Bottisham Village College
from Community to Foundation Trust School
Trust partners are now bringing their expertise into Bottisham Village College to enrich the learning and widen the experiences of all its students.
The College changed its status in September from a community school to a Foundation Trust school with the key purpose of supporting the education of students and promoting community cohesion.
The College has teamed up with seven Partners -Cambridge Building Society, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Faculty of Education University of Cambridge, The Marshall Group of Companies, The National Stud, Red 2 Green and the John Lewis Partnership -to form the Bottisham Educational Trust.
Since then, there has been a series of meetings to decide how best the Partners can actively participate in the life of the College. Staff have been asked their views and have come up with a range of ideas under such headings as enterprise, aspirations and future careers, health and well-being, managing money and ethics. There are plans for Partners to take part in assemblies and PSHE Days as well as providing speakers, role play scenarios and work experience across a range of curriculum areas.
Earlier this month disability charity Red2Green, which has a base at BVC, was involved in Year 7's PSHE Day on diversity and difference and next term other Partners will be following suit.
"Many Trust partners will be involved in a careers carousel on Year 10's World of Work PSHE day on February 1 and will also be involved in mock job application and interview tasks on that day," confirmed Assistant Principal Helena Ceranic. Examples of concrete curriculum projects included Marshalls providing a business mentor for a social enterprise group, Newmarket Stud running sessions on animal ethics for GCSE RS and genetic breeding for science and the Faculty of Education developing tours for Gifted and Talented students, she said. Tabbi Smith, Training Director at The National Stud said: "We are delighted to be involved in the Bottisham Trust. It is an ideal opportunity to support local education and to help young people understand more about the industry."