Mrs Fisher said: “It was an extremely close game against Sawtry. We did come from 3-0 down and had enough chances to equalise if not win — but it was some of the best football I have ever seen the girls play so well done to all of them.”

Having had a first round bye, Comberton opened their campaign with an 18-0 away win at Icknield School Luton. And the score would have been even higher, but it was decided to cut the onesided game short.

They followed up with an 8-0 victory over Vandyke Upper School, Bedford before travelling to Sawtry.

Comberton: Sophie Ugur, Maddy Molloy, Katie Reynolds, Emma Littlewood, Katie Sims, Emily Lattimore, Molly Funge, Fiona Hughes, Lucy Clarkson, Izzy

TOO LATE: Comberton came back from 3-0 down but couldn’t find an equaliser in a 3-2 defeat.

Broadbent, Kate Czylok, Emily Dowd.

Comberton’s under-13s have two teams in the Cambs FA Grand Prix.

The Sky Blues are currently fourth after the latest matches with 23 points from 10 games. Their most recent results, a goalless draw with Chesterton Blue and a 2-0 win over City of Ely Red leaves them four points behind leaders Chesterton Red. Comberton’s Navy team have only played six games, beating and drawing with Chesterton White as well as a goalless draw with Witchford Red and are currently 12th of the 22 teams in the league.

Sky: Selina Armstrong-Audin, Amy Reed, Gemma Williams-Mustafa, Gemma Bateman, Hannah Maycroft, Ellys Macauley, Rachel Littlewood, Grace Longstaffe, Cerys Sutton.

Navy: Lily Wraight, Rosie White, Casey Miller, Alex Booth, Sannah Clay, Kiana Caldecoat, Millie Prothero.

Connell aims high YEAR 9 pupil Connell McGlinchey hopes to travel abroad to pursue his martial arts ambitions.

He wants to go to Italy to help him gain skills and experience in Qi Kwan Do, a form of martial art which teaches self-defence.

He would also like to go to China with his school’s founder Master Parisi, where students train in the mountains with the monks.

Connell’s ambition is to become an instructor and he said: “To achieve this I will need courage, determination and a lot of hard work.”

He is currently a Black Belt, brown tag and hopes to become a Black Belt 1st dan. At the moment he is learning knife defence, but once he is a first dan will learn gun defence under the tuition of Gary Coles, a 4th dan and the second highest belt in the school.

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Hotshots march on COMBERTON are through to the regional finals of the under-14 netball championships in February.

They qualified for the next stage of the competition after winning the county competition in Peterborough, beating St Mary’s in a thrilling final, having edged into the semi-finals on goal difference and the final on a golden goal.

Comberton started the tournament against the best teams in Cambridgeshire with a 12-3 win against Cromwell and a 6-3 victory over Peterborough, leaving them with the two toughest teams in their group — St Mary’s and Stephen Perse — to play.

They lost a tight tussle with St Mary’s 9-8 and needed to beat the Perse to have any chance of going through. They did that, but still had to wait for the result of the Perse v St Mary’s clash. Victory for Perse meant the decision went down to goal difference, which was enough to take Comberton through as group runners-up.

The semi-final against King’s, Ely, was level at the end of 14 minutes and still level after two minutes of extra time, meaning it went to golden goals, where the first team to score would win.

Comberton sealed that victory to set up a rematch against St Mary’s. Again it was all square at the end of normal time. The additional two minutes were frantic with St Mary’s twice taking the lead only for Comberton to claw it back. Then with 30 seconds to go, Comberton scored twice to take the title.

We were ecstatic to win and go through to the regionals on February 2. Everyone playing amazingly well despite a few injuries.

Thank you to our coach for the day, Miss McKenzie, and to Ms Smith and Mr

COUNTY CHAMPIONS: Comberton’s Year 9 netball squad.

Rogers for driving the minibus.

Squad: Lucy Hall, Kate Hall, Jess Kennard, Emily Kennard, Rebecca Burton, Emily Dowd, Lucy Hall (9M) Grace Hardy, Ella Black, Abbey Robertson.

Boys foil all their opponents THREE Comberton boys beat off older comger and more experienced opponents. petition to win a Cambridge County fencing In the round robin phase, the trio won all their competition. fights. The highlight was a win against a Dan Summerfield (Year 8), Kiron Austin (Year strong Cambridge Sword team which could 8) and Richard Carter (Year 9) took the title at not have been more exciting, all three having the Cambs County Under-16 Team Foil close individual contests and Kiron coming Competition. Although still only 13 years old, from behind at the end with very little time left Kiron’s and Richard’s birth dates meant they and clinching the winning 13-12 point in sudhad to fight in the older Under-16 age group den death. with their 12-year-old team-mate.

In the direct elimination phase, the trio The rules of team reached the semifencing produce final against the exciting contests, same Cambridge with the three team Sword team, and it members seeded was again a very and fighting their close outcome. corresponding First Dan and then opponent in a ranRichard won their dom order each individual contest time, and each team narrowly, and member accumulatKiron then valiantly ing points in turn preserved a slenuntil a total of 15 der two-point lead points is reached or TOP TRIO: The Comberton boys. for an overall 11-9 the allowed time has win. elapsed. Each fencer has to think at all times In the final the trio faced another team from about how he or she is doing, how the team is their own club. Putting friendship and age doing, and how much time is left, and every difference aside, first Richard and then Kiron point for or against counts — and could be fought clinically to establish a commanding crucial. lead, and fighting last against a strong and Fighting for the Hardwick-based Dragon bigger opponent, Dan defended well against a Fencing Club, Dan, Kiron and Richard were a flurry of attacks and managed to repeatedly well-balanced team and set about the compehit back to see the team through to 15 points tition unfazed by their older and typically bigand the gold medal.

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UP THE WALL: Comberton students compete.

Scaling new heights FOUR BTEC Outdoor Education students attended a climbing competition at the Big Rock Centre in Milton Keynes last month.

On arrival, students were given a scorecard identifying three bouldering problems and three climbing routes for them to attempt. After a tentative start, the boys all got into the swing of things with Alex Field making an exceptionally strong start in the bouldering section of the competition.

In the climbing section, Oscar Stafford scaled the climbing walls, completing the first route with a faultless performance while Matt Loveridge and Matt Hartley also put in notable performances to gain points for both their individual and team competitions.

Oscar (Year 11) came out with a score of 347 points placing him eighth in the category, just 54 points behind the winner. Matt Loveridge (Year 10) was placed 15th with 308 points, Matt Hartley (Year 11) was 16th with a score of 288 points while Alex (Year 10) scored 261 points, placing him in 17th.

The next competition will be on Friday May 17th 2013 when we are hoping to take a group of students from the climbing club to compete at the centre (www.bigrockclimbing.co.uk).

Climbing club is on Thursdays from 3-4pm. If you are interested in attending then please see Miss Dawson in the PE Office.

A climbing trip to Milton Keynes for instructed sessions will be on Tuesday 5th February 3–7pm. More details after Christmas.

• Vans of all sizes • Cars from Corsas to Bentleys, Aston Martins & Range Rovers • Vans for the tip run • Cars for the Prom with or without drivers

01223 265220 • www.active-rentals.com • enquiries@active-rentals.com Designed by Judy Czylok, CVC. publicity@comberton.cambs.sch.uk

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