01763 242344
office@bassingbournvc.org

Students at BVC raise over £500 for local charity

Students and staff at BVC have raised over £500 for local charity, Jimmy’s Cambridge, a local homeless charity in Cambridge.  Holding a non-uniform day on the last day of term in 2021, the students and staff donations raised a total of £572. Jimmy’s has been open for over 25 years providing help to people who experience homelessness in Cambridge.  Working with local people, communities, organisations and partners it delivers 24/7 emergency help, support and accommodation for those who would otherwise be sleeping rough.  As well as its emergency accommodation, Jimmy’s also runs a controlled drinking project for people recovering from alcohol addiction, 9 shared houses and 22 modular homes for people who need extra support. Vickey Poulter, Principal at Bassingbourn Village College comments, “As a school we look for every opportunity to support local charities and I am delighted that our community continues to support us when we run activities, such as non-uniform days, to raise funds for organisations like Jimmy’s.  We feel it is important to promote the message of supporting your local community and charities to our students.  We do hope that our donation will make a difference to those in need during the coming months.”

Return to school arrangements 5th January 2022

On Sunday 2nd January, the Government issued new guidance for schools including the introduction of face coverings in classrooms, encouraging all pupils to take an LFD test including those recently infected, a reduction in the number of days of isolation, and daily testing for close contacts. The new guidance is explained below and comes into effect when students return to school this week. I would like to take this opportunity to also remind parents that, as per the Parentmail sent on Friday 31st December, students should take an LFD test tomorrow, Tuesday 4th January, and report any positive test results to school. Return to school arrangements for Wednesday 5th January 2022 We are committed to reducing the further disruption to students’ education as much as possible, whilst reducing the potential transmission of the virus. We are however aware of the increasing cases of Covid19 in the local area, even though we only have a few cases reported directly to us at the moment. We are therefore continuing with our plan to test all year groups in one day on Wednesday 5th January and to return to normal lessons as soon as they have been tested. However, in order to reduce the mixing of year groups before they have been tested on-site, and potential transmission of the new variant, we are asking parents if they could possibly bring students into the school on Wednesday at staggered start times. Students who walk or cycle to school should also arrive at the allocated time. Year 7 to arrive at school as normal at 8.55am Year 10 arrive…

Anglian Learning crowned winners at National Awards

East Anglian multi-academy trust, Anglian Learning, has been crowned the joint winner of the “Outstanding governance in a multi-academy trust” award at the National Governance Association’s (NGA) Outstanding Governance Awards 2021. The biennial awards recognise the contributions of governors, trustees and governance professionals to the education of children and young people.  The winners of the awards were unveiled at a celebratory event on Thursday 9th September at the House of Commons, attended by representatives from nominated schools and trusts. Jonathan Culpin, CEO of Anglian Learning, said; I could not be prouder of our fantastic governance team.  Despite a challenging year in education they have maintained exceptional standards, consistently pushing boundaries of what governance can and should be.  This is a phenomenal achievement for our Trust and I am extremely grateful to all those who have volunteered their time to make Anglian Learning the Trust it is today – this award is for you.” Claire Lawton, Chair of Trustees at Anglian Learning, continued; “On behalf of all trustees, governors and governance professionals across the Trust, I would like to thank the NGA for this award, recognising our passion and determination for outstanding governance.  My thanks goes to all of our governance leaders for their contribution to our success in achieving this award, reflecting as it does the commitment and professionalism of all who lead and support our schools. We are incredibly proud of Anglian Learning and look forward to continuing to develop our practice each year to ensure we can continue to excite, inspire and empower…

Admissions Sept 2022

Visit our Open Event page for information on Admissions 2022/23

Fundraising for a school defibrillator

On Friday 16th July we are holding a non-uniform day to raise funds for a much needed school defibrillator.  This is a lifesaving piece of equipment we want students and staff to have immediate access to, should they every need it. However, with the cost standing at over £1,500 we are fundraising to support this purchase.  With Covid restrictions still in place, holding a non-uniform day is all we are able to do at this time.  We are asking for a voluntary contribution of £2 per student to be paid via WisePay, however there is an option for families to set their own amounts should any wish to contribute more or less.

Classical Conversations

Our Year 10 and Year 11 Latin students were very fortunate to receive a visit recently from Dr Holmes-Henderson from Oxford University to answer questions about aspects of Roman life. The students discussed Roman punishments, weddings and the role of women at this time. Students learnt about the different punishments, including how criminals were ‘immured’ a practise were the person was quite literally ‘built’ into a wall; how that during wedding processions, a sieve would be carried to distract evil spirits – apparently they would be counting the holes in the sieve rather than causing trouble to the procession! Dr Holmes-Henderson also took the students through her research on whether studying Latin is influential in cognitive development. It was a visit thoroughly enjoyed by our students and Dr Holmes-Henderson has promised to come back next year.

The history of BVC

Bassingbourn Village College was delighted to be included in The Cambridgeshire Village Colleges Heritage Project delivered by Viva Arts and Community Group. This project garnered personal stories from village colleges across the country, exploring the impact our village colleges had on communities they became a part of.  But did you know that village colleges were a thoroughly Cambridgeshire invention inspired by the poverty within the country almost a century ago? The Village College concept was developed by Henry Morris, who became Secretary of Education for Cambridgeshire in 1922.  At this time there were no separate secondary schools in rural areas and as result children of all ages were taught together in their village schoolhouse, often in one classroom by one teacher.  Morris was determined to change the education across Cambridgeshire.  In 1924 he published his Village College Memorandum that set out how things could be improved by the Village College concept. Morris’ vision was that the village colleges would be schools and community facilities at the same time. They would become focal points in their villages where people of all ages came to learn, to mix, to be entertained and even get babies weighed. Henry Morris didn’t just create village colleges that were big schools – he created community education. Bassingbourn Village College is extremely proud of its history and this project was wonderful to be a part of – did you know we had a school song?  The film created is definitely worth a watch: https://cambsvc.org.uk/film/

Virtual Trek Success

Over the last two weeks Bassingbourn Village College students and staff have taken part in a virtual trek to Colombo, Sri Lanka, some 7000 miles away!  The virtual trek was organised as a positive activity for the whole community to support; reuniting us all in isolation importantly promoting the significance of physical exercise on mental wellbeing. Sri Lanka was chosen as the final destination as it gave a realistic goal of a mile a day for all staff and students, while the route would explore a number of cultural countries. Before the trek began, students were given a choice of four local charities to fundraise on behalf of, with the student body voting overwhelmingly to raise funds for Tom’s Trust; a local Cambridgeshire charity dedicated to providing psychological support for children with brain tumours and their families.  The goal we set ourselves was to raise £3000, a tough target but one we were driven to achieve. Not only did we reach our destination, we also smashed our target managing a total of 8559 miles, taking us through 16 countries England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and finally Sri Lanka.  We were overwhelmed with support from our community and have so far raised a staggering £3506 for Tom’s Trust.

Bassingbourn’s Virtual Trek to Colombo

As part of our drive to encourage our students to be physically active during the current lockdown we are inviting all students to take part in a sponsored walk/run/cycle. The event will run between Monday 8th February and Sunday 21st February to allow students to participate over half term and we would like the students to be active each day, recording how far they have travelled. We have a current goal to cover a collective distance of around 7000 miles, which equates to approximately a mile a day for student over the fortnight. We feel that this is a realistic minimum target for all students but would be delighted if they were able to do more. To allow the students to see how far they have walked collectively, we have chosen a destination of Colombo in Sri Lanka, which is approximately 7000 miles away, and will update our progress each day. This event is part of our intercollege competition programme and students will earn points for their college with each mile travelled. Your child will know which college they are in as they complete the weekly quiz in these colleges and will also find the information on their Google Classroom dashboard. We would like the students to upload their distances to Google Classrooms at the end of each day so that we can have a running total of miles covered. We will be updating our website and social media each day to show the progress being made along our virtual trek and how the different…

The Anglian Learning Writing Prize 2021

We are delighted to announce the launch of ‘The Anglian Learning Writing Prize 2021’, an exciting creative opportunity for all of our students.  To enter, students are invited to submit work across a wide range of categories.  All entries will be judged by award-winning, published writers, who are also graduates of the Creative Writing MA programme at the University of East Anglia.  Winners of the individual writing categories will be offered a mentoring session with literary editor Freya Dean.  The winning entries and all shortlisted entries will be published in The Anglian Learning Writing Prize Anthology 2021.  This anthology will appear in both print and digital formats and all winning and shortlisted students will receive their own personal copies of this publication and a certificate.

Bassingbourn Village College

South End, Bassingbourn, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 5NJ

01763 242344

office@bassingbournvc.org
absence@bassingbournvc.org

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