Ely College students celebrated their final PLEDGES and Futures Day of the year in style this week with over thirty external speakers and providers addressing students throughout the day.

The day, which was the final of four PLEDGES and Futures days, focused on democracy and personal finance. A host of local speakers were in attendance including recently re-elected Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire, Lucy Frazer, who held a question time session with students.

Principal of Ely College, Richard Spencer, said: “Over thirty people from a wide variety of local businesses and charities volunteered their time to help the students today, so firstly we would like to thank all of them for giving up their time and committing to the young people in their area.

“PLEDGES and Futures Days are so important because they play a vital part in helping our students to develop key skills and knowledge that will benefit them throughout their lives and prepare them for life outside of the classroom. We are delighted with how the students have embraced them this year and we look forward to running them again next year.”

Year 10 student, Ben Gray, said: “It has been a really interesting day and we have learnt a lot. My year group were visited by Metro Bank and Lloyds Bank. They really seemed to want to help us to understand more about personal finances and to help us not to get into financial difficulty.  It was great to gain detailed insights you would not normally get in lessons and especially to understand the next steps in our lives, such as mortgages and personal finances for university. Seeing how student loans work was great.”

Other activities taking place throughout the day included students interviewing visitors from a wide range of workplaces, taking part in a Dragon’s Den style activity and taking part workshops on personal branding and managing personal finances.

PLEDGES were introduced at the College in October and are a vital part of the changes that Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust bring to all schools in their family. Similar to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, PLEDGES help students develop character and responsibility that can be taken into their adult life. They encourage students to get involved with the wider experiences the College has to offer them.

Earlier this month Ely College students were treated to their very own hustings debate between three of the candidates for South East Cambridgeshire.

Lucy Frazer, Huw Jones and Lucy Nethsingha addressed the students at the debate, answered their questions and encouraged them to vote for their respective parties in the College’s mock general election.

The mock general election, which aimed to get students involved with politics from a young age, saw students vote for their chosen party following the hustings. Each house in the College represented a constituency and students visited different polling booths around the College to place their vote.

The vote was followed by an official count led by a small team of students, who announced the winner of the Ely College general election as The Liberal Democrats. 

Lorraine Young, Subject Leader at Ely College, said: “Once we heard the announcement about the snap general election, we knew we wanted to get our students as involved as possible. We often hear in the news about the low turnout of young voters and we wanted to try to do something to get our students engaged in politics from a young age.

“The mock general election has given our students a wonderful opportunity to experience playing a role in the democratic process and we hope they will continue to engage with politics once they reach 18 and are able to vote.”

Conclusion to the 2017 Ely College Uniform Consultation

Back in September 2016, we recognised that to change the uniform entirely as CMAT came in, would place a burden on families and would not give us the time to properly consult on different views. We have therefore been consulting through 2016/17 with a view to a full uniform change in September 2017.

We have valued your comments and taking them into consideration as we work with the Student Council and the feedback they gained from the Student Voice. As a result we now have a Uniform Fact Sheet to share with you. This is the final decision following the consultation.

Please download the Uniform Fact Sheet here.

Staff and students at Ely College were pleased to receive highly positive feedback after a visit from an inspector from the Regional Schools Commissioner’s Office last month.

The inspector visited the College on the 23 March to assess its progress since joining with Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust (CMAT) in July 2016. Following his visit the inspector wrote to the school to report on his observations.

In his report the inspector celebrated many aspects of the College including its improved communication with parents, its new house system and vertical tutor groups and its improvements to staff morale and the school building. In his concluding statement the inspector stated that he felt “the College is moving strongly in the right direction.”

Principal, Richard Spencer, said: “We are delighted with the findings of this report and proud of the transformation the College has made so far. There is still much to do to ensure we provide the high quality education for all pupils that the people of Ely deserve but as the inspector so nicely put in his report ‘there is an important feeling of optimism for the challenges ahead’.

 “I would like to thank the community for their continued support of the College. Parents in particular should be very proud of the role they and their children are playing in the transformation of the school. If you would like to see the changes for yourself and take a tour of the school please get in contact with the College’s reception.”

The inspector’s report particularly praised the College’s new house system and vertical tutor groups. It said they have “been an effective way of building mixed-age families and promoting a community feel” within the College. The inspector said students saw this as a more efficient system and a considerable improvement on what went before.

The inspector also met with some of the College’s Year 11 students and in his report he noted that students were very complimentary in recognising the efforts of staff to help them catch up and achieve their personal exam goals. 

The report said students “described how times had changed: the teaching was much better, the staff were visibly 'going the extra mile', and poor behaviour was much less frequent”. The report said students felt they would generally recommend the school and that any areas for improvement were being effectively tackled and managed.

The report also said students spoke highly of the changes the College has made to the school building so far and were very complimentary about their ability to have a say in the running of the school. They told the inspector they felt that their suggestions were taken on board and often led to actions. The inspector said he had overheard a lively debate about the proposed new uniform in the corridor and said “such initiatives are a very effective way of involving students and giving them a stake in school life”.

The report praised the role of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough based Trust, CMAT, in the transformation that has taken place at the College. The report said that “the Trust has played a key role in bringing about the improvements” and that “its local knowledge and presence have been much valued”. The report particularly commended the level of collaboration between the College and other local schools in the Trust and said that the collaboration “has raised staff expectations about what is possible and contributed to better practice and a climate of improvement”.

CMAT were recently ranked as the fifth highest performing multi-academy trust in the country for its performance in the Key Stage 4 league tables.

To read a more detailed exploration of the report, please visit the College’s website for a letter that has gone home to parents.

Ely College Uniform Consultation 2017

Back in September 2016, we recognised that to change the uniform entirely as CMAT came in, would place a burden on families and would not give us the time to properly consult on different views. We have therefore been consulting through 2016/17 with a view to a full uniform change in September 2017.

We have valued your comments and taken them into consideration as we work with the Student Council and the feedback they gained from the Student Voice. As a result we now have samples to show you, kindly modelled by our students. A final decision on the consultation will be made at the start of the Summer Term in April/ May.

Please view the consultation photos here. 

Parents and carers can email questions or comments: uniformconsultation@elycollege.co.uk