BHASVIC students achieve excellent results in 2009
Press release 20 August 2009

For the third year running, BHASVIC students have achieved excellent results at A Level. 782 students sat A level examinations in June 2009, an outstanding 97.6% of students passed over all and 58.5% have achieved the top A and B grades. An exceptionally high number of 23 subjects achieved 100% pass rates. 84 students gained 3 or more A grades with 12 students achieving 4 A grades. Many will be reaping the rewards of their success as they move on to top universities in September. All 18 students who were awarded conditional places at Oxford or Cambridge, have achieved the top grades they needed and are on their way.

Students taking AS levels in 2009 also achieved excellent results. 2 students achieved 5 grade As; 96 students achieved 3 or more A grades and the overall pass rate was 92.6%.

BHASVIC prides itself on being ‘open access’ – prospective students can study A levels here if they have achieved 5 or more grade Cs or above at GCSE.

Chris Thomson, BHASVIC’s Principal, praised the outstanding achievements of the students “ In July 2008 we were awarded Beacon status – national recognition that BHASVIC is an excellent College that consistently delivers high quality teaching and learning. Yet again, BHASVIC students have achieved outstanding results and I would like to congratulate everyone involved : schools, parents and above all our excellent staff and students.”

Students Walk to Celebrate Community Spirit
Press release 7th July 2009

BHASVIC are staging a whole College sponsored walk on Tuesday 14th July to raise funds a local charity Brighton Housing Trust and Amnesty International. At least six hundred students and staff will be walking with the aim of raising at least £6,000 for the nominated charities.

Students and staff will walk a 7.5 mile route starting from Devil’s Dyke and following public footpaths along the Downs. The first walkers are setting off at phased intervals from 9 am until 11.00 am on Tuesday 14th July. BHASVIC would like to thank BHASVIC’s Student Union for their help in organising the sponsored walk.

Walk organiser Matt Peake said: ”This whole college event is not just about raising money it is also an important celebration of BHASVIC’s community spirit. Our sponsored walk will give us an opportunity to appreciate our local Downland environment and its history as well as promoting a healthy lifestyle for all our students and staff.”

Recreating the Oscars
Press release 15th June 2009

Oscar-style awards were handed out at The Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton on Monday 22nd June for ‘BHASVICTORs’ - the annual film show and awards ceremony for BHASVIC (Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College). Jonathan Glendening, director of Summer Rain (2001) and the forthcoming feature 13hrs (2009), presented a special prize of a film scholarship with London Film Academy to the highest achieving Media, Film and Communication student at BHASVIC. Other awards categories included: Best Short Film, Best Music Video and Best Reality / Documentary TV show. BHASVICTORs also showcased the best print and multi-media work in Communication Studies and Interactive Media. A press reception was held at the Duke of York’s cinema, from 6:00 – 6.30 pm, prior to the screenings, when the Producers, Directors and Stars were available for photographs and interviews.
Alison Cousens, Head of Media, Film and Communication Studies, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to have their films shown in a real cinema. Many of them have a bright future ahead in the industry – their films range from the exotic and dramatic to the amusing and surreal. They include ‘Going for Gold’ our very own version of an investigative documentary about the 2012 Olympics, ‘Inked’, which looks into tattoo culture and ‘Teen Make-Over’, a parody of Gok Wan’s Fashion Fix."

Human Rights Act – 10 Years On
Press release 26th April 2009

Lord Neuberger (Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury) is visiting BHASVIC on Thursday 7th May to talk to Law students about his experience as the youngest of 12 law lords. His talk will focus on the Human Rights Act – 10 years on.
Educated at Westminster and Oxford, he began as an investment banker at N M Rothschild & Sons but joined the Bar in 1974. An expert in property law, he took silk in 1987 and became a judge in the Chancery Division of the High Court in 1996.
In 2004 he was elevated to the Court of Appeal but was moved up again to the House of Lords last year aged only 58, one of the quickest rises to the nation's highest court in decades. His appointment was widely acclaimed — not least in civil liberties circles: when in the Court of Appeal in 2004 he took an impassioned and minority stance, ruling that evidence obtained by torture should not be taken into account by the Home Secretary in detaining suspected terrorists. The scion of a prominent family of Jewish academics — he is the brother-in-law of Julia Neuberger, the rabbi and Liberal Democrat peer — Lord Neuberger also heads a committee that monitors the return of art looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Last year he reported after leading a year-long inquiry into how to widen access to the Bar.

Cambridge 12 Oxford 6
Press release 5th February 2009

Eighteen students from BHASVIC (Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College) have been offered places at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge in this year’s round of applications.

Twelve students were offered places at Cambridge: Ellie Chan former pupil of Dorothy Stringer; Hannah Cowan former pupil of Blatchington Mill; Rosa Friend former pupil of Lewes Priory; Grace Geilinger former pupil of Dorothy Stringer; Zach Kenton former pupil of Hove Park; Holly Maguire former pupil of Dorothy Stringer; Ben Mortimer former pupil of Dorothy Stringer; Tom Proctor former pupil of St Pauls; Bonnie Richardson former pupil of Longhill; Emilija Talijan former pupil of Downlands; Michael Walker former of Lewes Priory; Lucy Watson former pupil of Dorothy Stringer.

Six students were offered places at Oxford: Hannah Buxton former pupil of Davison High; Isabelle Crossley former pupil of Brighton Hove High; Jake Fletcher former pupil of Seaford Head; Rui Han former pupil of Zhixin High school, China; Alice Robertson former pupil of Lewes Old Grammar; Chloe Tomlinson former pupil of Dorothy Stringer.

“Our students have done outstandingly well and made really effective use of the full support offered by their teachers and I congratulate them all” said College Principal, Chris Thomson.

First performance in South East of school edition of
‘Sweeney Todd – the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ at BHASVIC
Press release 20th January 2009

BHASVIC’s production of ‘Sweeney Todd – the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ (10th – 12th February) marks the first performance of Stephen Sondheim’s musical in the specially adapted school edition by any College or School in the South East of England.

The plot revolves around Sweeney Todd who after hard years in exile for a crime he didn't commit returns to London and opens a barber shop above Mrs Lovett's Meat Pie Shop, where she sells the city's worst pies. With her help, Todd means to rid London of the corrupt aristocracy and hopes to be reunited with his daughter Johanna.

The production is the biggest ever staged at BHASVIC involving close to 50 students in the cast and orchestra. The performances will be against the backdrop of a professionally hired in set for the students to perform in.
Prior to the performance the College Hall will be turned into Victorian London for the audience to mingle with some Victorian street traders and an assortment of reputable (and some disreputable) characters. Michael James, Head of Performing Arts: “Featuring Sondheims musical masterpieces, BHASVIC’s production of Sweeny Todd will also include a last night special performance with ladies and gentlemen invited to attend in Victorian finery! (top hats and waistcoats for the gentlemen, bonnets and bustles for the ladies will suffice). Food and drink will be free on that night to all Victorian lady or gentlemen.”

The show stars College students Mark Gandey as Sweeney Todd, the luckless demon barber, Sophie Van Eevelt as Johanna Sweeney’s unsuspecting daughter, Helen Haines as Mrs Lovett London’s worst pie maker.

Tickets are priced at: Tuesday February 10th 7.30pm £8/£5 (concessions); Wednesday February 11th 3.00pm £5/£3; Wednesday February 11th 7.30pm £10/£6; Thursday February 12th 7.30 £10/£6.