Melbourn Village college views please

[Twinsgranny]

Hello, my daughter lives between Cambridge and Royston. She is looking at secondary schools for her twin daughters. The preferred school would be Sawston but heavily oversubscribed and they are in catchment area for Melbourn Village College which still has a ‘needs improvement’ Ofsted report. There was a new headmistress a year ago and a couple of mums my daughter is friends with say that things are getting better. Looking generally for comments from parents whose children go there and what they think. I know it’s hard for schools to shake off a bad reputation so you have to be patient, the girls don’t actually go till Sept 2027. But extra difficult when making a decision for two children so we are trying to find out as much as possible. Have no idea for example how good the GCSE results were this year and whether they have a fair number of supply teachers/staff turnover. My daughter has considered a house move but not ideal. Would love any comments, either in thread or message. Thank you

Local here -but my DC don’t go to MVC, precisely because it was in dire straights when we were doing secondary applications. Most of their primary peers go there, with some going to Sawston.

The new head is great and generally making good changes. Behaviour has historically been poor, and I don’t know where it is now. They had struggled with high teacher turnover and I know one friend’s DC had several form tutors in one year, and has had several maths teachers. However, I think it will settle down with the new head. I also think it suffers from being very small by Cambridge secondary standards - there’s not a huge choice of subjects

I do think the Trust dropped the ball by letting the school deteriorate so far and then not acting. FWIW if you’re on the edge of the Sawston catchment, you’ll probably get in on the waiting list, unless there’s a lot of development in the Sawston catchment.

The open day is this Thursday so she could go along and ask questions. There won't be Progress 8 scores this year or next due to COVID so it will be harder to see if exam results have improved.

Thanks to those who have posted so far. Yes, going to open day. Sadly, looking at figures of who gets into Sawston, daughter lives just too far away for there to be a realistic chance. Hopefully new head drawing new teachers in. Sawston publishes complete list of GCSE results/grades in every subject and lots of grades 7,8,9 which is wonderful. But haven’t seen any at all figures coming out of Melbourn. Would love more views of Melbourn if your children go there or they have friends who do.. Thanks

Hey OP @Twinsgranny did you find out anymore? I would be keen to understand this as we are in the same area and same position as your daughter. Thanks in advance

My daughter went to the Open evening in October. I think the new headmistress doing her best and gerting ongoing training for staff . But the school hasnt released the last summer GCSE results to the best of my knowledge whereas Sawston are openly published online. Think a lot of support coming from the Academy Trust now, maybe that’s something the new head negotiated before taking the post. Someone is gingering up Maths I think it’s a trust appt not a school one, it’s someone who works across Comberton too. Head has to work with staff in snr positions who have been around ages so some limit to how much can be new broom. Also Melbourn primary is quite a lot of the intake and doesn’t have very great SATs results so there is a disadvantage there perhaps with intake. The headmistress came from a failing school in Herts where she was deputy but the Ofsted report from when she was there said that the leadership was good it was the day to day teaching that wasn’t. Lots people would prefer their kids to go to Sawston if possible so hard for head - she needs to turn school round but harder to do when people near enough to Sawston to get into Sawston VC vote for that school. Incidentally Sawston gcse results were not as good in 2025 as were in 2024.

i keep an eye on the Melbourn VC newsletter so u can see anything interesting that goes on
unfortunately don’t have a mole in the school would be interesting if mums who have children there could give an up to date view!