Key Notes: 18 March 2022
18th March 2022
Action-packed Week
It was a busy time in school this week. KS3 pupils enjoyed lots of activities for Science Week on the theme of Space. KS4 drama pupils visited Comberton Village College on Thursday to see the theatre production of ‘DNA’ By Dennis Kelly. On Friday morning the photographers came into school to take group and individual photographs of the Year 11s. Once finished they reflected that this was the best Year 11 groups they had come across this year. They were a credit to the school, looking very smart in their full uniform. All those who had their picture taken will be bringing home an ID slip so that parents and carers can order copies of the pictures. Later today the Year 11s had PSHE sessions on relationships and sex education, starting in the hall with a presentation, and later in the science classrooms.
Coming up next week…
- Mon 21st March: Pupils cake sale to help raise money for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
- Tues 22nd March: HPV Vaccinations for Years 8 and 9 (and Year 10 mop ups)
- Thurs 24th March: Year 8 Parents Evening
GCSE Drama Trip
As part of their AQA GCSE Drama exam and AQA Drama Unit Award, pupils in Year 10 and 11 visited Comberton Village College on Thursday to see the theatre production of ‘DNA’ By Dennis Kelly. The main themes of the play are bullying, gang membership, social responsibility, morality and leadership. These themes are explored using a mixture of short dramatised sequences, narration and talking head-style interviews in which the characters remain in role, commenting on the events of the play and their role in what has taken place.
The performance was part of a school tour by the excellent Quirky Bird theatre company and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed it. After the play, pupils took part in a Q&A session with the actors, who spoke not only about the production, but also about how they trained and gained employment. It gave a real insight for our pupils to see how the actors prepared for their roles and they were given an understanding of how they can audition and be involved moving forward. Their open auditions take place in June. Mrs Nicholls said “Pupils had a wonderful time and were a credit to MVC. It was amazing seeing live theatre again!”
Science Week – 14-18 March 2022
MVC has really embraced Science Week. KS3 pupils have been taking part in lots of activities during their lessons on this years’ theme of Space. First they had the chance to design a Mars Lander using recycled materials to build a machine that could land a Pringle on Mars without it breaking. One pupil in year 8 even made a Mars Lander at home and attached it to a drone. He was able to control it with a remote control and land it accurately! Mrs Mayhead, Second in Science, said “All the pupils did an amazing job designing the landers. Who knew there were so many different ways of landing a Pringle safely on a hard surface!”
Pupils then enjoyed a quiz, written by Mr Rahman, that was “Out of this World”. They had fun using books from the library to look up the answers. Grace in year 8 said, “I enjoyed doing the quiz, it really challenged me.” Another pupil commented that they didn’t know there was so much information in books!
Other sessions included designing machines to do a particular job such as assisting with homework, helping to get dressed in the morning, and even an automatic mandarin homework completer! Everyone who won in each class was given a chocolate egg as a prize.
On Friday, the Cambridge Science Centre visited school to work with year 7 and 8. In the morning they had an assembly called ‘Into Space’. Mario, the Science Centre Facilitator, talked about how to get into space, explaining that to travel we need to know about forces and fuels. He demonstrated this by making an exploding bottle move across the floor and blowing the lid off a Pringle tube. Elsie and William in year 7 were pushed across the floor on a hoverboard and thankfully caught by Mr Fan. Elsie said “It was really fun being pushed across the floor on the hoverboard. I am really pleased that Mr Fan caught me before I crashed into the wall though.” Mario then went onto explain how people can live in space, what they eat, how they exercise, sleep and even how they go to the toilet! He then explained how we come down from space, which is quite different to going up! A year 8 pupil said, “Finding out about what it was like to live in space was really interesting. The best bit was the hoverboard.”
After the assembly, Mario carried out workshops with each of the year 8 science classes on the theme of ‘Go Ballistic’. Pupils listened carefully as he explained how human cannon balls need to carefully work out where to put the net to catch them when they are fired out of the cannon. The pupils then got a chance to fire mini cannons and work out where the ball would land so that they could attempt to place a net in the correct place, to see if they could catch their cannon ball. Abi and Sophie in year 8 really enjoyed the experiments and working as part of team.
Dr Wilson, the Head of Science said, “What an amazing week Science Week has been. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed all the hands-on, interactive sessions and I am pleased that we were able to hand out so many prizes, to so many talented pupils.”
Science Prize Winners
KS3 pupils have been creating powerpoints on topics relating to the Science Week theme - Space. They produced some brilliant work showcasing human ingenuity and amazing science facts. Dr David Wilson was very impressed and handed out prizes to 29 winners.
Fantastic Beasts
Year 7 geographers have been designing an animal for a cold environment, demonstrating their amazing creativity and imagination! Below we see the new species 'Gelinda Serpens' by Rosa, and the 'Snow Dragon' by Valeriia.
English
Year 8s have recently been creating some great leaflets focused on topics they feel strongly about. They have been studying persuasive and rhetorical techniques in writing and using them with great effect in their work. Here are some examples.
Physical Education
MVC had another busy week of extra-curricular sporting activities with girls and boys football against various schools plus some table-tennis matches at Cambourne. The Year 9 boys narrowly lost 5-4 in an end to end 8 v 8 friendly. We rotated the squad and gave an opportunity to 11 boys who didn't play last week. It was very wet, but there was no mud on the boys!
Meanwhile, the Year 10 boys football team have emulated their older peers with another impressive cup run. The Year 11 boys team had already put us on the map by reaching the quarter final stage of the national English Schools Football Association Cup and a District Cup semi-final, but now the Year 10 team have gone one better and are in the County Cup final! They have beaten schools from Huntingdon (St. Peters 3-0), Cambridge (Stephen Perse 5-2) and Histon (Impington Village College 4-2) and will play either Longsands School from St. Neots or the North Cambridge Academy early next term.
Many of the boys involved in the above victories for the Year 10 and 11 football teams have also played in the school U/16 Basketball team who were narrowly beaten by Chesterton School in the District final. It’s fantastic to see our talented pupils consistently competing with much larger schools.
All the pupils have benefitted from an extensive after-school enrichment programme that utilises basketball, netball and football spaces in addition to hockey and rugby last term. Head of PE Kelly Coghlan is impressed with pupil progress in PE at MVC. “Our new astroturf has had a particularly positive influence on our girls and boys football teams. We are also currently training several netball and athletics teams for next term.”
We have reformed the long-standing link with Bedford University via Callum Mills, new student teacher, who is leading swimming and gymnastics lessons for KS3, and some fitness lessons for KS4 in partnership with Melbourn Leisure Centre. He has also been instrumental in managing the Year 10 boys football team’s route to the final.
On Wednesday night 16 pupils from Years 9, 10 and 11 travelled to Cambourne for a doubles table tennis tournament. The 7 Melbourn teams played all of the 6 Cambourne teams, each win was worth 1 point. Melbourn came away victorious with a 26-15 win. Excellent work and play from all the pupils.
Next Wednesday our Year 11 boys have their final football match – a friendly at Bassingbourn. They will be looking to complete an upper school clean sweep after our Year 9 and 10 boys both won their recent matches against them. Meanwhile Mr Barlow’s budding Year 8 basketball team will host Bassingbourn also on Wednesday next week. They have been practicing hard in enrichment sessions.
Our Year 7/8 girls football team braved the wet conditions on Wednesday night as we welcomed a tough and experienced Cambourne team. A fantastic effort from all, lessons learnt, and we look forward to the next one. Player of the match was Poppy in Year 7. A big thank you also to our Year 10 Sports Leaders for doing a great job refereeing. Next Wednesday our Year 11 boys have their final football match – a friendly at Bassingbourn. They will be looking to complete an upper school clean sweep after our Year 9 and 10 boys both won their recent matches against them. Meanwhile Mr Barlow’s budding Year 8 basketball team will host Bassingbourn also on Wednesday next week. They have been practicing hard in enrichment sessions.
A request – lf you have any astro trainers that your child has grown out of, the PE department would be very grateful for any donations. Thank you.
Eco Group
Pupils at MVC are hoping to earn the Eco Schools Green Flag award. They have formed a committee made up of pupils across all the year groups and carried out an environmental survey. Some of the positive points were that the school already has a meat-free Monday aimed at highlighting the need to reduce the amount of meat that is consumed. Pupils were also pleased to discover that the school does have solar panels and double glazed windows to conserve heat. Water bottle refill stations have also been installed around the school to encourage pupils to use refillable water bottles and reduce the amount of single use plastic waste.
The group has just created its first Action Plan and will aim to start work in the summer term. The pupils chose the following topics: Marine, Biodiversity and Litter. They are planning to organise regular litter picks around the stream that runs through the school grounds, start a gardening club to grow vegetables and plant pollinator-friendly plants around the school and make some posters to highlight the problems of litter and ask the school to install more bins around the grounds.
Pastoral Support
The Cambridgeshire Early Help team will be running the “Triple P Teens” course at Melbourn Village College in the summer term on Wednesdays from 1-3pm for 7 weeks.
The aim of the course is to support parents raising teenage children and will look at adolescent behaviours, setting boundaries, strategies to help regulating behaviour and mood, self-confidence, self-esteem and anger. These are all areas that are often raised when working with pupils and parents within school and therefore we feel very fortunate that Early Help have selected Melbourn Village College to host this course and that we are able to offer this resource to our parents.
To secure your place on the course, please call Early Help on 01954 284 672 or call MVC and speak to Mrs Deadman for further information (cdeadman@melbournvc.org).
Art and Design
A Rainbow Serpent is an animal in the Dreamtime or creation stories, which many of the indigenous people of Australia believe created the mountains, rivers and lakes. It features in stories, cave paintings, carvings and artwork. Year 8 pupils have been creating their own versions of this dreamtime creature using water colours and pencils.
Year 9 are studying the incredibly vibrant eye paintings of the German artist Svenja JÓ§dicke. They have been experimenting with ink intense drips, colour fades and expressive painting.
Have a good weekend,
Simon Holmes
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