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Experience of a lifetime!

Whilst most post-GCSE students enjoyed a summer of fun and relaxation, a hardy group of BVC teenagers travelled to Africa to help support a school in need. Our intrepid Year 11 students spent two weeks in Tanzania as part of their World Challenge expedition – using their time to explore their environment as well as carry out badly-needed repairs to a village school. BVC teacher Jude Shortt, who accompanied the students alongside fellow teacher Rachel Ward, said: “World Challenge is what is says on the tin – it is a challenge. It makes the young people step out of their comfort zone and tests their leadership, communication and resilience skills to the max. The students are basically in charge and learn how to organize transport, accommodation, food which is no mean feat in a foreign country miles from home with a different language and culture. “Our young people came up trumps as always and it was wonderful to see them hone and develop a raft of skills that will all be hugely beneficial to them as they set out on the new phase in their lives.” Highlights of the trip included trekking in the foothills of Kilimanjaro; finding a great supply of local produce from a frenetic and rather daunting marketplace; a group of boys joining in with a local acrobatic team’s limbo routine by firelight; hysterical laughter when a rather large and intimidating baboon decided to hop into the safari jeep without an invite; managing the team finances and learning the local language. Student…

Excellent results for BVC students

Our students have come up trumps with an impressive haul of level 8 and 9s in their GCSE exams – that’s A/A* in old money. Vickey Poulter, Head of School, said: “I am delighted to say that 35% of our students achieved at least 3 or more 7+ (A/A* equivalent) grades and 25% of all grades were at 7 or above. “It's an excellent achievement and the hard work of our staff and students has been rewarded in a year where the exams in all subjects have become more challenging and harder to secure these top grades. I am incredibly proud of them all." "We are particularly delighted with the grades for languages again this year - in Spanish half of the cohort achieved a 7-9 grade for the second year running and in Latin 58% of the cohort secured the top grades. 52% of all students achieved 5+ in English and Maths and 71% at 4+ in English and Maths." Well done to all students on their achievements this year. A number of students made excellent progress based on the new progress and achievement measures who should be particularly congratulated: Top achievement - Grace Anderson, Sophie Burr, Adam Castle, Bea Cornwell, Holly Derrett, Lucas Hockley, Iain Lynn, Keira Sibbons, Imogen Sole, Libby Taylor. Top progress based on the P8 scores - Holly Derrett, Jessica Sams, Hayden Byles, Jasmine Ho, Amelie Anderton, Keira Sibbons. Year 10 students at BVC sat English language a year early with 71% achieving level 4 and above. Four students achieved…

Frankie is a Teenstar!

A young BVC dancer has won second  place in the prestigious television UK TeenStar Singing & Dancing competition. Teenstar, for pre-teens and teenagers, consists of a UK-wide search for the finest young talent the UK has to offer. BVC year 8 student Francesca Venn, along with  Ella Carolan (Melbourn Village College) and Shannelle Jacklin (Greenway), dance together as a trio called Together As One. The girls impressed the judging panel at the initial auditions from over 10,000 entries, and went on to perform in the TeenStar live Regional and Area final heats to make it the national grand final. Finalists then performed in front of celebrity judges including included Swoosh from Dance Group Flawless, Barney Addison, Head of talent for Syco Entertainments and Leon Haynes from Universal Music. Francesca, Ella and Shannelle formed Together as One to help raise awareness of mental health in young people and have already raised over £700 for the charity Young Minds. They will be appearing in the Teenstars special highlights TV show to be aired later this year. Chris Grayston, Head Judge said: “This competition looks to find acts that have something unique to offer and can go all the way, with both the ability to deliver a strong live performance and the potential to become a professional singer or dancer” Mary Bance, Choreographer said: "I am incredibly proud of the girls' achievements and it is testament to their hard work and dedication to dance”

Heron Award Winners

The last week of term saw the Heron Awards evening take place - honouring the top students in each year.  Students received the Heron Award , which takes the form of a small lapel badge which we hope students will wear with pride on their blazers. The Heron Awards are given to students who have achieved the highest score for subject awards, merit certificates and attendance awards over the three terms. These students have been working hard constantly throughout the year and we feel they are a real credit to the school. Students will still receive awards for individual subjects and these are being presented at College Celebration Assemblies at the end of term. Award winners were:   Year 7: Orlaith Boakes, Lottie Bond, Liam Chadwick, Rachel Clark, Tom Formstone, Lily Harrison,  Emma Jones, Matthew Kendrick, Robert Kendrick, Maddie Ross Howe, Rosina Summers, Anna Wylie. Year 8: Elise Anderton, Jacob Bird, Annabel Carlile, Fraser Clapham, Nyah Cretton, Esme Howard, Meaghan Knibbs,         Evelyn Marshall, Archie McCulloch, Stella Morris, Drew Murdock, Charlotte O'Brien, James Pryer, Eleanor Spicer, Toby Telford-Reed, Patrick Weekes, Lucy Whiteley. Year 9: Ellie Blackburn, Jon Cheeseright, Katie Cheeseright, Joshua Ding, Ciara Free, Ginevra Harraway, Ben Hawkins, Saskia Holloway, Isabel Inskip, Hannah Lewis, Archie Lievesley, Beth Makower, Naomi Marshall, Bethany Nicholas, Adam  Russell, Annie Safford, Maddie Saggers, Jasmine Stacey, Isaac Summers, Jemima Sutton, Samuel Welch, Isobel Wells. Year 10: Annie Baigent, Katie Brown, Ellie Bryant, Amaya Cook, Max Crane, Grace Custerson, Lucy Daws, Rebecca Day, Alfie Duckett, Cassie Evans, Diaan Gill, Oliver Haley,…

Summer Heron

The Summer Heron has been published and can be viewed as an ISSUU publication here The magazine features news of the past term’s activities and events, along with team photographs and coverage of the Prom, Sports Day, MFL trips and an interview with alumnus Jo Ellis, former UK Olympic hockey player.  

Walsingham Pilgrimage

Year 10 RE students have an annual visit to Walsingham in  Norfolk. Katie Brown describes the trip: Walsingham is famed for its religious shrines in honour of the Virgin Mary and attracts around 250,000 pilgrims each year, as individuals or as parish groups accompanied by their priest. It also contains the ruins of two medieval monastic houses. So, the trip was a great opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge on the Christian faith and experience first-hand the significance of the holy site that pilgrims have visited for centuries. Once arriving at Walsingham, we were greeted and welcomed to the shrine by staff Pauline Lovelock and Geoff Arden. They both did an excellent job of guiding us around the historic sites and involving us in the various activities that pilgrims do when they come to Walsingham. We were first walked through the outside area of the chapel of reconciliation (Roman Catholic); when the number of pilgrims exceeds the capacity of the Chapel, the panelling at the back of the sanctuary can be opened up and the altar becomes the focal point for pilgrims gathered in the Shrine grounds. Then we were lead into the Slipper Chapel (dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria) which served pilgrims on their way to England’s Nazareth. Saint Catherine was the patron saint of pilgrims to the Holy Land and her knights kept open the road to Nazareth during the Crusades. The beautiful stained glass windows frame the several images of Mary decorate the Slipper Chapel. After leaving the Slipper chapel, students…

Oh what a night!

Two of our Year 11 students were honoured at the Cambridge News Education Awards - but missed out on the celebrations as they are currently on a World Challenge expedition in Tanzania. Iain Lynn was awarded the Student of the Year accolade for his work in promoting oracy as a necessary skill for young people. The judges praised his work in encouraging younger students at BVC by setting up and running a debate club, and were further impressed by his work nationally and his involvement with the English Speaking Union and the Parliamentary Speaking Up campaign. Libby Taylor was runner up in the Sports Personality award. Libby is a champion hammer thrower and, again, she was praised not only for her personal achievements but also her work in encouraging younger students achieve their own goals. BVC Principal Duncan Cooper said:"This is an amazing achievement for both Iain and Libby - and testament to their hard work throughout their time at BVC. "We are all extremely proud of them. They are exemplary students with a great future ahead." Iain has written the following article for our termly magazine which sums up his time at BVC: "When I first started debating at BVC, I never dreamed it would be anything more than part of the English syllabus. Likewise when Joe Heavey, Adam Castle and myself went to the Pixl UpforDebate final at Eton, we were amazed that we’d got that far and hadn’t even prepared for the final. When we were named as one of the two…

Technology experience for students

Three of our Year 10 students were fortunate enough to be selected for a Careers Week workshop at  international technology company ARM. Based in Cambridge, the boys travelled in each day and took part in workshops, project development and office-based problem-solving. Oliver Pulley, Edward Weekes and Oliver Haley comment on their week: Oli P: Our experience was simply amazing - throughout the week I thoroughly enjoyed all the activities I participated in. ARM, which stands for Advanced RISC Machines, is a company that designs chips used within 97% of technology. Within the week we had multiple tasks to do: the main task was in groups where we worked together for a solution to a problem presented to us by UNICEF. Other tasks required us to create advertisements and work together in cryptography challenge. The skills learnt throughout this experience will benefit me extremely as I had to perform with strangers to fulfil a solution to the problem; giving me good decision-making skills, communication skills and leadership skills as I acted as a leader within the group itself. Overall I would highly recommend for others to take this opportunity if presented to them as it was a highly beneficial and enjoyable experience for me to partake in. Ed: The week at ARM was based around one key problem – chosen out of the three that were supplied by UNICEF – that we had to create a solution for using an ARM processor. After first designing our solution to this problem, we had to create a presentation…

Sports Awards 2018

The annual BVC Sports Awards evening took place this week with 90 of our very best sports students attending. Students were invited to attend if they had represented the school in more than two sports over the past year. The top awards of the evening were presented to Ross Bradford and Libby Taylor. Libby, a county-level athlete, has also been named as a finalist in the Cambridge News Education Award's Sports Student of the Year. Helen Gilder, head of PE, said: "Since starting at BVC, Libby has been sport mad! She is the most amazing role model and inspires others.In addition to her own achievements, Libby has helped coach athletics and really helped younger pupils to improve. She has been part of the leadership academy, a GCSE PE student and a Sports Captain." Other award winners were: AWARD WINNER Football Josh Izzard & Elle Sarter Basketball Kye Watson Cricket Patrick Robinson Netball Lydia Cornwell & Jess Gant Athletics Max Bowen & Shauna Tynan Rounders Emma Hodge & Rosanna Snook Rugby Billy Turkington Hockey Emily Castle & Ginevra Harraway Service to PE Harriet French Outstanding Performance Ash Whelan & Melissa Phillips Most Improved Player Elizabeth Tidmarsh GCSE Student of the Year Libby Taylor Exceptional Talent Amber Holloway-Hutchinson & Ben Cutmore Outstanding Effort Adam Russell & Imogen Barratt Sportsman of the Year Ross Bradford Sportswoman of the Year Libby Taylor Team of the Year Year 11 Netball

Creative Arts Summer Showcase

Bassingbourn Village College

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