Bedales School

Our View

‘If you want an exam factory go somewhere else,’ a parent advised. If you want a relaxed, happy and wholesome school with good teaching, real values and a rich outdoor life look no further. Few Bedalians regret their schooldays.

Head

Since 2001, Mr Keith Budge MA PGCE (fifties). Read English at Oxford. Rugby blue. Previously a housemaster at Marlborough and head of Loretto 1995-2000. Married with three children. Not yer typical head but then this ain’t yer typical school. Not by a long way. In open-necked shirt, discreetly striped jacket and subtly – though differently - striped trousers and unsubtle candy striped socks, Mr Budge – Keith to everyone - has slowly, quietly and resolutely established his authority in this school and its diverse, vociferous constituency. He is relaxed, though serious, in conversation. While his commitment to the school and its ethos is measured in expression it is genuine and profound. Parents criticise him both ways – ‘the school isn’t achieving academically as it should’ – ‘Bedales has become more ordinary and interested in academic results at the expense of its traditional ethos’. You pays your money.

Mr Budge treads a narrow – but clear – line between maintaining and improving academics and maintaining and enhancing what Bedales is about. And he is doing it effectively. Witness the appointment in 2009 of a new ‘managing head’ of Bedales to allow Mr Budge to oversee all three Bedales schools with a view to ‘working on the schools’’ distinctiveness and performance. I am in charge of which staff and students come into the school - ie appointments and admissions. I also come in when disciplinary matters get to a certain point – whether with a student or member of staff – I have crucial oversight of who comes and who goes and I lead on all areas of policy.’ The new ‘managing head’, from September 2010, is Mr Dominic Oliver who comes from Malvern College, where he was head of English. He succeeds Mr Leo Winkley (son of Stephen) who begins a new life as head of St Peter’s, York. Mr Budge is guiding Bedales with the necessary firm grip but light touch.

Academic Matters

Different. And it gets more different as you go further up the school. In Block 3 (year 9) you study a pretty trad curriculum plus one of classical civ, German, Latin or Spanish and, crucially ‘outdoor work’ – one of the unique Bedalian features. From year 10, you take GCSE courses in English and a modern lang, plus an IGCSE in maths and dual award science plus up to two more GCSEs in history, ICT, music and three Bedales Assessed Courses (BACs). What? The BACs are confident exercises in real education devised and assessed by the school in, currently, thirteen different subjects which include Eng lit, product design or textiles, classical music and philosophy. The approach is cross-curricular and broadening in all respects. ‘We had inspirational teachers who were doomed to teach dull and crass curricula,’ explains Mr Budge. Yes. And parents concur – ‘most teachers are exceptionally dedicated and enthusiastic – they live on site and love engaging with young people’. ‘My daughter did the BAC philosophy – she had to produce a massive journal full of her ideas on moral and ethical issues – wonderful’. For those who believe that education should be about education rather than processing and assessment, they can’t really send their children anywhere much else. ‘And UCAS is hugely supportive,’ says Mr Budge. That’s all right then!

A levels persist, though, and nothing too revolutionary makes its way onto the timetable, apart from Pre-U music and an option to complete an assessed piece of independent learning – the Extended Project. Eng lit, at this and at lower levels, has long and famously been outstanding and the uptake at A level outstrips all else. 56 per cent got A/B in 2009. Art (see below) is also outstanding and popular – 91 per cent A/B at A level in 2009. Likewise, history attracts the many and with good results. Smaller numbers for langs and the sciences though those who take maths and drama do well. SENs here mostly consist of mild dyslexia/dyspraxia and affect around 25 per cent. One weekly support lesson – occasionally two – is offered and pupils are not withdrawn from classes. More than that needed and you may want to look elsewhere. Wheelchairs are no problem and school also takes those with hearing/visual impairments and integrates them well. No EAL – reflecting small numbers who come from overseas.

‘Outdoor work’ is key at all levels. Bedales has its own farm and, over the five years, everyone has a chance to herd sheep, keep bees, learn the skills of fencing, coppicing, gardening, hedging, renovating paths, barns and stone walls, draining and maintaining ponds and all kinds of construction, land management and conservation techniques. We saw home-made coracles, wool being carded and spun, smithing and, unaccountably, a ‘trap that was used in ‘The King and I’ being lovingly renovated. Everywhere is green - gardens, orchards, meadows surround and abut the school buildings and we loved the historic timber frame barns and workshops – turned to all kinds of uses – which one discovers on a ramble around the extensive farm village of the school.

Games, Options, the Arts

See above. Unlike in other schools, here one cannot detach the outdoor life from the rest. Nonetheless, there are extensive playing fields and an Astroturf, yer actual massive sports hall plus super pool, courts, pitches – everything - and sport is no longer a bit of a blush and smirk at Bedales. All have a weekly double PE lesson and all the major sports are offered – even rugby. Art is uniquely well-resourced and, perhaps, uniquely proficient. Studios and gallery space create a mini art school-within-a-school. The quality of work would do credit to a degree show and we hugely admired the imagination, technical skills, mix of media and the confident handling evident in the work we saw. Life drawing, portraiture, photography, metalwork, pottery, stonework and sculpture, colour and texture experimentation - all impress along with an informed and liberating grasp of tradition and classical precedents. This is exceptional provision delivered with exceptional dedication and producing exciting results. Music and drama flourish likewise. Lovely drama studio in adapted workshop. Excellent flexible theatre. Productions attract the masses and most enthuse about the last show they were in. They learn production techniques eg sound and light too. Music block unappealing on the outside but truly warm and inspirational inside – baby grands everywhere and deep painted walls and dark wood doors. Most learn at least one instrument and lessons are timetabled. Music tech is well-resourced but seems not here, as in so many other places, to have become what music is all about. School has its own arts programme coordinator and runs an impressive and inspiring programme of events which brings in top professionals to perform and run workshops. The posters around the place for upcoming and recent events made us feel we were attending a permanent arts festival.

Background and Atmosphere

Started by visionary John Haden Badley and his wife in a house called Bedales, near Haywards Heath in 1893. In 1899 – having begun to admit girls to counteract any undesirable masculine boorishness - they acquired a country estate in Steep and constructed a school - including state of the art electric light - which opened in 1900. Dunhurst – a prep to feed Bedales - was started in 1902 on Montessori principles and a pre-prep school, Dunannie, was added in the 1950s. No chapel – Badley’s approach was strictly non-denominational – hence its attractiveness in its early days to liberals, intellectuals and non-conformists of all descriptions – both British and European. This was contributed to by the coterie of writers, musicians and artists who settled around Steep from the 1920s onwards. The school grew rapidly in the 1960s – the heyday of its a-la-modishness – and became the school of choice for the children of the super-cool. Lawrence Durrell, Simon Raven, Robert Graves, Cecil Day-Lewis, Peggy Guggenheim, Ted Hughes, Edna O'Brien, John Mortimer, Frederick Raphael, Joseph Losey, Peter Hall, Peter Brook, Laurence Olivier, Susan Hampshire, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Sandie Shaw, Trevor Nunn, A. A. Gill, Roger Waters, Twiggy, Hayley Mills and Kirsty MacColl have all been Bedales parents. Few eyesores – Bedales boasts two Grade 1 listed Gimson designed arts and crafts buildings - the delicious Lupton Hall (1911) and the Memorial Library (1921), and two, contemporary, award-winning buildings - the Olivier Theatre (1997) and the Orchard Building (2005). Fabuloso library – would grace an ancient Oxbridge college - makes you want to immerse yourself in the cerebral.

The ethos has survived but there have had to be concessions; the school has long since taken day pupils who now make up 30+ per cent of its population; academic results do count – even committed Bedalians want something on paper - and the informality of its core values have needed strengthening with some more recent rigour. Some worried in Mr Budge’s early days that he would dispel the relaxed ethos but no-one fusses much now. ‘Greening Bedales’ involves laudable initiatives on many environmental fronts which other schools would do well to study. Also informs school’s policies on trips and exchanges – not just extravagant junkets for the super-spoiled as elsewhere.

Pastoral Care and Discipline

Unique mixed age dorms. All in first four years have a lower sixth in the dorm and dorms are for 1-5 students. Rooms and comfortable and friendly – girls’ more than boys’ – ‘twas ever thus. ‘”Boys’ flat” (boarding) was designed by a prison architect’, one inmate confided but it didn’t look bad to us and no bars on the windows for sure. Jolly nice garden, bird tables and bbq. Steephurst, the girls’ house – is lovely – the original farmhouse which began the school. Really nice, comfy common rooms – someone here understands about sofas. Bizarre bathrooms in Steephurst – 3 abutting baths per room – ‘you can have a bath with your friends – it gets slightly noisy,’ one girl bubbled. ‘Pastoral care is really good – they try terribly hard,’ a parent said. Good food eaten by everyone together. Upper sixth in own floors in main building – ‘Quad’ – with kitchens, study rooms, (shared with day pupils) and common rooms – inviting and very much a separate world.

Most really love and conform to the ‘take responsibility for yourself and get on with it’ ethos, though ‘some people get distracted by all the opportunities and don’t work – others don’t make enough of the opportunities and doss around,’ one wise youngster confided. Very few stay in at weekends and little is laid on – but they have the run of the place and expeditions and outings organised on request. Also ‘cosy teas’ and ‘fireside games’. Own clothes means exactly that – though uniform seems to consist of lots of mini-shorts ‘n’ tights, track suit bottoms and trainers. Sanctions for eg smoking/drinking/lateness/lying usually means gating. ‘It’s a brilliant school if you’re responsible, ‘a 14-year-old asserted, ‘but if you need rules and boundaries it’s not the school for you.’ Not many find they can’t hack it here. So we were saddened to learn that, in June 2010, the school had dispensed with six of its pupils on account of drug abuse. A spokesman said, 'six students admitted to drugs offences involving marijuana at the end of last week and all have subsequently left the school as a result'. Liberal the school may still be but this incident made it very clear that drugs ain't on here.

Pupils and Parents

Money counts now – the school is one of the top 10 most expensive in the UK. But Bedales parents are those who understand what the place is about and choose it in preference to the more conventional routes to wisdom and fulfillment. And that includes many London families. Pupils are open, friendly and articulate. We met many on our visit and all were thoughtful and eager to explain their school to us. They are genuinely appreciative of what they have and the differences between their school and those their friends elsewhere attend. Very few overseas nationals – perhaps the Bedales ethos – no uniform and ‘outdoor work’ is not what most people abroad associate with a British boarding education! However, always a sprinkling of the well-connected, minor royal and generally savvy and liberal from all over the country.

Entrance

Around 55 come up from Bedales’ own onsite junior school – Dunhurst – the rest of the 90-strong year group from outside. Many from Windlesham, Highfield, the Thomases, The Dragon, Amesbury, Newton and West Hill Park. Those who want to are pre-assessed 18 months before entry and most thereafter come for a two-day residential in January before entry plus tests in maths, English and reasoning. Around 75 per cent of these will gain places. As in everything, Bedales is unconventional – ‘we back our hunches. We disregard scores when we know someone is right for us.’ Many more girls apply for places at sixth form than boys. Assessment via interview – 50 points at GCSE expected (taking A* as 8, A as 7 and so on, based on a nine-subject programme) plus A*/B in A level subjects but, as ever, flexible if they like you.

Exit

Lots of artists to Central St Martin’s, Camberwell etc. Rest to every kind of course – relatively few scientists and linguists. Oxbridge numbers in recent years unimpressive and school now addressing this with more enrichment and targeted preparation. Recent Old Bedalian mused, ‘I wish the school had been more ambitious for me – they didn’t push me. Another regretted that no-one had told her that her choice of A levels would be seen as ‘soft’ by universities. Mr Budge now setting ‘where they go on to’ as one of his missions. Notable OBs include half the unconventional, creative and arty types you’ve ever heard of, among them: Amanda Craig, Lily Allen, Sophie Dahl, Minnie Driver, Daniel Day Lewis, Ivon Hitchens, Alan Jay Lerner, Sir John Rothenstein and John Wyndham.

Money Matters

13+ scholarships - all means-tested - for outstanding ability in almost anything, plus a separate category for music. At 16, scholarships for academics, art and music and, occasionally, science. Some awards for drama and design at the end of lower sixth.