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Ely College

Ely College

All the latest News from Ely College

June 2017

  • Students celebrate their final PLEDGES and Futures Day of the year

    Published 21/06/17

    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.

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  • Lovewell Blake donation keeps students afloat

    Published 21/06/17

    Staff and students at Ely College were grateful this week to receive a £500 donation towards their raft for Ely Aquafest from regional accountancy firm, Lovewell Blake.

    Richard Spencer, Principal of Ely College, said: “We are very grateful to Lovewell Blake for their generous donation. It is important to us that our students feel a part of the Ely community and are given the opportunity to take part in lots of varied and exciting experiences during their time at the College. Our students are eager to finish building their rafts and cannot wait to get out on the water. Please look out for us and cheer our raft along on the day.”

    Leigh Thurston, Partner at Lovewell Blake, said: “We are delighted to be able to support Ely College by giving them a donation to help build their raft. We love to give back to our communities where we can and we look forward to seeing the students race to victory on the day.”

    Ely Aquafest is a free annual event organised by the Rotary Clubs of Ely and sponsored by Star Radio, Charles Daniel, Tucker Gardner and The Ely Standard. The raft race takes place on the River Great Ouse starting at Lavender Green. Both the raft that completes the course in the shortest time and the raft considered the most spectacular will receive a trophy.

    Lovewell Blake is a leading firm of Chartered Accountants, Financial Planners and Business Advisers with offices in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

             

     

    Below are some photo of the special raft building day that also took place this week. Amazing skills and leadership shining through from our dedicated students! Next stage... decorating the raft and planning our enterprise stall! 

     

     

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  • Mock general election and hustings to introduce students to the world of voting

    Published 21/06/17

    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.”

            

     

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