🏆Shout out to the other Meridian Trust teams! What a great day we had! Recently, several Year 10 students and our Year 12 Bishop Laney students were invited to compete in a cross-trust technology competition at Stratton School. Students were set a brief by the Rotary Club to design and build a flashing beacon 🚨

With the Year 12’s attempting a more advanced version of the task, all the students got started and worked so hard in their teams to problem-solve and learn new skills. Ultimately producing some varied but fantastic work, they were judged on teamwork, their design portfolio, critical thinking and how well their chosen design worked in the final testing stages.

🥇We are delighted to announce that one of our Year 10 teams won 1st place and our other team came a very respectable 6th! Year 12 also did amazingly well, and although they were beaten to first place, we claimed 2nd and 3rd! Congratulations to all involved!👏

  

Ely College was honoured to welcome Tia Fisher, acclaimed author and winner of the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice medal for 2024, for a special visit with Year 9 students.

The event, organised by Librarian Anne Shaw, was a highlight of the spring term and formed part of the College’s wider efforts to promote reading and creative writing across the curriculum.

Tia Fisher, whose award-winning young adult novel Crossing the Line has received national acclaim, spoke to students about her writing journey, the inspiration behind her work, and why she feels that connecting through creative writing is so important.

Crossing the Line is a novel in verse aimed at teenage readers, using concrete poetry to explore complex issues and emotions. It was inspired by the true story of Tia’s friend’s son who became involved with a drugs gang.

Celebrated as outstanding and important, the novel won the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice 2024, the UKLA Award 11-14+ category 2024, was Children’s Book of the Week in The Times and is in the 2024 Reading for Empathy Collection.

Tia’s talk was followed by a lively Q&A session and a book signing. Selected students with a passion for creative writing were invited to a writing workshop after the event, where they explored writing concrete poetry of their own.

Principal, Simon Warburton, said: “It was a privilege to host Tia Fisher at Ely College. Her visit created a real buzz amongst our students and staff. We have a fabulous reading and writing culture here at Ely, and we’re passionate about providing positive memorable experiences for our students.

“Tia’s words and experiences brought the world of literature to life in a way that truly inspired our young people. A huge thanks to Mrs Shaw, Mrs Clark-Hope and the rest of our hard-working English department for organising such a fantastic opportunity and sharing their passion for creative writing with our students.”

For more information about Tia Fisher and her work, visit https://www.tiafisher.com.

   

What a gorgeous sunny day to celebrate the end of term and to enjoy our Year 11 Wellbeing Day! Preparing them for those all important final few weeks ahead, we welcomed 'Fix Up', who came in to run a fun and interactive assembly. They confirmed how wonderful our students are...

The rest of the off-timetable day saw a variety of activities for students to be involved in – textiles stitching, dancing, clay pot making, mindfulness, boxercise, reading, creative writing, African drumming and the Ely MHST team came in to share ways in which to deal with different and sometime difficult thoughts.

Thank you to all the staff that ran sessions and made the day happen – and thank you to our lovely Year 11s for getting involved and enjoying the day. Hoping everyone has a restful break and Year 11: YOU GOT THIS when we all come back! #year11matters #wellbeingmatters - with Meridian Trust

Cambridge Colleges Catchup: Earlier this month Y12 got to visit St John's College in Cambridge and explore their stunning 'Old Library' and have taster lectures in Humanities and STEM subjects.

A week later, Bishop Laney students had a fantastic day at the student-led conference on medical technology at Abbey College Cambridge. Such an inspirational day!

One of our Y13 students was praised by professors and keynote speakers for raising the question of equality vs equity in AI advancements; asking how we can roll out what researchers have learnt at Addenbrooke's Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to lower income countries. Thank you to both colleges for having us. #extendingtheboundariesoflearning - with Meridian Trust

      

    

Students put their best foot forward last week at our 'Salon Skills Showcase' and we all took a step back in time with them!

Such a brilliant event in our calendar and one that brings our sixth form community together with main school to inspire and spur students on in their studies! From Greek goddesses to the swinging 1940's and the rocking 80's; students showcase hair and beauty skills on the catwalk as well as their interpretations of era-fashions.

It was an emotional farewell for our current Year 13s who have participated each year and are passing on the mantle, as many of the current Year 11s are set to join Bishop Laney in it's new home come September! A fantastic event, well done to all involved

  

    

  

Congratulations to the Design Ventura Winners!
Set by the Design Museum in London and sustainability company NoPla, the brief this year was to design a product to help families ‘make change’. As an internal, Inter-House competition over 50 of our Year 10 students presented their work for consideration. Students had to come up with a design, research it, cost it and ensure the whole product and idea fit the brief. The winning team were ‘Be Better’ who created a set of cards with prompts on them to help families make a positive difference to the world, themselves and others. We had several students who came as runners up/highly commended and 2 prizes awarded for best prototype and best presentation.