Cambourne Village College has enjoyed remarkable success since opening in 2013, gaining its second Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating in 2025, along with a host of further awards and designations.
Alongside excellent examination results, we offer arts, music and cultural activity at the highest level. All our pupils study music, drama, dance and art across Key Stage 3. Annual musical theatre productions, termly concerts, the school orchestra, ensembles and choirs offer many opportunities to build confidence through performance. For younger pupils, Cambourne Music School for primary musicians is run by our Music Department after school hours on two evenings per week. In 2024, the College was awarded the Artsmark Platinum Award in recognition of this exceptional curriculum breadth.
We strive to be a welcoming and inclusive school for all our pupils and also to fulfil our Village College ethos in serving the whole community. We support an active adult education programme and more than 30 local groups and organisations make use of the school’s facilities, out of hours. This unusual commitment to our local community was a key factor in our winning a prestigious Silver Award in the ‘Making a Difference’ category of the Pearson School of the Year celebrations in 2018, just five years after opening.
Central to our ethos is the vision of developing excellence in music and the performing arts for Cambourne and beyond, bringing an enriched cultural dimension to the lives of our pupils and to the growing local population.
The Coates Theatre
In 2018, the Cambourne Village College Charitable Trust was formed to equip a new performance hall, built on site as an arts centre for the school and community, in partnership with the Cambourne Parish/Town Council and Cambridgeshire County Council. The huge new hall had wonderful potential and the infrastructure to support a theatre, but was handed over as a basic, empty space. The Charitable Trust worked to raise £350,000 to equip the hall with tiered seating and full stage facilities to create professional-quality theatre. The hall, named the Coates Theatre after Claire Coates, former Principal, opened in March 2023, for the for the benefit of the school and town. This wonderful facility has transformed opportunities for our students and our wider community to see, experience and take part in arts, music and cultural activity of the highest quality.
A Cinema for Cambourne?
Local people voted a cinema amongst their most desired additional amenities for the town in the last survey for the Town Plan. With this in mind, the Cambourne Village College Charitable Trust is now working with the school to create a community cinema venue in the Sixth Form Lecture Theatre.
This will enhance the facilities for students studying film and performing arts, and will provide a separate cinema venue for Cambourne residents and those of the surrounding villages. With the capacity to show top-ranking box-office films through independent cinema outlets just weeks after release and live satellite broadcasts of west-end theatre and opera, this latest venture will provide an exciting new amenity for Cambourne.
This is an ambitious project for the town; it will rely on the support of the school and the local community to support its set-up and ongoing success, but with a comfortable 180 seat venue, excellent facilities and free parking, there is potential to create a thriving community cinema. This could grow to host several weekly performances with wide-ranging appeal in the style of the successful Saffron Screen, based in a similar venue within the secondary school in Saffron Walden.
Thanks to the continued fundraising efforts of the Trust and dedicated volunteers, excellent progress has been made towards establishing the community cinema. Particular thanks are owed to South Cambs District Council which has dedicated a substantial portion of its Rural England Prosperity Fund allocation to the project. This means the Trust can now go ahead with the purchase of a high-quality projector, surround-sound system, cinema-quality screen and electrically operated curtains.
Next Steps
The project plan envisages the installation of the projector, sound system, screen and curtains during the school’s summer holiday (July – August 2026) with the cinema opening in the autumn term.
Can You Help?
The Charitable Trust has re-formed for this project and we need more new members to help us move forward. People with an interest in, and some knowledge of film would be enormously welcome, as would anyone with experience of running a cinema(!) a business, of fundraising, or with simple enthusiasm to be involved in an exciting project.
If you are interested please get in touch and email John Panrucker, Charitable Trustee – Chair at [email protected].
Further information is also on the new Cambourne Community Cinema website: https://cambournecommunitycinema.org/
Charitable Trust Members
To accomplish this plan, volunteers are required to establish a ‘Front of House’ team. Volunteers with an interest in, and some knowledge of film are always welcome, as is enthusiasm to be involved in this exciting project.
If you are interested, or just want to learn more, please get in touch and email the trustees at: [email protected]
See Cambourne Community Cinema website for further information: https://cambournecommunitycinema.org/
Cambourne Village College Charitable Trust – Trustees and members
List officers and members: https://cambournecommunitycinema.org/trustees/
If you would like to make a financial contribution to achieve the final phase of our vision for the cinema and arts in Cambourne, all donations, however small, are immensely welcome
How to Donate
Please visit our PEOPLE’S FUNDRAISING page for more information and how to DONATE or scan the QR code below
Extra Links
Cambourne Village College Charitable Trust People’s Fundraising Page
Previous Cam VC Music Productions
Previous CAM VC Drama Productions
The Cambourne Village College Charitable Trust is very grateful for the donations received for the Performance Hall (now the Coates Theatre) and the ongoing fundraising for the community cinema:
- The CAM Academy Trust
- Cambourne Town Council
- Cambridgeshire County Council
- Carl Zeiss Ltd
- Garfield Weston Foundation
- Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
- Septagon Charity
- Taylor Wimpey East Anglia
- Trinity College Cambridge
- Wolfson Foundation
- Vistry Housebuilding
- Holly Adams
- Andreas Bruckbauer
- Constantinos Chiotis
- Isabella Chiotis
- Sandra Davies
- Marianne Dikaiakou
- Nick Hall
- Lisa Mackie
- Jane Mallabone
- Samantha Nash
- Steve Pleasance
- Martin Porter
- Sally Porter
- Charlie Rayner
- Lucinda Williams
- Paul Williamson