Bodmin College is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

secondary

academy school An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% ...

that serves the community of

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England. The college converted to an academy on 1 January 2011. In 2023 Bodmin College became part of the

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

CELT; the Cornwall Education Learning Trust. The predecessor school was Bodmin Community School (later Bodmin Community College) The latter was the result of a merger in 1973 between Bodmin Grammar School and Bodmin Secondary Modern. The grammar school was also known as the Harleigh School, being located in Harleigh Road. It was named Bodmin County School prior to 1945.

Curriculum

In 2007, the college decided to change the

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

curriculum by introducing a three-year course rather than the conventional two years. Students now choose their GCSE options in Year 8, and take end of year exams in the summer term of year 11. The first year of students to do this finished their GCSE course in the summer term of 2010. As of 2023, the school is currently in the process of reverting to a two-year course. Bodmin College is also notable for having only three lessons per day, with each lasting 100 minutes, compared to the typical 4-6 lessons of most British schools. In 2023 it was announced that a 4-lesson schedule will replace the existing system in September 2023.

Sixth form

The college has a

sixth form college A sixth form college (pre-university college in Malaysia) is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 study typically for advanced post-school level qualifications such as GCE Advanced Level, A Levels, Business and Technology Edu ...

, catering for approximately 300 sixth form students. The Sixth Form offers 26

A-Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

courses, 17 BTEC/vocational courses, as well as Arts Awards, and Sports Academies in football, rugby, and netball. Some of the vocational courses, including beauty therapy, hairdressing, ICT practitioner, and construction, are based on a campus about 200m away.

Higher education

Bodmin College recently began offering, at a separate site for vocational and higher studies, three degree-level courses in partnership with

Falmouth University Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...

and Bodmin Town Council. These courses are Digital Media, Creative & Professional Writing, and Business Management. A 2-year Digital Media foundation degree has been operational for a number of years, now with the option of an additional 1-year course to complete a BA (Hons).

''Robot Wars''

In 1997 the college entered the BBC TV programme ''

Robot Wars Robot Wars may refer to: Film and television * ''Robot Wars'' (film), 1993 ** ''Robot Wars'' (soundtrack) * ''Robot Wars'' (TV series), a British TV competition, 1998–2004 and 2016–2018 ** '' Nickelodeon Robot Wars'', a U.S. TV game show ...

'', with the robots

Roadblock A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be: * Roadworks *Temporary road closure during special events * Police chase *Robbery * Sobriety checkpoint * Protests In peaceful ...

and Beast of Bodmin, winning Series 1 with Roadblock.

School musical productions

In recent years the College has produced a musical production most years. They are collaborations between the Drama, Dance, Art, Textiles, and Music departments of the school. Productions include ''

Avenue Q '' Avenue Q'' is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and a book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody ...

'' in 2015, ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...

'' in 2016, ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

'' in 2017, ''

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

'' in 2019, ''

Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...

'' in 2020, and ''

Ghost the Musical ''Ghost'' is a musical with book and lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin and music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. Based on the hit 1990 romantic fantasy thriller film of the same name, it centres on lovers Sam and Molly, who are attack ...

'' in 2022.

Notable former pupils

Lorna Dunkley Lorna Dunkley (born 23 February 1972 in Cirencester) is an English newsreader, television presenter and journalist. Until July 2016, she was a news anchor for ''Sky News'', Sky's 24-hour television news network and hosted the weekend afternoon s ...

, Sky News presenter *

Ross Green Ross Green (born 3 January 1978 in Falkirk) is a British former alpine skier who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dial ...

, actor * Andy Reed, rugby player for British Lions and Scotland *

Dan Rogerson Daniel John Rogerson (born 23 July 1975 in St Austell) is a Cornish Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Cornwall from the 2005 general election until his defeat at the 2015 general election. In October ...

, MP for North Cornwall

References

External links

School website
{{authority control Academies in Cornwall Bodmin Secondary schools in Cornwall