Key Notes: 10 June 2022

10th June 2022

Welcome back

It has been another busy week with lots of sporting fixtures and other activities including a Comberton 6^th Form Taster Day for our Year 10s.  Year 11s are continuing their GCSE exams and today is their last day of lessons in school. From next week they are only required to be in school when they have an exam although are welcome to attend specific subject revision sessions.  Year 11s who need to remain in school during the day for transport or other reasons will be supervised.

Train Strikes

You may well already be aware that the RMT union has announced three days of national strike action on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June 2022 across Network Rail and 13 train operating companies. This is likely to cause severe disruptions to services in our area and pupils who use the train will need to make alternative arrangements on those days.

Coming up

• Monday: SSC pupils take part in Powerhouse Games
• Tuesday: Year 8 Careers Event and Year 9 MEP trip to China Town
• Thursday: Carnegie Award Book Event at Comberton Village College and Year 10 MEP visit to University of Westminster

Spanish

Year 8 have been learning to say where things are. Morgan made a fabulous interactive poster to say where Pedro the dog is. It even has moving parts! Fantastic effort Morgan, well done.

STEM Club

Our KS3 STEM Club pupils were producing some beautiful blue solutions on Wednesday after school this week.  Following a recipe that KS4 pupils normally follow to make a soluble salt from an insoluble compound, they learned some valuable skills.  Dr Wilson and Miss Piper were very pleased with how competent and brave (bunsen burners can be scary!) lots of the pupils were.  The crystals are now starting to grow, and pupils will check them next Wednesday to monitor their growth.

Training is always welcomed in science and our technicians deserve top-quality training too.  Mrs Santoso, who recently joined our team, was able to attend a residential course in York on Skills for New Technicians. 

On Thursday lunchtime, she presented her findings from the course to the science teaching team. She has already helped to organise our preparation rooms (and helped to  save us money in the long term!).

Eco Group – Tip of the week

16^th June is World Refill Day – a global campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste. Check out their website to find out more and download a free app that helps you find places to refill.

In the UK we use over 35 million plastic bottles every day! Using a refillable water bottle is one way to reduce single-use plastic. At Melbourn VC we are lucky to have 5 bottle refill stations. This was achieved by students who put together a grant submission and won some funding from Cambridgeshire County Council towards the cost of installing the refill stations. Do you know somewhere where it is hard to refill water bottles? Asking for change really can work!

Pastoral Care

YMCA Trinity provides schools with much of our mental health training and resources.  They are offering a free webinar for staff and parents on ‘Building resilience in our Children’. Please join them on 6^th July 2022 for this free webinar, click here to book your place. If you have any questions please email: mentalhealthtraining@ymcatrinity.org.uk

Safer Schools Newsletter – June edition

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary Safer Schools Newsletter, June edition is being sent out with this newsletter.

The subjects covered are as follows:

• Kids Walk: safe and healthy journeys for all children
• E-scooters and school legislation
• Weapons amnesty success
• Disguised knives: awareness for parents/carers and
  school staff
• The Dark Web Explained: essential guide for parent and carers
• Threatening behaviour online: how the law protects victims of online bullying

Melbourn Dynamos

Melbourn Dynamos (under 16s, next season) will be running a Saturday and Sunday team. At present, they only have 1 player who would like to play in goal and he would prefer to play on Saturdays. If any MVC pupils would like to play in goal for Melbourn on Sundays please would they contact Bill Webb via office@melbournvc.org

Athletics

On Wednesday we hosted two of our trust schools and Bassingbourn Village College in a Year 8 athletics friendly fixture. This was our first athletics fixture for several years due to the pandemic! Laura was second in the shot put, Elke and Emily both made the 60m final, Thomas won the long jump and made the final in the 300m, Kingsley came second in the high jump, Grace made the final in the 300m, Annabel second in the 1500m, Ben won the javelin, and the boys came second in the relay. Well done to all who took part.

The PE department will be hosting several other schools next week in an athletics friendly tournament for our Year 7 pupils. Congratulations to those pupils who have been selected to represent MVC. The competition is likely to finish around 5.30pm and it will be a nice practice event for the District Championships which take place on Wednesday 29^th June Cambridge. Many of our Year 7-10 pupils are scheduled to take part and we only have a few remaining athletics club enrichment sessions left until that big day.  So if pupils want to be selected for the athletics team they should make sure they come and practise after school.

Foxton Cricket Tournament

It was a busy day for our Year 10 Sports Leaders on Wednesday. They travelled to Foxton Primary School to assist with running a Cricket Tournament. There were excellent leadership skills on display with lots of clear instructions and positivity! Following an afternoon of cricket, some of the leaders stayed after school to assist with the Year 8 Athletics Festival.  They did a great job officiating and we have been incredibly impressed with all our Sports Leaders this year. A reminder for current Year 9s who would like to be a Sports Leader in the next academic year, the application deadline is Friday 17^th June. If you have any questions or need an application form, please speak to a member of the PE department.

Sporting Success

We are delighted that many of our pupils are continuing to maintain MVC’s reputation for producing excellent young cricket players. We can't take all the credit for their successes though, as many work hard at this sport for their respective local teams outside of school.

Ollie (Y10) top-scored for his team Reed against Bishop Stortford recently, helping himself to a couple of wickets in a Man of the Match performance that was instrumental in their victory.

Lily (Y8) has gone from strength to strength at Reed and has now made her debut for Hertfordshire U13 girls against Cambridgeshire over half term. She took a couple of wickets and a catch. Well done.

Harvey (Y9) continues to improve in PE and is showing a lovely bowling action at school and for his team Foxton. His Year 9 peer, Johnny, has also done exceptionally well in PE this year and is now playing adult cricket also at Foxton.

Yashitha (Y9) has followed up his commitment to school enrichment and is starting to show real potential for his new team. He has made a great start at MVC!

 

Meanwhile, in Basketball, we are delighted to learn that Elias has been selected to represent the Central Region team at the upcoming 2021/22 National tournament in the Aspire All-Star Event. Elias gained one of just twelve places available in the Central Region for his age group. This is something to be incredibly proud of.  Well done Elias.

We know that many more of our pupils play for local clubs and we hope to mention their successes later this term. We love writing about our pupils’ successes so if your child is playing sport locally and wants to share what they have been up to, please drop us an email at rbarlow@melbournvc.org.

Pupils are reminded that if they are interested in trying out a sport outside of school there is a club noticeboard in the corridor near drama with lots of links to local sports teams. Information is also available on the website here.

Meldreth to Melbourn Underpass

This is a reminder from Amanda Silvester and Sarah Grove from South Cambridgeshire Communities Team that the survey for the upgrading of the pedestrian underpass between Melbourn and Meldreth railway station is now live.  This proposal was developed with the help of some of our year 10 pupils and is live running until 18^th June. The community team would like more pupils, parents/carers and staff who use this facility, either for school or for leisure, to complete the survey and share your views via this link. 

Have a good weekend,

Simon Holmes

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