College Facilities

Standing in forty acres of campus and playing fields, Soham Village College is an attractive and stimulating environment in which to work. Originally a large private house with extensive gardens and stables, later becoming a boys' grammar school, the fine Beechurst buildings still retain an atmosphere of dignity which is unusual in a modern school. Some two hundred yards away stands Lodeside, the original Village College, and it was the amalgamation of the schools in Beechurst and Lodeside which gave rise to the Village College we have today. A careful development plan over the last fifteen years has led to new buildings being erected between the two sites to provide a unified campus with outstanding educational facilities. Students find the College a place with character and space, with quiet corners as well as open views, a place where everyone can feel at home.

Foundation and Technology College status have given the management of the college the financial flexibility to provide excellent quality accommodation, furniture and equipment throughout the school. Some examples are listed here:

• Eleven purpose built, modern and excellently equipped science laboratories with preparation rooms and storage areas.
• Sixty-six classrooms have interactive whiteboards and digital projectors installed.
• Specialist technology rooms for construction, graphic design, food, textiles, computer aided design and computer assisted learning all equipped to a very high standard.
• A whole campus computer network with at least one computer in every teaching room and a suite of machines in each faculty area giving a pupil to computer ratio close to 3:1. All the computers in use are PC's running industry standard software and all have internet access. The College website has many valuable educational resources www.sohamcollege.org.uk.
• A large, attractive, well staffed Library Resource Centre with an excellent range of fiction and non-fiction books as well as DVD's, Videos, Audio Tapes and CD-Rom materials.
• A music suite with practice rooms for individual instrumental lessons and a performance room for small recitals.
• Two art studios, formed by remodelling the old stable block and retaining much of the character of the old building, to which a display area has been recently added. One of the studios houses a pottery kiln.
• Extensive playing fields, two gymnasia, and the regular use of the community sports hall facilities during each day.
• A drama studio and two halls, all equipped with stage lighting for productions and concerts.
• A purpose built modern foreign languages suite.
• A new Expressive Arts building is planned for 2008