Education

Education PRIMARY SCHOOL

PLAY SCHOOL NOTRE ECOLE PLAYGROUP LITTLE HANDS MVC VILLAGE COLLEGE U3A

EDUCATION

Melbourn Village College

Little Hands Karen 01763 260964

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 The Year 7 students who have just started at Melbourn Village College are now the biggest year group in a rapidly expanding school.

After a steady intake of around 90 new students a year for several years, the current cohort is around 140.

This is in addition to a rising number of in‑year transfers which saw an increase from four classes to five at Christmas for the students now in Year 8 and now also for Year 9.

This means that 12 Key Stage 3 classes in September 2017 has become 16 in September 2018.

Overall numbers are approximately 80 more than in Autumn 2017.

With the school consistently achieving excellent results it seems that more students and parents are wanting to be a part of the success story and Principal Simon Holmes said: “This is a great recognition of what we are doing at the college.,”

And if last term is anything to go by, the new students will have plenty to look forward to with trips and visits aplenty as part of the curriculum then a grand final full week of term when learning was taken out of the classroom during the annual, much‑anticipated Activities Week.

This is when students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have the chance to choose a themed week which appeals to them and then participate in relevant activities.

Last term students chose from weeks like Animal Week, which involved visits to places like the Raptor Foundation and Woburn Safari Park as well as a visit from an animal scientist, Bike Week, where students honed their skills at

Little Hands Nursery School The Moor, Melbourn

Little Hands is a Private Nursery School specialising in quality preschool education for the under fives and offers

• High staff to child ratio • Individual child centred planning & learning • Flexible booking system during term time for the 08.30am – 4.30pm nursery day • Optional holiday clubs available • Dedicated baby room for children under two We accept nursery funding giving 30 hours per week of free funded nursery for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds

For further information contact : Sharon Tutty : nursery manager 01763 260964 lh-melbourn@btconnect.com

Little Hands is also at Bourn, Linton and Newton visit the website at www.littlehands.co.uk

Make & Do bumpkins toddler Tips

Mint playdough

All children love playdough. Why not make your own using fresh mint that you can grow in your own garden? Adding fresh mint into playdough will extend your child’s sensory play. They can also get involved in growing the mint, for example, watering it every day, and measuring the size of the plant. To make the playdough you will need:

2 cups plain flour 1 cup salt 2 tbsp oil 4 tbsp cream of tartar 2 cups boiling water (infused with mint) 10 drops of green food colouring Measuring out ingredients is a good way to practice counting with your child. Put the ingredients into a large bowl and combine well. Once combined knead the dough to distribute the food colouring. Finally let your child enjoy playing with delicious smelling playdough! places like Adrenaline Alley and Thetford Forest, Dance Week, which included an overnight stay in London and trip to see the musical, Matilda. In addition, a group of intrepid Year 7 camped at Phasels Wood Activity Centre with the chance to put their Bear Grylls skills to the test as well as building teamwork, tackling a huge climbing wall and living under canvas in a heatwave!

On the final day students could choose between ice‑ skating in Peterborough or a day at Thorpe Park to celebrate another successful year at the college.

During that week a group of 30 students also visited Geneva, primarily to see the

Large Hadron Collider, on a trip partially subsidised by the generous support of Melbourn company TTP, who have given the college £100,000 over two years towards science resources, teaching and learning and activities.

Even before the grand finale of activities week, the college was a very busy place with trips for various year groups near (All Saints Church, Melbourn) and far (Comillas in northern Spain) and many venues in between as well as visits from students from China and Spain who joined lessons and made new English friends.

Mandarin in rural Cambridgeshire

Simon Holmes, the principal of Melbourn village College explains how starting Mandarin lessons – with the help of the Department for Education’s Mandarin Excellence Programme – has boosted pupils’ confidence and given them amazing learning opportunities. Melbourn Village College (MVC) is a 500‑strong 11–16 school in a corner of rural south Cambridgeshire. At this small secondary a revolution in languages teaching began quietly but has now raised the school to national prominence as a trailblazer for Cambridgeshire and the wider Eastern region.

Current Year 7 and 8 at MVC study both Spanish and Mandarin, with a group of 30 Year 7s being part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP), funded by the Department for Education and delivered by the UCL Institute of Education and the British Council. Later this year we will welcome a group of 10 Chinese students, who will spend eight weeks in our classes, and next summer a group of students will take part in a trip to China, again as part of the MEP programme.

This is quite a change from where we were only relatively recently. For many years we offered French in Year 7, adding German in Year 8. About seven years ago, one of my teachers suggested offering a Spanish GCSE starting from scratch in Year 10. Due to their hard work and high expectations, Spanish almost immediately became not only very successful but also very popular. This led to the decision to replace German with Spanish at Key Stage 3, starting in Year 7. In many ways this process laid the template for the successful introduction of Mandarin.

Why Mandarin? In September 2015, supported by a new Chair of Governors and the SSAT (formerly Specialist Schools & Academy Trusts network, now Schools, Students And Teachers), we reviewed all areas of our curriculum and wider provision. In terms of foreign languages, we asked: if we were setting up a school from scratch, which two languages would we offer?

Trying to predict the future is never easy but, being conscious of the increasingly global nature of future trade and having done some research, including documents such as the British Council’s 2013 ‘Languages for the Future’, we came up with the answer: Spanish and Mandarin. Incidentally, these two languages are first and second respectively in the updated 2017 version of this report. We then had to make this a reality.

For us, the key aspects involved in introducing Mandarin were: deciding if it was right for our students (and, if so, which ones); engaging stakeholders, and finding a high quality teacher who was also capable of fronting this new move to students, parents and other stakeholders. Either of these had the potential to bring an end to the project; we were clear that we had to be sure it would work.

To do this I made use of my contacts and made some very useful new ones. For example, I spent an invaluable day with Dr Rachel Hawkes (director of languages, international education and research at the Cam Academy Trust) observing Mandarin lessons in Harris South Norwood Academy, and also met Katharine Carruthers (Director of the UCL Institute of Education Confucius Institute for Schools) and her PGCE students to discuss the myths around Chinese GCSE. We covered topics such as the growth of Chinese, whether the top grades were accessible to non‑native speakers, the supply of resources and teachers etc.

This research was invaluable in confirming to us we were on the right track, and with the appointment of Frank Fan as our Mandarin teacher (who, incidentally, was one of the PGCE students we met previously) we were confident we had the right person in place. With an introduction to parents at Induction evening and a Year 6 lesson on Induction day, we were ready for all Year 7 students to start Mandarin in September 2016.

It was an instant hit. We were initially concerned that there might be some reluctance from Year 7 parents and students, but the preparation work we did, the interesting nature of the subject and the high quality of the teaching meant that this wasn’t an issue. In fact, the grumbling that we did get was from older students who were upset that they weren’t having the opportunity to study Mandarin!

We were particularly pleased in our decision to have the whole year group studying Mandarin. As well as being intellectually stimulating for the more able, learning Mandarin gives lower ability students a sense of pride and achievement

as they learn something their parents don’t know. This was backed up the following year, when a visiting HMI Inspector commented on the huge progress made by our lower ability Year 7s in the subject and the obvious pride they showed in their work. Mandarin also made a number of positive appearances in our latest Ofsted inspection, with students telling the inspectors they ‘felt privileged to study Mandarin’.

At the same time as we began offering Mandarin, the DfE had begun its Mandarin Excellence Programme. We had come across this when we were researching Mandarin; indeed I had attended the initial launch. We kept an eye on developments and were fortunate enough to be able to join the second cohort in September 2017. We now have a class of 30 students who are part of this exciting initiative, studying additional Mandarin inside and outside school time.

Timetabling this has provided some challenges (and will have more as additional year groups come on stream) but we have found a solution that works for us and the additional funding that it brings in is very welcome. The best part of the MEP is the links with other schools; our Year 7s are aware they are part of something special and this will be reinforced later this year when they link up with another school for a Chinese immersion week.

There are more developments in the pipeline: a Confucius Classroom application and increased links with Chinese schools are imminent. We are also in discussions with our Multi‑Academy Trust about post‑16 progression and initial teacher training so we can ‘grow our own’.

Mandarin at MVC has been an unqualified success. All the information we have suggests that our students are making excellent progress and we can be confident about their future achievements. Of course, the true test will come when they eventually take their GCSEs but the initial signs are very encouraging. We couldn’t have done this without all the help and support we received from the various contacts we made, and without a full commitment to give this 100 per cent in terms of involvement in additional programmes, such as the Chinese exchange and the MEP. To any school considering introducing Mandarin, either as part of the MEP or as a wider offer I would say be open minded and do your research. Has it been worth it for us? Absolutely. Simon Holmes

Sawston Village College adult education courses

We are delighted to tell you that Sawston Village College will be bringing you some exciting new adult education courses from September 2018. We think you will agree that this year, we have the most varied course selection yet! Here are some of the courses we are going to be bringing to the local community: • Astronomy • Car Maintenance • Flamenco and Spanish Dancing styles • Bollywood Dancing • Drumming • Basket Weaving • Sugar Craft • Mandarin • Make up courses • Dream Analysis • Many different forms of needle craft

Also, this academic year you will be able to book our courses online through our website www.sawstonadulted. org via Wisepay. This will be easier, quicker and even more secure. We are excited to be able to offer this new facility to our adult learners. If booking online is not for you, please telephone us on 01223 712424 or email us community@ sawstonvc.org.

We hope you have a wonderful Summer and look forward to welcoming you to Sawston Village College from September. Amanda Hoskins The Adult Education Department – Sawston Village College.

Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)

The Autumn course at Royston Town Hall will start on 18th September.

It’s the economy, stupid. Tutor Andy Beharrell £54.75

The course is for 10 weeks Tuesdays 10am‑11.30am

You may enrol at Royston Town Hall 11th September 10am‑11am or on‑line: https://enrolonline.wea.org.uk