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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.”

Reading Excellence Awards @BVC

Young readers at Bassingbourn Village College were honoured at the school’s first ever Reading Excellent Awards evening. Students in years 7 and 8 received certificates in recognition of their achievements in English and reading over the year. Those who took part in external events such as the Bridge Book Awards and the international Kids Lit competition also received certificates. Guest speaker for the evening was Saffron Walden author Victor Watson, most famous for his involvement in the founding of the national children’s Seven Stories Library in Newcastle and the Paradise Barn series of children’s books. BVC English teacher Rebecca Boxhall commented: “We had a lovely evening with parents invited along to celebrate their children’s successes. Reading is such an important part of our lives it was great to be able to devote a whole evening to celebrating it!”

Shakespeare Festival

Teenagers from Bassingbourn Village College celebrated Shakespeare’s birthday by taking part in a festival showcasing his work. They joined 120 secondary in the Anglian Learning Cambridge Schools’ Shakespeare Festival held in Netherhall School, Cambridge. Featuring everything from traditional Shakespearean verse to modern devised dance, the students presented their take on Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew and Julius Caesar alongside short sketches from Henry V and The Merchant of Venice. The Bassingbourn students presented an abstract devised piece set in the punk era with dance and movement. BVC Director Jude Shortt said: ”We wanted our piece to capture the passion and pain of Othello and Desdemona’s ill-fated love story and to combine drama, music and dance to capture the energy of Shakespeare’s take of the ‘green-eyed monster’.” Students taking part were from Bassingbourn, Bottisham and Sawston Village Colleges and Netherhall school and sixth form. Chris Tooley, Netherhall Principal, congratulated the students and staff involved in the event. He said: “What a fantastic evening! If Shakespeare was alive today I’m sure he would have been so proud of all the dance, music and different interpretations of his work that we’ve seen in the festival.”

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…

Fashion Show Success

Students had a taste of what their summer Prom will be like at Bassingbourn Village College by holding a Prom Dress Fashion Show. BVC Teacher Jude Shortt said: “It was an exceptional evening with so many talented students taking part - and, of course, our girls looked absolutely beautiful in their gowns. It was fantastic to see the whole of Year 11 take a short break from exams and studying to focus on this event to raise funds for their Prom in the summer. “We are hugely indebted to the ladies from Cream Rose eveningwear in Fenstanton and Bliss Hairdressers in Bassingbourn for giving our girls such a wonderful experience.” In addition to the fashion show, the evening was supported by singers, dancers and musicians from all years plus former student Art Toper who returned as part of the jazzfunk band Tail Dragger led by BVC music teacher Neil Cowlan. Approx £1000 was raised which will go towards the Yr 11 Prom and the school’s fundraising project in memory of former student Adam Tolfrey who died of meningitis earlier this year.

Kids Lit Competition

A team from BVC took part in the regional heat of the Kids Lit Competition, a world-wide competition to encourage reading amongst young people. The Bassingbourn bookworms – Archie Lievesley, Jon Cheeseright, Emma Shalan and Isabel Inskip – competed against teams from all over the Eastern Region and ended up in the top ten. All four of the Year 8 students enjoyed the experience which tested their knowledge on books as diverse as Harry Potter, Dickens and popular magazines.

Bassingbourn students light up Royston High Street

Arty students have pulled out all the stops to help decorate Royston town centre for Christmas. Art Teacher Nicky Price set an unusual challenge for the students at Bassingbourn Village College – to make Christmas tree decorations using reclaimed materials. The resulting creations can be seen decorating shop windows in the High Street. She said: “We were asked to help Royston town centre with its Christmas decorations and the students were all really excited to be involved. “So much work has gone into some of the decorations with students using a wide range of materials… bottle tops, lightbulbs, sticks and tin cans to name a few.” Year 8 students at the college enjoyed a specialist workshop in lantern-making before going on to produce their own which will be used as part of the town’s Christmas Trail this weekend. Sally Williams, of Retail Revivial, spent time with the students showing them how to make lightweight lanterns using willow and tissue paper. The youngsters then decorated them before sending them off to be hidden in shops and market stalls. Rudolph’s Christmas Trail takes place on Saturday between 10am-4pm with prizes for everyone who spots the hidden lanterns.

Students lay wreaths on Battlefields trip

GCSE History students took part in a number of wreath-laying ceremonies during their Battlefields trip. The five-day trip included visits to Vimy Ridge, the Menin Gate, Wellington Quarry, Ypres and the Somme battlefield. The party was lucky enough to meet members of the Cambridgeshire Regiment at the Menin Gate ceremony and were invited to visit the newly un-veiled Cambridgeshire Regiment memorial. Another highlight was a visit to Talbot House in Poperinge. Thousands of British soldiers passed through Talbot House during the three years it was open from the end of 1915. It was a place where rank was left at the front door. There was always an urn of tea on the go. There were books and comfortable chairs. There was even a chapel furnished by the soldiers in the hop loft at the top of the house. In spite of the rumble of the guns in the distance, it was a quiet and unique place behind the British lines where men could spend time relaxing, writing letters and meeting with serving friends, brothers and fathers, in what must have felt like a British “home-from-home”. The students were accompanied by Mr Christie, Ms Ward, Ms Salih, Ms Price and Ms Hields and were complimented on their attitude and good behaviour by their tour guides.

GCSE Certificate Evening

Bassingbourn Village College welcomed back last year’s year 11 students to celebrate their excellent exam achievements at the college’s annual Awards Evening. The guest speaker was former pupil Kate Gwynn who is now a successful actor and runs her own drama company Divergent Drama. Students collected their summer exam certificates and cheered as school trophies and prizes awarded in each subject. Main prize winners were: Charlotte Day (Art, Graphics and English), Nadia Miller (BTEC Construction), Jemima Chamberlain (BTEC Media), Jordan Bye (BTEC Science), Alex Collet-Sinfield (Computing and Music), Georgia Bartlett (Drama), Lois Daw (Dual Linguist and Hospitality & Catering), Kate Weddepohl (French), Holly Anderson (GCSE PE), Finley Burchett (Geography), Jason Tai (History), Lauren Gwyther (Health & Social Care, Latin and Maths), Matthew Gillman (PSD/ICT), Maddie Smith (Religious Education), Joe Failettaz (Resistant Materials), Elena Strollo (Sociology), Daisy Bergin, (Spanish), Lotti Barrett (Additional Science), Melissa Jakes (Further Additional Science), Isobel Holcroft (Textiles). The Principal's Award for Contribution to the life of Bassingbourn Village College was awarded to Charlotte Heavey (Keller College), Daisy Bergin (Luther King College), Ellen Jenkins (Moore College), Kerris Hughes and Olivia Walker (both Shakespeare College).

ESU Public Speaking Champs

BVC students once again proved their prowess in public speaking by winning their way through to the regional finals of the English Speaking Union’s Schools’ Public Speaking Competition. Bassingbourn pitched two teams in the branch competition, comprising Leanne Thompson, Edward Evans and Iain Lynn (team 1) and Holly Derrett, Beatrice Cornwell and Sophie Burr (team 2). Leanne, Edward and Iain will go onto the next round whilst Holly was named Speaker of the evening. BVC hosted the competition which also saw two teams from St Bede’s, Cambridge, taking part. The event was judged by ESU judges Carolyn Cartwright and Caroline Windsor. The next round will be held at Oakham Castle, Northamptonshire. Organiser Robert Carley of the ESU said: “The competitors were all of an extremely high standard, it was a delight to hear their presentations. I am very much looking forward to seeing how well they do in the next round.” A team from BVC were runners up in last year’s national Up For The Debate competition, narrowly missing out on the main prize at the finals in Eton College. Photo (below): Bassingbourn Village College students at the ESU Public Speaking Competition. From left – Holly Derrett, Sophie Burr, Beatrice Cornwell, Edward Evans, Leanne Thompson and Iain Lynn.

Bassingbourn Village College

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

01763 242344

office@bassingbournvc.org
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