Education

Community Education

Julie Harradence 223408

Little Hands

Karen on 01763 260964

Melbourn Playgroup

Jane Crawford 07842 151512

Notre Ecole

Janet Whitton 261231

Primary School

Headteacher Gary Casey 223457

U3A (Univ. of Third Age)

Chairman Arthur Alderton 260399

Village College

Warden Elaine Stephenson 223400

It’s Not Too Late to Book!

Melbourn Village College offers a wide range of classes including: Jewellery Making Beginners; •

Jewellery Making Intermediate;

Cross Stitch; Knit, Crochet & Sew;

Sugarcraft; Badminton; Ballet for Children; Adult Tap •

Dancing; Word & Excel for Beginners; • Driving Test Theory Workshop; • Skin Care & Make-up; Nail Care & •

Manicure; English as a Second Language;• British Citizenship & Culture;• Beginners Italian; Beginners French; •

Beginners Spanish; Ceramic Jewellery & Ceramic Tile •

Making

(italics – new class for this term)

Call Julie on 01763 223408 Or email comed@mvc.org.uk

Melbourn Playgroup

We have had a very busy few weeks moving into our new premises at the Primary School. The welcome we have received from all the teachers, the staff, the builders and especially Mr Casey, could not have been kinder or more generous. In our first few days we have found that the children have settled into our new home without any trouble at all and we have been kept busy with all the family members and new friends who have stopped to say hello over the fence.

Our new After School club is the next challenge for us. It will run at the Primary School from 3.30–6.00pm during the school term and is open for children from 3 to 11 years. We are likely to be looking to recruit staff for the After School club soon, so if you are interested in a job, or if you are interested in enrolling your child either in the Playgroup or the After School club please have a look at our website www. melbournplaygroup.org.uk or phone us on 07842 151512.

MVC

We are delighted that the newly published League Tables show Melbourn Village College as being the 3rd most successful school in Cambridgeshire on the CVA measure, which takes into account the progress of all students. The score of 1017.3 places the college in the top 25% of schools nationally and means that a student at Melbourn achieved significantly more than if they had gone to an ‘average’ school (CVA is calculated so the ‘average’ is 1000). In fact, comparing their top 8 subjects (including English & Maths) would show an increase of 3 grades by being at Melbourn compared to an ‘average’ school.

The percentage of students achieving 5 or more A*–C grades at GCSE including English & Maths (66%) has increased significantly from 52% in 2007. Of course this measure, unlike CVA, cannot reflect whether high ability students are suitably stretched (since it counts grades C and A* as equivalent) or whether sufficient support is given to those who find learning difficult.

The new English Baccalaureate measure has been criticised in some parts for being retrospective. At Melbourn all students have been able to take the English Baccalaureate subjects, and those who did were very successful, but our belief in freedom of choice and the wide offer we have given our students at Key Stage 4 has meant that our score is lower than it could have been if we had forced students to take particular subjects. The success of our policy has shone through in the high satisfaction levels of our Year 11 leavers and their excellent results.

Parents can be assured that all the staff at the college are fully committed to ensuring this success continues into the future.

Following the recording breaking GCSE results we were proud to welcome back and celebrate the success of our students who achieved 90% A*–C grades with a presentation evening at the end of November. Each subject had nominated an outstanding student and the Governors Prize for outstanding achievement overall went to Matthew Way and for outstanding progress to Georgina Waldman.

In addition to their superb academic achievements, our students have been engaging in learning outside the classroom on trips, through fantastic performing arts productions and some excellent sports performances.

Students in Year 8 went on a trip to Rhineland last summer exploring History as well as German language and Year 7s travelled to Boulogne. We’ve had a host of other opportunities in every subject for our students to show their talents from our Science group winning a Crystal Growing Competition run by Cambridge University to our gifted and talented Maths students attending events at University of Hertfordshire. We’ve had dazzling dance, music and drama showcases and our gold sports ambassadors even met Olympic athletes at a conference at the Oval!

Charity Success

Charities Morning, which took place on the last day of winter term, was a great success. There was a brilliant mix of stalls by students for students, from ‘Guess the Name of the Teddy Bear’ and ‘Smoothy/Juice Bar’ to ‘Treasure Hunts’ and ‘Penalty Shoot Outs’. All the students had a great time, whether they were running a stall or walking around visiting stalls.

In total the students raised an amazing £1327.30 which will be donated to the four charities chosen by each House. Newton – The Oncology Centre Research and Development Fund at Addenbrookes, Franklin – Headway, Lewis – Wateraid and Darwin – Cancer Research.

Performing Arts

Over 100 students took part in MVC at the Musicals, a sparkling evening of dance and music featuring some fantastic performances. Our students also shone in our ever popular Christmas concert and in an autumn drama showcase evening, featuring work created in drama clubs and GCSE improvisation work

Our musicians went on the road again in our ‘Band in a Bus’ project visiting and performing at local primary schools. GCSE music students took part in a new electric opera with Cambridge University and also performed Christmas carols at Moorlands getting everyone into the festive spirit. Meanwhile our dancers spent a day with an Indian Bhangra group and performed that evening at Cambridgeshire Event, Dance Vision.

The performing arts are a valuable way for young people to increase confidence. In a survey last year students noted how participating in performing arts helped them gain skills useful for other subjects as well as life skills.

We’re looking forward to a packed 2011 with more concerts, performances and showcases and hope to see you soon at one of our events!

Poetry Festival

We’ve had a busy few months in English at MVC. We were lucky enough to host a performance by the poet John Hegley last term. Our students were inspired by his dramatic reading to make enthusiastic contributions to our KS3 Poetry Festival in mid-December. All students in years 7, 8 and 9 took part either as writers or perfomers. This term as our GCSE students are preparing for their final assessments our KS3 classrooms have been filled with the words of Chaucer and Shakespeare. We are currently preparing a group of our students to take part in the BBC’s School Report in March, we hope to hear their reports on Radio Cambridgeshire and possibly national radio or television.

The following pieces of work give a tiny flavour of the range of writing skills that our students are developing. Jeremy’s short story was written to develop the skill of creating a character that the reader is interested in and cares about. Edward’s poem was written while his class were studying Poetry from World War I. Annie’s letter is a powerful and well-argued demand for boys and girls to be treated equally by education journalists.

Kantesh Tsor

Kantesh Tsor was born on stardate 16,578IY on the mining colony of Nova 5. At the age of fifteen he joined the Arial Defence Program. Here he learned the art of defence as he excelled in training operations for the mining base. His tactical brilliance was quickly noticed by the instructors and visiting officials, and at the age of eighteen he was sent to the Tactical Training Institute on the Imperial Represent World.

The Tactical Training Institute, or TTI, proved his mind and he quickly fell in place with the hierarchy five forms above him, the only ones able to outwit and beat him in a tactical simulation game. He was admired, especially after an incident eleven months into joining the institute when he saved a cargo fleet he was travelling with from space pirate attack. After the fleet commander was killed he took control of the command ship and using his inspiring influence, he made ultra effective use of the few weak defensive lasers they had to destroy the pirate ship.

During his tuition at the TTI he took a great interest in the working of Imperial starships, he loved to tinker with starship designs and in 16,603IY at the age of twenty-five he won an academy award for designing a long range (interplanetary) communication system.

He left training aged thirty and was sent to command the 68th Company of the Imperial Guard on the outer rim of the explored galaxy. The men quickly learned to trust him and to follow him without question. He guided them to their strengths and weaknesses. That was good because he’d need all the help he could get.

The Hivers struck the planets on the outer rim without warning. After mass communication failure the planets of the outer rim were viciously assaulted. It is claimed that the skies were choked with the blackness of millions of bio-pods fired from the thousands upon thousands of ships that swarmed the sector.

Twenty eight colonies were lost within a week, as millions were consumed by aliens, their genocidal bloodlust never quenched. Surviving satellites revealed that colossal structures appeared on the planet surfaces, breeding millions of new bio-creatures and weaponry to consume the rest of the galaxy.

Kantesh and his men were amongst the next to be hit and, as the greatest ever hit to mankind drew ever closer, he and his men prepared themselves for the inevitable monstrous invasion.

Jeremy Bridle, 8 Franklin

Edward was inspired to write the poem below by his study of the poets of the Great War. We studied the way that poets use rhythm and how the rhythm can be broken at times to emphasise particular words or ideas. Edward has played around with rhythm to great effect in his very powerful piece of writing.

The Survivor

I stood atop a mighty hill, Gazing over no man’s land, I looked down upon dead foes, With bloody gun in hand. The last soldier of a horrible battle, My friends lay dead down there, We fought side by side, Defending England, fighting for what we share. I close my eyes and remember, The enemies’ last expression, Before I took their link to this world, In one quick, deadly session. The ringing in my ears recalls, The deafening blizzard in the air, The sound of a hundred bullets, Killing old and young; they who forever will stare. But were this war stayed somewhere else, Nothing would change; it wouldn’t matter, The chance of life or death,

For in war it would be the latter. Yet here I stand, Alone, to deal with the sorrow, The pain of loss and desperation, But the war goes on to the nest tomorrow. The solemn duty is mine, To bury my allies who passed, To put them to rest, to peace, But the dug outs won’t last The trenches stretch on for miles, Beyond where the eye can see, Beneath are soldiers in their dozens, Face down in the mud – leaving only me. I hope one day I can return, To that country I call home, Away from fighting and war and battle, And the trenches I don’t wish to roam. But I shall never forget my brothers, And the burden I now bear, The lives I ended, the families I broke, My life is now a nightmare. I take my first step down the hill, And wonder if I would’ve chosen a different path, Would I have chosen differently, To stay in England’s sweet hearth? But sorrow of sorrows, To war I did choose to go, And now there is no way to change, What transpired so long ago. And now after all I have seen and done, How can I ever go back? Go back to the life I once did lead, Surely impossible from the mount of this stack.

* * * * * * * * And though it was many years ago, I can still remember when…. I stood atop a mighty hill, Gazing over no man’s land, I looked down upon dead foes, With bloody gun in hand.

Edward Mallen, 9 Darwin

Journalist Sue Palmer wrote an article in the Daily Mail last year entitled ‘Homer Simpson was right’ We must let boys run riot (They’ll never learn any other way). The article described boys as badly behaved and girls as passive and wellbehaved and then went on to say that the education system disadvantages boys. Annie wrote the following erudite response to her article. Dear Sue Palmer I am writing to you in response to your article ‘Homer Simpson is right! We must let boys run riot (They’ll never learn any other way)’ because I found it interesting and thought-provoking and because education is a very important part of my life. It seems clear to me that you want to stimulate discussion and you have certainly managed to stimulate a response from me because, although I agree with you on many points, I am completely horrified that you consider it necessary to insult my entire generation in order to make your case. I want to explain to you why, as a fifteen year old student, I cannot let stereotypes and generalisations worthy of Homer Simpson himself go unchallenged. Although there may be some merit in noticing that there are real differences between boys and girls, I believe that by claiming these as the major influence on academic and career success you miss the most important point, which is that students of either gender have common and overlapping educational needs. We all deserve a decent education not just a quick fix.

Perhaps you will find it predictable that I am female, as, if I am to believe your article, most teenage boys, scarred and hurt by their early failure to keep up with the ‘naturally docile’ and ’teacher-pleasing’ girls and exhausted by the struggle to survive in the female-teacher-infested primary school swamp will be, on average, far too busy pursuing ‘cool’ gangland culture to bother about the state of their education. Alternatively, perhaps my deliberate exaggeration of your ideas will give you some insight into how unhelpful I find your misrepresentation of me, my friends and my classmates when there is a really serious problem that we all need to tackle. Your article identifies this problem as failure to meet the educational needs of the boys. However, I believe that what we are dealing with is an urgent need to improve the entire education system for everyone involved. How can a model based on Mr and Miss Average Stereotype help any of us who have to deal with real issues in the real world?

Please let me tell you a little about myself. At the age of four, contrary to your image of ‘pretending to be grown up or sitting quietly at tables drawing and doing puzzles’ my most vivid memory is of getting stuck in the play tunnel and wailing loudly until I was eventually discovered and rescued. My primitive behaviour seems to put me in the category of an unruly ‘shrieking’ boy despite my pink bow! More recently I must confess that I am not known for my hand-raising or note-taking technique and the disorganisation of my folders has been known to make my parents weep. So, for obvious reasons, I find myself unable to agree that there is something about gender alone which can predict academic behaviour or career success. In general, my understanding is that the extent to which Nature (in the form of the presence or absence of the Y chromosome) dominates Nurture (in the form of everything that is expected of, accepted by and taught within society) has never been established.

From my own observations, the differences in academic attitudes, abilities and achievements can be much greater between two individual boys or two particular girls than many boy/girl pairs. It all depends on where you look and often, what you want to find. In an article entitled ‘Addressing Gender and Achievement: myths and realities’ (DCSF 2009) it is pointed out that ‘many boys achieve highly and many girls under perform’. I believe that evidence like this highlights the danger inherent in working from stereotypes. If we focus on the problems of some mythical ‘average’ student we will probably fail to deal with the real issues that affect individuals. For example, if I was to fit the stereotype of your article then I’d be at the front of the class ‘intent on the teacher’s analysis of Pride and Prejudice’ while my friend Fred sneered at my goody two shoes attitude from the back of the class. In actual fact, Fred fits much more closely to the finding of the DCSF study that ‘the vast majority of boys enjoy English as it stimulates their learning and development skills’”. It is not me who cares the most about Elizabeth Bennet’s motivation and elegant use of language and if you tried to solve Fred’s ‘problem with English literature’ you would be trying to fix something that was not broken.

I think it is worth pointing out that it can be very misleading to use unreferenced ‘expertise’ to support a claim as I believe you do when you support your characterisation

of the ‘natural destinies’, ‘yearnings’ and physical capabilities of males and females by relying heavily on the findings of unspecified ‘evolutionary biologists’. I cannot believe that these claims have been made by any serious scientist at any time. The DCSF’s report, from the office of the Minister for Education, is based on thorough research and states “there is little evidence to suggest that neurological (‘brain-sex’) differences result in boys having different abilities/ ways of learning to girls’ and, perhaps more seriously, that if we ignore the fact that neurological research ‘remains in its infancy’ and jump to conclusions about boy/girl differences we will ‘fail to meet the needs of many boys and girls’. I believe the DCSF’s reasoned and reliable response is far more accurate than your article and has highlighted the key faults in your logic very concisely. To me, offering unreferenced ‘scientific’ justifications is not unlike stereotyping because it is interpreting small fragments of information and claiming that you have a complete picture rather than accepting that these are only small areas of shading in a complex landscape.

However, as I stated earlier, there is much in your article with which I agree. For example, you make a very good point when you discuss the value of play as a way of learning which allows children to make mistakes in an undamaging way. Of course this is the case, and I believe that by abolishing the SATs for seven year olds the entire educational establishment of this country has already recognised that paper based learning and competitive testing is not the best way forward for small children. I also agree that the media has a negative effect in gender stereotyping very young children and creating sexist role models for impressionable young minds to emulate. However, I fail to see how an article that falls into the precise trap that it criticises can solve the problem.

Like you, I believe it would be more balanced if there were more male teachers in primary education but, again, I fail to see how this justifies blaming female teachers for all the flaws in the educational system. Primary teachers have to work to a curriculum. I think it would be interesting to know the gender ratio of the people who wrote this before deciding who to criticise. Female teachers are doing their best. I wonder if female teachers fail to let boys take risks because they are female or because they have to fill in endless risk assessments as demanded by the government? Incidentally, I seem to remember hearing a male head teacher explain why he had banned ‘conkers’, because the risk was too great.

Finally, I feel I must point out that it is deeply insulting and highly offensive to say that boys ‘often prefer a violent gang culture to any educational goods on offer’. Only a minority of boys get involved with violent gangs and the reasons for this cannot possibly be as trivial as saying to yourself “Oh, I’m a boy, I don’t like school, it’s cooler to be in a gang”.

I hope I have shown that this kind of mindless stereotyping is dangerous. How can an article like yours challenge misguided ideas in society when it is full of misconceptions? In ‘How does gender difference come about?’ (DCSF 2009), the dangers of conforming to stereotypes by attempting to ‘alter the curriculum to make it boy friendly’ are made clear. The DCSF’s view is that if we ‘reinforce the idea that only some activities and behaviours are gender appropriate’ we ‘limit rather than enhance pupil’s engagement with the curriculum’. By your reasoning, this means that if we really want boys to join gangs then we should help them to disengage from their studies by basing education reforms on gender stereotypes. As Homer might say: ‘D’oh?’. Yours sincerely, Annie Hawkins Ref Addressing Gender and Achievement: myths and realities DCSF 2009

MVC Art

Art Students at MVC have been working on a range of projects, year 7 are learning independent working through the introduction of specially designed MVC Artist sketchbooks. Years 8 and 9 having been researching other artistic cultures and art forms, year 8’s work based on Mehendi whilst year 9 have been exploring the Mexican Day of the Dead

Gifted and Talented students have been asked to take part in the MVC Art Challenge based on their own visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Each student has been asked to visit the museum and pick their favourite piece of work to base their own art work on. We have been shown work by Rebecca Green who has taken some outstanding photographs and is going to develop them on her computer for her final piece, and we have been assisting Erin Tidey in her pottery vase based on work she viewed in the museum. We’re hoping to hold an exhibition of the fantastic work our students have produced.

Maths Challenges at MVC

It has been a very busy time in the maths department since our GCSE results came out in August where we achieved 77% A*–C and 34% achieved an A* or A. This is our second increase in a row and the best results we’ve had for at least 10 years.

The GCSE specification has changed this year with a greater emphasis on the real life application of mathematics. Mr Holder has been running the Jaguar Maths in Motion Challenge after school and all of year 7 has had an opportunity to try this during lessons. We also have 5 students in years 8 & 9 going to Cambridge and Hertfordshire University taking part in the Royal Institute Mathematics Master classes.

A special mention must go to the year 7 students taking part in the National Cipher Challenge. This is open to students from year 7 to 13 and our team were joint top on challenge 4. It is a very difficult challenge which they have attempted with great enthusiasm and hard work.

Year 5 Sports Festival

The Year 5 Winter Festival took place in October at Melbourn Village College. The Sports Leadership Academy students prepared to teach a range of skills to 8–9 year

olds. At this festival, we offered: tri-golf, rugby, football, netball and quicksticks (mini hockey).

The children came from several different primary schools and had a go at each activity. They played for 20 minuets then moved onto the next skill.

To prepare for the festival we asked some professional coaches to come in to teach skills to the children while we assisted. We had a gold coach and a rugby coach; this gave the children a more intense experience. They received a more enriched idea of the sports.

On the morning of the festival we got everything set up and assigned members of the academy to run skills sessions or assist the coaches. The children arrived, were split up and sent to a skill. The morning went quickly and before we knew it they were all done. Our gold ambassadors gave a goodbye and thank you speech and the children went back to school.

Overall the festival went very well and was successful. The children got a variety of experiences and learnt many new skills. Everyone in the academy is looking forward to the next festival.

Food for Thought

Year 8 and 10 Food students have displayed their practical skills to the rest of the College this term.

Firstly, to celebrate European Day of Languages Year 8 students; Katherine Webb, Katie Francis and Joe Dixon produced over 100 crepes which were made to an authentic French recipe supplied by M. Trousset. The crepes were served with sugar and lemon and were a great hit, especially with Year 10 boys. Congratulations to the Year 8 students for working under pressure for the whole of their lunch hour.

In October the Year 10 Food and Nutrition GCSE students produced a variety of tray bake cakes as part of National Baking Week to raise funds for Concern World Wide a charity which provides support to some of the poorest counties of the world.

Concern organises help programmes for education, training, health and agriculture. An agricultural programme would: • Help bring positive changes to some of the poorest people in the world • Target poorer areas within countries and focus on them making things better in the long-term, not just short term fixes • Help improve people’s ability to lift themselves out of poverty and increase their capacity to cope with unexpected disasters We raised £88.00!

Celebrating Success

At the end of November we had our Presentation Evening where we distributed this year’s GCSE certificates and award subject prizes. The evening was the most well attended ever and was a fitting end for the year group that achieved 90% A*–C grades. The subject prizes went to the following students:

The Governors Prizes for overall outstanding achievement went to Matthew Way and for outstanding progress to Georgina Waldman.

In addition we have the Middlemass Prize for Science. This award is in memory of John Middlemass – a former Governor and generous sponsor of the College. The award is a bursary given to the highest achieving science student going on to study science at a sixth form college. The bursary also supports the students if they then go on to read a science at university. I know that the recipients of this award in the past have been very appreciative of this financial support with their studies. This year we were delighted that the award was presented by John’s daughters, Suzzane and Karen, both ex-students of the College and for the first time was awarded to two students – Matthew Way and Elizabeth Kreit.

It was lovely to see a growing number of our current students also attending the evening and it certainly gives them something to aspire to in the future. Additional Science – Jodie Busani; Applied Science – Daniel J Smith; Biology – George Baker; BTEC Construction – Adam Wright; Chemistry – Evangeline Scott; Dance – Yasmin Broadbent; Drama – Ellie Iggulden; Electronics – Jack Pettit; English – Chiara Cooper; English Literature – George Baker; Fine Art and Textiles – Amelia Aveston-Viner; Food and Nutrition – Kersha Douglas; French – Stacey Kane; Geography – Joseph Roberts; German – Victoria Waterton; Graphics – Amy Lloyd; History – Adam Morley; ICT BTEC – Jack Pettit; Maths A G Foulston Award – Matthew Way; Media Studies – Claire Kelly; Music – Amy Lloyd; PE – Lauren Andrews/Adam Wright; Physics – Jack Pettit; RE and Ethics – Bethany Wells; Science – Kersha Douglas; Spanish – Stuart Tucker; School Sports Colour Award – Emma Whitaker; Highest Achievement in Youth Award – Sarah Cooper

University of the Third Age (U3A)

The Third Age Trust is the national representative body for the U3As in the UK. U3As are self-help, self-managed lifelong learning co-operatives for older people no longer in full time work, giving opportunities for sharing learning experiences for fun, not for qualifications.

Melbourn and District U3A currently has 29 such groups, ranging from Art Appreciation to Yoga with a great deal between. Membership stands at around 470, and covers a number of surrounding villages. If you are interested in joining please contact Arthur Alderton (01763 260399) for details of membership.