Education

PRIMARY SCHOOL

PLAY SCHOOL NOTRE ECOLE PLAYGROUP LITTLE HANDS MVC VILLAGE COLLEGE U3A

EDUCATION

Melbourn Village College Summer School

Little Hands Karen 01763 260964

Melbourn Playgroup Jane Crawford 07842 151512

Notre Ecole Janet Whitton 261231 The 2013 summer school offered our new students the opportunity to get to know their school surroundings before the autumn term starts. They are given opportunities to make friends and develop a range of skills throughout the week, enabling them to develop confidence and their self-esteem in their new environment. Students got to know their new school by interacting with the volunteer prefects, who showed them around the school and helped them to participate in the activities on offer.

A range of activities

Primary School Headteacher Stephanie Wilcox 223457 U3A (Univ. of Third Age) Chairman George Howard 260686 Village College Principal Simon Holmes 223400 The students participated in a range of exciting and fun learning activities, which included: dance and sport; the Bronze Arts Award; cookery and rocket making; film-making and circus skills. Students also visit the Wysing Arts Centre in Bourn. Team building

Students were asked to work together cooperatively, which enabled them to make friends and supportive friendship groups for the new term and their career at Melbourn Village College.

Newton 4 Fundraiser

As I am sure you are aware each Newton form takes it in turn to host a fundraise and on Thursday the 23rd of May it was the turn of Newton 4.

Newton 4 decided to raise money by holding a “teacher drenching” and managed to raise £40. This money will be split between Scope and the paediatric intensive care unit at Addenbrookes Hopsital.

Students would like to thank Mrs McHugh, Miss King, Miss Rich and Mr

Armstrong and a special thank you to Mr Hutchinson for very kindly and bravely volunteering to get drenched. Maddy Gavin and Sarah Thompson Newton 4

MVC Science Department

As part of National Science and Engineering week KS3 students were involved at school in Science challenges and quizzes. They were also able to take part in a nationwide competition on recycling! Students designed machines made of recycled materials and came up with ideas such as Bio Bin, Bookinator, The Recycled Re-flectinator and The Nappinator!!! The Salter’s Festival of Chemistry

Four students from Year 7/8 were chosen to take part at one of the Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry being held at the Department of Chemistry at the University. The Salter’s Festivals of Chemistry are an initiative of the Salters’ Institute and are sponsored by over 50 scientific companies. Their objective is to help promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences, to provide the opportunity for enthusiastic young students to spend a day in a university department and to take part in practical chemistry activities which are fun! Prizes are awarded to the winning teams and all students received participation certificates. Although our students didn’t win any prizes they thoroughly enjoyed the day. Cambridge University Science Schools Science Masterclasses

Two students from Year 10 attended a science-based residential masterclass during Easter, at Cambridge University along with nearly 90 other Year 10’s and 11’s from around the country. The intention of the two night stay was to encourage the participants’ interest in science and to give a very detailed insight into what College life is. Elaine McHugh (Acting Head of SAH) Maths

Hogwarts comes to Melbourn Village College On Wednesday 3rd July, the Maths Department held a Maths Challenge based around the Harry Potter books for local primary schools. The 70 visiting students built models of Hogwarts from 3D shapes, worked on algebraic puzzles to find out the costs of items in the Hogwarts shop and cracked deviously tricky codes to unlock (not very) hilarious Harry Potter jokes set by Mr Holder.

The students from each school demonstrated a high level of ability and impressed all the Maths staff. We also enjoyed seeing the students who dressed in some brilliant outfits – some witches, wizards, a Moaning Myrtle and a Hagrid. Thank you to all the visiting students and teachers. We would also like to thank those year 10 students who helped during the morning providing encouragement and support for the primary school children.

We look forward to seeing all those year 5 students again at Open Evening later in the year and hope they remember when Hogwarts came to Melbourn Village College. John Holder Sports Day

Sports Day victors this year for the first time and breaking a Franklin stranglehold were Darwin!!

On a cloudy and somewhat chilly day all the students in KS3 took part in the annual athletics festival. Many students were looking to break school records and some were very close to doing so. Stuart Dingwell was only 1 second off the 400m record whilst Kai Linnell broke the javelin record set only 2 weeks ago at the Olympic Cup (see article). Zoe Clarke was close to the javelin record and Oliver Johnson is getting closer and closer to the 800m record. Josie Willers is also the proud owner of the javelin record for year 8 with a distance of 18.85 beating the old record by 4cm set back in 1999. Points are awarded to athletes not by the position they finished but by the performance they achieved, so the highest point scoring boy and girl from each year were; Sarah Martin & Kai Linnell, Ashley Clarke & Shaun Charter and Dani Friel & Ryan Lees. The overall results were: • 4th Lewis 6985 pts • 3rd Newton 6993 pts • 2nd Franklin 7446 pts • 1st Darwin 7518 pts

Sky Sports Program – Summer 2013

As Young Ambassadors, Sam Carrington and I ran a 6 week sky sports programme for the year 7 girls. The aim of sky sports is to “change your game’. There are many different things you can target it at, but we chose to encourage the

Home cooked food using only the best local ingredients. Individual care and support for each and every child and their families. Large, fun outdoor playgrounds and fields for the children to explore, to run, skip and jump. A loving family environment created by qualified happy staff. 98% have a professional childcare qualification and they all love their job.

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girls that have enjoyed and tried hard in PE lessons to try new sports in order to develop their existing skills. We started with two weeks of handball, giving the girls a chance to try out a new game with different rules but similar skills to what they know already. We tried lacrosse for the second two weeks which was a big hit with the girls! It proved tricky at first as it’s harder than it looks to catch the balls in those small nets! But the girls soon got the hang of it and by the end of the second session, we were having a very competitive game! The final sport the girls tried was Frisbee which is more complicated than it sounds! However the girls embraced the challenge and worked really hard! (Well done girls!!) This is one of the many skills and values that we hope that they have learnt from this experience we hope they will now be able to apply these to not just their PE lessons but their work in general! Katherine Webb YA MVC

Thanks to all who volunteered their time for the day. Despite the poor weather, the games were a great success. F Humphrey SSCo MVC

Summer games 2013 June 28th St. Ives outdoor centre

On Friday 28th June, 15 young sports leaders set off very early from school to act as stewards at the regional school games in St. Ives. The weather was poor and the students had to direct participants in cold and wet conditions. After the opening ceremony, they were in charge of making sure everyone found their way to the relevant sporting arena. At the end of each event, medals were given out to the winning teams and finally, they had to dismantle the gala tents and remove all the logo banners from the site. A weary but fulfilled team returned back to school about 4pm to get refreshed and changed for viewing evening prom students. Olympic Cup

On the 19th June the Athletics season reached its climax at the Olympic Cup held at Wilberforce Road track in Cambridge. A team of fifty students from all year groups represented MVC in the first day of hot sunshine in the month.

Many students performed well and beat their personal bests with Chris Chivanganye beating his best in the 100m with a time of 11.86 seconds and Stanley Johnson in the 1500m securing a time of 5 min 32 . Amelia Parker also beat her personal best in the 1500m with a time of 6 min 18 which also beats the school record set by Keri Pullen back in 1999 by 2 seconds. Ben Mansfield didn’t beat his personal best this time but in the athletics meet at St Bedes two weeks earlier also broke the school record held by Matthew Goodfellow from 2003 with a throw of 25m11.

Overall MVC finished in 7th place with the best performing team being the year 8 boys of Stanley Johnson, Stuart Dingwell, Charlie Clark, Alex Little, Findlay Livingstone, Ethan Chesham, Ben Mansfield and Dylan Miller. Creating setting and atmosphere within a story

As I peered into the hallway, it looked like an old soulless man’s eyes, but for some reason I continued to walk, like someone was pulling me. As I walked, I felt the slow heartbeat of the wall and I was drawn to English 5. I looked into the room and saw a giant leg with one high-heel and I just ran and ran and ran, until I got to the Science block. All I saw was Bunsen burners. Suddenly, they all pointed at me! I slowly backed away to the door, but one Bunsen burner saw me. I ran faster this time and saw an exit. I ran faster and faster and as I got closer to the exit, the hallway got longer and longer. As I reached the exit, my alarm went off and mum shouted, “Get ready for school!” Cameron Montgomery, Yr9 student.

stART

Community commitment to challenging change

The work of stART continues, sharing the arts and connecting lives, over the summer months and continuing into the autumn, the seven members of this arts partnership have worked alongside the Arts Development Managers to support the transition of the organisation. South Cambridgeshire District Council withdrew 100% funding for the Arts Development Managers posts in July 2013 with an offer of a one off final transition grant which stART hopes to receive before the end of the year.

There are strong positive developments to report with formation of new stART Consortium made up of Cambourne Village College, Comberton Village College, Linton Village College, Melbourn Village College, Sawston Village College, Swavesey Village College and Wysing Arts Centre with a commitment from the members to work to provide a

sustainable arts infrastructure for South Cambridgeshire. For more information on the work of stART and this transition phase please go to the stART website http://start-arts.org.uk/ start-activities/

stART to share the work of ACT

A Common Territory with the wider community Melbourn Village College joined this international partnership project in the summer. Thanks to everyone who has joined the college in its key research question examining the idea of community and what it really means to us as individuals by completing the ‘A message from Melbourn’ postcard.

‘Shared space, shared experience’, ‘Working together, looking out for each other’, ‘Understanding who we are and where we are’, are just a selection of the thinking that is being shared with the students of MVC.

ACT Central is now in the community centre and youth centre at MVC and will be an ACT project hub collecting and showcasing the work of the project and its partners here in the UK and France.

Next key dates for the project are the full partnership conference in Rennes, France at the end of November where MVC staff will represent the school. MVC will present and report on the ongoing work and plan exciting cultural, educational and heritage exchange trips with our partners, including a 5 day trip to the battle fields of the Somme during the WWI centenary commemorations.

To find out more about the extraordinary project please go to www.act-acommonterritory.eu stART, MVC and Wysing Arts Centre and the ACT project are proactively working to introduce the Arts Award into our schools and youth clubs – offering young people a great and fun framework with recognised qualifications to explore, enjoy and excel in the arts. www.artsward.org.uk

The Foxton Primary School were successful in their bid to the Norfolk and Norwich Festival Bridge Grant and will be introducing Arts Award and working towards achieving the Arts Mark with the support of MVC and the Arts Development Manager. Foxton Primary School will share their experience and with their Cluster schools.

The BeMag Cluster were successful in their bid to the Cambridgeshire Culture Fund and have now embarked on the Storytelling Bazaar project working with Snail Tales www. snailtales.org over ten schools will work on developing the art of story telling and then share with each other, families and the community during National Storytelling Week in February 2014.

For older children and young people between 15-25 years old there is the opportunity to join the Circuit programme – and become part of a national youth arts network funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and run by Tate Plus. Wysing Arts Centre and Kettles Yard are partnering on the project for Cambridgeshire. Be creative, have fun, learn new skills. Check out facebook: Circuit Cambs www.campaignfordrawing.org

Children, young people and indeed whole families took part in the The Big Draw - at Wysing Arts Centre at the end of October - this is an annual campaign and now has over 1000 events that take place in fifteen countries – it is great to know that Melbourn area talent is part of this international campaign to celebrate and share the power of drawing. www.emerge-arts-festival.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2012/09/Emerge-Festival-2013-enquiry-form1.pdf

Work continues leading community engagement and education development at Wysing Arts Centre. The new exhibition X-Operative opens on November 16th. Check out www.wysingartscentre.org for their programme of events and exhibitions.

There are other exciting projects in development and I look forward to letting the community know about them. Some projects are small, others large scale all have many wide reaching potential benefits for Melbourn, the school, its students and the wider community.

There is a great deal of fantastic work to be involved with – if you would like to find out more and get involved , or if you have an idea and you would like any help or advice on how to get a creative project off the ground in the area please do get in touch.

Arts Development Manager, stART-Melbourn Village College 07770 643165 www.start-arts.org.uk

Little Hands Nursery School

Well it’s been a busy summer for ‘Little Hands’. Repairs to the building following the accident last term are all finished, and our thanks go to Melbourn Parish Council for all their help in ensuring the repairs ran promptly and smoothly, and we have details of an exciting new development to report!

From September, Melbourn Nursery became the first Little Hands Nursery School to offer places for the under two’s!

Nursery manager, Anne McCrossen, and her dedicated team have been busy preparing a separate ‘Nursery Room’ named the Bumblebee room, specifically for children aged between 12 and 24 months. With numbers initially limited to just six and a staffing ratio of one adult to three children, the children will enjoy focused and adult led creative play using age appropriate toys and equipment both indoors and out.

The provision of quality childcare for the under two’s at ‘Little Hands’ represents a significant addition to the wide range of service choices available to parents in a Nursery School already judged to be ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Other News

The month of September has flown by with all the children settling back into nursery routine and seeing their friends again. We have also welcomed some new children who have settled into nursery life really well.

The Ladybird Room

Our younger children in the ladybird room have also been exploring different textures through the story of the rainbow fish. The children created an ocean display with sand, shells and lots of shiny material to represent the rainbow fish’s scales. It was great fun getting messy!

The children have been very busy in mixing paint and mark making by using their hands and objects to create patterns.

We have listened and danced to under the sea music