The Bedales Difference | Bedales School

Welcome

Bedales comprises three co-educational boarding and day schools located in 120 acres of South Downs National Park in Hampshire: Bedales Pre-prep for 3–8 years; Bedales Prep for 8–13 years and Bedales Senior for 13–18 years.

1893

John Badley, aged 28, opens Bedales in Lindfield, Sussex, emphasising breadth (“head, hand, heart”) and intellectual and personal qualities.

In search of a better education

Learning to live in a changing world

Bedales was founded by John Badley in 1893 as a humane alternative to the authoritarian regimes typical of late‑Victorian public schools.

The School became fully co-educational in 1898, against the prevailing trend. This breadth of vision and willingness to buck convention continues undiminished, as we shape our work to meet the challenges of the day.

The world young people enter at 18 can be turbulent, complex and demanding. We work together to ensure that every student leaves us having discovered their own talents, passions and identities, with a powerful sense of responsibility to others. Life at Bedales is lived both for its own sake – pupils enjoy coming to school – and in anticipation of that to come.

We remain progressively liberal in our approach, not for the sake of being different, but because we believe it is important for a properly rounded and relevant education.

1897

The ‘Work of Each for Weal of All’ library bookplate with the bee and rose is created, and used on the prospectus.

1898

The first girls are admitted to Bedales.

Anticipating adult life

A climate of openness and respect

At Bedales, there is no uniform, and staff and students address each other by first names – just two features of a culture that values the individual, with mutual respect its cornerstone.

If there is no good reason to constrain students in their choices, then we don’t. In fact, we involve them in forging the framework within which the community lives, learns and grows.

Bedales gives young people the confidence and space to play with ideas, with the individual’s obligations to others an essential part of this contract.

1900

Bedales moves to Steep, Petersfield.

1902

Preparatory school starts at Hillcroft in Steep.

Building relationships

Shared identity, skills for life

Respect is not something to be assumed because of status, but something that everyone deserves by being part of the School community.

At the end of the day, Bedales Pre-prep children shake hands with their teachers. This continues through the Prep and Senior schools after assemblies or talks when all students shake hands with all staff. This isn’t about formality; rather, it reaffirms our relationships with each other and the School. And, of course, a familiarity with such social conventions has a great currency in the world beyond the School gates.

Students quickly develop strong bonds and working relationships with their teachers and peers, working together to create the community and ethos of the School. These relationships last a lifetime, witnessed when our alumni – Old Bedalians – re‑connect with such enthusiasm and affection with their former teachers and school friends.

1919

Montessori classroom is introduced at the Prep, and the school receives a visit from Maria Montessori herself.

1943

Public recognition of Bedales music came when the BBC broadcast a school programme "to the whole Empire".

A progressive, liberal education

Academic excellence and creativity

We became dissatisfied with GCSEs, believing they had become narrow, dull and unfit for purpose.

Instead, we developed our own ambitious qualification programme – Bedales Assessed Courses (BACs) – to complement a core IGCSE programme of Maths, English, Sciences and Modern Languages. Designed by Bedales teachers, externally moderated and recognised by universities, BACs give students a say over what books they study, mainly involve coursework as opposed to exams, and focus on outdoors, Arts and Humanities subjects.

Our approach encourages inquiry, creative thinking and independent learning – vital requirements for further education and beyond. We start developing these skills early with our youngest children as they progress through our Prep and Pre-prep schools. Our students can enjoy – and be inspired by – a much more expansive curriculum as we are not stifled by the Common Entrance syllabus, which we feel is ineffective in educating young people.

1953

Bedales Pre-prep, known as 'Dunannie', opens in October, with Sophy Tatchell as Head.

1966

The inaugural Science Eckersley lecture, in memory of Thomas and Peter Eckersley, takes place.

Independent thinkers

Freedom breeds insight

A liberal education prioritises the individual and free expression. That doesn’t mean ‘anything goes’, but it does encourage students to explore, contribute, consider alternative views, listen to others, and develop their own thinking and reasoning.

We believe that hard rules breed only obedience and disobedience, whilst freedom breeds insight – especially important in a world that is becoming less deferential and hierarchical, and with a greater emphasis on interaction and collaboration.

1985

The well-established tradition of Whole School Efforts begins, with the creation of the pond by the Sotherington Barn.

2006

Bedales Assessed Courses are introduced as a more interesting and challenging alternative to GCSEs.

2011

First student joins the school as part of a new bursary initiative, the John Badley Foundation, to broaden access to the school.

2018

Bedales celebrates its 125th anniversary with a 125 km walking expedition by students and staff from the site of the original school in Lindfield to Steep. Walk ends with a tree planting by the youngest member of the school, 3 year-old Liberty Camping, with 98 year-old SAS veteran and Old Bedalian Mike Sadler using earth carried from the original site.

Educating the whole person

Fulfilled people, active citizens

We encourage our students to understand not only their subjects, but humanity and their place in the world, from as many different perspectives and experiences as possible.

A Bedales education is shaped by the individual. Our job is to help our students to work out where they want to go, and then to get there. When they leave us, we want them to feel comfortable in their own skins, to know their own minds, and to have found their voices. We also want them to have a sophisticated sense of the situations and needs of others, and the moral purpose and skills to act upon it.