News@Com The News Magazine of Comberton Village College
GOLDEN JUBILEE!
ISSUE 22, WINTER 2009
COMBERTON Village College will be 50 years old in 2010.
And there will be a month of celebratory events to mark the milestone during March. The main events for the college, which opened in 1960 with 240 pupils, will be two days of special activities. HONOURED: Executive Principal Stephen Munday. Comberton, which now has 1,410 pupils and around 250 staff, will stage the official opening of the latest buildings with specially invited guests on Friday March 5. Roger Adcock, the first warden of Comberton until 1964, is set to come Stephen Munday, executive principal of from Hampshire to join in the celebraComberton, was presented with an honorary tions and will be among guests, includDoctorate of education by prof Mike thorne, Vice ing past pupils and other staff, who will Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, last month. be invited to tour the school to see how it has the ceremony took place at the Corn exchange in changed. Cambridge with many recently graduated students There will also be a display of current work from Anglia Ruskin receiving their degrees. and historical memorabilia in the atrium. This the honorary award was given for ‘services to educa- will include a photographic exhibition and a tion’, most specifically for overseeing Comberton short history of the college, being written by Village College in becoming ‘one of the most success- long-serving Deputy Principal Mary Martin ful schools of its type in the east of england’. and governor Colin Clarkson. Mr (or Dr) Munday gave a brief speech of acceptance In the evening there will be a concert with in which he pointed out that he was really receiving high-quality musical items performed by curthe award on behalf of the whole community of rent and former students and staff. Comberton Village College because it was clearly The following day there will be several mornteamwork, rather than the efforts of any one individ- ing workshops for adults and young people, to ual, that had led to the school’s success. include cooking, watercolour painting, life drawing, tap dancing and more (still to be conl Turn to Page 2
Honour is for ‘whole college community’
firmed). Each workshop will cost only £2. In the evening Comberton Leisure hosts a celebratory black tie dinner and dance with a live band, Bayou Gumbo. More details will be available in the new year. The 50th anniversary celebrations are also part of a month-long Arts Festival being organised by Arts Development Manager Richard Brown. They include a rock band night being organised by and for young people, Custard Comedy, Bourn Players’ production of Kiss Me Kate, Comberton’s annual show, which next year is Into The Woods, South Cambs’ Arts awards and, on April 1, a CVC’s Got Talent show, featuring college staff. Executive Principal Stephen Munday said: “We are delighted to be able to celebrate the college's 50th anniversary. “It is one of those rare opportunities in life to stop, take stock and celebrate. There is so much to celebrate in the 50-year history of the college and we want to do it well. “Of course, we also want to look forward to the next 50 years, and we will want to use the celebrations to confirm the exciting possibilities for the future. All of this is within the ongoing constant of being a Cambridgeshire village college: the best sort of schooling that there is."