Comberton Village College

Comberton Village College

Established	1960
Type	Academy
Headteacher	Stephen Munday MA
Specialism	Sports
Location	West Street Comberton Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB23 7DU England
Local authority	Cambridgeshire
DfE URN	110900
Students	1369
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Houses	X half: C O M B I Y half: E R T N V L
Website	www.combertonvc.org

Comberton Village College is an academy in Comberton, Cambridgeshire, England. The school educates pupils aged between 11 and 18.

Comberton Village College was opened in 1960 as a Cambridgeshire Village College. It was originally designed to be a centre for the life of its community and to provide quality education for pupils aged between 11 and 16.

History

In 1974, the school became fully comprehensive and, in April 1993, it became grant-maintained. It changed to a Foundation School and has recently become a Foundation School with a Trust: the recently formed Comberton Educational Trust. The pupil roll is 1369 and rising while over 2,000 adults use the college for a wide range of continuing education and leisure activities. A £7 million building programme was completed in 2003 that significantly enhanced a range of the school's facilities, including major new leisure facilities. A further £4 million building project is now underway to provide further specialist teaching and learning facilities across a range of subject areas ready for use in September 2009.

The school was granted a presumption to open a new sixth form due to its high-performing status. Capital funding from the Learning and Skills Council was secured to build the required new facilities for the agreed new 350-place sixth form. The sixth form department of the college opened in September 2011. The new sixth form building was opened by Sir David Bell, permanent secretary for the Department for Education on June 14, 2011. It offers a suite of academic courses across the subject areas as well as applied courses. This development enables students from Comberton to complete their sixth form studies as well as providing opportunities for students from other local schools. Comberton Village College offers the AQA Baccalaureate desired by many Russell Group universities which requires students to complete an extended project as well as general studies and ‘critical thinking’ elements in addition to their A Levels.

In February 2011, Comberton Village College became an academy, operated by the Comberton Education Trust.

The college is now in discussion with both the DCSF and Cambridgeshire Local Authority about the possibility of opening a new branch of the school at the nearby developing community of Cambourne, part of the school's catchment area. This will provide further opportunities for new quality educational provision in the local area. It will be overseen by the new Comberton Educational Trust.

Houses

At Comberton Village College, each year is split into two halfs: X and Y. From there they split pupils into eleven tutor groups: For instance, in Year 7 there would be 7C 7O 7M 7B 7I (X half) 7E 7R 7N 7T 7V 7L (Y half). When years move up, they keep the form letter but the number changes to the appropriate form number, so 7E would become 8E and so on.

Pupils have most lessons in their tutor groups up to Year 9 except for MFL, Science, Maths and English which they are set into depending on their skill. In KS4 the groupings are different as pupils will take lessons depending on their choices, but tutor groups still meet at registration and in tutor period.

In KS3, pupils also compete as tutor groups in Sports Days. The current 10R hold the achievement of winning Sports Day 4 years in a row.

External links

"Comberton Village College". http://www.combertonvc.org/. Retrieved 2009-04-02.