Bede's Preparatory School

Since January 2023, Leigh-Anne Morris, previously senior deputy head since 2019, having joined the prep as director of studies three years earlier. Educated at the University of Natal in South Africa, then relocated to the UK where she worked as an accountant for Barclays Financing. Realised education held more of an interest, so joined the sector in 2004, training as a specialist maths teacher at the University of Sussex under the Graduate Teacher Programme. First teaching job was in an all-boys comp, where she became head of maths, then an assistant head and finally vice principal. She is joined by her husband Graham and their two children, who are pupils at Bede’s.

There is a small number of boarders, in a family house (undergoing renovation) over the road from the school. Lovely warm houseparents and Molly the dog, of bounding, bouncing love, a garden big enough for football, and blankets to snuggle down under to watch TV. Rooms allocated sensitively, the quiet girls who like their sleep separate from their noisier peers.

You can't beat it for location. At the upmarket end of the grassy Eastbourne seafront, where the land curves and rises to the great cliff of Beachy Head, perches an attractive five-storey, mock-Tudorbethan pile, its long windows facing the sea. Surrounded by fields on all but its southern aspect, with a cluster of smaller buildings round about, it sits like a benign hen comfortably supervising its offspring, assured that all can run about safely in a healthy, beautiful, open space.

Space is a key asset and to anyone used to, for example, an urban prep or primary, Bede’s is a revelation. There are more fields five minutes up the hill and another five minutes inland – all facilitate the range of sports available to these lucky children, who have the look of relaxed freedom that inhabiting such openness gives. Space also in, for example, the dining hall, one wall of which is just large windows fully open on warm, sunny days, so that the outside and the inside blend.

Two main buildings. Holywell Mount – a large Edwardian house to the right of the main building if you face the sea – houses the pre-prep and nursery. We visited at the end of a long day and were astonished by the bright-eyed vitality of the teachers. They told us of the new topic with which each term is launched in each classroom: ‘It's so exciting – they can’t wait to come in and see what we’re going to do!’ And on offer in just some rooms were: Under the Sea World, Ice World, Out of the Egg (and you should have seen the egg!) and Knock Knock – imaginative stuff, inviting exploration and discovery of all kinds.

Sports are exceptional – and not just because of facilities – at both ends of the spectrum. Says ‘We’re the best cricketing prep in the country’ and, as parents told us, ‘even the non-sporty get enthused – and they have elite schemes for the really talented’. ‘They do wonderful trips, especially for sports and languages.’ Children concur: ‘We went to Portugal and got trained by Benfica.’ They have a clifftop walk to reach their playing fields – a walk many remember with great affection years later – but many sports are now played up at the senior school. They do, though, have their own swimming pool on site. Several teams in most sports for all years so that all but the child with thumbs glued to his iPad get a look-in, though some sense that more could be done for the less than athletic. Dance is serious – remember that Bede’s is home to the Legat Dance Academy – so all do dance up to year 5 and many continue. Teachers seen as ‘brill’. Music has a relatively new director and is set to sparkle; art and drama well on the way.

An overhaul of maths has affected learning and results, and is starting to influence other subjects, as the effectiveness of the new method becomes evident: before studying in the abstract, a subject is examined from every angle and thoroughly embedded – no racing from topic to topic to tick the boxes of rapid progress. ‘Maths lessons are now noisy,’ we had been told; in fact one was quiet, but the next was, indeed, loud. Parents enthuse: ‘The teachers are wonderful – so imaginative and approachable!’ – and especially about individual needs and pastoral care: ‘superb – any problems or hint of bullying are dealt with at speed’ and ‘they answer emails practically before you've sent them’. Weekly staff meeting to discuss and act on academic or pastoral concerns with head of learning support on hand if needed. Pupil praise too – ‘They push you to your potential and we are only 10 in some groups so they can really help you.’ Small-group specialist work in eg fine motor skills, writing, reading, phonics for tots who seem to be falling behind. All lower classes have a TA to support individuals but some feel this should continue into upper years, ‘where they need it just as much if they are struggling with a subject’. As a pupil told us, ‘When I'm stuck, if they take time to explain it to me, I really get it!’ Individual support – and around 25 per cent on the SEND register here – described as ‘good but pricey’.

All staff are being trained in first aid mental health. The school says anxiety is sometimes a problem for pupils coming in from hothouse schools – pupils can be school phobic and need to be reintegrated into school. For pupils feeling pressured, the school counsellor runs ‘chill and chat’ drop-in sessions at break time. ‘Health and safety are taken very seriously,’ parents tell us, as are efforts to integrate newcomers, especially into year 7 when there is a fairly substantial intake.

And there is masses to do. ‘My daughter was very shy but there are so many performances and so on – her confidence has grown unbelievably.’ No shortage of facilities, inside and out – big sports hall, 18m pool, climbing walls, decent library – ‘they'll get books you want if you ask’ – good theatre and lovely, light rooms with the downside that ‘if I'm facing the sea I just go into a daydream’, as one youngster confessed.

Most are local, though word is spreading and pupils now bus or car in from a wider range of villages. School runs its own bus service on eight routes.

Bede’s prep and senior are increasingly one school, the heads busy building strategies to ensure smooth academic and co-curricular progression through the schools. Service is a mantra senior school head returns to again and again, with a determination to make it school-wide – ‘Year 1 can be collecting for the food bank and the sixth form can volunteer there.’