Education

Education PRIMARY SCHOOL

PLAY SCHOOL NOTRE ECOLE PLAYGROUP LITTLE HANDS MVC VILLAGE COLLEGE U3A

EDUCATION

Little Hands Karen 01763 260964

Melbourn Playgroup Jane Crawford

Notre Ecole Janet Whitton 07842 151512

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Primary School Headteacher Stephanie Wilcox 223457 U3A (Univ. of Third Age) Chairman Tony Garrick 01223 510201 Village College Principal Simon Holmes 223400

Melbourn Village College

Reunion Afternoon

MVC 60th Year Celebration Friday 27th September 2–4pm No ticket needed

Calling everyone with an MVC connection since 1959 Displays, tours, music, teas, memories …

RSVP for your name badge: Email: mvc60years@gmail.com Telephone: 01763 223400 or just come along on the day

www.melbournvc.org

Melbourn Village College

A wise former warden of Melbourn Village College would often say to students and staff that we are all ‘just passing through’ the college and that our aim should be to leave the institution in a better place than when we arrived. As someone who has now served at MVC for 20 years, I have seen many staff and students pass through and leave a legacy from which we have benefited. I have also seen the college go through some tough times and am delighted to see it emerging into a brighter future.

In the 2000s, the college began to shrink, reaching just under 450 students, with one year group of under 70. It has been fantastic to watch that situation reverse into one where we will now have 640 in September 2019. Indeed, we are now in a position of considering how we might best expand the college in the future to accommodate the growing number of children who want to enjoy the education that we are able to offer.

We have become a forward-thinking college, not afraid to lead the way. Becoming the first in Cambridgeshire to introduce Chinese Mandarin is probably the highest profile development of recent years but there have been many other across the whole college. We want to equip our young people with the skills and knowledge required to be successful in a global economy. As part of the Cam Academy Trust we have a fundamental commitment to high quality education for all our students and we have received national recognition for the work we have done on curriculum design and, more recently, on effective learning behaviours. The Governing body and Senior team are constantly looking ahead and planning how we move forwards proactively to become the college we want and that you want.

I hope to see many of you at the 60th anniversary reunion, giving me a chance to say ‘thank you’ for your contributions to the college and to share some memories of your time at MVC. Simon Holmes – Principal

Mandarin Excellence Programme

The first cohort of students at Melbourn Village College to study Mandarin have started their GCSE course.

Almost 30 students, who were among the pioneers when Melbourn became the first school in Cambridgeshire to offer the Chinese language as part of the curriculum, have opted to continue their studies beyond Year 9.

And Mandarin continues to go from strength to strength with the college expecting to have two GCSE classes next year including those on the Mandarin Excellence Programme.

Students on the intensive learning programme, which include four additional hours of study each week, this term enjoyed their activities weeks.

Those in Year 7 experienced the Chinese culture and language with visits to London’s Chinatown, the British Museum, Chinese Arts and Music festivals at an AngloEuropean School, as well as cultural activities in college including cooking and calligraphy.

The 26 in Year 8 spent two weeks on the trip-of-a-lifetime to Xi’an, where they soaked up the language and culture with students from other schools also on the MEP and visited the world-famous Terracotta Army.

The Year 9 intensive learning experience will involve a week at university, attending lectures in Chinese and meeting up with fellow MEP students.

It is hope the funding for the next five years of the MEP will be secured soon, although such decisions are currently being pushed down the government priority list by the on-going focus on Brexit.

Melbourn is also looking forward to helping support other schools joining the MEP programme, having been recently designated as a hub school.

The MEP Trip to Xi’an was the second of the year to

China for Melbourn students. Earlier in the term, a group of 10 joined 19 from Comberton Village College for the first Cam Academy Trust visit to a new partner school in Beijing. Students joined lessons at the high school linked to the Beijing Institute of Technology, as well as doing plenty of sightseeing in and around the capital.

Melbourn has this term welcomed a record number of new Year 7 students to the college and we hope they are settling in well and enjoying the style and variety of subjects on offer.

Further up the school our Year 10 students are settling into their new GCSE courses, with a mix of new subjects and existing subjects with revised curriculums.

We are looking forward to another action-packed and exciting year at MVC, which starts with our 60th anniversary celebrations on September 27th.

Primary School Summer Fayre

All the fun of the Fayre

It was a warm, summer evening on Friday 5th July when hundreds of people took time out to visit the Melbourn Primary School Summer Fayre. The stalls were varied and offered something for everyone – from a fun craft stall for the pre-schoolers to express their artistic flair to a coconut shy for the very competitive parents!

Completion of the building works meant the entire field was available to use and the PTFA did this in a very productive way. The Key Stage One children spent time filling up clear recyclable pint glasses with goodies for the Pot Luck stall – from enticing bright yellow JoJo Bows to a selection of party bag treats; every prize had a fun element. Key Stage Two children put on the very popular ‘Beat the Goalie’ where children were given shots at the goal and the person to get the most goals won a trophy. Another popular stall was ‘Find the Fiver’, where a £5 note or a piece of paper the size

of a £5 note were placed inside a balloon. The player would choose a balloon and pop it to find out whether it was a winner! This was alongside all the fantastic Year 6 stalls – these ranged from guessing what was in the box from just touching the items to firing waterbombs at a target. The queue for the ‘squishies’ tombola was almost as long as for the BBQ, and there were quite a few happy faces walking away from the bottle tombola! The usual inflatable slides were there and this year the addition of ‘Toxic Wipe-out’, where the children stood on an inflatable base and had to jump over or duck under a rotating arm. The scouts provided a fun archery stall and many young children enjoyed a ride on the mini steam train.

Live music was provided by the ‘Social Choir’ and this offered a wonderful backdrop as people sat at the picnic benches tucking into their Hot Dogs and Burgers from the BBQ and beverages from the licensed bar – they even had fresh Watermelon for sale at just 50p a slice!

The PTFA worked extremely hard to put together the Summer Fayre this year, and every year. They use precious hours from their spare time to ensure fun-packed events are put on for the children and their families and then plough 100% of the profits back into the school to help pay for things that the school budget just cannot stretch to. As a parent, I am very grateful to the PTFA for holding these events and supporting the school when government funding for schools is reaching an all-time low.

The takings for this year’s Summer Fayre were up on last year but at the time of writing this the final profits hadn’t been calculated. All monies made from this event will go directly into the ring-fenced pot for the desperately needed improvements to the Key Stage Two block. Jacey Stewart

Intergenerational programme

Since January this year Little Hands Nursery and Moorlands Court have been enjoying the benefits of an intergenerational programme. Every Wednesday a group of pre-school children eagerly walk over to Moorlands Court for an afternoon of fun, interactive activities with the residents. The activities include – ‘funky fingers’ which is usually making mini beasts from air drying clay and pipe cleaners. This is beneficial to the children to work on their fine motor skills and helps the residents at Moorlands Court to stretch out their fingers as much as possible. Another fun activity is a simple ‘memory match’ game where the children and residents work together to find matching pairs hidden on a small board.

A firm favourite of the visit is Rhyme Time. The residents will sing along with the children to the traditional nursery rhymes – and usually help us with some of the verses that have been lost through the generations! Once the traditional nursery rhymes have been sung, the children delight in showing the residents their dancing to ‘hop little bunny’.

As the programme is conducted on a regular basis, the children and residents of Moorlands Court have built up strong bonds and they all thrive on engaging and learning with each other.

The positive impact of this programme is huge. It goes a lot deeper than a group of 4 year olds visiting a group of residents at a local care home. It helps to combat any fear the children have of the older generation, brings a sparkle to the afternoon for the residents of Moorlands Court and most importantly it boosts the morale for everyone involved.

The initiative was set up for Little Hands Nursery by Melissa Lawrence, who has a close connection with Moorlands Court. Melissa has worked at Little Hands Nursery for two years and is currently studying for her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification. Although the initial set-up of the programme took some time and quite a bit of paperwork, Melissa believes it has been worth every minute. The key to success is to be organised and prepare the activities in advance and remember to keep them simple.

Little Hands Nursery is proud of the work it has achieved with the Intergenerational Programme and would like to thank Moorlands Court for allowing us to visit. We look forward to many more fun-filled afternoons with the residents.

Sawston Adult Education

Our new Adult Education 2019-2020 brochure is out now. We have some exciting new courses starting in September, including Woodland Survival and Bushcraft, an Introduction to Sign Language and Cooking with Fish.

Our first round of Saturday Workshops on 28 September include, an Introduction to being a Teaching Assistant, Hand Made Chocolates and Willow Weaving.

All course details are available to view and book online at www.sawstonadulted.org

Alternatively you may contact us via email at community@ sawstonvc.org, or telephone 01223 712424 (9am – 1pm Monday to Thursday from 27 August).

Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)

The next course will commence on 17th September 2019 and end on 26th November. Music for the Cinema, C Green, 10 weeks (½ term 29th October) 10.30am – 12noon. £58.00. Venue: Heritage Hall, Royston Town Hall. www.enrolonline.wea.org.uk