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Reflective trip to Walsingham

Year 10 RE students have an annual visit to Walsingham in Norfolk. Jasmine Stacey describes the trip: Walsingham is notable 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 of the Christian faith and experience first-hand the significance of the holy site that pilgrims have visited for centuries. On 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. As well as this we were greeted by Joe, who is a trainee priest doing a theology degree, which was really interesting as it gave us an insight as to how we can further our religious studies in the future. We 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…

Summer Showcase gallery

Sports Awards 2019

The annual BVC Sports Awards evening was held on Monday 1st July. Over 100 students attended the dinner, enjoying an evening of awards, sports quizes as well as an inspirational guest speaker. Helen Gilder, joint head of PE, said: "The students were selected because they had been valued and committed members of at least 2 extra-curricular sports clubs this academic year. Most of them have also represented the school in external tournaments and matches. "It was a great evening with everyone celebrating this year’s sporting successes as well as spending an enjoyable evening with their fellow team mates." Guest speaker was the inspirational founder of Power2Inspire, John Willis. John was born without fully formed arms and legs, and established the charity's mission – Inclusion through Sport. Determined that his experience as a child of being excluded from sports, should not be repeated he had become an inspiration to both able-bodied and disabled sportsmen all over the world. prizewinners are photographed above with John. The main winners of the evening were Genevra Harraway and Patrick Robinson who won Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year (right). The team of the year was the Year 7&8 Girls Football team which reached the quarter finals of the national schools football championship this year. AWARD WINNER Football Player of the Year KS3 Football Player of the Year KS4 Harry Hanson Patrick Robinson Football Girls Player of the Year Loen Groom Basketball Player of the Year Hugo Briggs Cricket Player of the Year Kyran Shackleton Netball Player of the Year KS3…

My Name is Ann …

BVC students wowed audience members at the annual Cambridge Schools Shakespeare Festival with their devised piece My Name is Ann. GCSE students from Years 9&10 performed the piece which explored the relationship between Shakespeare and Ann Hathaway through a fusion of drama and dance. Teacher Jude Shortt, who produced the performance alongside trainee teacher Amelia Bass, said: "Given that Shakespeare is credited at penning the greatest love story ever we wanted to explore the relationship between Shakespeare and Ann Hathaway. She was often cast as an illiterate, shrew who had seduced a younger man and made his life a misery. However, Ann’s epitaph indicates that she was a loving, pious mother. "Our piece liberates Ann from the shadowy, negative figure that history has depicted her as and gives her a voice that is articulated through many of her of her husband’s sonnets and his musings and thoughts on love. It also includes lines from Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Hathaway." She added:"The students have been really dedicated and focused - they were all stars! They really were a credit to the school." The festival is organised each year by the Anglian Learning trust, of which BVC is a member, and is held in the Atrium theatre, Netherhall school, Cambridge. The Bassingbourn students will be performing their piece again at the BVC Creative Arts Showcase on Thursday 10th July. The show starts at 7pm and tickets are available through WisePay.

Magical Prom

Villagers turned out in force to celebrate our annual Prom for Year 11 students, held last Friday in the school hall which was transformed into a magical ballroom for the event. Hundreds of onlookers lined the school drive to watch the procession of vehicles dropping off their glamorous passengers. Head of school Vickey Poulter said: “It is always an emotional time when we say goodbye to our senior students. “To see them all dressed up, on the brink of adulthood is wonderful. The Prom is definitely one of the highlights of the BVC calendar.” If you would like a high resolution copy of any of the above images please email alynn@bassingbournvc.net

School exchange success

Students from Bassingbourn Village College travelled by train to their exchange school in Le Grand Serre, a small town in the south east of France. Accompanied by Ms Nutley, Mrs Boxall and Mrs Piggott, 20 students from years 7-10 took part in the exchange which saw them staying with students that they had already met on the first leg of the exchange when they visited Bassingbourn in January. This is the third year that the exchange has been running. Students attended classes at Collège Joseph Bédier as well as exploring local attractions and spending a weekend with their host families. BVC students certainly have the travel bug – this week it’s the turn of over 50 year 8 students to spend a week in Normandy. The Spanish exchange will take place in October, with a Classics trip to Italy also planned for next year.

Story treat for BVC librarian

500 Words, the popular children’s writing competition, held its grand final at Windsor Castle with a special guest in the audience – BVC librarian Ann Lynn. Mrs Lynn was awarded tickets for the event as a thank you for being one of the judges in this year’s competition. She was one of 500 judges who read entries from almost 113,000 children. The competition is run by BBC Radio 2 and under-13s are invited to write a story about any fictional topic, the only rule being that they must keep their word count to 500 words or less. The winning stories were read by David Walliams, Helen McCrory, Hugh Bonneville, Konnie Huq, Michael Sheen and Sandi Toksvig during a live broadcast of Zoe Ball’s breakfast show from Windsor Castle. Mrs Lynn said: “It was an amazing morning! We had to be at the castle by 6am so we were in place for the breakfast show starting. “It was a huge privilege being involved as a judge and then to be invited along to the final was icing on the cake. My favourites were the stories read out by Sandi Toksvig and Hugh Bonneville. “I can’t wait for the day when we have some BVC students in the final.” Busted, Tom Walker and Matilda actress Francesca McKeown performed during the ceremony, which was also attended by the Duchess of Cornwall and DJ Chris Evans, who created and launched the competition almost 10 years ago. Gold winners were Esme Harrison-Jones (10 to 13 age category) and Eve Molloy…

Parish Meetings

BVC students and staff have been out in force at a series of meetings around the parishes that feed into the school. Traditionally the college is asked to send a report of its activities to a number of annual parish meetings. These meetings are held each year for parishioners to discuss groups and organisations within their villages. Breaking with tradition, this year BVC decided that each of the new Heads of House, along with a member of staff, should attend the meetings in person and be on hand to read out the report and deal with any questions that may arise. The response from many of the meetings was very positive and the students themselves (photographed above with Ms Poulter) said how much they enjoyed their foray into the community. The annual report can be read here.

The winners are …

Congratulations to all our Year 7 students who have embraced their first debating competition with great enthusiasm. Our first-ever Year 7 debate was launched with an assembly featuring a step-by-step breakdown of a debate showcased by Year 10 members of the senior debate club. The younger students were then invited to attend the lunchtime junior debate club where heats were held, culminating in a mentoring session for the two teams which won their way into the grand final. All of the year group gathered for the final which saw the teams debate the pros and cons of scientific testing on animals. Former BVC debating champion Iain Lynn took a break from his sixth form exams to judge the competition and said: "The standard was amazingly high! There's no way I would have been able to speak out like that in Year 7. "It was really great to see everyone so passionate about public speaking and I look forward to seeing some of these young debaters in national competitions in the future." Winning team: Anna, Gabby & Amelia. Runners up: Michael, Alex & Henry. Top individual speakers during the heats: Michael, Cara, Eli, Sam and Josh.

Red Box Project

Staff at BVC are supporting students by fighting Period Poverty with their own Red Box scheme. The original Red Box Project was established in schools in Portsmouth as a reaction to the news that students were missing out on their education because they couldn’t afford the products they needed during their period. The scheme provided red boxes filled with free period products for students to use. Whilst sanitary products have always been available to students at BVC through our first aid facility, staff felt that the issue should be treated with more openness and dignity and through their own donations have filled three 'red boxes' which are distributed through the school. Mrs Myles-Baker (right), head of PSHE, said: "Thanks to our very generous staff, we now have our own boxes with items such as sanitary towels, tampons, wipes, tights and pants. "We have discussed period poverty in our PSHE lessons and our girls know that they needn't suffer in silence - they just need to ask for the box."  

Bassingbourn Village College

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

01763 242344

office@bassingbournvc.org
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