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Life on Mars?

10 lucky girls from Bassingbourn Village College spent a day in Cambridge figuring out the mysteries of life on Mars – before building their own Mars rover. The Year 8 students were taking part in a Girls into Physics event promoted by the University of Cambridge. The girls spent the morning as guests of Newnham College where they had a tour of the college and interviewed existing students about life there. The morning culminated in discussing potential student clubs and activities before making a presentation to their peers. After lunch the girls moved to the Cavendish Laboratory where schools liaison officer Jacob Butler and Physics tutor Dr Steve Martin gave them a whistlestop tour of the Cavendish museum before moving onto a series of physics experiments. By the end of the day the girls had learnt a great deal about building the perfect rover for Mars – from perfectly constructed tyres, the best materials to use given the severe temperatures and just how to make the buggy as aerodynamic as possible. (Clue: make it whale-shaped!)

Primary Chess Success

It was check mate for youngsters from Steeple Morden and Bassingbourn Primary Schools as they met new buddies at the annual Bassingbourn Village College chess tournament. Teams from both primary schools were pitched against students from the new Year 7 intake at the village college as part of the college’s primary liaison scheme. The college runs a thriving weekly chess club (above) on a Friday lunchtime. Lots of healthy rivalry emerged with the youngsters taking their matches very seriously – Steeple Morden eventually maintaining their position as top school, having won the event for the past three years. BVC Principal Duncan Cooper dropped in to see how the young chess maters were getting on. He said: “It was great to see the BVC Library packed full of keen chess players! By inviting small groups in to events such as this, it makes the transition much easier for youngsters when they eventually move up to become students here.”

Mace success for Iain and Edward

BVC students Iain Lynn and Edward Evans took to the floor to debate the merits of non-military national service as part of a national debating competition. The boys were representing the school in the district heat of the English Speaking Union’s Mace debating competition and their arguments were so convincing that they won themselves a place in the regional finals. The competition was held at Northampton High School and the boys shared the debating chamber with students from Bedford School, Stowe, Northampton High, Moulton College and Chenderit School. Rebecca Boxall, teacher of English and debate coach at Bassingbourn, said: "I am so proud of our boys – they did amazingly well. "Debating has really taken off at BVC and we have students from all years attending our club sessions and supporting our competitors. This really was a team effort with Debate Club members working alongside Iain and Edward to prepare their arguments."

GCSE Heron Awards

Wednesday evening saw our annual GCSE Heron Awards event with our summer leavers coming back to be honoured for their achievements whilst they were at BVC. With a slightly less formal approach this year, students received cups for achievements in each subject plus special Principal’s Awards to those students who had particularly excelled during their time here. Principal’s Award winners: Finn Chapman, Francesca Marshall, Gabba Sutcliffe De Oliveira, Euan Denchfield, Jodie Francis, Riley Gilmartin, Benedict Greenlaw, Natalia Karampetsou, Katie Myerscough, Martin Shodiya. Subject award winners: Art Eden Alarcon BTEC Construction Luke Townsend BTEC Media Francesca Churchill Computing Edward Rowe Drama Oscar Davies ECDL Joshua Mutimbanyoka English Language Elizabeth Marriage English Literature Josephine Shohet French Eleanor Bullard Geography Oliver Charlesworth Graphics Olivia Butterworth Health & Social Care Martha Young History Ocean Cook Hospitality & Catering Holly Sole Joint Linguist Emily Dow Latin Sammi Ho Leisure & Tourism Lathan Harris Maths James Tennant GCSE Music Patrick Safford Music Tech Phoebe Elvin GCSE PE Benjamin Hale VCERT Health & Fitness Jessica Racher Religious Education Lucy Clay Resistant Materials Robert Steyn Sociology Sophia Racher Spanish Sophie Marriage Additional Science Chloe Mardi Further Additional Science Jordan Pulley Textiles Lauren Hallewell

Angels and Demons compete

Congratulations to the Year 8 quiz teams who competed in the Central England regional final of the Kids Lit competition this week. They did incredibly well, competing against 26 other teams – The BVC Demons were 6th and the BVC Angels were 12th. Well done to: James Pryer, Ami Tobin, Abi Scott, Toby Telford-Reed, Lily Sunderland, Stella Morris, Kai Gilligan and Lucy Whitely.

ESU debating workshop

Students from Bassingbourn Village College took to the floor this week to develop their oracy skills. Public speaking and debating were the subjects of a special workshop run at the college by James Reeve, an expert from the English Speaking Union. The ESU awarded the college a bursary for the workshop having been impressed by the BVC team’s efforts in their first ESU competition last year. The event also attracted students from other schools in the Anglian Learning trust. 10 BVC youngsters from years 10 and 11 took part in the workshop, which ended in teams debating two topics – “This house would ban all research and development of morality-enhancing drugs” and “This house would not make first contact with uncontacted human populations”. Principal Duncan Cooper said: "We are obviously very proud of the achievements of our debating team - and really pleased to see more and more of our students showing an interest in debating and public speaking. "Oracy skills are so important in many aspects of our lives and our students are very fortunate to be able to access such skills thanks to funding from the English Speaking Union."

No rain in Spain

Our Spanish exchange students enjoyed blue skies and sunny temperatures on their half term visit to Albacete in southern Spain. Paired with the families of students from Los Escolapios school, the students had a hectic itinerary visiting a bullring, the civic hall, had dancing lessons, went sightseeing, ate churros … and discovered that the penknife was invented in Albacete! Albacete is the home town of BVC Spanish teacher Ms Violeta Rios who organised the trip. She said: "I am so proud of all the students - they behaved really well and all had a great time. "An exchange is the ideal way for students to practise and learn a language, to make friends and form some long lasting friendships with a family in another country. I hope this exchange will continue and so build up friendships between our students over a number of years." Students were accompanied on the trip by Ms Rios, Miss Ward and Mrs Lynn. More photographs are available for download from our BVC Flickr account.

Enterprising Students

Ideas were flowing thick and fast when our Year 8 students had to come up with business ideas in our annual Enterprise Day. From robots to dress designs, the students’ ideas were discussed, developed and then pitched to their peers during the day-long careers event organised by Form the Future. Support was supplied by local business mentors who gave up their time to encourage the BVC students in their business endeavours. John Dow, of accountancy firm PWC, said: 'It was inspiring and exciting to see the creativity, ideas and entrepreneurialism across the whole school year, and how engaged and collaborative everybody was in their respective teams'. The winning teams were Tectrip (virtual holidays) and AutoPorters (robotic hospital porters) who won Best Pitch and Most Innovative Business Idea respectively. Our thanks to Form the Future and business mentors Mary Kedward of Strem Chemicals UK, Dan Lee of Zion Landscapes, Chris Sibbons of Cambridge University Press, John Dow of PWC, Andy James of RK Print, Michael Evans of Cambridge Carbon Capture and Eva Agapaki of the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.

BVC students venture across the world

BVC students have been talking of the ‘spectacular journey’ they made during the summer as part of a trip to Malaysia. Organised as part of a World Challenge, the students travelled to Kuala Lumpar where they worked with Burmese refugees, in addition to trekking in the Cameron Highlands. 18 former year 11 students took part in the trip, accompanied by teachers Jude Shortt and Rachel Ward. With a population of approximately 1.5 million, Kuala Lumpar is a melting pot of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian Cultures and the Bassingbourn group spent their time working in a school which caters for children up to the age of eighteen who are Burmese refugees; some of whom are orphans. Teacher Jude Shortt said: “It was a truly life changing experience for the whole team. The students worked so hard to make a lasting impact on the lives of this school community and should be so proud of their achievements which left a lasting footprint of their visit.” For their trek in the Cameron Highlands, complete with tea plantations and rainforests, the students were responsible for sourcing their own transport and accommodation as well as planning the trek itself. Their resilience and determination was rewarded with a White Water Rafting experience on the Kampar River - a journey punctuated by laughter and wetness! Student Katie Myerscough said: “It was definitely a rewarding experience. From learning to budget to valuing my life back home, it changed my perspective on the way I live and strengthened my belief in my abilities. “The…

Fantastic turnout for Open Evening

What a brilliant success our Open Evening was, with over 180 potential students and their families coming along to see the very best of what BVC can offer. Our staff and students pulled out all the stops to give demonstrations in all their favourite subjects - Science, English, Maths, Spanish, French, Latin, Dance, Drama, Music Technology, Craft, Fashion, Catering, History, Geography, RE, Sociology. There really was something for everyone. Principal Duncan Cooper welcomed over 400 people to his Principal's Address after those present heard first hand from students Loen Groom (yr 7) and Beatrice Cornwell (yr 11) just what life is like studying at BVC. Music was provided by young pianist Lucy Whitely. Year 8 students (below with Mr Cooper) acted as tour guides. For those who missed the event, school tours can be booked by calling Reception (01763) 242344.  

Bassingbourn Village College

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

01763 242344

office@bassingbournvc.org
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