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Happy Christmas and New Year

Thank you to all the staff and parents for a fantastic term!

BPA Informal Drinks

Some feedback on the two drink events that the new BPA Social Committee have hosted this term. Both events were really well attended with about 80 parents in London and 100 at Bedales last week.

Parents and Governors who attended all expressed a great deal of appreciation for the opportunity to meet other parents in a relaxed setting. The wine company who sponsored the wine also gave us signed prints by famous cartoonist Hugh McLeod of a wine bottle with a label saying 'Buy this or the puppy gets it'. Strange but true. I am sure they will be treasured by parents for many years.

More events to follow.....parents are beginning to come up with some very imaginative suggestions... some a bit alarming!

Huge thanks to Tracy and Jo for arranging these so brilliantly.

BPA Minutes

For anyone interested in keeping up to date with the detailed work of the BPA, the minutes of the last meeting are now on the Bedales website and you can access them by clicking Here

The next full BPA meeting is on the 12 January 2008, so please let your year rep know any concerns or queries you would like raised.

BPA Drinks Invitation

The Bedales Parents’ Association Social Committee
warmly invite parents for drinks.

Two different venues and dates have been arranged and
we hope that you will be able to attend one or other of these times.

Wednesday 7th November
3rd floor, 84 Grosvenor St (corner of New Bond St)
London W1K3JZ
6 - 8.30pm

Thursday 29th November
Bedales Reading Room
7 - 9pm

RSVP
Jo Mitchell
Tracy Bilsland

The BPA Social Committee is a new initiative. If you would like to help on a regular or part-time basis please contact Tracy or Jo above. :)

The Bedales Parents’ Association represents Bedales, Dunhurst and Dunannie and all parents are most welcome.

The wine for both events will very kindly be supplied by Stormhoek as part of their Geek Dinners Promotion

BPA Meeting 13 October 2007 - BPA Grants

Each year in the BPA Autumn meeting bids are submitted for the £10,000 (roughly) fund which is created from parent subscription. This year the grants were approved as follows:

Dunannie
Playground markings for the playgroup e.g. alphabet snake, hopscotch grid, maze, footprint etc £2000
Visiting Author workshops with crossover activities with Dunhurst £1000

Dunhurst
School Telescope £500
Theatre Nomade one day workshop for Blocks 1 and 2 £1200
Artist in Residence in The Cobb £2000

Bedales
Carpentry tools for a cross over activity between Outdoor Work and Design making Ladderback chairs £700
Renovate the Quiet Room on Steephurst in memory of Clare Sankey c. £800
Greenpower Electric Vehicle Competition entry £2000
SCUBA equipment - one full set £650

Ofsted inspection of boarding at Dunhurst and Bedales, October 2007

Bedales and Dunhurst, the Bedales Junior School, have both been judged ‘outstanding’ in key areas of boarding, according to an independent inspection carried out earlier this month.

Both schools scored the highest possible grade for Enjoying and Achieving – that is, the way in which they develop the whole individual. Dunhurst was also outstanding in encouraging pupils to become involved through consultation and discussion, and Bedales gained the top ranking for Staying Safe – the key area of pastoral care, discipline and child protection. Every other aspect of boarding in both schools was graded ‘good’, apart from one ’satisfactory’.

Keith Budge commented , “Some aspects of the physical fabric of Boys’ Flat, the main boys’ boarding house, were graded merely ‘satisfactory’ – which for us is not satisfactory. Even before the inspection we had earmarked a substantial sum for a programme of improvements to the building and facilities that will run for the next five years.”

The official reports will be published shortly. For mor details please contact Martin Horrox , Head of External Relations Bedales

Interview with Governor David Handley

David Handley has been involved with Bedales for 13 years, first as Chair of the Bedales Parents' Assocation and then as Governor and Co-Chair of the Governors. The school owes David a huge debt for all his dedication and warm-hearted contribution over these many years and we would like to thank David on behalf of all the parents for all his time and wonderful effort. We asked David a few questions, which he has kindly answered below :)

What do you like best about Bedales?

DAVID: This is easy, it is the students. Although,as anywhere, we get some bad behaviour and some inappropriate behaviour, I do not believe any school produces students as interesting, interested and as well rounded and educated as Bedales. While at school they are respectful but not deferential to adults, be they staff, parents or visitors. But more importantly they are always challenging, independent in their thinking, occasionally off beat and invariably worth talking or listening to. Once they have left school, whether in tertiary education or later, you can spot them a mile away. Intellectually curious and uncompromising, socially cohesive without being cloying, welcoming to others and a delight to be with. They carry with them from school an absence of 'attitude' to the older generation. Willing to let anyone prove that they have something useful to say. Of course there are exceptions, but not many.

To get this kind of student replays back into the quality and commitment of the staff at the 3 Bedales' Schools, and not exclusively the teaching staff. It is not easy to achieve this year after year in the changing social, educational and cultural environment in the UK. We should recognise the postive contribution the staff make to how our children turn out, and governors must continue to create the conditions in which the best staff, best in their fields, can be recruited and retained.

The students are a credit to the staff, to their parents and most of all to themselves and long may it be so.

What has been your happiest moment in your 13 year association with the School?:

DAVID: Actually, our first child came to Dunhurst in 1989, so I have been continuously 'involved', since then - 18 years. Happiest moments are all around our 3 children, from the uninvited telephone calls (pre e-mail) we used to get from House staff when we were overseas to say that they were well, happy and enjoying being boarders, to the satisfaction in what they achieved for themselves, from they way they treat their friends to they way they treat us their parents.

But I imagine your question is more about my institutional involvement. In that, perhaps not the happiest, but I am most pleased by the success of Dunhurst, following the attempt to divide it in two and merge the resultant halves with Dunannie and Bedales respectively. I always regarded Dunhurst as vital to the process of educating and developing our children and I could never understand the logic behind the proposal to close it. While I am satisfied that I was able to play a part in maintaining was has turned out to be a dynamic status quo - if that is not an oxymoron - I am delighted with the way, beginning with the Heads and Senior staff at all 3 schools and then the staff in general, managed the schools through this difficult time.

How are you planning on spending your time now?

DAVID: What time? I can give my full time job the time it deserves and when that ends, I already have a number of non 'slipper and pipe' activities planned to keep my brain alive. Given that we live locally, I hope we will be seen for some time to come around the Schools, not least enjoying the rich cultural programme.

Have you preferred being BPA Chair or Co-Chair of the Governors?

DAVID: A difficult one, as I did not seek either post. I think if the issue is enjoyment, then the BPA wins. But to be a Governor of Bedales is an enormous privilege, even if at moments during my time as a Governor this concept was put under some strain. But as I leave, things are going well and I believe and the privilege element has returned. The responsibility of Governors has quite rightly increased. It now extends into areas of governance such as health and safety, risk analysis and student and staff welfare and well-being. This is much different even from 2000 when I joined the Board and it makes the role of governor more tasking. Parents, staff and students should recognise this. As to being Co-Chair, this has worked well, both for me personally and I hope for the Schools, but it is good that it is coming to an end.

Any message for the Bedales parents?

DAVID: There is a constant need for communication between Parents and the Governors, as there is between Governors and Staff. This is better now than it has been for some time, but it cannot be taken for granted. My message to Parents is that they have a responsibility in this as they have in other areas of school life and activity. It is not all about 'my rights'. It is not a school for the lone individualistic parent, student or member of staff. We need strong individuals, but within a collective, co-operative whole and this too needs work to maintain. Parents must be prepared to work a little and to conceed some small part of their personal desires for the common good. This does not mean that they give up any vigilance or response in respect to the education and welfare of their own children. But in other more collective areas of school activity and behaviour they should be prepared to recognise the good of the whole. Less of the individual hobby horses and more of the 'what is good for most/all'.

Thank you so much David. We wish you all the best for the future!!

Badley Weekend - Bedales Programme for 28-30 September

The Olivier Theatre and Bedales Arts Programme are ten years old!
This is the annual Badley Weekend, when the whole of Bedales takes part in landscape projects - but this year there is more than usual for you to see and do and parents are very welcome to many events.

Friday 28 September, 7.30pm
Michael Pennington vivifies Shakespeare's life and work, and recounts his own life-long engagement with the plays.
Olivier Theatre.  Tickets £9 / £7

Saturday and Sunday
Students will be copse-clearing, lake-dredging, lantern-building, mask-making, mumming, drumming and madrigal-singing AND building a giant hazel sculpture that will be burnt on Sunday evening.  

Saturday 29 September, 7.30pm and 9.15pm
Open discussion - the Badley Jaw - on the place of the arts in education.  Speakers include John Aiken (Slade Professor of Fine Art, University College London) and Rupert Rowbotham (Education Officer, Oxford Playhouse).  This is followed at 9.15pm by a traditional Bedales Merry Evening of music and performance.

Olivier Theatre.  Tickets free.

Sunday 30 September, 7.00pm
Finale of the Badley Weekend.  Gather in the orchard for performances: there will be a Commedia Performance, Madrigals, King John's Morris Men, Mummer's play before a lantern-lit, masked procession with drumming to burn the hazel sculpture. All parents welcome to this too - not tickets required.

For details of individual students committments over the weekend please ask your child or your child's tutor.

Olivier Theatre tickets from John Barker by clicking here or phone: 01730 711511

Parent Support for Bedales Green Initiatives

Since last week's Carbon Neutral Debate at Bedales there has been a great deal of support expressed by parents for these plans - from those that attended the interesting morning and those that unfortunately couldn't make it. There have also been lots of enquiries for more information and how families can help and get involved. Isn't that GREAT!!
If you are one of the families wishing to show support for the Green Committee either through words or actions please contact Martin Box, Chair of the committee, by clicking here

. . . And if you are feeling inspired by green issues you may like to spend a moment voting for The Edge at the Eden Project. The Eden Project is competing for lottery money and need votes for this new development which will serve to expand the Eden Project's eductional platform on environmental change. To vote visit the website here

Kate Williams to play as part of Bedales Arts season

Just a reminder that Kate Williams is playing Tuesday, 18 September at Bedales.

Full details of this next concert in the school’s professional jazz series are in the Bedales Arts brochure and on the main school website but you may be interested in pianist Steve Lodder’s comments, quoted in the local press this week:

“I’ve played several times at Bedales and found it a discerning but willing audience…in other words they know their jazz and they’re prepared to go with something even if it’s a bit difficult, and in the end they’re always appreciative.

“I played with John Etheridge (of Soft Machine fame) and Harry Beckett (of Harry Beckett fame…) at the theatre and enjoyed the atmosphere and the piano, so to come and play with Kate will be amazing.

“I have admired Kate’s playing over the years and so when this came up I thought, who has the right musicality and lightness to make a two-piano gig work? It takes an unselfish player not to crowd a four hand line-up.

“We will be playing original jazz-driven tunes (written for the partnership) plus a smattering of other styles, Latin and a particular favourite of mine which I’ve not played before – Jimmy Ruffin’s Motown hit ‘What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted’.”

The concert at the Bedales Olivier Theatre starts at 8pm and tickets are £9 (£7 for concessions). Box Office: 01730 711 511 or email the wildly efficient John Barker by pressing HERE (also available at One Tree Books, Lavant Street, Petersfield)

Bedales works towards Carbon Neutral

By Don Macpherson
On Saturday morning, students and parents contributed to a lively debate on 'Greening Bedales'. Organized by Martin Box, Mark Taylor and the rest of the Green Bedales Committee, a series of distinguished speakers gave fascinating talks on issues from global warming to green architecture, with issues from political engagement to domestic composting.

As a result parents, students and staff emerged with a whole range of insights, from scientific theories to practical measures. As a first step, the school is intending to become carbon neutral, and re-imagine its founding role in leading debate around environmental concerns.

This conference was a welcome stimulus to the debate, and questions continued long after the end of sessions. Congratulations to Martin, Mark and the many organizers and speakers, for a terrific start to the year.

Polo Club

Bella Tullo, mother of Jaimie Tullo in Block 4 is interested in getting together a group of enthusiastic parents for a polo club. Bella is looking at grants currently available from the SUPA (Schools and Universities Polo Association) towards the cost of setting up a school polo club - but it all depends on getting a group of enthusiasts together and then 'making it happen'.

Please contacted Bella By pressing HERE if you would like to support this new and interesting initiative!

Green Bedales Reminder

Just a reminder that the Green Bedales debate is this Saturday 11am until Ipm.

The Green weekend is being kicked off with the students on Friday night with an environmental band (!) called 'Seize the Day' playing Lupton Hall.




The confirmed panel for the debate:

Charles Secrett | Advisor on Environment and Sustainability to the Office of The Mayor of London; formerly Executive Director, Friends of the Earth (chairing the panel)
Siân Berry | Female Principal Speaker for the Green Party.
Max Fordham | One of the UK’s foremost authorities on environmentally friendly engineering.
Ty Goddard | Director of the British Council for School Environments (BCSE).
James Hanson | Environmental consultant with Jacobs UK Limited.
Maddy Harland | Editor of Permaculture Magazine.
Alexis Rowell | Liberal Democrat Councillor in the London Borough of Camden, and Chair of the Sustainability Task Force.

A professional artist has also been arranged, 'Pen Mendonca', who will be documenting all the key points during the presentation in cartoon form, which should be great fun and also be a good solid record of the day.

GREEN attire optional :-)

Come and tell us what YOU think

Click here to book your free tickets

GCSE Official exam figures

The GCSE Results % A* - C are as follows:

Art 97%
Biology 100%
Chemistry 100%
Greek 100%
Dance 100%
Design 93%
Drama and TS 96%
English 100%
English Lit 99%
French 87%
Geography 97%
German 88%
History 89%
Japanese 100%
Latin 90%
Mathematics 81% - IGCSE
Mathematics 95%
Music 100%
Physics 100%
Russian 100%
Science- D 96%
Spanish 100%
Technology 60%
Textiles 94%