News@Com Summer 2006

OLYMPIC PARTNERS

COMBERTON now has an official partner school in Beijing, China.

A recent visit to China by Principal Stephen Munday, with 10 other headteachers from the UK, allowed the partnership to be confirmed as part of a major new project: ‘Towards the Olympics’.

The school is Changping No 1 High School in the Changping district of China. It has more than 2,000 students, not big by the standards of many Chinese schools, but still larger than virtually all British schools.

The facilities, especially ICT and sports, are very impressive. As with many Chinese state schools, it has its own synthetic 400 metre running track and sports’ stadium.

The group of English Heads visited Changping No 1 High School as well as seven other schools while on

WELCOME: to Changping No 1 school (above) and to Stephen Munday and CVC in Mandarin by Senior Teacher Mr Shaoming.

the study tour. While at the school, Mr Munday met staff and students and made presentations from Comberton Village College.

The outcome is that the link has been established and future partnership work can be developed.

The Beijing school is in the process of identifying a group of students who can start corresponding in the near future with a Year 8 group already identified at Comberton.

A sports festival is already planned for summer 2007 in Beijing for all schools involved in the project. “This is a really exciting development for all of us at Comberton Village College,” said Mr Munday. “China is such a significant and such an interesting country in our world. The more we can learn about it and its people, the better prepared for 21st century life we can all

Top of the class

PE TEACHER Ally Brennan has won a prestigious award. The Comberton-based Primary PE Manager was named as ‘Most Inspirational Teacher’ at the Cambridge Evening News Press Relief Community Awards last month. She joined a host of other winners in a range of categories in receiving her prize at a lavish dinner at Homerton College.

Comberton Principal Stephen Munday said: “Everyone at Comberton Village College is absolutely delighted that Ally Brennan has won this award. If ever anyone deserves this, then most certainly Ally does.

?Turn to Page 2

IT’S A DEAL: David Carmichael, from architects Lyster, Grillet and Harding (left) welcomes Steve Smith, contract manager for Apollo Construction, with (from left) Derek Shea and James Harrison, structural engineers from Sterling Maynard & Partners, Kurt Mason, a Quantity Surveyor from Apollo, and David Cousans, Planning Supervisor.

Major improvement work is on the go

WORK

Comberton cleans up . .

WHEN Senior Site Manager

Bill Wayman decided that the college gutters needed a spring clean, he hired a massive access platform so that the site team could tackle the job. “Normally we would use outside contractors at a cost of several thousand pounds,” said college Bursar Peter Woodward, “but as Bill is fully qualified to operate

The taste of success

BREAKFASTS at Comberton are set to continue next term after the success of the pilot scheme.

The breakfast bar, which started just after half-term, gives pupils the chance to buy a range of breakfast foods before school.

The menu includes bacon rolls, croissants, toast, fruit yoghurt and hot chocolate, all of which must be purchased using cashless catering cards.

Catering manager Debbie Rogers said: “We’ve had some really positive comments from the children and we are really pleased with the way it has been going.”

Mrs Rogers has also noticed a shift in buying habits in recent months. Previously only 25 per cent of sales were at break times, but the combined breakfast and break takings are now 50 per cent. She puts this largely down to an increased sale of baguettes at break. “The children are buying early to get the best choice,” she said. “The baguettes are also big enough to eat half at break and still have enough left for lunch.”

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

HIGH-FLIERS:

Bill Wayman (left) and Stuart Clare, of the site team, spring clean the new building.

these big platforms, it made sense to do it in-house and make a significant saving.”

Teacher is top of the class

?From Page 1

“She truly is an inspiration to all those she works with, both here at the college and with our many partners, especially our partner primary schools. She has truly had, and continues to have, a major positive impact on the lives of many young people in this part of Cambridgeshire.”

Mrs Brennan, an Advanced Skills Teacher, works with staff and pupils at Comberton, its nine feeder primary schools, and a large number of other secondary and primary partners as part of the CABMAG Extended Schools project, which she is overseeing.

“I feel really lucky that I have support from a fantastic family and that I work in so many great schools with brilliant staff. I was proud to win,” she said.

Among those who voted for Mrs Brennan were pupils, one of whom described her as “the most inspirational, brilliant teacher” she has had. As part of the prize, Mrs Brennan and her family will be treated to an activity holiday at October half-term.

? Focus on Leadership — Page 3

? Duke of Edinburgh Awards — Page 3

? The magic of Mozart — Page 4

? Exams are over — Page 4

? Askew book awards — Page 4

? Learning lessons from history — Page 5

? Debating competition — Page 5

? Maths and science challenges — Page 5

? All around the world special — Pages 6, 7, 8 & 9

? Seven go Camping — Page 10

? Learning to Stay Safe — Page 10

? Water lot of fun — Page 10

? Summer holiday activities — Page 10

? Sport — Pages 11 & 12

totalling £834,000 is under way at Comberton. Apollo Construction won the contract to make major improvements to the infrastructure of the school, including new corridors and walkways, covered external social spaces, complete refurbishment of pupil toilets and improvements to electrical and fire alarm systems.

BREAKFAST IS SERVED: pupils try out the new service.

Focus on leadership

AS PART of the development of student leadership across the school, this year has seen some changes in the prefect system.

There are about the same number of prefects, and they are performing similar roles, but how the prefects work and the way the roles are structured has changed.

One of the aims is to make the role of being a prefect developmental. Rather than becoming a prefect as recognition of past performance and it being an item of status, this year the emphasis will be on developing new skills, meeting certain criteria and receiving recognition for progress throughout the year.

To help with this, prefects will receive training — hopefully with a residential course for senior and head prefects in the autumn.

Clearly, this is an extremely challenging proposition, but one to which the Year 10 pupils have risen; already there have been several team meetings around school.

In addition, what prefects are expected to achieve has been made a lot clearer to them, as detailed job descriptions for each role have been written.

The biggest difference, however, is that the emphasis is really on ‘leadership’. Prefects work with other pupils in the school leading volunteer teams, mentoring, or helping to organise. Senior prefects lead their teams of up to 10 prefects; and there are now three deputy head prefects, each leading about five senior prefects and 30-40 prefects.

To make the new roles clear:

?the Head Girl and Head Boy will oversee the entire process, support and manage their deputy heads and act as the face of the school to all important visitors;

?Rob Prince, as Deputy Head of Curriculum, will oversee all the departmental prefects;

?Dom Gale, as Deputy Head of the Pastoral system, oversees all the prefects supporting tutor groups;

?Hannah Jeffrey, as Deputy Head of Service, will lead the prefects acting as school representatives, charities prefects, mentoring prefects, and other service roles to the school.

This is the beginning of a lot of new initiatives into developing leadership skills and behaviours across all pupils in the school. The next big event will be an Enterprise PD Day in Year 10 next autumn leading into a team competition to make a product or organise an event to raise money for the year fund. The aim is both to teach enterprise and leadership skills, but also to start to identify which pupils may be suitable for leadership roles in next year’s prefect structure. There are a lot more exciting developments in the pipeline … watch this space! Lorna Bateson, Head of Student Leadership

Pupils take to the hills

WITH 50 Year 9 pupils aiming for the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award, expeditions were split and 24 excited but apprehensive teenagers climbed into the minibuses — with a separate one for their packs — and set off for the beautiful Chiltern Hills last month. Saturday dawned bright and early — at 4.00am — and in a tent, it was hard to stay asleep. Bags were packed, and repacked. “Do you really need six T-shirts and four pairs of trousers for a weekend?” … and we set off.

It was incredibly hot, and pupils were relieved that the navigation wasn’t as bad as it could have been as the heat was making it all heavy going. A water fight cooled everyone off and Sunday

dawned without us noticing as we were all deeply asleep. We hastily set off and made our way to the Ashridge Estate, a National Trust property, and wandered through beautiful beech woods all day. The packs seemed lighter, the navigation was better, the weather was cooler, and we had a lovely day. For a first expedition experience, the pupils were very impressive — and a total delight to spend the weekend with. I hope the other group did as well with their practice in July!

Lorna Bateson

SILVER STANDARD: Pupils on the silver expedition in

A RECORD number of Year 10 pupils signed up for the silver award and 38 determined candidates went on a threeday, 50km practice expedition in the Peak District.

We spent day one slapping on sun cream and struggling with full packs in the heat, but everyone was in very good spirits cooking up their boil-in-the-bag meals and pasta sauces for supper. However, the next morning we woke to the drumming of rain on the tents, and a couple of pupils learned the hard way, that, even if it’s sunny in Cambridge, it doesn’t mean you can save on weight

and leave your waterproofs behind! The navigation was harder in poor visibility, but we all made it to the campsite … eventually … and slept like logs that night.

The final day was again cold and misty and we had a few slightly off track groups on the moorland! Although it was a shame that we missed out on the spectacular views from Stanage Edge back across our whole route round the Edale Valley, the groups all finished the route extremely proud of themselves, and exhausted.

THE LEADERS: (from left) Rob Prince, Holly Peck, Dom Gale, Chris Schorah and Hannah Jeffrey.

the Peak District.

HAPPY CAMPERS: on the bronze expedition.

Comberton is the place to be

CAMBRIDGE estate agents have used it for a while, but now, it seems, Comberton’s value as a marketing tool is spreading.

Recently, Comberton’s ‘pull’ went national when Cambridge was featured in The Telegraph property section just before half-term.

Their ‘Best Parts for Schools’ led, not surprisingly, on the private sector schools in the city centre.

However, it then said: “In the state sector, Comberton College, about five miles west of Cambridge, is very highly regarded, and there is a premium on properties in neighbouring villages such as Bourn and Caldecote.”

The magic of Mozart

COMBERTON was one of only 12 schools invited to send pupils to sing at a prestigious concert in the Royal Albert Hall.

Forty staff and students sang in a concert of Mozart’s Requiem, given by The Really Big Chorus and the English Festival Orchestra.

The event celebrated 250 years of Mozart’s genius.

Months of preparation with Mr Page were put into perspective during the final rehearsal in the concert hall in the afternoon when the full choir of more than 2,000 singers of all ages from around the country descended on the venue for a quick run-through.

Despite being nearly three miles from the conductor, it was clear that the man

Thief steals bulk of the votes!

ASKEW Torchlight is an award for children who enjoy reading and love to find new material. For the fifth year running Year 7 pupils took the challenge, to read eight books in eight weeks and almost all of us managed to read them all.

We loved reading all the books and would recommend most of them.

At a special lunch in the library we had to make a very difficult choice: which three books were the best?

Our choices: in third place with nine votes was Flush; in second place with 21 votes was Secrets of the Fearless and in first place with a staggering 33 votes votes was Percy

in charge (the legendary Sir David Willcocks) knew we were there. Comberton Village College was announced on arrival and welcomed to the event in the concert programme. In addition to the fantastic experience of performing for real in the concert, we also heard a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and the Marriage of Figaro Overture.

We marvelled at the clarinetist’s miraculous memory and at the precision of the orchestral players.

It has to be said that the singing on the bus on the way home lacked some of the finesse of our earlier work, but the tune ringing in our ears was “How soon can we do this again?”

Ben Parker, Head of Music

Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. We all really enjoyed it and would recommend the challenge to all new Year 7, readers or not! We all found new authors that we enjoyed reading and still enjoy now.

Susannah Bedford (7M) and Richard Tanburn (7C)

BOOKWORMS: the Year 7 team of selectors.

Exams are over, now the waiting begins . .

COMBERTON can look back on a very successful summer exam season.

A record number of students, including Year 10 pupils and two groups from Community Education, sat exams at the college this summer. A huge variety of subjects were taken. There were the ‘usual’ subjects, like English Language and Literature, Maths, including Statistics (Year 10) and Further Maths, Science (Double and Triple Award), but also French (GCSE and AS), German, Spanish (GCSE and AS), Portuguese, Dutch and a Year 7 pupil, together with her younger sister, sitting the GCSE Cantonese Chinese!

Most Year 10 students took their GCSE short

course PE this year, with some of the Year 11s who opted for the full GCSE PE. Furthermore there was History, Geography, Leisure & Tourism, Philosophy & Ethics, Religious Studies — Islam, Art & Design, Applied Art & Design, Music, Drama, Dance, Graphic and Electronic Products, Engineering, Food Technology, AS Economics, Critical Thinking, Applied ICT, GNVQ ICT and Key Skills IT.

I think the above list shows the great versatility, knowledge, skills and talents that we have among pupils at CVC.

Credit must go to the Year 11 pupils who coped admirably with the exam pressure and the unex-

pected heat! Apart from the odd student oversleeping or missing transport, there were no major problems.

The smooth running of the exams would not have been possible without the professionalism and cheerful approach of my invigilating team. Many thanks to all of you!

Also a big thank you to Cb3 staff and Site Management, who ensured, on a daily basis, that all venues were set up correctly.

To all Year 11s: Well done, have a lovely summer, good luck, best wishes for your future and remember to collect your results on Thursday August 24 at 11.00am.

Julie Zuiderwijk, Examinations Officer

FAB 40: Comberton staff and students at the Royal Albert Hall.

Pupils warm to challenge

SIX students recently represented the college in a regional science competition held at Swavesey.

Up against students from 18 other schools, they were faced with scientific challenges around the theme of ‘Global warming’.

Though effective teamwork was the key to success, a good knowledge of science was also required to complete the tasks.

The results were not in at the time of going to press, but the team left in an optimistic mood having impressed their opponents and judges alike.

THE COMBERTON SIX: Susannah Bedford, Richard Tanburn (Year 7), Sophie Housden, Sanjay Bloor (Year 8), Jo Charter and Matt Wood (Year 9).

Learning lessons

OVER three days this term, approximately 200 Year 9 students visited the Beth Shalom Holocaust memorial centre in Nottingham.

from history

The aim of the trip, organised by the RE and History departments, was to support Year 9 students in their study of the Holocaust, to encourage them to reflect on the enormity of the Holocaust and to consider the importance of learning lessons from History.

Students were given an introduction to the aims of the Centre and then had the opportunity to visit a Holocaust exhibition and spend time looking at memorials to victims in the beautiful memorial gardens.

A particularly moving memorial allowed students to place their own stones in memory of the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust in World War II.

Staff from the Centre talked to students about examples of contemporary genocides in Rwanda and Darfur and the work

Fashion date set

A FASHION show to give the new Year 11 the chance to view some of the latest formalwear before their May Ball will take place on October 14. It will be combined with a number of performances by pupils in that year group and a meal. Any profit will be shared between Year 11 and South Africa funds.

Matt proves a whizz at maths

MATTHEW Sawyer was among the top 600 students in the country invited to take part in the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge organised by Leeds University.

The Year 9 pupil received a merit (the highest award) after winning through to the Kangaroo competition and being in the top 25 per cent.

More than 100 Year 7 and Year 8 students competed in the UK Junior Maths Challenge, which is also run by Leeds University. Of these Comberton achieved 23 golds, 31 silvers and 26 bronzes.

that is being done by the Aegis Trust (a genocide prevention organisation) for these communities.

In the afternoon survivors of the Holocaust shared their experiences with students, which included being sent as a child to England from Vienna on the Kindertransport and an amazing story of survival in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Year 9 students commented that it had been a very worthwhile experience as it gave them the opportunity to think more deeply about very important issues and to learn about the Holocaust in a different way. The students were praised by Centre staff for their behaviour and responses.

Hannah Powell (Head of RE) and Abigail Watson (Head of History)

A-team snatch the glory

COMBERTON’S A team pipped the B squad to win the South Cambs District Council debating competition. Impassioned debate and a split decision from the judging panel combined to make the grand final a real nailbiter. After an hour debating the motion ‘I propose that democracy can, and should, be imposed on countries’, Charly Cole, Rafie Faruq and Connor Schwartz beat Rebecca Davenport, Miles Partridge and Holly Peck in a competition Comberton were guaranteed to win.

Councillor Cicely Murfitt, chair of the council, presented the victors with the competition trophy, £500 for the school and £50 each in prize money. The runners-up received £250 for the school and £25 each.

Connor Schwartz was declared most outstanding speaker and won £25 and a silver salver. Head of English, Claire Coates, said: “This has been a fantastic experience for both teams.

Of the gold awards, five students with exceptionally high scores — Douglas Buisson, Chris Hughes, Haojie Xu, Sanjay Bloor and Anna Carter — were invited to enter the qualifying rounds for the UK Mathematics Olympiad team last month.

The other gold medallists were: Steven Scott, Tim Shaw, Jamie Berkeley, Stuart Parker, William Martin, Alastair Chilvers, Tanya Pankratova, Jodie Baker, Jonathan Proctor, Tim Whitbread, Alex CoxNergard, Catherine Gresham (all Year 8), Felix Wolfers, Shu Sam Chen, Daniel Murphy, Roseanna McMahon, Thomas Guilbride and Richard Tanburn (Year 7).

?Comberton filled the top two places in the first heat of the Cambridgeshire County Year 8 maths challenge at Swavesey.

ALL TOGETHER NOW: Comberton’s winners and runners-up.

“The way they have grown in confidence and ability throughout the competition proves what a worthwhile experience it is.”

The 8Y team of Anna Carter, Douglas Buisson, Jodie Baker and Chris Hughes won from the 8X quartet of Annie Gregory, Sanjay Bloor, Will Martin and Haojie Xu to qualify for the final, which took place earlier this month.

The 8X team could have been there too, as one of the highest-scoring runners-up, depending on results elsewhere.

Forging a new link

TO most of us Japan is little more than the home of the samurais, sushi, sumo and Sony, but for a group of Year 9 pupils, there is the chance to establish a link with a Japanese student.

For the last term we have covered all aspects of Japan in our geography lessons, including the hugely-varied physical characteristics it displays and also the lifestyle contrasts as you travel from rural Hokkaido in the north to the southern cities of Shikoku.

Our new partnership with Hakodate Chubu Senior High School (HCSHS) in Hokkaido offers the chance to expand cultural horizons and regularly contact their pupils.

Thankfully, this correspondence will be in English as HCSHS is a specialist language school, with communication primarily by e-mail.

Although this will be done out of school time, it’s hoped that this contact will further participants’ understanding of Japan and other related geographical topics. Japan is an amazing and intriguing country and this scheme offers not simply a unique global link, but wide-ranging future opportunities. Who knows, maybe in a few years students from Comberton will be sampling sushi and seeing the sights for themselves. Nicola Deboys (9C)

Turning Japanese

ELEVEN pupils from Year 9 took up the opportunity to take part in a Japanese taster session delivered by Rikako Nomoto, a Japanese teacher at Hills Road.

Not only did they get a taste for the language, the culture and people of Japan, but actually got to taste some authentic green tea and try their hand at eating Japanese rice crackers and Maltesers using chopsticks. It was soon obvious that some of them would begin to starve if they moved to Japan!

Pupils also learnt how to meet, greet and introduce themselves in Japanese, including the customary bow. After an explanation of how the characters used to write Japanese are formed, each student managed to write their name in Katakana (just one of the three “alphabets” used in Japanese).

Rikako concluded the session by demonstrating how to wear a kimono. Rosie Wigg was lucky enough to be the model, looking stunning and very elegant even when trying to walk in it, which is not as easy as it looks.

The response from the pupils was very positive and some are even keen to carry on their studies of the language.

Morag Walker, MFL Department

IT’S ALL CHINESE TO ME: Comberton pupils have a go at drawing out Chinese characters.

Linguists learn the basics . . .

HILLS Road Sixth Form College is currently seeking to enhance its liaison with local schools and promote the study of a variety of languages at post-16 level.

To this end, the college provided an introductory session in Mandarin Chinese this term for a group of Year 10 linguists taught by a native speaker.

The session included an introduction to the Mandarin language (oral and written) and culture of China. Mandarin Chinese is the most common form of Chinese and the form that all children have to learn there.

We began by learning a few phrases in the Arabic alphabet such as ‘hello’ and ‘I am called’. In order for us to say ‘I am called’ we each chose a Chinese name, complete with the characters and meanings. In China, there are no specific name words, but names are chosen as aspirations by the parents for their child such as ‘beautiful.’ Our attempts at pronunciation were highly amusing at first as none of us had any idea of how to say the new words. Then we were taught to pronounce the words.

In Mandarin, tone is very important as the different patterns of emphasis on a word can change its entire meaning!

Eventually, we began to improve and were then taught to count to 10. There are different hand signs for these numbers than in England, so we became doubly confused!

Later we were given a list of Chinese characters to draw out using typical inks and brushes, which we were allowed to keep.

Overall, it was a brilliant session and we all really enjoyed learning the beginnings of a new language and about a new culture, especially one so different from English.

Hannah Nelms (10T)

and

Alex Finn (10N)

TRADITIONAL COSTUME: Rosie Wigg is dressed in a kimono.

Trip of a lifetime

A GROUP of Comberton students plus our Head of History Abigail Watson are currently on the trip of a lifetime in China.

The pupils, from Years 8 and 9, were offered the last-minute opportunity to spend two-and-a-half weeks in China as part of a British Council trip when one of the schools originally invited to take part dropped out.

The group is in Suzhou, close to Shanghai, and for Miss Watson it is a return to familiar territory.

She spent eight months teaching English in a Chinese school in nearby Changzhou and was looking forward to improving her basic knowledge of Mandarin.

As part of the British Council’s immersion course, all those who are on the trip received 10 contact hours of Mandarin language tuition before they went.

The heavily-subsidised trip includes further tuition as well as a programme of cultural visits. Suzhou is famous for silk-making and its gardens and is renowned throughout China.

Director of Languages Rachel Hawkes said: “This was a fantastic opportuni-

ty for pupils, which was quite unexpected.

CHINA CALLING: Miss Watson and some of the pupils who are now in China.

“We have already started developing links with China as part of the ‘Towards the Olympics’ project and this trip has given us another opportunity to find out about this fascinating country.”

The Olympics works

ON my recent study visit to China, one of the greatest impressions was the way in which China is getting ready for the

Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

The building work taking place in Beijing is stunning. It is said that there is

READY TO WRITE:

the group of Year 8 pupils who have expressed an interest in corresponding with pupils at Comberton’s new partners, No 1 High School in Changping.

currently more construction work taking place in Beijing than in the whole of Europe. Having travelled around the city a considerable amount while there, I can believe that this is true.

I gave up counting the number of enormous cranes that were in operation. There are currently 21 new stadiums under construction. Just imagine: 21 equivalents of Wembley and all of them will certainly be completed on time!

Chance to learn Mandarin

AS part of its new status as a Specialist Languages College, CVC will offer Year 9 pupils next year the opportunity to learn Mandarin as part of the Junior CULP programme, a joint venture between Cambridge University and local secondary schools. The programme will be an extra-curricular enrichment course of intensive language tuition with a native speaker teacher. The new ASSET languages assessment

scheme available through the OCR exam board will allow pupils to gain recognition for their language level at the end of the course.

Year 8 pupils who are keen to enrol on the programme were invited to take part in a Mandarin taster immersion day at the Cambridge University Language Centre earlier this week.

The current population of Beijing is approximately 16.5 million. The Beijing authorities believe that this is far too much for the space available. The population is thus to reduce to between 8 and 8.5 millions by summer 2008. All the old government properties built for workers in the capital are being pulled down and compensation is being paid to residents so that they can purchase newly-constructed dwellings on the outskirts of Beijing.

Traffic congestion is currently shocking in Beijing. It makes London (or even Cambridge) seem quite tranquil. There will thus be many new freeways constructed all over Beijing by summer 2008. In addition, local residents will simply not be able to use their cars as they might normally do during the summer of 2008 so there will not be traffic congestion during the Olympics.

Beijing suffers from considerable pollution at the moment. There is frequently a smog lurking over the city. By summer 2008, nuclear energy will thus have become more important and coal-fired power stations will operate further from Beijing. Pollution will be significantly reduced.

We probably find these things extraordinary. They are really unimaginable in our own society. We might see them as highly desirable, highly undesirable or some mixture of the two. What I think they do is illustrate how much we might learn as we develop our links with China and our new partner school in Beijing.

Stephen Munday, Principal

A different way of life

Year 10 pupil Parvie Churchman has just returned after seven months in India. Here she writes about her experience.

THE school year in India starts in the middle of June and ends in late March.

Children as young as two years old start nursery school. It is normal to stay at the same school until Year 10.

The class sizes tend to be around 60 pupils. During the school year it is compulsory for all pupils to take a unit test and end-of-term exams; if the pupils do not pass their exams they have to repeat the year.

tise her English.

In some schools, pupils are expelled if they fail exams two years in a row. There is such enormous pressure on the pupils to perform well all the time that most pay to go to after-school tuition. The school day starts at 8:00 in the morning and ends at 4:00pm. Tuition usually starts around 5:30. After tuition, they are expected to complete their school homework for the next day. This leaves them with very little spare time during the school year.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Pavie enjoys a lakeside camel ride.

Our time in India was limited. Going to an Indian school would have been disruptive to both the school and our education. We were expecting to be taught by home tutors. We soon realised that though English is commonly spoken, we found it difficult to understand the version of English spoken in India. We were now in charge of our own education.

To survive our time in India our earlier days were spent in learning Marathi, the local language, from a college girl who lived nearby. The classes gave us a helpful start, but soon our teacher wanted to use our time together to prac-

Most of our time was spent in Pune. We had a basic routine. We did some schoolwork and music lessons in the mornings, most afternoons we had long power cuts so this time was spent outside the flat, either visiting people or shopping – basically trying to get near an air-conditioning unit! In the evenings, we spent our time either at dance classes or walking. We were able to travel by car within a 300-mile radius. We attended three family weddings in Baroda, Kolhapur and Satara. Each one was very different; the only common thing being hundreds of guests, most dressed in very colourful traditional clothes (and lots of ‘bling’). We also visited ancient Buddhist and Hindu caves at Karla and Ellora. We climbed a hill fort, Sinhagad, where we enjoyed a typical picnic. The views from this fort were spectacular, bearing resemblance to the Grand Canyon.

My memorable moments in India were; seeing elephants and camels plodding along with the traffic, a lakeside camel-ride, and meeting one of the four prime leaders of Hinduism known as the Shankaracharyas. This was a chance meeting with the Shankaracharya from Kolhapur when we went to witness the establishment of a new temple on the outskirts of Pune. In the summer holidays we will be returning to India for a few weeks to visit the tsunami-affected village supported by Comberton Village College, Meridian Primary School and Coton Primary School as well as the local community. We have met the people who used your donations to such good effect to assist the surviving families.

A revolutionary project . . . A taste of Spain

9C have spent their art lessons this term designing a mural for one of the large walls on the staircase near the library.

What began as a project to depict the Russian Revolution – a collaboration between the Art and History department –has turned into an exercise in problem solving!

The wall is over three metres high – so rather than paint directly on to it, it was decided to use MDF panels that could be worked on more easily in the classroom.

From the start, 9C have tackled this project as a team, learning valuable skills in doing so. We have based the design of the mural on the work of Diego Rivera, a Mexican muralist, and the main symbols that have come to be associated with the Russian Revolution. In the spirit of true democracy, all design ideas have been worked on as a group, with the final design being a mix of the ones that

were voted the best.

Taking the strong lines and limited palette of Russian Propaganda posters, the mural is being painted now and should be finished for the end of term.

Apart from one pupil falling in the paint, 9C have learnt how to listen to others, share ideas and responsibilities and work together to produce what should be an eye-catching and informative addition to the school.

GETTING CREATIVE: 9C pupils work on their mural.

IN preparation for September, pupils at Comberton’s feeder primary schools have been learning Spanish this year. The plans, drawn up at the beginning of the year, included a workshop session in the summer term to act as a ‘refresher’ once the SATs exams were out of the way.

Rachel Hawkes and Alison Mackie, both Advanced Skills Teachers (AST) at Comberton led these and they proved a lot of fun!

Pupils had the opportunity to revise and practise what they have already learned, play games, sing, dance, learn about some cultural aspects and interactively tell stories – all in Spanish!

The response has been excellent and we have been very impressed by the existing standard of the students participating.

We are all looking forward to a really exciting start in September!!

Some comments from the students:

“I really enjoyed the dancing.”

“I thought I’d forgotten what we’d learnt, but I soon remembered it when we were doing the activities.”

“I liked the singing and dancing best.”

“I can’t wait to do Spanish at Comberton. We are going to Spain on holiday so I’ll be able to practise!”

FOR the fifth year, 64 students and seven staff stayed at the Chateau du Molay, near Bayeux, and visited a range of places in the area.

Leaving Comberton promptly at 6.00 am meant that some of us had to be up very early – and the staff really needed their coffee on the ferry!

On the way to the Chateau, we visited a master ‘chocolatier’. He spoke very good English and told us all about how chocolate is made and then let us taste some – there is nothing like fresh chocolate!

After breakfast on Sunday we went to the Pointe du Hoc – where the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan were filmed and explored the remains of the gun battery. We also visited the American military cemetery at Omaha beach and the German cemetery at La Cambe and were struck by the noticeable difference in atmosphere between the two.

On Monday we spent some time at the market in Carentan, (spending what money we had left) and then had lunch at Ste. Mère-Église before visiting the famous Bayeux Tapestry. Our trip to the Hypermarket was cancelled as it was a Bank Holiday in France and the shops were shut!

Just speak French! Chateau takeover

I PACKED my shorts, sandals and chapeau for the seaside and Paris, but the weather was more like wet England than sunny Normandy in May.

The lack of sunshine didn’t matter after our warm welcome from the host families in Le Vaudreuil, just south of Rouen, on the Year 9 French Exchange.

Everyone was a bit nervous but by the next morning speaking and being French was made easier by the Gallic kisses which everyone shared. Then it

Mobiles welcomed in lessons

RESEARCHING new and innovative teaching and learning styles is something that interests all Language Colleges and Comberton has been participating in a very interesting initiative for GCSE Spanish students.

The programme is offered by an organisation call Speak 2 Me and is a study for the rapid development of speaking skills by conversing

GROUP SHOT: Year 7 pupils and staff at the Chateau du Molay.

However on Tuesday, Colin our bus driver made a special detour for us to Cité Europe, (just outside Calais) on the way to the ferry and we were able to buy all the smelly cheeses our parents had asked for – and some more sweets for the journey!!

Alison Mackie, MFL

was in to lessons, which were more formal than ours. Break time was just as chaotic when we realised that everyone aged 14 in England and France have the same interests and tastes in films, fashion and music.

Le Vaudreuil is twinned with Comberton and in the afternoon we walked the ‘Chemin de Comberton’ alongside the delightful river ‘L’Eure’ past locks and mills to the central bar ‘La Brazza’.

Here we learned a vital lesson as set up by Ms Jarry and Ms Richard.

Unless we spoke French everyone ignored us! To get a Perrier Menthe or un café au lait required some thinking and courage but the tactic worked and we all just started using French first.

with native speakers using mobile phones. The study was being conducted by Speak 2 Me last month.

The results of the first seven-week pilot, conducted in Monkseaton Community High School, a Specialist Languages College near Newcastle, yielded a 37% overall increase across nine evaluation metrics. These metrics focused on fluency, pronunciation, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, reporting sequential events, storytelling expository, descriptive details, improvisational and creative speech as well as critical thinking.

At CVC, 10 students in Year 10 took part in the programme of six sessions of 30 minutes communicating via mobile phone with the native Spanish Speak 2 Me Speaking Instructions Professionals (SIPs).

The sessions were tailored to the language covered by the students in the Spanish curriculum in the first year of GCSE.

The Speak 2 Me team hope that this project will be seen to represent a valuable and up until now under-exploited aspect of language acquisition pedagogy and may attract further funding from the DfES.

In the evening we were the guests at a buffet organised by the school and the parents. What a feast of food, but the French do love to talk and nothing interrupts the desserts. We did manage to introduce them to our version of English Country Dancing which has a popular equivalent in Normandy.

The next day we went to Rouen, centre of England’s shared kingship with France, burial place of the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion and the place where the English executed Joan of Arc. We did some history, but two things stood out. Firstly getting lunch in French and NOT using McDonalds! Secondly performing our forfeits, une gage. Emile, Tim and Hamish had to ask a French lady: “Voulez vous danser avec moi, s’il vous plait!” This was great fun and by the time we hit Paris the girls wanted une gage. Clarissa and Lydia danced with the Pompiers.

Wednesday was Paris, complete with Tour Eiffel, le Métro and lunch in the Latin Quarter, although the staff spent a lot of time counting pupils.

No losses and we even managed to pass ‘Roland Garros’ and discuss why Paris is the city of lovers and French is the language of love to cries of, ‘uugh, gross!’

Finally we tried the sea at Honfleur and a picnic, which unfortunately we had to have sheltered behind the coach in the car park.

Too soon we had to go home, just as were making friends and becoming more fluent by the day.

Ian Rigg

Girls learn to keep safe Water, water everywhere

THIRTY-FIVE girls from Years 8, 9 and 10 took part in a five-week selfdefence course this term, organised by the Community Education Department.

The course aimed to educate students about ways of keeping safe and reducing risks when they are not at home.

The students had great fun practising a whole variety of self-defence techniques as well as increasing their knowledge and understanding of safe behaviour.

The course included appearance, travelling alone, building self-confidence, looking after personal belongings, behaviour in public places, avoiding confrontation, distraction techniques and general physical fitness.

It was a great course which we hope to run again in the next academic year when there will also be a chance for boys to take part in their own course. Look out for details in the After School Activities Programme.

THE Sponge the Teacher event held at lunchtime on the Friday before half term raised a fantastic £87 for the Year 9 charity, Plan International, which helps children in poorer nations.

The event was organised by 9N, who did a great job managing the large crowd wanting to sponge their “favourite” teacher!

Big thanks go to the eight members of staff who volunteered to be sponged (Mr Wren, Mr Bellis, Ms Mallett, Ms Bartlett, Mr Goldring, Mr Page, Mr de Trafford and Mr Bach-Samuel).

The blue tickets gave you three sponges for 20p, but it was the red tickets which were the most fun — £2 for a whole bucket of water to put over a teacher’s head.

“A bracing experience” said one teacher.

Seven go camping

NIKUL had to be kidnapped before we could head off to the depths of Suffolk into a secret part of Thetford Forest.

At first, the members of Comberton’s Year 7 Adventure Club were the only ones there. The field is as big as three football pitches, which suited Bu, surrounded by the forest and bounded by the River Thet complete with nesting and defensive swans.

We were completely self-sufficient, only using the toilets and fridge to keep us fresh-ish!

After our previous camp at Harlton, we were super campers and the tents and stoves were operational quickly and we set about the task of finding wood and lighting our fire. This fire was relit each morning, mostly by Tom, and it fed us, entertained us and warmed us for three days.

Food always features highly at camp and we feasted on chicken kebabs marinated in olive oil and lemon juice, roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, beef steaks, sausages, bacon, pasta with a tomato sauce, salads and fruit kebabs.

Luthias learned how to slice mango, George ‘julienned’ carrots and Dan hacked or sliced up the onions. Every meal seemed to have marshmallows somewhere.

To make room for food, we had to be active. Crossing the river by the raft was great fun, but hunting each other after dark in the depths of the forest was scary for some.

Tom and Bu seemed to melt into the undergrowth and would only be found when we insisted they reveal themselves.

It seemed easier in the daylight racing on bikes around the ‘single track’ like Ewoks between the trees and all this after cycling 12 miles around the countryside. Other activities centred on the Low Wires Course set up around the

WELCOME

BREAK: Adventure Club members take a breather during their 12-mile mountain bike ride in Thetford Forest.

camp. Sometimes these involved solving problems and sometimes these required teamwork to navigate around above the ground but the best one was the Zip Wire, which progressed to blindfolded and backwards!

The phrase that came from Scott when he summed up the day was, ‘I’ve been unwillingly brave!’

Eventually we had to go home and breaking camp was hard, but everyone wanted to come again even if it was a challenge for them.

Ian Rigg

Plenty of summer fun on offer at leisure centre

COMBERTON Leisure have something to suit any child who wants to be active this summer. On offer are two multi-sports weeks, an under-11 seven-a-side football league and trampolining. The multi-sports weeks include a wide range of activities including swimming, badminton, cricket, netball, tennis and football. They are suitable

for children aged five and over and run from 9.00-4.00pm between July 24-28 and August 2125. It costs £15 a day or £70 for the week.

The seven-a-side league starts on Saturday at noon and is designed to give under-11 teams the chance to play regularly on the artificial surface. The trampolining course will be run by experi-

enced coach Andie Buckley and takes place from August 14-18.

There are three times each day to choose from, with each session lasting an hour. It costs £5 per session or £20 for five sessions.

For more details of all events, contact Comberton Leisure on (01223) 264444.

An amazing one-day sail!

ON

THE WATER: some of the Comberton Comedians’ crew in action.

WITH the team name ‘Comberton Comedians’ it was fairly clear from the start that our sailing team weren’t aiming for the top prizes in the RNLI 24hour sailing race at Peterborough last month.

Sailing a traditional luff-rigged sailing boat against highly-efficient racing dinghies was never going to be easy, but, in almost non-existent winds, our valiant team competed heroically, managing ninth place from a field of (yes, you guessed) nine teams!

The team consisted of Niki Smith (Head of ICT), Nick Evans (Head of DT), Jane Dean (Science teacher), Peter Woodward (Bursar), Carl SpenceJones (Year 10 pupil) and Rhianna Smith (Year 8 pupil), as well as members of their families.

Rhianna even found time between shifts on the team boat to complete several laps on a windsurfer for the RYA’s youth windsurf team, which came in fifth.

The race was started by the Mayor of Peterborough and received a fly-past from a Lancaster bomber from the Battle of Britain flight. Our team members took turns sailing the boat, with most of the night shifts covered by Ms Smith or Mr Evans. Through the hours of darkness, the boats carried lights and the marker buoys were lit which made for a pretty sight, but Ms Smith most enjoyed having her boat ‘buzzed’ by bats and Mr Evans enjoyed sailing as the sun came up. The team raised well over £300 out of a total for the event of around £3,000, all monies going to the RNLI. Well done to all the team, and better luck next year! Niki Smith, Head of ICT

BIRTHDAY

MEDAL: for Year 8 pupil Annie Gregory.

Swimming success for duo Birthday bronze

EMMA Jones and Sophie Thrussell from Year 8 made up half of the Mid Bedfordshire

4x100m medley relay team at this year’s East Region Swimming Championships held in Norwich.

We were in the final heat of the medley and ranked fourth with a time of 4 min 58 sec, which gave us the advantage of a middle lane.

Sophie swam the third leg, butterfly, in 1 min

16 sec, knocking two seconds off her personal best before handing over to Emma. She managed to overtake another team’s swimmer in the final, freestyle, leg, finishing the race in fourth by just over a second. That result took the team to within five seconds of the national qualifying time.

Sophie Thrussell (8B) and Emma Jones (8N)

ANNIE Gregory spent her birthday at a trampolining competition – and went home with a medal for her efforts.

The Year 8 pupil won bronze in the under-15 grade four class at the Harlow Grading Competition and was only 0.2 marks adrift of silver.

There were also medals for her Comberton Tiggers clubmates Sarah Brennan, Becky Hurry, Lucy Price (all Year 8) and Year 7’s Paige Tucker.

Sarah won the under-15 grade five gold, Paige took bronze and, with the other two, collected team gold.

Paige’s younger sister, Tate (Hardwick Primary), also won two medals, bronze in the under-11 grade five individual event and team gold with individual silver medallist Jordan Winter (Longstanton), Rebecca Page (Histon) and Katie Reynolds (Hardwick).

Tate, Jordan and Rebecca also qualified to compete at Grade 4 level in future competitions.

Boys just miss out

BOTH the Year 7 and Year 8 boys’ cricket teams missed out on a place in the finals of their Cambridge and District competitions.

The Year 7 pupils beat Cottenham and Swavesey, but were edged out for the final place by Impington, who beat them.

Nikul Patel excelled with the bat and Matt Dye with the ball as the Comberton team turned in some great performances and played in the right spirit.

“I was proud of the way they congratulated and/or commiserated with opponents,” said Head of PE Mark Goldring.

The Year 8 novice team were narrowly beaten in both their games, against Sawston and Melbourn, despite the efforts of Billy O’Rielly and Michael Longson with the bat and Peter Tasker and Liam Faruq with the ball.

However, they bounced back to beat The Leys in a friendly by eight wickets after restricting their hosts to 76 runs. Billy (36 not out) and Ollie Vale (26 not out) were the unbeaten batsmen.

Year 7: Sam Spencer, Billy Haynes, Nikul Patel, Callum Malloy, Mark Cooper, Greg Wilson, Matt Dye, Harry Wells, Anya Hall, Sam Pudney, Elliot May.

Year 8: Billy O’Rielly, Ollie Vale, Shaun Davis, Kyle Warwick, Michael Longson, Douglas Buisson, Kuda Zhandire, Jamie Berkeley, Peter Tasker, Liam Faruq.

IN THE SQUAD: Sophie Thrussell (front, second left) and Emma Jones (back, second left).

An athletics extravaganza

ALMOST 650 children from 23 primary schools spent the day playing sport and games at the second South Cambridgeshire Schools Sports Partnership athletics festival.

The Year 4 pupils, including youngsters from seven of Comberton’s feeder primary schools, had a go at a range of athletic activities as well as events such as mini-golf, target throwing, sack racing and tug-of-war during the day-long festival at the Cambridge University track in Wilberforce Road.

Schools worked their way around a rotation of the 23 activities, which included traditional athletics events such as a 400m run, shot, javelin, discus and hurdles, with competition fierce among classmates and schools.

Each pupil received a team T-shirt according to which secondary school family in the partnership – Comberton, Impington, Swavesey, Bassingbourn and Melbourn – their primary school belongs, turning the athletics stadium into a mass of red, blue, yellow, green and khaki. Guest of honour at the event sponsored by Barclays Bank and Cambridge solicitors Mills & Reeve was former Great Britain Olympic marathon runner Paul Evans, who is now Norfolk’s athletics development officer. He admitted he was picking up a few ideas for his own county’s festivals as well as having a thoroughly enjoyable day out.

“This is the biggest festival I’ve been to. It’s

great to see so many youngsters being introduced to athletics,” he said.

“They all seem to be having a good time as they move round the events.

“There is no time to get bored with anything and all the children have been really supporting each other.”

Sally Banfield, the South Cambs Partnership

Development Manager who organised the festival with her team of School Sports Co-Ordinators from the secondary schools, said: “The day was a great success and I hope all the students had a wonderful experience. Hopefully it has ignited an excitement and enjoyment for sport that we can continue to develop in the future.”

As well as benefitting the hundreds of primary school pupils, the day provided excellent experience for around 80 young sports leaders and those planning to take the Sports Leaders’, Level One, qualification next year at the various secondary schools.

“They did a fantastic job helping the teams find their way around and manning the events,” said Miss Banfield.

IN FULL FLOW: Year 7 pupil Anya Hall bowls for Cambridgeshire’s

RUNNING, JUMPING, THROWING: pupils from Comberton’s feeder primary schools at the Year 4 athletics festival.

Anya breaks the mould

COMBERTON pupil Anya Hall was the only girl selected for the Cambridge and District Year 7 boys’ cricket tournament.

But the strength of the opposition holds little fear for the 12-year-old who already plays under-15 cricket for Cambridgeshire girls.

In the county team, she recently came up against a Surrey-based Year 10 bowler who represents England under-19s and was hit in the chest by her first ball. Anya was unmoved, however, and went on to score runs off her before being out to a different bowler.

She is the youngest player in Cambs’ under-15 side and also plays for the under-13s, for whom she will also qualify again next year. That means she plays county matches around the country almost every weekend.

The District Tournament made a pleasant change and although Anya and the Comberton side performed valiantly, defeat by Impington cost them the chance of progressing to the finals.

?Cricket round-up — Page 11

under-15 girls’ team against Buckinghamshire.