As part of our CMAT Activities Week, we invited CMAT students to compete in a regional computing competition. Our very own William Grant, Riley Hornby, Lewis Horner and Henry Scott teamed up as ‘Vengeful Puppy Studio’ to design their game 'CHROMA' which won the FXP 2021 ‘Best Game Concept & Design’.

Within CMAT schools, two other Ely College teams came second place. All year 9 students studying Computer Science and BTEC in Digital Information Technology took part in the game design competition, although their progress was hampered by software issues, students worked in good spirit within their teams and produced notably creative designs. Some more are shown below.

Check out the full story below:

Over the past nine weeks, more than 300 school and college students from across Cambridgeshire have been working to create their own video games as part of FXP Festival 2021, a county-wide game design and development competition for young people aged 12-19. Student teams were asked to work on three core elements of video game creation: game narrative, game concept and design, and the coding of a playable game. 

Seventy teams submitted games for judging, many from CMAT, and teams from Ely College, Sawston Village College, St Peter’s School, Swavesey Village College and Sawtry Village College all collected prizes for their outstanding entries. This year, teams had the opportunity to succeed across four categories, with prizes available for secondary and FE level teams. Awards included:

• Best Game Concept and Design: Winners ‘Vengeful Puppy Studio’ from Ely College received game keys for ‘MLB The Show 21’, courtesy of Sony’s Creative Service Group (CSG) as well as a swag bag of goodies from Frontier.
• Best Game Narrative: ‘The Legend of Melon’ from Sawtry Village College won game keys for ‘MLB The Show 21’ and Frontier swag.
• Best Game Production: ‘SPS CS Club’ from St Peter’s School secured the win for the best playable game in the FE category, with the secondary level prize awarded to ‘Team 12 Jack, Paul and James’ from Swavesey Village College. These exceptional teams were awarded vouchers for gaming clothing brand, Insert Coin, as well as a game key for Table Flip Games’ Surefooting.
• Best in Class:  ‘The Mengerists’ won the FXP trophy for best effort across all areas in the FE category and ‘The Timekeepers’ from Sawston Village College took home the prize for the  secondary school level. As well as receiving a personalised 3D trophy, both teams won a selection of exciting Jagex merchandise including LEGO Dragons, bluetooth speakers and RuneScape notebooks. 

Helping students to explore the world of game design and development, FXP Festival, which is a registered charity, encourages students to connect STEM skills learnt in the classroom with their dream future career aspirations. To support teams through the three core modules of the project, experts from the industry stepped forward to offer their expertise:

• Game narrative – led by Raymond Vermeulen, Narrative Designer at Genjoy, a Scopely Studio
• Game concept and design – led by Mark Ogilvie, Creative Director at Jagex
• Game production – led by Matthew Holland, freelance writer, game designer and developer

Alison Taylor, FXP Festival Co-founder, Trustee and Managing Director of Conscious Communications, comments: “I am completely blown away with the quality of submissions we received this year for FXP Festival 2021. The enthusiasm of participating teams was infectious and they should all be extremely proud of their efforts. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our sponsors, judges and, of course, all of the teams themselves for their hard work. We can’t wait to get started on planning for next year!”

Discussing the submissions, Jagex Creative Director, FXP Festival Trustee, and Judge, Mark Ogilvie says: “There were some strong, stand out games presented to us that are truly worthy of becoming real professional games – a high level of design, passion and programming ability was clear to see within the submissions and many of them made me laugh out loud as I was judging. The bar was set incredibly high with the winning games and it was a pleasure to play them.

“I’ve loved every minute of this year’s competition; despite being run in a virtual format I feel like the spirit of what makes FXP Festival so great has been ever-present this year, and the teams have all championed and displayed exactly what it’s all about; teamwork, creativity and having fun!”

Due to sponsorship from Jagex, Qualcomm, Arm and Anglia Ruskin University, FXP Festival remains completely free for all teams in Cambridgeshire wishing to participate.

Huge CONGRATULATIONS to our Student Ambassador James! Not only is he an active member of our student council, but he heads up the Eco Warriors #Session6 after-school club.

We are so proud that he has gained HERO status as a winner this week at the Ely Hero Awards and well-earned this recognition in our amazing community

Shout out to Ms Martin was also a finalist in the Best Teacher category. Ely College is so proud of you both! We have so many amazing staff here and the students to match!

The votes have been counted & we are so pleased to announce the name of our new fifth House for September 2021! Mary Seacole was voted the winner & today we met with current Year 7 & 8s who will be joining Year 6 students to make up this House. It was great to celebrate with students & let them catch up with their new House team.

Mary Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse in the Crimean War; her compassion, bravery & savvy skills earned her recognition. More recently she was named 'Greatest Black Briton' & awarded posthumously, the Jamaican Order of Merit; which we fashioned our new House logo from! It even has the national flowers of Jamaica on it... purple flowers! Mrs Mustill is pleased!

Family 'thrilled' as pair's lockdown locks raise charity cash

Full story: Ely pair grow lockdown hair for Little Princess Trust | Ely Standard

Liam and Emily Rutterford before (above) and after their haircut (right). They have raised over £430 for the Little Princess Trust and will donate their hair (right) to the charity. - Credit: Family

A mother of two children who have raised funds for charity after growing their hair for at least two-and-a-half years said she is “thrilled” for their achievements. 

Emily Rutterford, a year eight pupil at Ely College, and her brother Liam decided to grow their hair for the Little Princess Trust, which would later be cut off. 

“Liam had been growing his hair since December 2018 and Emily since April 2017, and we really decided on the fundraiser page as boys don't tend to grow their hair so much,” Paula Rutterford, Emily and Liam’s mum, said. 

The family are no strangers to contributing to charity, though. 

Paula said she and Emily have previously donated hair to the Little Princess Trust, and since promoting their latest charity efforts last month, they have since raised over £430. 

“All the family are thrilled and very appreciative that so many wonderful people have sponsored them,” Paula said. 

Writing on our social pages, Ely College shared their student's fundraising link with the wider school community, helping Emily and her brother increase their grand total: “Huge congratulations to Year 8 Franklin student Emily and her brother."

We are thrilled to promote good news like this and help Emily raise awareness for her family's chosen charity. This all counts towards PLEDGES... inside and outside the classroom!! If any student or school community member has a similar story or good cause, just let your form tutor know so we can SHARE, CELEBRATE and record it on your PLEDGES journey!

Pupils and staff at Ely College are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Artsmark Award.

Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It supports them to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education across the whole curriculum, bringing learning to life for children and young people.

In order to achieve their Artsmark Award, Ely College had to develop their arts and culture provision to embed a broad and balanced curriculum. This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.

Ely College was supported by Festival Bridge in planning and developing their objectives. Festival Bridge (https://nnfestival.org.uk/festival-bridge/) worked alongside the school at various stages to support their Artsmark Award achievement.

The Artsmark assessor commended Ely College on not only their outstanding art, music and drama departments but their cross curricular provision and impressive creative Design and Technology environments.

They also noted that well established community partnerships, such as those with the Babylon Gallery, were a launch pad towards Gold: 'Pupils access a consistent range of experiences with local artists and arts organisations in and out of school which leads to showcasing within school and the immediate community. This has continued through lockdown with pupils having the opportunity to see digital performances, perform in virtual concerts and work in bubble ensembles'.

On receiving the award, Principal Simon Warburton said: “We’re extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark Silver Award. We are committed to delivering a high-quality arts and cultural education and we look forward to continuing to grow with Artsmark.'

'This award demonstrates our clear commitment to the value of arts experiences and education for our students and the wider community.  The launch of our whole college show in the Autumn term is one of many activities that will enable us to work towards the Gold Artsmark.'

Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said:

“I would like to congratulate Ely College on their Artsmark Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, balanced and creative curriculum, young people have the opportunity to develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”

Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form has achieved the School Mental Health Award which is delivered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form were awarded a Gold standard for its outstanding mental health and wellbeing provision.

This award, compiled and submitted by Assistant Principal Mrs Rachael Mustill and Designated Safeguarding Lead Mrs Lynn Riches, recognises the many steps that Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form has taken over the past five years since joining the Cambridge and Meridian Academies Trust (CMAT).  Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form reached the highest grade of “Excelling” for all 8 elements of the award which includes, Support for staff, Support for students, Working with external providers and Leadership and strategy. 

Principal Simon Warburton said, “I am thrilled that the Carnegie team for Mental Health has reviewed our actions and commitment to supporting wellbeing and mental health and rated it as reaching their gold standard.  We still have much more to learn and more to do to support our college community and we will do all we can to support other schools and organisations with their mental health awareness”.

The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.

The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.

Professor Damien Page, Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “Achieving this award is not just recognition of a whole-school approach to mental health, it’s a recognition of the school’s commitment to improving the life chances of children and engaging with the wider community including staff and parents/carers.

“We’re truly proud to have worked with Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form in this vital work and look forward to further collaboration.”

Nationally, more than 1000 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.

Dean Johnstone, founder and CEO of Minds Ahead said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults.

“It is thrilling and humbling to learn about Ely College and Bishop Laney Sixth Form and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition.”