Frensham, Bedales, st Chris’s

[Wolfmoon22]

Hi,

I’m looking for a creative boarding school for my free spirited dc who likes, art, drama and anything creative and practical.

We are looking into the three schools above and love the look of the first two schools in particular (especially Bedales). We have yet to visit the schools as we are not nearby. We will be moving to Suffolk so St Chris’s would be better location wise as she could come home at weekends if she wanted to.

Dc will be going into year 9. I know visiting the schools is the only way to get a proper feel for them but does anyone have experience/ advice about any of these schools?

thank you

Right so that would be Block 3 at Bedales. Which is the first year of the main school. (There are a Prep and Pre-prep as well.)

Is your DC a boy or girl? Suffolk to Hampshire is a long journey, but plenty of boarders stay in. There are some long leaves though.

Bedales is very arty, crafty and practical. I think they've changed to all BACs now (Bedales Assessed Courses), rather than GCSEs. The BACs are acredited so they count like GCSEs for university etc.

Interesting

I wonder how employers would view a school’s own exams in lieu of GSCES?

perhaps employers don’t care if a pupil has A levels or even a degree

If you're moving to Suffolk, would you consider Summer Hill? I've got a friend whose DC went there and loved it.

Thank you. Yes it’s about 2 hours 40 I believe but yes they do have long leave weekends which is good. My dc is a girl and I feel the school would be a good fit for her just worried about it being quite far away and her having to board. Although I think she would be fine with it, she is very confident and loves being around friends. I really like the sound of the BAC’s.

do you have a child there?

You know I actually would but I think she is too old. I looked on their website and I think the oldest Intake age is 11. I have a younger son who I may consider it for.

do you have a child there?

I did do, for 15 years! Nursery at Dunannie up to sixth form in Bedales. Left three years ago.

Plenty of boarders come from aboard, or have distant homes. It's based on being a boarding school. Although there are plenty of day pupils.

The thing about Bedales is, it's not going to go bust. Whereas smaller schools are really suffering from VAT.

Bedales pupils still do GCSEs in the compulsory ones for jobs etc- Maths, English Language- possibly science plus a modern language?
Other subjects are BACs. They’ve been developed with input/consultation with education specialists outside of the school and are not just random exams or courses!
Many within education are critical of the standardised testing within this country.

I think it's just the two compulsory GCSEs now, Maths and English. Could be different though, I'm three years out of the loop.

Bedales has announced that it is further reducing the number of GCSEs taken by students down to two in Maths and English Language. BACs are offered as an alternative to GCSE for increased depth, more active learning and stimulating material, less prescriptive syllabuses and a wider range of assessments including group and individual projects, presentations, essays and portfolios in addition to written examinations.

DC did six GCSEs and four BACs. Got into an RG uni.

https://www.bedales.org.uk/journal/news/unique-bedales-curriculum-replacing-gcses

BACs were partly why we chose Bedales, 18 years ago 😆

Did your child have a positive experience there?

Did your DC have a positive experience there? Would you recommend it?

Yes broadly positive. Like any schools, it's had its ups and downs. We joined when a longstanding Head was there, he left, then a new one came, but he's gone now (thank goodness) and there's another one who I think is good for the school.

DC greatly enjoyed BACs such as Outdoor Work, and using the forge. As well as a broader philosophy/religion BAC than you get in GCSEs.

They are still in contact with their little Bedales gang, three years later. There are definite cliques, like in any school I guess.

The music opportunities at Bedales are amazing. The Rock Show is always sold out. Drama is strong too. Their most famous drama OB right now is Jamie Campbell-Bower - Vecna/Henry etc in Stranger Things! Also in acting you've got Minnie Driver, and Lili Allen in music. Also The Last Dinner Party, I believe.

Also a huge new Art building opened a few years back. Art and related subjects are very strong too.

A lot of Bedales is about actually doing stuff - Outdoor Work, the forge, making pizzas and other stuff for sale in the cookhouse.

No personal experience but have friends that rate Haileybury and their DC have creative careers

Depending on where you are moving in Suffolk have you looked at the boarding options in the county? (or the day school options)

Woodbridge is great, Ipswich High School is well known for arts and drama and offers boarding and I think RHS has a good music department?

Also if you're Bury St Edmunds side you have Culford which is excellent!

@Wolfmoon22 i have dc at St Chris and it is a fantastic school. Lots of arty dc and plenty of actors who have their kids at the school. The art, 3D and drama departments are all amazing and school productions are excellent. They regularly win prizes at drama festivals as well.

All the kids have choice of what to do in Opps lessons on Thursdays which allows for a really wide range of choice outside the curriculum itself and my dc have done some amazing stuff as part of that. Great after school clubs as well and an annual recycled fashion show which is incredibly creative. Definitely worth a look!

Thank you that’s really helpful as I wasn’t aware of a couple of those schools. Someone also mentioned St Joseph’s in Ipswich which looks good as well.

Thanks so much. It sounds great.

We studied Summer Hill in our sociology class 20 years ago. It was like Lord of the flies!

@Fibonacci2 we looked into Summer Hill, were interested in the ethos but from the inspection reports even though it has changed over the decades it is a very small cohort which would of course be socially limiting and dc there seemed to have come out without a usual number of GCSEs.

We then decided to go for one of the progressive schools where the dc seem to come out with academic results to potential.

I have a good friend who went to Bedales and she loved the education (though struggled socially in some ways) and also have friends who sent their dc to Frensham. Bedales and Frensham weren’t best on location for us but we did consider Frensham really seriously and put down a deposit there.

In the end we chose St Chris because we felt it was the most down to earth and least old fashioned school of the three, it is a 3-18 which was important to us and the location was great.

They aren’t accredited. UCAS is not an accrediting body. The courses are not accredited or authorised by OFQUAL or JCQ. They do not have a recognised attainment level under the European qualifications framework.

They are listed alongside other unaccredited courses on UCAS, so a student can record their achievements when applying to university. If you look at their university successes this will show that a fair number of universities accept them for a range of subjects. However, it’s not clear whether the decision to drop STEM GCSEs will negatively impact this. It’s also worth remembering some pupils join in sixth form having taken GCSEs. Clearly they don’t create a barrier to success in getting into art college or drama school, but I’d want to be careful about cutting off my child’s chances of a place on a medical or engineering degree.

St Jo's is very sports orientated but is good!

Have you looked at Prior’s Field? It has a progressive feel but with traditional too.

It’s obviously not the same as Frensham Heights or Bedales, but a good balance, friendly school and their art and textiles offering is good.

I’d personally avoid Bedales, as I would be nervous of their assessment approach. I’ve known people who have loved it and been successful and others who have struggled once they’ve left.