GIFTED and talented students at the Neale-Wade Community College kept their minds active by taking part in a summer school. The school, co-ordinated by geography teacher Martin Field, was staged for the seventh time, despite receiving no funding from Camb

GIFTED and talented students at the Neale-Wade Community College kept their minds active by taking part in a summer school.

The school, co-ordinated by geography teacher Martin Field, was staged for the seventh time, despite receiving no funding from Cambridgeshire County Council as in previous years.

Mr Field said: "Unfortunately this year students have had to pay. If the county council paid for this, a voluntary activity, there would be less for them to spend on the school's resources."

The summer school lasted for one week, instead of two last year, and investigated the theme of high technology.

It was attended by 50 students, including Year 6 pupils moving from feeder schools to Neale-Wade and youngsters from Years 7, 8 and 9.

Mr Field said: "We select ones that are identified as being particularly keen, with level fives in their SATs exams, or who are specifically gifted in one subject. All these students have been selected by either us or their primary schools.

"We are getting the students to do things that they would not normally be able to do due to constraints in term time. We are stretching what the curriculum demands.

"When they come back to school they might take time to get back into the routine. They have only got one week before this and school starting so their brains will still be ticking over."

Activities included making egg timers from sand, water and electricity, exploring the use of pulleys and flinches by sailing and climbing at Mepal Outdoor Centre, and building small racing cars from wood, using computer aided design, before racing them, the way new technology affects us, such as with cloning and genetically modified crops.

The school ended with students working on radio plays based on what they had learned.