Cultivating a community of learners

Introduction

We are excited to present our 10-year strategy for Bedales. This work is the result of in-depth collaboration across the Bedales community and we are very grateful to all the students, staff, parents, governors and Old Bedalians who contributed via our surveys, workshops, working parties, meetings, discussions and direct feedback. Our thinking has also been informed by many other educationalists in the UK and abroad whose work we have seen, researched and which has inspired us.

John Badley, one of the founding leaders of the School, wrote in his ‘Memories and Reflections’ (1955): ‘education has a twofold purpose: it can be thought of as directed to the personal development of the individual, or to their contribution to the community of which they are a member.’ Badley’s ideals are as important to us today as they were when the School was set up in 1893, reminding us that Bedales is a school built on profoundly communitarian principles. In keeping with the school motto, the individual work of students or staff must be taken in the context of their impact on ‘all’, whether that be fellow students, the local community, the environment or the world. We aim to be true to the School’s traditions while ensuring they remain pertinent for the next decade.

Bedales is a school with a pioneering educational tradition. This strategy aims to ensure that we continue to lead the way for other schools nationally and internationally. At the heart of our approach is the principle that an education must be holistic and creative: that we should ensure young people learn to develop their ‘head’, their ‘hand’ and their ‘heart’. We believe that the development of self is as important as skills and knowledge. The freedoms we enjoy as an independent school, our charity’s mission and the urgent and ongoing need for educational reform drive us to challenge norms and strive to provide an exceptional experience for all the young people in our care. We are aware of our privilege and believe in using that responsibly for the wider community, to contribute actively to educational reform and improvement.

Honouring the boldness of our founders, we welcome this opportunity to renew our core purpose and philosophies, reaffirm our commitment to excellence in teaching and build upon our distinctiveness. This will ensure Bedales’ relevance for our students and leadership within the educational community for the next generation.

Origins

Bedales was founded by John Badley and Oswald Powell in 1893 to be a humane alternative to the authoritarian regimes typical of late-Victorian public schools which our founders felt ‘simply would not do’.

Bedales purpose and vision

Bedales is inspiring a new generation of critical-thinkers, creators and leaders by cultivating a community of life-long learners through its innovative, intellectually challenging curriculum. The school’s founding principle ‘work of each for weal of all’, centred on authentic working relationships, develops excellence in the individual whilst appreciating their central role in shaping society on every level.

Vision

We want to be a fully realised community of learners, where:

Students and staff are excited about the unique and precious experience of living and learning together, cultivating a lifelong love of intellectual endeavour, self-development and achievement.

The young people in our care take advantage of developments in technology, neuroscience and psychology to develop positive physical and mental health skills that will stay with them for life.

We understand the importance of identity and collective responsibility, and learn to contribute positively to our world in a variety of ways.

We learn, often through lived experience, of our place in the natural world and the importance of human accountability for the environment in all aspects of how we live and learn.

Strategy overview

The 21st century is a time that questions educational norms more than ever: climate change is arguably one of the biggest challenges that will impact us all, especially the generations to come; technological innovation democratises knowledge and learning like never before; and Artificial Intelligence opens up opportunities within learning and future pathways, undermining so many assumptions about the world of work.

Technology allows for much greater communication between people (and machines) but likewise creates greater chances for misinformation, division and mental health problems, particularly in the young. We also have a much greater understanding of the need for us to strive for more diverse, representative and balanced communities. We believe education can prepare a new generation to flourish within these uncertainties.

We want to be a community of learners, who are ambitious and excited by the act of inculcating an intrinsic approach to learning. We want to be a place where the coeducational and communitarian heritage of the School is being regularly reimagined for the realities of the 21st century. We want to be a collaboration between globally-minded people who are well-informed about their place in the world and their responsibilities to their communities, a collective of environmentally-inclined people with a profound awareness of their impact on the planet, and a commitment to tackle the negative impacts of climate change.

Under the four strands of ‘Learning’, ‘Living’, ‘Community’ and ‘Environment’ the goals in this document set out a 10-year programme in response to these challenges. The following pages outline how we are going to get there, with specific areas of focus across the four strands, which build on learnings from the pandemic, and previous plans and curriculum enhancements such as the Senior School new Art & Design Building, the Prep refurbished mixed boarding house, and the development of our own GCSE-alternative Bedales Assessed Courses in the Arts and Humanities.

Watch full video

Read the strategy in full

Our strategy strands

Bedales Prep students conducting a science experiment