Bottisham Village College

[Kotita]

Hi all. We are now choosing a secondary school for my son. Does anyone have an opinion about Bottisham Village college?
thanks

It's fairly local to me. I think the feeling is that it's not as good as it was. It used to be outstanding and oversubscribed but a recent Ofsted report wasn't great.

Where to you live? I think a reasonable number of children on the edge of the catchment e.g Fulbourn go to Netherhall. Whereas some who live in the other direction try to get a place at Soham. Obviously if you live in one of the tiny villages in the middle it's a bit trickier

I know they went over to 100 minute lessons a couple of years ago. I'm assuming that they are still doing that. Personally I don't like lessons that long.

The sports facilities are good and they've got a pool.

It's a big school. If you are looking for something smaller you could try Coleridge. It's not overly popular but everyone I know who goes there seems happy with it. You'd definitely get a place if you put it in your form regardless of where you live

My DS is there. He started year 7 at a different school and we moved him mid-year because we weren’t happy. We’ve been very happy with BVC: good sports facilities, good extra curricular options. The communication with parents is great (and a world away from previous school).

They do three long lessons a day which is a mixed bag. It definitely works well for the more practical things like PE and Food. Poss less great for Maths and French. But DS’ last school had five single hour lessons per day and he said they lost a lot of time either end of the lessons so I guess it’s swings and roundabouts.

I know quite a lot of people with kids there, or kids who have recently left, and they’re all pretty positive overall.