MVC 50th continues

Celebrations of the College’s 50th anniversary are already well underway. September saw the giant tea party held on the Willow Lawn; estimates place the number of ex-pupils and ex-staff attending at over 1,000 visitors. The class of 1959, the College’s first ever cohort of students, seemed particularly well represented. The afternoon seemed to fly by in a swirl of reminiscences and anecdotes, accompanied by industrial quantities of tea and scones, to a soundtrack provided by the College’s own ‘Big Band’ who played some popular classics from the past five decades. The sun shone, two former wardens were in attendance and a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all. Many thanks to the very many people who worked tirelessly to ensure that the event was such a success. Andrew Allsworth Deputy Warden. Front Cover: A selection of glass tiles designed by representatives from the College’s partner organisations. Groups included primary schools, parish councils, Moorlands residents, young people at Orchard Manor and employees at TTP. Community groups included local churches, U3A, Melbourn Singers and the Melbourn History Group. This page: Tiles by MVC staff and students, displayed in the Common Room.

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Est 18 years

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to celebrate European Languages Day. Amongst the languages heard were French, Spanish, German and Italian. Children greatly enjoyed learning and performing the new songs and amazed us with the speed at which they were able to pick up songs in a new language.

We held four harvest assemblies on Friday 9th October where our Reception and KS1 children performed twice to very proud parents as they told the story of Nicholas, who only ate chips and how he dug up a range of fruit and vegetables from his grandmother’s garden and realised that he liked other food stuffs. Our older children, in KS2, also performed twice. They shared, amongst other things, the different types of harvest, informed parents how far the ingredients of a pizza may have travelled and the importance of fair trade. As always the generosity of children and parents was on show with the harvest donations which this year were shared with the elderly residents in the village living in Vicarage Close.

As many of you will have read in the local press a significant amount of money is hopefully to be spent on improving the school’s facilities by providing us with a new school hall / dining room, office area and a children’s centre on site. As I write this the planning process is in full flow and we wait to hear the outcome. For me this new build will bring many new benefits for the school. Gary Casey

Want to be a school Governor?

The village’s schools are at the heart of the community. You don’t have to be a pupil, a parent or a member of staff to become involved. Why not give something back to your community by becoming a school governor?

School governors represent the largest volunteer force in the country with approximately 1% of the adult population serving in this capacity at any one time. Melbourn Primary School has a Governing Body of 15 people. We work in partnership with Gary Casey and the staff to look at ways in which the school can continue to improve and be an asset to our children and the wider community.

What do we do?

The Governing Body sets the strategic framework for the school. We agree a development plan with the school, set challenging but achievable targets and then monitor the school’s activities to make sure progress is being made towards those targets.

Sounds dry and boring? It isn’t when you translate the ‘management speak’ into actions. Yes, we do have meetings where we look at numerical information on how much progress children – particularly those who are vulnerable for some reason - have made through the year or check whether the policy we put in place on helping children who are very able actually means that these children are being stretched. But all this talk is backed up by visiting the school to see the children learning and developing. We have the opportunity to take part in school activities (dressing up in Tudor costume and being entertained at a feast anyone?).

As you would expect, we have some governors who are members of staff and others who are parents.

Who we are looking for?

We also need governors recruited from the local community whom we value for the skills, experience and objectivity that they bring. At the moment we have vacancies and are looking for people with enthusiasm and the desire to become associated with the running of the school. Typically, a governor will average around 6 hours of input each month. We have 2 meetings of the full governing body a term and you then are able to choose which other areas interest you: finance, the curriculum, looking after the school premises or getting involved with the HR activities.

Decision-making is collective and the Local Authority provides a great deal of support and training. Governors do get a lot back. It is an opportunity to use skills you already have in a new environment. You may find the opportunity to develop some new ones. In addition, having experience as a governor is a plus point for your CV.

This is a very exciting time to become involved with Melbourn Primary School. We are in the process of recruiting a new Headteacher and building work to provide new facilities for the school and the community is expected to start early in 2010.

Interested? Please contact me on 01763 263462 or e-mail me at david.atkins7@ntlworld.com. I will be able to give some more information on what is involved. You might also like to look at the school’s website: www.melbournprimary.org.uk.

Don’t worry if you have a child at the school. This does not preclude you from becoming a Community Governor. Julie Norman Chair of Governors

2009 GCSE Results

We were delighted to receive the College’s best ever GCSE results at the end of August. Nervous looks, as our Year 11 students opened their results envelopes, were transformed in to happy (beaming!) smiles as they realised how very well they had done, both individually and as a whole year group. The headline figures: 76% of the year group gained 5 or more higher grades (A*-C), whilst the new government benchmark figure(the number of students who gained 5 or more higher grades including both English and Maths) rose by a staggering 15% to 64%. Many of our most able students reached some very challenging, highly aspirational targets, but we were equally proud of the excellent performance of many other students of a wide range of abilities. Interestingly, at a time of increasing concerns nationally about the academic progress of secondary-age boys, the gap between the performance of boys and girls at the College was reduced to 4%, a far better figure than nationally. Thanks and congratulations to the students, their hardworking and talented teachers and, just as importantly, those students’ supportive parents. A fantastic result all round.

www.melbourn.org.uk/speakers-corner/

Tues 5th January Heritage Hall, Royston Town Hall 10am-11am. Enrol for courses starting in a week’s time. Cost £43.50 for 10 sessions of 11/2 hours each. Payment by cheque is preferred, payable to WEA Royston. Fees remitted for those on means tested benefit. There is a choice of two courses, which are held on Tuesdays from 10am-11.30am. Hunting for Hertfordshire Parks – Mrs Anne Rowe Italian Opera Byways – Mr Peter Bleasby For further details contact David Allard 01763 242677 or Carol Bradshaw 01763 249211. Tues 12th January Courses start at Royston Town Hall 10am-11.30am. Please enrol on 5th January if possible.

University of the Third Age (U3A)

Our AGM in August saw many members taking advantage of the stalls put up by the various learning and activity groups and “signing on” for groups in which they were interested.

The winter programme is now in full swing with monthly meetings as shown in the calendar. All are welcome to that meeting at the Village College on the third Wednesday in each month (except December) at 2.45 p.m. where a “meeter and greeter” will be pleased to welcome you and bring you into the Common Room for the pre-meeting tea and biscuits.

There are learning and activity groups on many subjects with monthly walks that are designed for those wanting to walk a reasonable distance and others who are just out for a stroll. If you fancy yoga, table tennis, short tennis, or badminton we can help or if you want to speak a language or deal with a computer we can maybe find you a place. If art is your “bag” there is a group for that or if you are adept at Scrabble then we can try and find you a space. Many of our groups are full and have a waiting list but we often have a simple solution – start another one!

For membership details ring Arthur Alderton on 01763 260399. Colin Limming

Notre Ecole

Since returning to Notre Ecole after the summer holidays the children at the two after school clubs have been learning to talk about where they went during the school holidays and during previous weekends. We have been learning the French words for places around town and have played a number of games around this theme, both indoors and outdoors, when the weather has permitted. The children have drawn pictures of different shops and buildings, labelled them and created their own French town by sticking them on a large background. Now we are learning to describe our town and starting to talk about where places are in relation to others.

We have been pleased to welcome some new members to our Wednesday evening adult group where our beginners have been revising the past tense. We have also been looking at the verb “aller- to go” in the present tense and revising transport words and vocabulary related to places in town. The more advanced group have practised describing people and talked about routines in relation to household chores. Both groups met together for one session to complete a quiz about French historical characters.

Perhaps your new year’s resolution might be to learn a new language, in which case we would be very happy to hear from you. We have some spaces in all groups but would be particularly keen to recruit some new member to our Wednesday after school group for children. This would be most suitable for children in school years 1 to 3, although we are able to accommodate children outside this age group. Please call Marine on 01763 222876 or Janet on 01763 261231 for further details. We are a French native speaker and a graduate of European Studies with French and we would love to see you at one of our groups.

Melbourn Village College PTFA 100 Club

The MVCPTFA 100 Club raises funds for the improvement of facilities at Melbourn Village College. The 100 Club is an easy way to support the school with the chance of winning a cash prize every month.

Maybe you would like to support the school but find it difficult to attend fundraising events, or perhaps you just fancy a flutter. Either way you are benefiting the pupils of Melbourn Village College by becoming a member.

Joining the 100 Club costs £12 per year, with each year commencing 1st September and finishing 31st August. Each member will be entered in 12 monthly draws giving a first prize of £30 and a second prize of £20. In the event of fewer than 100 members the prizes will be reduced accordingly and should the membership exceed 100 the prizes will be increased accordingly. The prize money will be 50% of the total income.

RULES

All members must be over 16 years of age.

The club is governed by the Lotteries and Amusement Act 1976 with the South Cambridgeshire District Council. Registration number is: L05679 and the promoter for the purposes of the Act is Mrs A Whitaker, 5 Fowlmere Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6RT.

Winners will be notified by post and cheques sent to the last address notified.

There will be no refunds under any circumstances in accordance with the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976.

Winners numbers will be published in the Parents’ Bulletins and on the MVC website.

Each member will be issued with a membership number and advised of the number accordingly. For more information contact Glenda Spry, 7 West Hill Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6S.

The Walkers Partnership

Solicitors

THE WALKERS PARTNERSHIP SOLICITORS DO YOU NEED TO MAKE A WILL OR REVISE YOUR EXISTING WILL?

If so, please take advantage of our END OF YEAR WILLS OFFER. Reduced rate wills will be available every week day in December 2009 from 8.00am until 6.00pm by appointment only. Reduced rates are:Double Wills - £150 plus VAT Single Will - £90 plus VAT For more information please contact:1-3 Lower King Street, Royston, Herts SG8 5AJ Tel: 01763 241121 Email : t.donnellan@walkerspartnership.co.uk