We are delighted to support COBIS and look to build more links of our own with schools around the globe and introduce students to the wonderful range of courses that we offer during the summer.

The Patron of COBIS is Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin Princess Alexandra, who is 42nd in line to the throne.

In 1953 James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20^th century.

The two scientists made this discovery during their work together at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University.  Upon making their discovery they are reported to have walked into The Eagle pub at lunchtime on the 28^th February 1953 and announced that they had “discovered the secret of life.”  There is a blue plaque next to the entrance of the pub that commemorates the discovery.

The Eagle pub is just opposite Corpus Christi College where students on our World University Preparation, Young Leaders or Bucksmore Cambridge course will be staying.  Those students studying on our Bucksmore Cambridge course at Clare College will be able to see a sculpture of DNA that stands in Memorial Court.

Film Production: Run by a freelance film production company. Their recent projects include working with Clinique, the BBC and MTV.  Last years Choice film projects can be found on the Bucksmore YouTube channel.

Photography: We have more cameras available this year for all budding photographers.  Students are welcome to bring their own cameras if they want to but we advise against travelling with something so valuable.

Art: The weekly projects will be in pottery; still-life drawings; painting and the use of colour; and metal wire sculptures.

Drama: Each week will have a different theme to it providing students with an introduction to different areas within drama.  As the Shakespeare week proved so popular last year it will be happening again this summer with a visit to Shakespeare’s Globe to see Macbeth.

Dance: Miss Justine was one of our most popular members of staff with the students last year and she is returning to lead the dance classes again. Last year was very successful and the weekly themes will be similar in 2013: jazz/funk, hip hop, theatrical, and a free vote for students in the last week on which type of dance they want to try.

All 5 Elective options are suitable for all students from beginner to an advanced level.

Lord Williams is now the official figurehead of Magdalene College. The Master of a Cambridge College officiates at all the official ceremonies and heads the Governing Body (a collection of Fellows who look after the running of the college).

A full report of the ceremony and more information about the new Master and his duties can be found here: Press Release from Magdalene College.

This isn’t the only blockbuster to be filmed in Greenwich.  In recent years,  The Dark Knight Rises and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides were also filmed in the Royal borough.

Students on the Three Capitals programme will be staying only minutes away from where this filming took place.

If you see yourself directing a future blockbuster why not try the film production elective on our Bucksmore Choice programme this summer?

Good luck!

Even more excitingly for us, the Cambridge photo shows Clare College, our new centre for 2013 and you might recognise the exact same picture on our homepage.

Read the full article here: www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation.

This sets an extremely high standard for our new Cambridge Advanced Studies Program in Magdalene. Students who choose to study Biology and the sciences on CASP will definitely be in the right place…  Magdalene now has 6 Nobel prize winners attached to the college. See if you recognise any of these famous Magdalene Nobel Prize winners:

Rudyard Kipling, Honorary Fellow (1907, Literature)
Patrick Blackett, 1919 Undergraduate (1948, Physics)
TS Eliot, Honorary Fellow (1948, Literature)
Nelson Mandela, Honorary Fellow (1993, Peace)
Seamus Heaney, Honorary Fellow (1995, Literature)
John Gurdon, Former Master & Honorary Fellow (2012, Medicine)

Read the full article here: www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9593459/Britains-Sir-John-Gurdon-wins-Nobel-Prize-for-medicine.html

*Every Cambridge college has a Master who is head of the college. Fellows are what professors are called in Cambridge. When a fellow retires and doesn’t teach at the college any more, s/he might be made an Honorary Fellow if they’re famous.

Just as we have native English speakers, we also have digital natives – young people who do not remember a time when we didn’t have computers, the internet, mobile phones and possibly even smartphones.  All  Bucksmore students are digital natives, which means they are unlikely to ‘look up’ new words in a dictionary and more likely to ‘search for’ words on Google or an online dictionary like Macmillan.  The advantage of using online dictionaries is that they often have pronunciation links, so you can immediately hear how a word is pronounced as well as checking the meaning.  They also show you many example sentences of the word, so you can understand it through context as well as through the definition.  Online dictionaries have also have the advantage of having more space than paper dictionaries, so you can get a lot more information about a word than you would with the traditional book.

However, the move to digital dictionaries also has some negative consequences.  Years ago, the dictionary was known as the ‘authority’ on language.  It was the gatekeeper of language; if a word wasn’t in the dictionary, it wasn’t a word.  Now, we have online dictionaries which use modern technology and information from users to monitor the language.  If a word is used often enough, it will most probably make it into the dictionary.  We therefore have new words entering the language all the time and at an incredibly fast rate.  For example, do you know these new English words?

• unfollow – to stop tracking a person on a social networking site, especially Twitter
• troll – someone who posts nasty messages on a social networking site; an online bully
• totes – totally; completely; entirely

Many of the new words come from developments in technology, and many are common slang words, such as ‘totes’.  This causes debate, as many people think slang should not be considered a true part of the English language.  If these words are in the dictionary, they are given authority, and this means we can teach them to students of English.  Many Bucksmore students like to know about authentic language, especially the kind of language that English teenagers use.  However, if they used the word ‘totes’ in an examination or university entrance essay, this would probably be frowned upon highly!

The debate about ‘real’ English rages on, but what should English students bear in mind when using online dictionaries?

• Check to see if the word you are searching for is slang or colloquial.  If it is, don’t use it in any kind of formal writing such as emails to your teachers or academic essays.
• Don’t use translation dictionaries!  If you check the meaning of a word in English, this will help you think in English rather than your native language.  It is also difficult to get an exact translation between languages, especially if you are checking new English words.
• Always look at the example sentences of the word in context.  This will help you understand the word better and give you an idea of how you can use it in your own speaking or writing.

Being digital natives, Bucksmore students can use the internet and they can use it well.  Use online dictionaries well, and this will open up a whole new world of language possibilities to you.

This week’s Academic Corner was based on a seminar I attended at the British Council Headquarters by Michael Rundell on 9^th October 2012.

What do you think? All Head Office staff have been mocked for their lack of presence in front of the camera and we were all clearly upstaged by the confident Bucksmore students! Thank you to everyone who volunteered to star in them.

We also have our ‘unofficial’ student videos on Youtube and also on the videos tab at the top of this page. Click here for a shortcut: www.bucksmore.com/discover-more/videos/. Make sure you check out the great videos by our Bucksmore Choice students at Fitzwilliam College.