News@Com Summer 2020

NEWS COM

The Magazine of Comberton Village College

@CombertonVC & @CombertonSF

www.combertonvc.org & www.combertonsixthform.org

ARTIST SHARES A MESSAGE — PAGE 6

ISSUE 54, SUMMER 2020

Lockdown special edition

A term like no other!

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

2020 started like other years and a busy term launched on 7th January.

It was business as usual, with a break at the end of February (during which I flew to Dublin for a short holiday, little knowing that might be my last chance to fly for some time to come…).

In March we started hearing news of a distant virus in China and as time progressed it became ever more apparent that it was becoming a wider problem we might need to consider.

From a very small beginning, this rapidly evolved into a national, international and finally global pandemic.

We quickly moved from thinking this might be something for us to be aware of, to something we need to plan for, to something that has dramatically and totally changed how we live, what we can do and how we teach. The summer term has been like no other.

What have we learnt? Humans are deeply social creatures and staying apart and isolated is unnatural and alien to most of us!

Humans are also deeply resourceful and adaptable creatures and a ‘new normal’ became established quickly and has continued to evolve.

As we moved to our provision being almost entirely remote there have been significant challenges for students, parents and staff alike.

While there have been plenty of challenges, there have also been also many moments of glory and joy, with the virtual sports days, activities week, careers

EMPTY AND QUIET: Comberton closed to most students in mid-March.

fair, music concerts alongside regular remote learning to name but a few.

We have learnt many new skills and ways of working, with remote Teams meetings and cloud-based learning a new norm.

We are looking forward to welcoming students back to school, but have also developed new ways of working that will stay with us.

Peter Law, Principal

Overnight changes

The world of IT is ever-changing and our technology and systems evolve (those of you with older children will recall when we had paper homework diaries and reports —– now we use Go4schools for both).

As part of this evolution, over the course of this year we had planned to have a careful and considered transition of school resources from local IT servers to cloud-based systems.

In February I told staff that we would use two terms to do this in a methodical and planned fashion. In March I told staff that we would be

doing this in two days…

We have had to adapt at high speed; there is nothing like a crisis to focus the mind and lead to rapid developments!

While some things changed overnight, such as setting work via Go4Schools, other aspects have taken longer to develop for some year groups, such as live remote lessons.

What is clear is that we have all learnt new skills that will be useful for years to come.

We now have the guidance for September onwards and we are planning to welcome all students and staff back to school.

This will be challenging, with plenty of new procedures and plans to ensure we keep everyone as safe as possible.

We are really looking forward to more contact with pupils in person, and there are no doubt a number of anxieties and apprehensions as we move forward with this.

What is clear is that we have learnt

much over the last term and will continue to evolve and develop plans to best fit the situations that arise.

Our pupils and staff are resilient and adaptable and these attributes will continue to be needed.

We will undoubtedly face new challenges and as a community will support one another and will work together to ensure the best possible provision in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.

Just happy to be The next steps . . . with ‘real people’

BUBBLE: Each group of Year 10 students are kept apart.

For the last three weeks of term, Year 10 students have been coming back to school.

Because social distancing rules have been in place, we have only been able to have up to 50 pupils per day, spread across five groups..

This has meant that all pupils have been able to be in school for a morning a week of the core subjects of Science, Maths and English.

The experience has been odd! Pupils have been in small groups (‘bubbles’) and have been kept 2m apart and entirely apart from other ‘bubbles’.

It is a very unusual teaching environment, but the students and staff have been very pleased to be back and have said what a good experience it has been to come back to school for some lessons in classrooms with real people!

q Life in an Empty School — 3 q Site Team Superstars — 4 q Different Look for Activities Week — 4 q Trust News — 5 q Artist Shares a Message — 6 q Speaking Out — 6

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Contents

q Wish Granted — 6 q Experimenting! — 6 q Sixth Form News — 7-10 q Exhibition Goes Virtual — 11 q Concert Hits High Note — 11 q Valuable Volunteering — 11 q Essay in National Final — 12

q Put ‘Green’ into Lessons — 13 q Rights Work Continues — 13 q Lively Discussion — 13 q Party on Hold — 13 q Online Safety Special — 14 & 15 q Sport — 16

It could only happen in lockdown . . .

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

When the school closed to most on 20th March, it remained open to a select few.

Children of keyworkers and those designated vulnerable were able to continue to attend school. A core group of around 15–20 students have been attending school throughout, including over the Easter break, with the numbers increasing to around 30 by the end of term.

They have been accessing the same remote work as other students, but under the supervision of school staff.

This group has established a really positive bond and great work ethic, as well as deeper relationships with the staff. It has been a joy for me to have a small sense of normality, seeing a group of students at school each day.

It has also provided a small moment of mirth

each day… three of the students are sisters and share my surname (although they are not related to me).

A teacher thought it was amusing to tell others that these are my granddaughters. Word has got around, and over the months they have become very used to seeing me at school. I am now greeted each morning with ‘Hello Grandad!’

Hmmm….

Peter Law

Life in an ‘empty’ school Some students from across the year groups have been accessing school provision during the closure. These students were either classed as vulnerable or the children of keyworkers who needed support during the lockdown. Here are some thoughts from a student in Year 10 who has been at school throughout the closure.

What does a typical day look like in lockdown school?

You start each day by going to a set work station. I had to look on Go4schools and find out what I’ve got to cover during the day.

At break and lunch we socialise together but throughout the day I had to keep my head down and focus.

I’ve had to come to school as my parent is a keyworker; they are a social worker and has been having confidential meetings at home via video call. So, obviously, I

STILL AT SCHOOL: Comberton stayed open for a small group of students.

can’t be at home.

I was worried about what school would be like with no-one about. There were very few students accessing school during the full lockdown. But overall the experience hasn’t been too bad.

I feel like I’ve been quite productive during the closure; I’ve probably managed to keep learning because I’ve had to get up every day to come into school.

I’ve made some new friends and spoken to people that I’ve never met before. On the plus side I think I am more independent now than before lockdown.

I have to say I’m feeling a bit bored with things now. I miss the way that school used to be, getting to walk around the site and go to different lessons is something I miss but didn’t really appreciate when school was open.

I especially miss PE when we were active and had a chance to burn off some energy. I’m anxious about September and what this might look like but hopeful that I will get to see more of my friends and get back to ‘normal’.

I had to come in over the Easter break as my parent was still working and I couldn’t be at home.

In school we were based in the Cabin and did lots of baking: brownies; scones and shortbread.

We learned how to play ultimate frisbee, how to make macramé and went for a mini ‘Walk for the World’.

I’ve also learnt to play chess during Activities Week which I think I’ll carry on playing when things go back to normal.

I am thankful for what the teachers have provided us, both when they come into school and when they have set work remotely.

Talking to my friends who haven’t come into school has also made me appreciate that I have been lucky to get this opportunity.

Grateful thanks to staff from students ev he cho en wh lping ‘Than en ol. we me thr k you Yea a f — B r 8 ha re at h ough Y or om e ecc s be e an ar 8 en a (8 ag M) rea d not t tim e’ ‘Thank you for believing in me even when I felt like giving up — at school — and thank you for all the amazing ideas that you have given me throughout lockdown’ — Lily (8R) g any bein ays for ive to d alw elp’ — u o n s h y a ad T) pon y to ank ‘Th lly res s I've h g read mes (7 a a e n e i J r r bei que in s

‘Thanks so much for setting challenging work that I can get on with and take my mind off things.

There was never too little or too much’ — Sam (7E) Thank you fo year a ra contac nd for regula ll the help th t and m rly kee is p aking sure e ing in ok’ — ver Hanna h (10M yone is )

At the end of this rather strange term, staff have been overwhelmed by the appreciation Comberton students have shown towards them.

Here are just a few of the hundreds they have received.

‘Thank you for being very supportive with the work set and responding quickly to my emails’ — Alicia (8N) ‘Thank you for continui provide ng to such go through od teach out lockd ing own and me the postcard sending . I’m sti ll learnin lot!’ — L ga uise (10R ) y a s like to all ‘I would uch for on u very m ncouragement o y k n a e th d n a — d gs’ lp an y meetin k (7E) your he our dail Za

‘Thank you for interesting, fun lessons during quarantine and for always giving me positive and constructive feedback on my work every week’ o me wes — Alexander (7E) ly a e l a e wer he r they or t f e s u u ) o a O bec nk y ty (7 ‘Tha essons Mon — l ’ n live ‘Thank you for your feedback on er fu ‘Thank you fo su p r checking up the work I completed’ on me, for helping me fig — Flossie (10O) ure out how manage my to work, and be ‘Just wa q u ic in k g th friendly and nted to kind’ — s you've b ank you for all ar the feed ay a e e Toby (8B) e l n c g iv r back in e g p b us. The een sup u s in h t lessons er in uc hils have for s lp w I’m learn teresting and I h feel like k you s and he ing a lot! whic n a n h n io ‘T t o ’ a A — s r m s s r y a a (10B) e le hn ell onlin , wit as w 0R) g me down brilliant, en (1 g o r givin that lock fo Im n e u e — o y k ack has b edback’ ‘Than feedb it a fe uctive rk to make iled tr a s t n o e Thank you for helping me o c d w y ’ ved m dard learn from home. I really appreciate impro r stan (8T) bette n ly the amount of effort you put into our o end — Gw classes’ — Izabel (7V)

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COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

HARD AT WORK: The site team have been ‘key workers’ for Comberton through the lockdown.

Site team superstars

While Comberton has been required to close its doors to the majority of students and staff due to the ongoing pandemic, there are two groups of people who haven't missed a day at work.

As most might expect, Mr Law as the Principal, has attended for every school day that our keyworker children have been in school.

The other team of staff who have worked tirelessly during school closure, are the Site Managers.

Most would expect that a school without students wouldn't require servicing, but nothing could be further from the truth. The site team have had to complete many tasks to protect the infrastructure of the school, in the belief we may be welcoming students back soon.

The longevity of the pandemic initially gave the team time to complete a huge array of maintenance tasks, as well as the on-going safeguarding of our staff and students who have been on the site.

We are pleased to report a co-ordinated deep clean has been undertaken by our designated contractor and the school had since been described as being of a

more "clinical like" standard — which is a great achievement within any school setting.

As the school has started the process of reopening, initially to the Year 10 and 12 ‘bubbles’, but more recently, in preparation for a much wider opening in September, the team are now refocusing on the very specific details of our Risk Assessment documents.

The shutting down of some workstations, temporary markings on the floors and the installation of sanitising stations across the site are a few of the new features requiring action.

And this doesn't include the ongoing painting programme and upgrade work on the college's hard courts, which will see a whole new surface installation, ready for the new academic year.

As I am sure many of us did, I joined the nation to clap for our carers and keyworkers every Thursday evening. While the Site Team have not necessarily been frontline staff, they have helped with the nation’s collective effort to manage this pandemic and I believe they are worthy recipients of the applause too!

Sean Sycamore, Deputy Principal

Very different look to Activities Week One of the highlights of the summer term is our Activities Week, which usually takes place in the penultimate week of term.

This year, we were keen to replicate the normal school year as much as possible so prepared a wonderful ‘Activities Week At Home’ for our students.

We moved the week to mid-June, which had the added benefit of providing a window in which all our form tutors could carry out 1-2-1 meetings with their tutees.

Arranging more than 1400 meetings via Microsoft Teams was a mammoth task, but well worth the effort, as our students were incredibly appreciative of the chance to talk to their form tutor.

For Activities Week, we put together a large, varied programme, which students were able to do in and around their own home.

They could choose different activities to explore and develop their particular interests and skills and enhance their learning.

When we asked staff to suggest activities, we had no idea whether there would be enough for a full programme.

We needn’t have worried, as there was something for everyone, from blackout poetry and bug hotels to flamenco and first aid.

Other activities included writing a CVC 60th Anniversary song or baking a themed cake, kitemaking, recreating famous artwork on a toilet roll, junk modelling, learning chess or Mandarin

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PLENTY TO DO: Activities Week included building an Eiffel Tower and baking a 60th Anniversary-themed cake among many others.

We were overwhelmed by the way our students We also included opportunities for our Year 10 engaged with this very different style of Activities pupils to deepen their learning using online Week and our form tutors thoroughly enjoyed courses through Futurelearn and a ‘Creative looking at what their tutees had done and Problem Solving’ course offered by Eton College awarding prizes and certificates. as they were, unfortunately, unable to carry out their long-awaited work experience.

Regina Lawrence, Deputy Principal

Joint working benefits all THE CAM ACADEMY TRUST NEWS

It is worth asking why a school might bother joining a Multi-Academy Trust.

Of course, given current Government policy, this could be an issue forced on some schools.

Disregarding that, we would argue that there are very strong, positive reasons for joining a (good!) MultiAcademy Trust.

One part of the answer to this has been seen during the current lockdown that we have all found ourselves in since March.

Being a strong group of schools with some meaningful central infrastructure to support all schools in the group has been invaluable during this time.

Headteachers and other staff have worked closely with each other to develop ideas and appropriate ways of working, given the major changes and challenges that we all face.

Royal date for CEO

EXHIBITION SLOT: For Rowan’s painting of Stephen Munday.

A portrait of Trust CEO Stephen Munday has been accepted into the Royal Academy Young Artist Exhibition 2020, both online and onsite.

The painting, by Comberton Year 10 student Rowan, to mark Mr Munday’s time as Executive Principal of Comberton Village College — a post he relinquished last summer — is due to hang in the school.

However, it will now be diverted to the Royal Academy for display at the Young Artist Exhibition, which has been delayed until the autumn due to the Coronvirus pandemic.

This is the second successive year that Rowan has had a painting accepted for the exhibition as last year a painting of fellow pupil ‘Anna’ was shown.

The exhibition lasts around six weeks and Mr Munday has plans to surprise his adult children with a visit as they don’t know the picture has been selected (unless they happen to read this magazine!)

The online exhibition opened on July 12 and Rowan’s painting can be viewed here https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/2 020/9627

This very much includes working and teaching effectively online.

This has been strongly supported by the Trust’s central IT team.

More generally, we strongly believe that, as long as we get it right, we are all far better off when working together rather than seeking to plough our own narrow furrows.

This is at the heart of what we seek within our Trust.

Recently, some significant and serious work has begun on developing stronger effective joint working in particular areas of our Trust: l Everton Heath/Gamlingay Village/Offord Primary schools joint working. These three schools are now moving forward to look at how they can operate effectively, working as one larger group where appropriate. This is being led by the Heads of the three schools and supported by Chris Jukes, our Primary Executive Lead.

l Hartford Infant/Hartford Junior/Thongsley Fields/St Peter’s School. These four Huntingdonbased schools are now looking seriously at working more closely together and moving forward jointly in several significant areas. This includes seeking to drive moves to work positively and support the Oxmoor community that the schools all serve. l Trust Sixth Form development. We are looking seriously at how the Sixth Form provision across our schools can work effectively in a joint way. This most obviously immediately involves St Peter’s School and Comberton Sixth Form looking at working together.

However, it also involves seeking to develop a Mandarin course in our Sixth Form provision from September 2021 that will need to be staffed by Melbourn teachers. Included alongside is planning for the hoped-for development of a Sixth Form at Cambourne and that this can become part of this joint working.

Stephen Munday, CEO

Since lockdown started in late March, the Trust has been proactive in ensuring that the parent/carers of Free School Meal (FSM) recipients, have been helped over the period of closure.

Initially meals were distributed by schools, then when the government first announced its intention to set up a national voucher scheme, our Trust was already ahead of the curve.

We worked with a local software provider to subscribe and distribute e-gift vouchers on a fortnightly basis for use in local supermarkets.

Across all 11 schools in our Trust we assisted more than 820 recipients with a £15 a week voucher.

After around eight weeks, the Government released its national platform, which initially was given bad press, but which we had to transition to. This has been running since May and recipients have become very used to the system and there have been few problems.

Due to Parliamentary lobbying from Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford in a high-profile campaign, the Government then agreed to support the funding of the scheme through to the end of August to ensure children do not go hungry in

the summer holidays.

From late March until the end of August, the Trust will have issued more than £290,000 of vouchers to more than 820 recipients thanks to the hard work of Finance teams and delegated representatives in each school.

If anyone has any issues with FSM vouchers over the summer break, please contact the Trust on fsm@catrust.co.uk Mark Norman, Director of Finance & Operations

Families given food help

TAKEAWAY: Initially schools prepared food for those entitled to Free School Meals.

Schools’ support for NHS The Trust’s secondary schools helped to ensure NHS staff were properly equipped to deal with patients with Coronavirus at the start of the pandemic.

All four — Comberton, Cambourne, Melbourn and St Peter’s — donated their science safety glasses to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and

DIFFERENT USE: Science goggles were donated to the NHS as PPE.

Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdon.

The decision for the Trust to offer help with PPE equipment for our local hospitals came through Melbourn Village College Deputy Principal Niki Smith who had a contact at Hinchingbrooke.

Initially Nic Johnson, a paediatrician, said the Huntingdon hospital had sufficient PPE equipment so the offer was made to Addenbrooke’s and Melbourn’s supply of 157 pairs of glasses were delivered there.

Then Ms Smith was told Hinchingbrooke staff were running out of PPE so she contacted the other secondary schools in the Trust, who agreed to donate their supplies, and she took in excess of 500 pairs of safety goggles usually used for science at Comberton and Cambourne.

The supply of 430 pairs from St Peter’s School, Huntingdon, was collected the following week and delivered to Addenbrooke’s.

For job vacancies across the Trust, visit the CAT website at www.catrust.co.uk

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COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Artist shares a message LABOUR OF LOVE: Rowan started her pavement art early in the morning and finished five hours later.

During lockdown, Year 10 student Rowan decided to produce pavement art outside the college.

Knowing that she and her friends were missing school and that the teachers were missing the students, she wanted to use her art as a voice to acknowledge that.

She decided that using the crossing outside the main entrance felt like the perfect place for her work and, with permission from Principal Peter Law, set about adapting the famous war poster, Kitchener’s ‘Britain Needs You’ into a ‘Missing You’ message.

It had one side representing the students and the

Speaking out

Before the global pandemic changed education as we knew it, two Year 9 students were selected to go to Peterhouse in Cambridge, to compete in the Talking Aloud public speaking competition.

Accompanied by their English teacher Mrs Edmans, Kate and George arrived early and waited for the judges and fellow competitors to arrive. They stood apprehensively with parents and teachers, drinking tea and coffee until it was time to enter the auditorium.

Among the schools there were Soham, Bassingbourn, Parkside and, of course, Comberton.

After a brief introduction it was time to start.

To his great surprise, George was first. George’s speech, on the subject “What I would do if I were in power” was specifically about unifying our country in the face of division. He integrated humour into his speech, while still communicating about a serious issue.

The rest of the speeches were very interesting, passionate and well delivered. Finally, Kate gave her speech. She made great use of both statistics and emotive language to deliver a powerful message about poverty around the globe, not just in a lowincome country such as Haiti but in Britain as well.

She gave a very strong finish to the competition.

It was then time for a short break as the judges deliberated. After returning to the auditorium the finalists were announced along with the runnerup, who all received an armful of books. Finally, Kate was named the winner — and received even more books!

At first the competition seemed daunting, however Kate and George found it to be a beneficial experience. It gave them confidence to, hopefully, continue public speaking in the future.

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other representing the school and its staff and showed them meeting across the road with the hands outside the frame of the rectangle.

At the time there were only about 10 students and a similar number of staff members regularly in Comberton, but Rowan felt it would be nice for them to be greeted by the art when they arrived on a Monday morning — as well as sharing it more widely on social media.

The whole thing took about eight hours to complete.

Rowan made the stencils at home the night before then got up at 5am on a Sunday morning to chalk it, finishing at 12.30 pm.

It gave her a new respect for pavement artists after

RADIO SHOUT-OUT: Lexy’s request was played on a Spanish station.

SCIENCE AT HOME: Some of the work sent in by students.

she finished, with her whole body aching and her fingers “with no fingerprints!”

It may have been a labour of love but word soon spread and many Comberton residents and those from surrounding villages incorporated visiting the front of the school into their allowed daily exercise regimes.

It even got a mention in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper before it was washed away by the next rainstorm.

However, Rowan said: “What meant the most to me was the messages from my friends saying thank you for doing it and for creating something which communicated how they were feeling.”

Wish granted

Year 11 student Lexy Ryan made it on to Spanish national radio during lockdown.

A loyal listener of Crescendo (a weekly show on RTVE’s Radio Clásica), Lexy decided to write to the producers to tell them about how her combined love of Spanish and classical music had led her to discovering the show, and to request for one of her favourite pieces to be played.

The producers replied saying that they were extremely impressed with Lexy’s Spanish and were happy to oblige!

A few days later, Lexy’s message and chosen piece featured on the programme and were heard by thousands of listeners all over Spain and beyond. ¡Eres una estrella, Lexy!

Experimenting!

During school closure, students in Years 7-10 have been an optional home learning science experiments and have been emailing science staff records of what they have achieved.

Activities have included making fruit batteries, rocket cars, biodegradable plastics and soap powered boats and investigating phenomena such as diffusion — using skittles, surface tension using pepper and separating mixtures using chromatography.

Days back are welcomed

SIXTH FORM

After almost three months of closure, June 15th marked the welcome return of our Year 12 students to onsite activities in a selected number of subjects.

These subject practical days (in A-level Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Art and Photography) were very well received and have allowed the Sixth Form to develop a model of blended learning that combines remote study and teaching with face-to-face teaching onsite.

CSF decided to expand this programme of in-college learning further, and the majority of A-level and BTEC subjects offered a subject practical/support and consolidation day before the end of the strangest term anyone in teaching has ever experienced.

This programme evolved over the weeks with restrictions on the percentage of students allowed in college at any one time and the need for social distancing measures.

These subject days were in addition to the daily support groups working with our support team and teaching staff, who continued to provide remote learning tasks and ‘live’ lessons using MS Teams for the remainder of term.

This was a complex logistical planning task, to once again re-timetable our KS5 activities to avoid subject clashes, but we know that these activities have been vital both from a curriculum and well-being point of view.

We are now looking forward to seeing you all again in Year 13 in September as well as a new cohort of Year 12 students.

David Clarke, Head of Sixth Form

BACK IN THE STUDIO: Art and photography students as well as scientists were the first to return for practical days at CSF.

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SIXTH FORM

HARD AT WORK: Comberton Sixth Form’s new student council have been busy with a range of projects despite lockdown.

Council keeping busy!

The new Sixth Form Council have not let the Coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdown stop them getting stuck into their new roles.

Assistant Principal Jez Frost, who works closely with the council, said: “They are an exceptional group of young people. To be fair keeping up with them is the hardest thing at the moment.”

Since Easter the council, made up of Presidents Millie and Gabriel, vice presidents Becky (equality & diversity), Taylor and Emily (social activities & extracurricular), Poppy (leadership and ambassadors) and Jocelyn (community & environment) has met weekly via Teams to discuss events, projects and initiatives. Areas they have under way are: l They distributed an online survey to their peers to see in what way they may require support as a year group in the present times l They created their own online Hub just for the Council members where they send their agendas, minutes, planning documents etc. l Two online social activities — the CSF Bake Off and the Lockdown Quiz. l Black Lives Matter — they are creating a collage of students wearing black in

support of the BLM movement l Virtual tour of the Sixth Form for new Year 12 — inspired by the Uni virtual tours, they are putting one together for CSF under extremely strict social distancing rules l Alternative prospectus — they are piecing together their own take on a prospectus from the student point of view. This will be an e-book and we can’t wait to see how it turns out. l They have requested that on the Induction Days (if the year group is split) they could have a live Q&A session online at some point for the other half of the Year 12 cohort who are not on site. l They are keen to set up the LGTBQ+ group early — referencing Pride Month and a new Music Festival online for Pride l Thinking strategically about how they can best represent the student body online and plan for September accordingly On top of all that they are thinking about how they can support and contribute to the Induction Days and beyond to help with the smooth transition of our new Year 12.

Fun at online events

Moving to online learning has been a challenging experience for everyone and not being able to see friends every day has probably been the worst part.

So, as the new Sixth Form student council for the coming academic year, we thought about what we could do to help bring Year 12 together virtually.

We have worked extremely hard over the last couple of months to organise a Kahoot quiz for Year 12 and staff, and a three-Day Bake-Off Challenge which saw students creating their signature bakes in June.

These events saw budding bakers and quiz enthusiasts battling it out to win prizes, connect with members of the year and just have a laugh!

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We would like to say a massive congratulations to Imogen, who won the quiz, and also Maddison, who won the Bake-Off Challenge with a mouthwateringly beautiful cake, named ‘Ombre Cake’, as the sponge layers are all different colours — we were all desperate to eat it!

There are many other exciting things happening in the council at the moment and we cannot wait to serve as your Sixth Form student council this year.

We hope you all have a relaxing summer and look forward to seeing everyone on our return to college.

Millie and Gabriel, Sixth Form Presidents YUMMY: The winning cake.

Asande’s story is best

SIXTH FORM

A Comberton sixth former has won a national competition run by Anglia Ruskin University.

Asande Karley took top spot in the Cambridge School of Creative Industries competition for 16-18 year-olds to celebrate National Storytelling Week, which occurred during lockdown.

The brief was to tell a story — in any form including writing, poetry, spoken word, film, photography, graphic novel, illustration or animation — which took no more than three minutes — and Asande’s was judged the best overall, beating a penned war story and a short film, which took the runners-up slots.

Asande’s story, in the form of a comic strip came, she said, “from my own experiences with secondary school life through the lens of this ridiculous caricature of a self proclaimed ‘brilliant writer’ who loves to go on and on and on about the misery and the melancholy of her day to day.

“I drew inspiration from T. S. Elliot’s poem ‘Wasteland’ in which he calls April the cruellest month. At the time WW1 had turned most of Europe into one, the land was dead and war-torn.

When spring came around the new blooms and the sense of rebirth in the air stirred not hope but despair to T. S. Elliot. ‘April is the cruellest month because the life and colour of spring WINNING AUTHOR: From Comberton Sixth Form. throws ones depression into stark relief. Causing memories of what used to be and what is no more to resurface.’

“In the comic, the beginning of the season may as well be an allegory for whenever the bullying began because reference to the rain pouring on and on since the seasons beginning was more of a marker for when her unhappiness set in than it was any indication of time.

“The nightmare throws her into stark recognition. She’s forced to look at her past experiences with the proverbial layers of emotional evasion (in this case the snow) melted away. She recognises that they’re painful and distracting.

Somewhat good fodder for her writing, but not much else.

“The piece is written in her voice, and so involves a lot of deipotent imagery.

SELECTION OF PAGES: Asande’s personal favourite from her Since her ego is godly sized to match, we can see that despite her issues in award-winning ‘comic’ strip. the past with bullying and the emotional scarring it has left to the extent of nightmares she, in a sense, brings it on herself, ironically. In her efforts to be “It’s a graphic-novel style story told with a truly original voice. In it we see, read eccentric and even contrarian, also evident in the fact that she is vehemently and hear the tangled and jangled thoughts of the author herself as she battles against wearing branded clothing, she alienates herself. with the issue of identity. Her only weapon is her pen.”

“To her it’s a tragedy but to us reading the story, her miserable extravagance is Asande, who won £100, added: “I hope I get to do a lot more of these supposed to be funny, pathetic even.” competitions, I'm in love with storytelling and I can't express how grateful I am to Award-winning illustrator Allan Drummond, who also lectures on the BA (Hons) be awarded for something I adore.

Illustration course at ARU and was on the judging panel, said: “This brilliant entry “One day I aspire to do it for a living; story-boarding, script-editing and showscores top marks in each category. running is the dream.”

Chemists put to the test!

Eighteen Year 12 chemists have been taking part in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge.

The challenge is aimed at students at the end of their first year of A level study and tested their resilience and ability to problem solve with new material being introduced to them and old material being shown in different ways which involved them using their thinking skills.

Set by an experienced team of teachers and university chemists, it is designed to be accessible to Year 12, but took them beyond the syllabus and encouraged them to think about science as they would at university.

This competition took the form of a 90-minute written paper under exam conditions. Students at CSF were given the paper remotely at 1pm and had to return their answers via email by 3pm. Part of the challenge asked about weird and wonderful chemicals — this year it included a mythical metal ‘Stuck-at-homium’ aka Sk for the students to apply their knowledge to.

The CSF students involved are: Aiysha (L6-LM), Ali (L6-WG), Anja (L6-HH), Anthony (L6-PG), Becky (L6-EH), Ben (L6-WG), Callum (L6-WG), Erica (L6MR), George (L6-EH), Gloria (L6-PG), Katie (L6-LM), Kit (L6-RW), Lucy (L6WG), Maya (L6-RJ), Molly (L6-LM), Phoebe (L6-MR), Rosemary (L6-MR) and Tabitha (L6-RJ). With Callum and Katie achieving Silver and Erica, Kit, Maya, Molly, Lucy and Rosemary achieving Copper.

The university commented “Marks are considerably higher than usual even

though (we felt) the paper was not noticeably easier than usual.

In trying to provide boundaries, we have allocated approximately the same proportions of ‘gold’, ‘silver’ and ‘copper’ equivalents, but this means that the upper mark for a copper-equivalent this year would have gained a gold award in any other year!”

Some students have already done well this year in the Chemistry Olympiad — aimed at Year 13 with Anja and Lucy awarded Silver and Rosemary Bronze.

Katie also came joint first in an RSC competition redesigning a logo for the analytical division, while other students are enjoying online MOOC courses through York University on “Everyday chemistry”.

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SIXTH FORM

In the nick of time . . .

LEAVING IT LATE: Year 13 Students performed their exam pieces the night before lockdown.

On March 18th, 2020 Comberton Sixth Form closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At 10.45pm on March 17th, 2020, the Theatre Studies students managed to complete their final performance pieces in unprecedented circumstances.

Not only did they manage to squeeze the exam in before the closure, but they performed, for the first time in a CSF A level practical exam, without any audience except for their teachers and the visiting examiner.

The strangely silent and void-like drama studio did

not deter them and they all excelled in the performances they gave.

Every one of them should be commended for the resilience and determination with which they approached the final exam.

The Extract 3 performances, made up of four monologues, three duologues and one group of four performers, were drawn from a varied assortment of plays and were presented in the style of different theatrical practitioners, the extracts ranging from a modern version of Jean Genet’s ‘The Maids’ in the style of Katie Mitchell, to a production of Tom

Stoppard’s ‘Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead’ in the style of director, Peter Brook.

The students’ hard work during several months of rehearsal paid dividends and it proved to be a highly creative and theatrically rich evening.

When presented with unfamiliar and potentially stressful circumstances, the CSF Theatre Studies students once again demonstrated their commitment to and enthusiasm for the subject, showing that they could be versatile in the face of adversity and adapting creatively when things got turned completely upside down.

The ‘new’ West End . . .

As Lockdown happened just before the Easter break we soon realised that the Theatre Studies students were desperate to do something creative…so what better than a West End Show Poster competition.

Each of the students was allocated a West End show and asked to recreate it using only items and people from their home.

Even in the unprecedented times we were able to have a bit of fun and celebrate all

things theatrical through this slightly ludicrous and quirky activity.

Some were accurate, some were not; but they all made it to the final poster that has been printed for them all as a memento of these trying times.

Just as Einstein once said, ‘Creativity is intelligence having fun’ and this lockdown activity was certainly that.

Jez Frost, Head of Drama

Talks build biologists’ knowledge During lockdown Year 12 biology students have furthered their knowledge of the subject by attending various online courses.

These included Plant Conservation Masterclasses at the Cambridge Botanic Garden, where they heard about the global trees campaign to secure the future of the world’s threatened tree species in situ, for the benefit of people and wildlife.

Topics covered included: how advancements in biology helps to improve biodiversity. The use of drones, camera traps and satellites, as well as DNA extraction and sequencing, to map and identify species; the difficulties in conservation, i.e. seedlings are hard to keep alive and some plants are too large to conserve easily; and whether national parks should be one large piece of land or several small pieces.

Another online workshop was run by The Wellcome Trust and the Wellcome Genome Campus, which Erica (L6-MR) attended. She said: “They hosted a talk for people worldwide called ‘DNA to diagnostic test’.

“In this talk we were taught how to use a real-life laboratory online tool called Benchling to design a test for an organism using their genetic code. Our organism was the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID 19) as an example.

“The test was created by using a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test using a primer. The primer was made by copying a section of its DNA, which the computer program used to convert it into a complementary primer.

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“Despite being a remote online event, this talk was very interactive because it had lots of opportunities to ask questions, and we were given access to the program, allowing both the audience and the speaker to work in parallel. I really enjoyed this talk and would recommend it to others interested in Biology.”

Aiysha (L6-LM) tuned into a Café Sci Cambridge online talk from the Wellcome Sanger Institute entitled ‘What does your DNA actually say about you?’

She said: “The first human genome took international efforts 10 years and 1 billion dollars to be sequenced.

“Now, the price has dramatically dropped as the discovery has been introduced into the world of business. Around 10,000 human genomes are sequenced per year.

“However, there are many ethical debates regarding genome sequencing including the possibility that it may lead to the production of designer babies.

“Nonetheless, genome sequencing has given us the opportunity to tackle disease as well as discover our heritage and trace our ancestors.

“Without Fred Sanger’s invention of methods of genome sequencing, knowledge of our ancestors, human evolution and mutated disease-causing genes would not be as significant today.”

Exhibition goes virtual

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

As we were unable to curate our annual exhibition of A Level and GCSE Art and Photography, we have created an online exhibition instead.

The Art Department has produced an Instagram account and Year 11 and 13 students were invited to upload a favourite piece from the year.

While not quite as immediate as seeing the work in the flesh, the digital images give a good idea of the scope of the imagination and skills on display from students this year.

It is nice to be able to celebrate this work publicly as it deserves wider recognition, with many of our exhibiting pupils going on to study A Levels and degrees next year.

The exhibition is now live so have a look for yourselves at https://www.instagram.com/cvcartgallery/ or if you have Instagram please search using @cvcartgallery

Concerts hit high note!

Comberton’s musicians have been working overtime since lockdown started!

The music school quickly moved entirely online as soon as school closed and since then our talented team of instrumental tutors has taught more than 2000 remote singing and instrumental lessons between them.

The product of this activity was seen in the tremendous response to our invitation to submit musical performances for our Online Summer Concert.

While Mr Barclay rehearsed his lockdown choir, other students were busy refining solos, multi-tracking songs, composing and

collaborating remotely with one another.

We even had some parents taking part!

This musical outpouring was showcased online in three separate concerts airing simultaneously on the 9th July.

Highlights included Toby (U6-JM) and Aidan’s (U6-LP) arrangement of Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes’, Alice’s (9B) own composition ‘Moonlit City’ and Sophie (8I) performing Megson’s ‘The Long Shot’.

Many congratulations to all those who took part!

Ben Parker, Head of Music

Valuable volunteering!

Students from Comberton participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme have donated more than Thank you 3000 hours of volunteering.

All those taking one of the DofE awards — Bronze, Comberton Village College Silver or Gold — are required to undertake a 3120 hours minimum period of £13,572 volunteering (depending on the level) and these have now been totted up.

Across the Central England region, an incredible 596,804 hours of volunteering have been carried out by participants. This has provided £2,596,097 worth of social value back into local communities across the region.

And now Comberton has received a certificate marking the 3120 hours they contributed, providing an estimated social value of £13,572 (based on the minimum wage of £4.35 for under-18s).

DofE East Operations Manager Jack Harris said in a letter to the college: “Not only does volunteering provide vital support to local communities across the country, it also provides young people with the opportunity to take part in new experiences, develop new skills and feel a sense of pride in supporting the communities that they live in.

“Your DofE programme plays a significant role in supporting your Licensed Organisation’s local community through grassroots volunteering.” to the Duke of Edinburgh¶V $ZDUG SDUWLFLSDQWV from

who donated

of voluntary service to the local community* The social value of these hours is

* Number of hours of volunteer service is based on participants who have achieved their Volunteering section between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020

June 2020

JACKIE BULL, DIRECTOR ± CENTRAL ENGLAND

PERFORMERS: In one of three concerts broadcast simultaneously.

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Essay in national final COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Year 9 student, Vedika, reached the final of a prestigious national essay writing competition which tests skills in historical research, analysis and writing.

Entrants were given the task of answering a question set by world-leading Oxford historian Professor Peter Frankopan, author of ‘The Silk Roads — A New History of the World’. The question read: “If 1066 is said to be the most important date in English history, what is the equivalent in another country?”

Vedika (9V) wrote her essay on the year 326 BC; the year Alexander the Great invaded India. Vedika’s essay explored the significance of the invasion of Alexander the Great and the impact it had not only on India, but the rest of the world.

She researched and wrote this essay independently and she showed both a high level of historical interest as well as the ‘geographical and chronological ambition’ that the competition was keen to encourage.

With more than 1,600 entries into the competition, it is a huge achievement that Vedika’s essay was judged as being in the top eight in the country.

Peter Frankopan himself made the final judgement from these eight finalists and while Vedika did not place in the top three, Frankopan said that it was “almost impossible” to separate the shortlisted essays due to the incredibly high standard of them all. Congratulations to Vedika on this fantastic achievement.

Well done also to Genny (11N), Livie (8C), Daniel (9C) and Thara (7V), who all entered as well and came in the top five on our internally judged competition. A fantastic achievement for everyone who took part.

The significance of a different invasion

In this essay, I will be talking about my territories and these places developed into This clearly proves that culture knows no racial interpretation of the equivalent of 1066 in another centres of trade in due time. As a result, or geographical frontiers. When civilized people country. overseas trade developed between India and the meet each other, even in hostility, their contact I believe that the year of 326 BC holds great value West. This proves that if Alexander the Great had brings about mutual understanding of cultural in Indian history as this was the year Alexander never invaded India, trade routes between Asia values. the Great invaded India. The invasion not only and Europe would never have opened and many This proves that 326 BC was an important year changed life in India for good, but it also had a essential and luxury products like spices, tea, for India because Alexander’s initiation of the profound impact on the rest of the world. silks, cottons, porcelains and other luxury goods Greek-influenced culture continued to stay alive Alexander the Great’s invasion taught India a would never have been exchanged between the across the whole country, even several centuries significant political lesson and had an everlasting political effect on the country.

Divided into small kingdoms, the north-west of India suffered badly by the hands of the foreign invaders, who took complete advantage of their situation.

The presence of Macedonian garrisons in different parts of the country was a persistent reminder of India’s lack of political unity. The invasion taught India the power of unity — the most crucial thing needed for a country to progress and prosper. The political result of the invasion was quite remarkable.

According to historian R.K. Mookeiji, Alexander’s invasion promoted the ARTIST’S IMPRESSION: Of Alexander the Great’s invasion of India in 326 BC.) political unification of the country and he believes these conditions were favorable countries. This shows that 326 BC was the most after his death. for the rise of an Indian Empire to be shortly important date in Indian history because the I have explained the reasoning behind my founded by Chandragupta. opening of these routes not only increased trade decision to give 1066 and 326 BC an equally This clearly shows that it was the invasion that but also allowed unprecedented cultural and important position in history. motivated kings, like Chandragupta Maurya, to religious exchanges between the East and the Just like The Battle of Hastings had a large attempt to unite the divided kingdoms of India. In West. impact on England in 1066, Alexander the 320 BC, the Mauryan King was successful in Alexander the Great’s invasion had a profound Great’s invasion had an equally huge effect on uniting the nation and rightly earned the title of impact on eastern and western culture too.

India in 326 BC. ‘Emperor of India’.

With the expansion of his empire, Hellenism For example, once William of Normandy was in In my opinion, the Macedonian King’s invasion (Greek-influenced culture) spread from the rule of England, dramatic changes were made to was the underlying reason for all of India’s later Mediterranean to Asia and Indians began to the churches and the justice systems and even achievements as he was the one who had appreciate the beauties of Hellenistic art. the daily lives of the people were greatly sparked a fire in every Indian to become united to The Indians were also impressed by the Greek impacted. achieve prosperity. coinage to such an extent that Kings Similarly, huge changes took place in India This shows that 326 BC was an important year manufactured coins in complete imitation of the during and after Alexander’s invasion. The for India because it united the country which Greek’s. country uniting into one, trade routes opening meant that many disagreements (and sometimes between the East and the West, and encountering Similarly, the Greeks were aroused by the even war) were prevented between the kingdoms. a new type of culture were just some of the many religion and philosophy in India at the time of the The Macedonian King’s invasion also had a things that India was able to experience.

Greek invasion. The historians and writers who commercial effect on India. During his It is true that the invasion led to many disputes, accompanied Alexander observed the Indian campaigns, the Greek hero opened many lines of multiple wars, and an innumerable amount of philosophical systems and noted them down. communication between India and the West. In lives being lost but we must not overlook the Alexander himself was curious to know about the addition, benefits India received as a result of Alexander most difficult systems of Indian ascetics and Alexander founded cities in his conquered the Great’s invasion.

Vedika philosophers.

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Put ‘green’ into lessons!

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

We have been very lucky that the Green Group had a Microsoft Team set up at the start of the year.

This means we’ve been able to carry on meeting as an extra-curricular group during the school closure, with pupils from almost all year groups contributing to discussion, and our new Year 10 Environment prefects able to start to fulfil their roles.

We’ve shared our experiences of nature during lockdown, kept talking about some of the projects we’ve had under way this year, such as tree planting, and promoting the use of re-usable water bottles by all pupils. We also discussed lots of new ideas that the pupils, with their energy, enthusiasm and urgency are keen to implement in the new school year.

Central to our plans, are ideas about how to move the discussion about Environment Education from the extra-curricular realm into the educational experience of all our pupils in Key Stage Three.

This is one of the key requests that the School Climate Strikers have been making of the adults for at least 18 months, and the teachers who run Green Group have been working on helping pupils to get their voices heard on this all year.

We are hopeful that from September there will be more space in the Comberton curriculum for teaching all students more about climate change and how their responsible actions can make a difference to our environment.

Most recently we were really pleased to be able to meet virtually with our MP, Anthony Browne in a live event to discuss the deepening climate emergency, both locally and more broadly.

Lively discussion

In June, CVC languages teacher Katrina Barnes co-hosted a webinar for the Association For Language Learning alongside Charlotte Ryland, of the Stephen Spender Trust.

The event focused on using creative translation in language lessons, a relatively under-explored approach which is gaining momentum in the language teaching community.

The session included both theoretical explanations and interactive elements, and ended with a lively discussion which revealed the passion for language learning that translation can stir up.

With an impressive turn-out of almost 140 attendees, many of whom kept the discussion going long after the session had officially finished, the event was a resounding success and an opportunity for language educators to connect, learn, and celebrate their subject through translation.”

Emily (9R) and Jocelyn (L6-EJ) asked excellent live questions about plastic packaging, carbon emissions, and fossil fuel extraction.

Other students submitted many insightful questions, challenging both Mr Browne’s knowledge and commitment to tackling climate change and protecting the natural world.

Mr Browne committed to championing these issues in Westminster and to pushing to reduce the UK’s fossil fuel consumption to zero by 2050 (preferably before), admitting that the government’s response to this has not been adequate thus far.

He spoke in favour of moves to invest in electric vehicles, divestment from fossil fuel concerns abroad, and animal welfare standards post-Brexit.

Though many more questions remain, this was an encouraging first step in what we hope to be an ongoing discussion between the Comberton community and its representative in Westminster.

Mr Browne now has an army of young environmentalists ready to hold him to account!

If you would like to join the group and be added to the mailing list, email pgordon@combertonvc.org enorman@combertonvc,org or kbarnes@combertonvc.org

VIRTUAL MEETING: With MP Anthony Browne and his tweet afterwards.

Party on hold

CELEBRATION CAKE: A 7-tier creation made

by Ben (10C) to celebrate CVC’s 60th.

Each layer represents a fashionable flavour during the decades the college has been open. It was donated to a local care home.

In the same way that the 2020 Olympics in Japan have been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Comberton’s 60th birthday celebrations will also take place in the ‘wrong’ year.

The plans to mark 60 years since the college opened to around 250 students are delayed until 2021.

Principal Peter Law said: “We want to wait until we can do things in person.”

Planning the exact nature of the celebrations was put on hold when the pandemic forced the school closure but there are ideas for events involving the wider community as well as the college itself.

Rights work continues

The school closed on Friday 20th March due to the pandemic, but despite the closure the school has continued to work hard to promote the Rights of the Child as listed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The school has continued to be open to a certain number of students — children of key workers and those deemed vulnerable — and these pupils have been able to come to school every day of the week where they were supervised by staff.

Weekly bulletins were sent to students by Heads of Year with links to weekly Right Respecting articles and presentations to support the articles. Heads of Year encouraged pupils to engage with the activities on offer and reflect on the impact of the school closure on children’s rights.

Daily emails were sent by Mrs Lawrence, Deputy Principal, with ‘Top Tips’; giving pupils a range of advice on a variety of topics — physical and mental health, learning remotely and accessing support to name but a few.

Pastoral Teams kept in touch with Tutor groups and Tutees with fortnightly catch up sessions via emails, phone calls and 1:2:1 meetings.

Mentors have also continued to meet with their mentees.

During the school closure, teachers have risen to the challenge of teaching remotely and some have had to undertake training to learn how to use some of the new technology to ensure that pupils could receive the best learning experience possible while working from home.

This includes the use of Teams, OneNote, the CATalogue and also the delivery of live lessons.

The school lent some IT equipment to pupils who had no devices to work from at home. This has enabled all pupils to access the online learning provided by the teachers.

Despite the school closure, pupils were able to take part in a virtual Activities Week and virtual sports days also took place.

It is also important to remember that during the school closure, students’ achievements and successes have continued to be celebrated though presentations for end-of-term assemblies at Easter and in the summer too.

We very much look forward to continuing our work to promote the Rights of the Child at Comberton Village College when we return to school in the new term.

Marielle Burgess

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Online safety in lockdown COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

During recent months people have probably spent more time online than any other time in history.

Students have been learning remotely, many jobs have moved to home working and keeping in touch with friends and family has meant meeting online.

Events and holidays have been disrupted, meaning that vast amounts of time and effort have been spent arranging refunds or alterating plans.

While lockdown has stopped many of us doing thing we would like to do, it has given an opportunity for online criminals to seek out new victims.

Social engineering is the use of psychological approaches to manipulate people into giving away confidential and personal information. This is often related to computer security. For instance, fraudsters may trick people into giving away passwords for online bank accounts. It is particularly prevalent now as so many companies are contacting people about refunds for things such as holidays.

Blagging Blagging can be used by fraudsters to make up a

scenario to trick victims into revealing something they would not ordinarily do. Criminals will scour the internet and social networking sites looking for information. An example could be viewing an online profile to see that someone has posted stating that their holiday with TUI is cancelled. They use this information and pretend to be from the holiday company into tricking you into giving away your bank details as they state they are required for a refund.

How to minimise the risk of blagging Ensure you have your privacy settings on any social media set to maximum, so that fraudsters cannot find information about you such as your date of birth, where you live etc. Awareness and vigilance are critical — go back to any social network you set-up but no longer use and ensure privacy setting are enabled. Be particularly aware of unsolicited texts, emails and phone calls. Do not give personal confidential information away.

Phishing Phishing is normally an email or text messaging scam where victims are conned into believing that they are being contacted by their bank for instance and can give important personal details such as bank account passwords.

Blagging and Phishing are normally used together to further convince unwitting victims to share details.

How to minimise the risk of phishing Be particularly aware of unsolicited texts, emails and phone calls. Do not give personal

confidential information away such as passwords or pin numbers. In any case, banks will not ask for this information by phone, email or text.

Do not click on links within unsolicited emails even if they appear to be from a reputable company. Simple tricks criminals use include adding bank logos and address details to try and make them look more authentic. Check the email address any time you are replying to emails and don’t reply if you feel that the address doesn’t look or feel quite right.

Pharming Pharming is when users are redirected to a fraudulent website that they believe to be genuine because it looks like the real site. For instance, you could be directed to a site that pretends to be an online store that asks for your credit card information.

How to minimise the risk of pharming Check the URL in the web address. The S at the end of HTTP means secure. You should also notice a green padlock in the URL/Address bar showing that the information sent via this site is encrypted.

Top tips for students’ online learning Any time you are requested to attend online learning opportunities there are several things you can do to ensure you are participating appropriately. l Be courteous. just because we are working remotely doesn’t mean alter the way we interact with peers or staff. Please ensure you continue to meet the high expectations we set at Comberton Village Collage. This includes online meetings or communicating with staff via emails. l Be prompt. Ensure you are set up and ready to go before the start time. Have any resources you may need such as books, pens etc so that you are prepared for the input. Remember that work to be submitted also should be sent by the date requested. l Ask for help. If there is something which doesn’t make sense to you its probably likely that it doesn’t make sense to another person, so please do

ask questions — they help you and even help the teacher. If you are worried about asking for help in the session, then please do email staff. l Maintain excellent behaviour. Staff and pupils working online will all be doing so in a way which is challenging. Make sure your behaviour isn’t a barrier to your or other people’s learning. If someone, for example, incorrectly uses a chat facility to disrupt the learning they could be removed from the team. l It is incredibly unlikely you will need to turn on your camera during class discussions but if there is a legitimate reason for the teacher to request it then try to ensure you use it correctly.

Try to place yourself in a fairly well-lit area but not with very bright lights behind you. Dress and act appropriately at all times and never screen shot staff or peers who have their cameras enabled.

Useful websites for parents and students

There are two exceptionally good websites which you may find worth noting. https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/ The CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) website allows users to report child exploitation. Via this site you can complete an online form which will be directed to a dedicated area of policing which helps support victims of online child exploitation.

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https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ Firstly, the Thinkuknow website is a great source of targeted information. It is segmented into age categories for pupils and has its own dedicated parental section meaning the information you find is relevant for the user.

Staying secure on social media is critical

COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Social networks have never been more important to keep in contact with family and friends.

The usage of social networks has spiked as have downloads for apps such as Zoom for online meetings with friends and colleagues.

When we use social networks there are four principles which enable us to remain safe and ensure we are using them correctly.

1. Privacy By default, almost every social network account will set up new accounts with public access.

Clearly this is a concern as anyone using these accounts can therefore find people online and view the information they post.

It is usually in the interest of the company who develop and run the app (applications) to make accounts public, but unfortunately this makes these less safe for users.

We have seen the use of some apps which actively hide the feature which allows users to make their account private.

Accessing privacy settings Almost all applications have privacy settings, and most are fairly simple to find.

However, if in doubt search for the help on the app and look at how to turn the account setting to private.

A good way to ensure you can follow the steps if they are available is by searching how to make accounts private on a video viewing site such as Youtube. e.g. How to access Instagram privacy settings.

2. Online friends Online friends should be people you know in the real world. Any time you accept a friend request or allow a follow from someone you don’t know, depending upon how the profile is configured, you are sharing all your private information.

Seeking online friendships based on a username or nice-looking picture is also dangerous as there are thousands if not millions of fake profiles setup on the various social networks.

Protect others by not friending people you don’t know Many apps these days will encourage users to select additional friends based on the people you follow/befriend or groups which are liked based on things such as films, music and television programmes or personalities.

People who wish to abuse the system can use this mechanism to start appearing on lists by liking similar things.

It is therefore vital that users are vigilant in only allowing online friends to be people they know in the real world.

If you accept someone as a friend, then the algorithms will start placing this person on your friends lists, and could put them in danger.

3. Posting images Users should do this check before posting any images online: l Do I want this shared with everyone? Even images which are sent to one person can well be shared. Apps which state the ‘image will disappear after being viewed’ or similar don’t guarantee that others can’t take screenshots or the use other apps which store this so called temporary images. l Is the image I share a representation of myself? Rightly or wrongly people are judged on their online persona. Consider what others may think of the images you post. l Is the image legal? Sexting is the sending of inappropriate images online and applies to anyone under 18.

l Am I more identifiable in the real world because of the pictures I post? Avoid positing images of you and others in school uniform for example to limit the possibility of you being traced. l Is the image the only data I am sharing? Many phones link images with hidden metadata containing details such as date, time and location.

With specialist software you can identify the location an image was taken. It is possible to turn off location services entirely on a phone so this data isn’t stored.

You can also choose which apps use location services so it can be on for apps such as Google Maps but off for Snapchat. l If you are unsure about any of the above items don’t send it!

4. Think before you post Sadly, a number of people are cyberbullied each and every day. Quite often cyberbullying begins out as a joke but quickly escalates. It is important to understand the moral and legal implications of cyberbullying.

Repeated unpleasant messages could constitute a breach of different UK laws.

This type of behaviour falls under the term Cyberbullying and is reportable to the police.

Employers and other organisations such as universities legally can, and do, review online profiles. Based on their findings they can deny interviews or, in extreme circumstances, terminate employment status.

When sending messages users should ask themselves the following questions: l Could the message upset someone? l Could the message be viewed as cyberbullying? l Could the message reflect badly on me either now or in the future? l Would I be happy for anyone to read this message? l If you are unsure about any of the above items, don’t send it!

The development of apps moves at an incredible pace. It is almost impossible to become familiar with every new social networking app or try to guess at which app is going to be the most popular in the future.

It is hoped that using tips which can effectively be applied to any social networking app is more robust than building a guide to each.

There are times however, when finding out a little more about different apps can be useful.

The website https://www.net-aware.org.uk/ can be used to gain further knowledge about different apps and online games to highlight the possible dangers.

Below is an example of some of the breakdown from an app called Snapchat.

Along with overview details such as these there are plenty more elements on the website to fully understanding the app from both a child and adult perspective.

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COMBERTON VILLAGE COLLEGE

Sporting challenges met SPORTS DAYS AT HOME: Students having a go at the challenges and (right) voucher winner James jumping for joy.

Sports day is often a favourite part of the school calendar for most students and staff so the PE department were keen to make sure that this year’s sports day still took place.

During what would have been our ‘normal’ sports days week, students in KS3 were set a daily challenge to complete and submit their results.

The challenges were set by England Athletics to test their speed, endurance, accuracy, power and explosive strength.

Each challenge was explained in an instructional video by GB athlete Jenny Meadows, and each day a member of the PE department also demonstrated the challenge and set the target for the students to beat.

The response from the students was excellent with more than 260 pupils competing the challenges on a

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Fair Play

There are many different sports and many people who play them. These people might play together or they might play alone but they all need to play fairly. This means that they need to be good sportsmen and play by the rules.

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daily basis, with the toilet roll tower high jump being the most popular with nearly 300 results submitted.

Each day a running total was recorded and results were updated on the school website. During the toilet roll tower high jump, we also set pupils a photo capture competition and saw some fantastic photographs being sent in.

It was a very close competition with pupils eagerly awaiting the results videos, which were revealed on the following Monday.

The PE Department would like to congratulate 7I, 8R and 9R for being crowned this year’s champions.

Endeavour awards Every year at sports day we are keen to award Endeavour points in the same measure as Performance points and this year was no different.

Pupils were asked to design a poster to represent fair play at CVC, with each entry gaining one Endeavour point for their tutor group. The posters

As part of the Youth Sports Trust Sports Week, the PE department ran a Sports Idol poster competition.

Students were asked to create a poster of their sports idol and explain why they chose that athlete.

The winning posters would have their sporting idols becoming the new PE class names for next year.

The competition was a huge success with more than 160 posters entered.

The quality of posters was brilliant, and it made it very hard to pick our favourites. The winning posters and next year’s class names are: Marcus Rashford, Serena Williams, Joe Root, Paula Radcliffe, David Weir, Jessica

First event is fun!

During lockdown we embarked on our first ever inter-Trust fixture. Due to the restrictions this was to a be a virtual competition and the uptake from the pupils all across the Trust was fantastic.

The main objective of the week was to travel as far as you possibly can and the school who managed to travel the furthest around the globe would win.

How you travelled was up to you; some students (and staff) cycled, some walked, ran, skipped and swam their way to different cities, counties, countries and continents.

The number of participants was truly fantastic — we had representation from all year groups, we had lots of staff involved and what was really good to see was the number of family entries.

It was excellent to see the whole family being active and supporting the school and the Trust in their journey around the globe.

From the start Cambourne took a strong lead and that distance remained throughout the competition. There was a brief spell where we managed to leapfrog them in to first place but that was later noted as an admin error, and a student had, in fact, not managed to run more than 700km that day!

At the end of the week when all the steps, pedals and swim strokes were tallied up, we had managed as a Trust to complete 19941.26km and made it all the way to the island of Flores in Indonesia.

As a school, Comberton finished in second place with a fantastic 6335km and found ourselves stranded in Uzbekistan.

Comberton did top the charts for the furthest average distance per entry with 14km, ahead of St Peter’s and followed by Melbourn and Cambourne.

The top students from Comberton were Joshua (KS4/5), Emily (Year 8) and Dylan (Year 9). We also had two members of staff on their podium with SPORTING HEROES: A Anne Marquess and Julie Pashley finishing behind the Cambourne winner. collage of some of the posters It was a really fun and inclusive activity that brought together the schools Ennis-Hill, Ellie Simmonds, Owen in the Trust in some friendly competition while promoting a healthy active Farrell, Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton, lifestyle for our students, staff and families. A huge well done to all Simone Biles and Jade Clarke. involved.

Michael Wilce, Head of PE

EXTRA ENDEAVOUR: ful Students earned t c pe Re s points towards the Endeavour Award by Re si l creating Fair Play ien t posters like this one

by Abigail (8O).

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submitted were excellent and all demonstrated the department’s ethos of teamwork, fair play and equality. Congratulations to 7B, 8O and 9E for being crowned this year’s Endeavour award winners.

Individual winners At the end of the week we held a raffle for all pupils who had submitted a result for all five challenges.

We were very pleased to announce that James (7F), Madelin (8R) and James (9R) were all the lucky recipients of a £10 Decathlon gift card to purchase some new sporting goods. We are very grateful to Decathlon for sponsoring our sports days, and you can see how excited James was to receive his award.

The PE department would like to say a huge well done to all pupils who took part in this year’s sports day.

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