Development Plan
Development Plan
Bedales started in 1893 with a determination to be different. Our Development Plan emerged from three years of consultation with staff, students and parents on what the Bedales difference is now and how it must affect the way the schools develop.
Our vision is shaped partly by our founder J H Badley's ideals but it also recognises the strong Badley view that schools like ours must evolve and re-define themselves.
We must respond to the external environment in two distinct ways – the first is common to all schools, the second much less so: we must provide a suitable preparation for life after school and for the world of work; but also, if we are to keep faith with our tradition, we must also try to counterbalance influences and tendencies prevalent in society that damage children's development and welfare. This is in keeping with Badley's desire to ensure that, from its founding, Bedales was a counter to the regimented and philistine schools that he saw predominating in late Victorian England.
The Bedales difference outlined in our Development Plan is a mixture of ways in which we have always been different (and will continue to be so) and ways in which we are responding to external pressures.
Download a copy of the Bedales Development Plan
