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Ofsted praise for BVC

Students at Bassingbourn Village College, near Royston, have been commended for their “exemplary  conduct” by Ofsted. Inspectors visited the 600-student school in South Cambridgeshire at the end of the summer term and released their report on line today (11 September). Principal Duncan Cooper said: “It was a good end to a fabulous year for Bassingbourn Village College.  The inspectors were incredibly complimentary about our students, staff and governors.” Parents, too, praised the school. Through the Ofsted questionnaire parents commented on the dedication of staff, their “enormous support, both academic and pastoral” and the “highest level of caring”. The Ofsted inspectors found leadership, including that of the governors, to be a strength of the school, stating “you have embedded a culture of high expectations and aspirations which underpin the school’s plans.” Students were found to be welcoming, respectful and friendly to each other and adults and are eager to learn. Their conduct is exemplary. Students are curious about the world around them and the school’s broad and balanced curriculum provides many opportunities for them to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding. English was seen to be a strength of the school with pupil progress significantly above national standards. Inspectors found the school to be very inclusive of all pupils, regardless of their background and ability, and acknowledged that these students made good progress across the school. However they thought that the school should do more to improve the attendance of disadvantaged students, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The report can be found here.

Hustings Excitement

Election day came early for our older  students as the four main parliamentary candidates for South Cambridgeshire attended a hustings event at Bassingbourn Village College. Heidi Allen, Dan Greef, Simon Saggers and Susan van de Ven were each given three minutes to outline their campaign to 200 year 10 and 11 students … and then waited with bated breath as students completed ballot papers and voted for their favourite candidate. The end result was a close-fought battle between Labour and the Green Party, with students commenting afterwards how exciting they had found the event. “Having a speech condensed into just three minutes made it much easier to work out which candidate I liked best,” commented one student. Following the main presentations, a number of History and Sociology students were able to spend time with the candidates in a round table debate, quizzing them on their policies on university fees, proportional representation, refugees and how they thought politics could be made more appealing. Afterwards, Labour candidate – and winner - Dan Greef commented: “There were some really important issues debated with very well informed students.” Duncan Cooper, Principal of Bassingbourn Village College, said: “We were very excited to be able to host one of the first of the 2017 hustings in South Cambridgeshire. I was very impressed by the knowledge of our students and just how detailed they were in their questions to the candidates. “We would like to wish all the candidates very best of luck on 8th June.”

Schools put heads together for Brain Awareness Week

Students from a city-based sixth form college and a rural village college are to benefit from a partnership between their respective schools. The collaboration between the Cambridge Centre for Sixth Form Studies (CCSS) and Bassingbourn Village College will see the two schools pool resources to develop student opportunities and good teaching practice. Principals, trustees and governors from both establishments have been meeting together to see how they might work together and have come up with a joint venture that will develop over coming months. Duncan Cooper, Principal of Bassingbourn Village College, said: “We were delighted to invite staff and students from CCSS to meet some of our senior students this week. There are so many ways that our schools can support each other, both with educational developments and student opportunities. This is a very exciting longterm partnership that will benefit us all.” Stuart Nicholson, CCSS Principal, added: ”All of us at CCSS hope that this will be the first of many shared endeavours with our friends at Bassingbourn Village College.” The venture was launched with an event to mark Brain Awareness Week with over 100 students from both establishments gathering in Bassingbourn to hear lectures from Cambridge academics Drs Sara Baker and Jon Simons. Their lectures - ‘The non-academic skills that relate to school achievement’ and ‘What we know from Science about learning’ – explored how research from psychology is applied to learning. The lectures were part of a large-scale experiment to learn more about the human brain led by leading academic Prof. Bruce Hood from the University of Bristol. Stuart Nicholson, CCSS Principal, said: “We were delighted…

Bassingbourn Village College

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

01763 242344

office@bassingbournvc.org
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