Education

Education PRIMARY SCHOOL

PLAY SCHOOL NOTRE ECOLE PLAYGROUP LITTLE HANDS MVC VILLAGE COLLEGE U3A

EDUCATION

Enrichment

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Melbourn Playgroup Jane Crawford 07842 151512 Notre Ecole Janet Whitton 261231 Pippins Children’s Centre Alison Wood 223460 Primary School Headteacher Stephanie Wilcox 223457 U3A (Univ. of Third Age) Chairman Tony Garrick 01223 510201 Village College Principal Simon Holmes 223400 There has been a really positive start to our new enrichment programme with well over 80% of students taking part in at least one of the varied activities on offer. There is everything from Chinese to sports, film club to Minecraft, drama to pottery and singing to dressmaking. All the activities are being run by either MVC staff or specialist external providers. “Running activities after school means we can offer higher quality activities of a better length rather than it all being squashed in to lunch”, said Principal Simon Holmes. “Our long term vision is that every student will be taking part in some form of enrichment every single day.”

Top sports awards

Melbourn Village College has received two awards which recognise the high quality of its PE provision.

The college has gained both the Youth Sport Trust’s and the School Games’ top accolades – gold!

They have gained the YST’s gold Quality Mark for commitment to PE and school sport after successfully demonstrating use of PE and school sport to help raise achievement across the board.

Head of PE Kelly Coghlan, who was responsible for applying for the prestigious award said, “We are incredibly proud to have received the gold sports mark from the Youth Sports Trust. It highlights and rewards the hard work that is done in lessons and in extra-curricular clubs and fixtures by both students and staff.”

Among the provision that earned Melbourn the highest award was their achievement of having forty Year 10 sports leaders – the highest number in South

Camb’s despite being one of the smaller schools. These young leaders helped with many events including the themed termly inter-form challenges, clubs and primary sporting competitions.

And MVC, along with three of our partner primary schools, have gained nationally-recognised School Games Marks.

MVC, plus Harston & Newton and Meldreth primary schools were among 13 schools to receive the top Gold award, while Melbourn Primary collected the bronze award, for the excellent provision of PE, school sport and competition.

A total of 33 schools in the South Camb’s School Sports Partnership achieved the nationally-recognised award for 2015-16 at bronze, silver or gold level.

Partnership Manager, Claire McDonnell said, “This is a significant increase on the number of schools that gained an award last year. Schools achieving the coveted Gold award demonstrate a whole school approach to PE and sport, they have the wholehearted support from their head teacher and provide opportunities for all pupils at all levels. As well as this they are a community hub for sport, encouraging involvement from parents and community groups.”

Duke of Edinburgh

All 41 students from Melbourn Village College who took part in the Duke of Edinburgh assessed expedition at the weekend have passed that part of the Bronze award.

The Year 11 group, plus staff volunteer Arwen Spicer, travelled to the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire for two days of hiking around the hills and fields.

As always the students arrived at the end point with great relief, and were rightly very proud of themselves for surviving such a challenging weekend. At all times they conducted themselves with respect for their environs and the local people, demonstrated a fantastic team spirit and showed themselves to be a real credit to Melbourn Village College.

Many thanks are owed to Melbourn’s Cam Academy Trust partners, Comberton Village College, who take the lead in organising the expeditions and the DofE programme as a whole, allowing all MVC students who wish to take part to do so.

Results 2016

On Monday 19th September, our governors had their first meeting of the term, with the main focus being discussion of the excellent 2016 exam results. They asked for their congratulations to be passed on. CABINET . MAKERS

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Our open evening took place on Monday 26th September. We were delighted to see so many of our new students representing the College – a huge thank you. The hall and classrooms were full and we received many positive comments and saw many smiling faces.

Code & Chips

Year 7 students from Melbourn Village College took part in a special computing enrichment trip this week. Code & Chips, organised by ARM and hosted in Cambridge, saw our students explore modern computing technologies and take part in an interactive Minecraft workshop. Mr Richardson, Computing Teacher at Melbourn Village College said, “Th is trip is a great example of how exciting Computing can be and how Cambridge is at the forefront in developing these new technologies.” Students spent the day exploring the various activities on off er, including a robot fi ght club, virtual reality headsets and viewing some of the exciting projects that can be done with a Raspberry Pi and BBC micro:bit. In the afternoon they completed a Minecraft workshop where they used the Python programming language to teleport and alter the world around them. A year 7 student (Ben Nicholls) said, “I enjoyed the workshop as it allowed me to be creative and build upon the code that was given to me in the fi rst place. I would recommend it to all my friends in Computing and Science.”

Mandarin

Students this term are at the cutting edge of language learning. The Year 7 intake are learning Mandarin at the only school in Cambridgeshire to offer it as part of the curriculum. “We are now offering two world languages to our Year 7 students, bucking the national trend for languages within the curriculum” said Principal Simon Holmes. “We are increasingly part of a global society and by introducing Mandarin alongside Spanish, we aim to give MVC students every advantage we can.”

Eye care health week

It was non-uniform day on Tuesday 27th September to raise awareness for Eye Health Week.

A visitor from Cam Sight came in and led a staff v student’s goalball session at lunchtime.

Students were asked to dress in bright colours and to pay £1 of which the proceeds will go to young people in Cambridgeshire struggling with visual impairments.

Jeans for Genes Day

Students were able to come to school in their jeans, much to their delight and it was all in aid of Jeans for Genes Day. It is estimated that one in 25 children is affected by a genetic disorder and our students raised around £500 for Genetic Disorders UK after paying £1 to wear their jeans for ‘Jeans for Genes’. Well done, everyone.

Site Improvements

Work has commenced on replacing and upgrading our windows and roofing after successfully bid for £1 million from the Department for Education. Our apologies for the inconvenience while this work is being completed.

Building Classrooms in Ghana

Students at an overcrowded school in Africa are enjoying a little more space this term thanks to Melbourn students and staff.

The sixth and seventh classrooms in the 350-plus student Grace Methodist School in Ghana should help ease the overcrowding at the prep school in the village of Attabadze, after 13 students and two staff from Melbourn Village College spent two weeks during the summer holidays working there.

But even getting there had its trials for the travelling party, who had to make the difficult decision to stick to their planned route via Istanbul despite a military coup in Turkey the day before they were due to leave.

Then they arrived in Accra, West Africa’s largest city, at night, which was more than a little daunting, and took a bus across town to a ‘Guest House’. The staff were helpful, but the accommodation was basic with no running water and cell-like rooms.

It was enough however, to allow them to travel to Attabadze rested, for the task ahead. This involved helping local workmen complete the sixth classroom, which was already under construction, and erecting a seventh. By the time the Melbourn group left, only the roof was left to go on to the newly-built room.

This was no mean feat. The school, built at the far end of the village, lies on solid, dusty and impenetrable earth too hard to even sink a tent peg, which meant students ended up sleeping in the neighbouring enormous and impressive church.

The students worked hard in blazing sun and temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius and that and the basic conditions – the toilet was a hole in concrete suspended over

a trough – resulted in some of the Melbourn party becoming unwell.

But that did not detract from their achievements – or the fantastic experience of immersion in a different culture.

PE teacher Rob Walker, who led the trip said, “The children offered us a fantastic welcome and it was clear to see their excitement at our presence. The teachers and the headmaster (Isaac) led a welcoming ceremony of prayers and Ghanaian hospitality started to become evident.

“We handed over a large bag stuffed full of kind donations of stationery and books from our local community and Tesco. This gift was warmly received and the students proudly paraded two pencils and a pen each.

“On our fourth day it was sports day and all the students arrived in PE kit and played football, handball and volleyball, challenging us to matches.

“It was clear that this was a boys’ domain and the girls were expected to watch, not take part, so we tried to address this by getting the girls playing handball, netball and Frisbee.

“A fantastic day of sport and dance was had and the students; both Ghanaian and those of MVC were exhausted but had a wonderful time interacting and learning each other’s culture.”

The Melbourn students also had the chance to visit the Kakum National Park, an area of protected rainforest home to many species of protected and rare birds and primates.

Before the MVC students left they were treated to a performance of a traditional Ghanaian story about the right of passage into adulthood, were presented with traditional Ghanaian dresses and shirts and had many photos taken.

Mr Walker added, “By the time we got home, the stresses of the first few days of the trip were long since forgotten and there was enormous sense of achievement as I watched 13 students, who had developed into a mature, hardworking and responsible team, hug their parents.” A video of the trip is available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlx4cy7YIAs

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