q Sixth Form News

Students lead the way

Last year, to celebrate 10 years of Comberton Sixth Form, we re-designed the Sixth Form prospectus with considerable artistic input from our A-Level students.

The resulting design was so innovative and successful that we were delighted to be able to involve students again for this year’s design. Our main illustrator for both years was current Year 13 graduating student, Archie MacLeod. This year Archie went all out in producing a fully illustrated front and back cover. His brief was to capture the vibrancy, inclusivity and choice that Comberton Sixth Form offers while maintaining a design approach that would make our prospectus stand out from all the others. We were delighted to see just how well he captured this brief with a cover that suggests all these things and more. For the back cover he has produced an interesting composition based around different views of the Sixth Form architecture. Archie won the subject award for Art and Design here this year and is going on to study Illustration at UWE in Bristol. You can see more of his exciting work on his Instagram @artchiemac. As well as the beautiful illustrations, the current Year 12 Photography A Level students created a studio shoot for some of the other pages inside. We booked in an ex-student to help lead the shoot. Matt Parker graduated from Comberton Sixth Form as an outstanding photography student and, since studying for his degree in London, has worked for many brands and is currently working as one of the publicity photographers on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Matt has achieved great things in photography and we were really lucky to get the benefit of his experience for the morning, both in terms of his great advice and inspiration as well as his expertise during the shoot. The photographers whose work from the shoot was used in the prospectus are Clara (12-JM), Katy (12-JM), Josh (12-RW) and Alice (12-RAJ). The photos were mixed in with Archie’s drawings and some of our logo graphics to create the pages seen here. We are very proud that Comberton Sixth Form has produced a set of artists and photographers that have provided us with such a distinctive and skilled set of work for our prospectus again this year.

Greg Dean, Head of Art

RELAXED: Year 13 students chill out on their final day.

Goodbye Year 13

CSF Year 13 students enjoyed their final day of college with various celebration events, including a BBQ and ice-cream in the sunshine. Mr Ryall kept what has become a tradition of telling a ‘story’ that incorporates every surname in the year group as a ‘play on words’ . Once again this went down very well, even if the background story was from Shakespeare! Thank you to all our fantastic Year 13 students and the Sixth Form staff team. We wish the best of luck for results day in early August (and will be on hand to support students with their next steps).

SIXTH FORM Working in partnership

From September, Comberton Sixth Form is going to be working much more closely with both Melbourn Village College and St Peter’s School, Huntingdon.

The first partnership project involves launching Alevel Mandarin at CSF, using the specialist teachers from MVC, who already deliver the very successful GCSE Mandarin course. This additional subject further expands our Key Stage 5 languages offer, supporting our already successful French, German and Spanish A-levels. While we expect to start small (in terms of student numbers) in September 2021, this project will create vital continuity of education, allowing MVC students a clear route to build on their GCSE. Our second project involves developing the curriculum at St Peter’s Sixth Form. Their students will be joining those at CSF for lessons in Geography and Computer Science. At times these lessons will be face to face and involve SPS students physically moving sites, but at other times (and in a Trust first) we will be using Polybar technology, combined with MS Teams to link classrooms and students across the two sites. This audio and video tracking technology allows us to build on the recent success of virtual learning to create a blended learning model at SPS and CSF. While this is not designed to be permanent, it allows SPS students to take additional A-level options, while their sixth form grows the curriculum over the next

USING TECHNOLOGY: MS Teams and Polybar technology will link classrooms across sites.

few years. Staff at CSF are greatly looking forward to this exciting development.

David Clarke, Head of Sixth Form

Gold awards are CSF first

Year 12 Chemistry students took part in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge this year. The questions stretched their knowledge and understanding of A-level chemistry. They were challenged to draw structures, bonding diagrams, Hess cycles and, of course, complete Moles calculations. The students performed well, especially on oxide formula and calculation questions. This year’s results produced two gold awards — a first for Comberton Sixth Form — for Michal (12-SHE) and Emma (12-PG), three Silver for Emma (12-JM), Alfie (12-JD) and Lewis (12-EJ) and three Copper for Jinisha (12-SCO), Adam (12-JM) and Luke (12-RAJ). The next Challenge, in January, will be the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad. Question 1 was inspired by the classic “Pharaoh’s Serpent” demonstration that used to be commonly seen in schools before the toxicity of the products became a worry. Question 2 explored some interesting redox chemistry and allowed University of Cambridge chemist Dr Wothers to further explore the links between chemistry and animalbased humour!

Planning for the future

Following our virtual progression conference in March, in which Year 12 students were encouraged to start thinking about their plans for life after Sixth Form, preparations for the next steps have continued at pace this term despite the obvious limitations that exist. Individual guidance meetings were held remotely with students, and many of their parents, across two special ‘Futures Days’ in June, with discussions taking place around plans ranging from university to apprenticeships to gap years. These have been complemented by advisory meetings with specialists from local organisation Form the Future for those considering alternative pathways, and individual consultations and preparation sessions for those making early applications to Oxbridge and other competitive courses. The traditional events that usually take place at this time to support those who are hoping to apply to university through the UCAS system have mostly been reproduced in a virtual format for this cycle. The UCAS Exhibition of Higher Education providers and guidance seminars was delivered as a series of Discovery Days, which students could access live or via catch-up. This was followed up by our own in-house UCAS information event for students and parents which was delivered as a trilogy of short online talks. The first outlined the process, timeline and support on offer to CSF students who are considering a university pathway. The other two came from guest speakers from the University of East Anglia — Higher Education advisers Megan Broughton and Lucy Nottingham — who presented the universities’ perspective on the process and helped to clarify the sometimes perplexing world of student finance. Sadly, our annual trip to a university open day has not been possible so far this year, but with specialist sessions organised to support the planning of personal statements before the end of term and further individual guidance meetings with academic tutors ongoing, we are again confident that our students will be feeling well placed to start looking ahead to life after sixth form.

SIXTH FORM Student wins grand prize

Comberton Sixth Form has won £1000 thanks to the efforts of one of its students.

Budding lawyer David reached the Grand Final of the national Making Links School Challenge, run by Linklaters, a global law firm, picking up a four-figure prize as well as £250 in vouchers for himself. Students at non-selective schools and colleges in the UK were challenged to answer a question on the theme of change. “We are living through a time of great change. What, in your opinion, will be the greatest challenges and opportunities for businesses in a new post-Covid world?” David, who is in Year 12 and has his sights set on a career as a commercial barrister, submitted a five-slide presentation showing the political, economic, social and technological challenges and opportunities and was one of 15 selected for the Grand Final. This was held through a video conference call. There was a full day of talks and discussions as David explained. “In the morning, we had talks from partners and directors of the law firm and discussed Linklaters as a firm and how they affect businesses, ” he said. “In the afternoon, we worked with different legal teams to strengthen our presentations and learnt public presentation skills to help us to deliver engaging presentations. “Then, in the evening, we had a couple of hours to produce a two-minute video on the topic as our Grand Final submission. The judging panel then reviewed all of the submissions and picked a few presentations to be presented live. ” Two days later there was another video conference to celebrate everyone’s achievements and announce the winner. Organisers also explained the future opportunities and how the finalists can stay connected to partners and staff. Comberton Sixth Form has yet to decide how to spend the money but has pledged to include David in any decisions. He already has some ideas: “As it is meant to be research based, probably more books especially around law, ” he said. “However, it could also be used to help improve research tools like computers as well as getting guest speakers to run days about law and legal research.

BUDDING LAWYER: Competition answers earned a cash prize.

Song helps deal with personal struggle

STRIVING FOR PERFECTION: For a song called ‘Imperfect’! Imperfect came about initially as a part of my A-level composition for music, but after giving it in to my teachers I felt like I could make it even better. After months and months of changing tiny little things in the piece I decided I wanted release it on Spotify and I’m so excited for you to listen to it. The song is about how I've struggled with perfectionism and how difficult it is for me to let myself off the hook with certain things, which I appreciate is ironic because of how much time I spent on this song. However, I think the writing process really helped me to understand myself more. I’d definitely recommend writing lyrics to a song about your life, even if you don’t release it. My favourite part of writing and creating Imperfect was when I asked my friend Lucy Steel to sing on the song: she added so much creative input, making me see the song in a whole new light. She has a beautiful voice, as you can hear if you go and check it out. Imperfect by Stanny ft. Lucy Steel is out now! Go and stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and lots of other places. If you could go and follow me — Stanny — on Spotify, that really helps me out and it’s free to do! Thank you. Linktr.ee/S.t.a.n.n.y

Ben (12-PG)

Friends get the press rolling . . .

When we started at Comberton in September, we experimented with lots of new techniques, including lino printing. On the left are the lino prints made soon after we started at CVC. Unfortunately, we did not have the equipment to maximise our potential and had to use basic wooden spoons to get these results. We would like to say a massive thank you to the Friends of CVC for supporting us in the purchase of a new printing press! Now, thanks to the Friends of CVC, we can look forward to a future of much more ambitious print making! Not only will this benefit our class next year, but also all future pupils taking Graphic Communication!

Melanie (12-MR) and Lily (12-LM) Sixth Form Subject Ambassadors for Graphic Communication

SIXTH FORM Practical taste of CSF life

This term has seen several groups of students involved in taster sessions and welcome events for Level 3 BTEC Sport.

Year 10 students from Comberton VC and Cambourne VC, and Year 11 students with places in September, joined us for a crash course in the units and content of the course, with the opportunity to experience sixth form life as well. They were involved in patching each other up, supervised by Miss Kingston as part of the Sports Injuries unit, as well as learning to use sports psychology techniques to improve their basketball shooting performance! The students learnt about skill acquisition with Mr Magan and did a Dragon’s Den-style Sports Business challenge with Mr Anderson. We hope that the students enjoyed the sessions and are inspired to pursue a sport and physical education qualification. We are really looking forward to welcoming students starting on both the Level 2 and Level 3 BTEC Sport courses in September and wish those who have just finished in Year 11 and 13 all the best for the future.

Abbey Cotton, PE Dept

KEY SKILLS: Year 12 students on the BTEC Level 3 Sport course learn CPR as part of their first aid training.

First aid skills are put to the test

It has been a busy year for Level 3 BTEC Sport students who have continued to complete their assignments and coursework, despite the twists, turns and challenges Covid-19 has brought. We said a fond farewell to our Year 13 cohort in May; they finished this year with a series of practical coaching assessments, a sports psychology research project and a sports injuries presentation — not for the faint hearted! We celebrated their completion of the course with a trip to Clip n’ Climb in Cambridge, which saw them clambering to the top of crazy climbing walls and obstacles. They particularly enjoyed watching Miss Cotton dangle precariously at the top of the drop slide (mostly due to the dashing outfit!) The year 12s have also been working hard, recently taking part in a full day of first aid training with Mrs Pattrick and Miss Kingston. They learnt key emergency responses skills when working pitch-side with athletes, such as CPR, using defibrillators, bandaging and using slings. This was then put to the test in practical scenarios, where they were assessed in the skills they used and their responses. There was some excellent casualty acting and application of first aid by all! They will also soon be involved in a Dodgeball Level 1 Leaders Course, learning how to coach and officiate dodgeball. Well done for completing the first year of the Level 3 BTEC Sport course Year 12!