Bottisham Village College is a mixed secondary school located in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, England. The school opened in 1937 as the second village college in part of the Local Director of Education Henry Morris vision for providing education for local people in the countryside around Cambridge.
Many classes for adults are offered in the evenings and at weekends. The school provides education for children aged 11–16 in the local area around Bottisham.
History
Bottisham Village College was designed by local architect Urwin and built by Ambrose of Ely during the 1930s. Originally the school site included both a senior school (secondary school) and a junior school (primary school). The school was opened as a secondary modern on 1 January 1937.
Opening
The college was officially opened on 6 May 1937 by the Right Honourable Oliver Stanley - President of the Board of Education. Henry Morris and Mr. H. F. B. Fox - His Majesty's Inspector - along with Mr. Stanley and the Earl of Elgin were met at the college by Lord Fairhaven, Chairman of the Managers and the Warden. Mr. Stanley and Lord Elgin met the staff and then inspected the buildings and equipment. At 12:50, the party left the college to take lunch with Lord Fairhaven at Anglesey Abbey. On return to the college, the group were met by a guard of honour consisting of boys and girls of the Senior School and a boy and girl representing the Junior School.
1937 to 1944
In the early days of the Village Colleges, they offered education up to the school-leaving age.
1944 to 1950
With the passage of the Education Act of 1944, the school became a Secondary modern, as part of the Tripartite System. Students who failed (or did not take) an eleven plus exam came to Bottisham where the curriculum was focused on the skills necessary for living in the countryside surrounding Bottisham. Lessons were very gender-based, with boys studying farming, woodwork, sports, science and gardening whilst girls learnt more cookery or needlework. Evening classes for the whole community were equally as varied, with examples including Musical Appreciation, Folk dance classes, woodwork, the operatic society, first aid and Fire Fighting. There were Saturday night dances in the main hall as well. As well as acting as a hall for the school, in the early years of its existence the main hall at Bottisham served as a cinema.
World War II, however, was a testing time for Bottisham Village College, especially with an airforce base in the village. The British and American airmen played a large part in the life of the college, attending school dances but also other functions at the school. Staff stayed up all night on watch on top of the school buildings, watching for incendiaries, and with the rationing of clothing, school uniform was absent from life at the school until 1946. During the nationwide 'Dig for Victory' campaign, the tennis courts, located behind the warden's lawn, were converted to cabbage patches in an attempt to grow as many vegetables as possible.
The 1950s
In January 1955, Charles Brereton arrived at the school to take up the post of Warden. This was the last appointment of a Village College Warden made personally by Henry Morris before he retired. In his time, Charles Brereton formulated some monumental changes to the school. The fact that he was Warden through the ROSLA to 15 and later to 16 allowed him to see the growth of the College in numbers, from 350 to 850 as well as the extension of buildings, equipment and grounds into the school that it was when he left at the end of 1975. Charles Brereton had spent over 20 years as Warden and to date the longest-serving Warden. In 1996, following his death, there was a memorial service, the planting of a tree and the unveiling of a plaque in the courtyard.
Out-of-school activities for pupils, still uncommon to secondary schools that were not Village Colleges, formed an important part of the lives of pupils during the 1950s with many school sports teams taking part in a variety of inter-school competitions in disciplines such as hockey and athletics. As well as sports, the school had a scout group and a youth group.
At the time, Bottisham was a showplace, only second to Impington for all those influential people who were captivated by Henry Morris' ideas. Consequently, the school received many high-profile visitors including Hugh Dalton and J. B. Priestley.