At Bedales, students benefit from the freedom to create a varied and engaging curriculum, which also enables us to cater for individual interests.
We want students to:
- Develop the competence and confidence to enjoy and succeed in a wide range of sports and physical activity both in and out of school
- Foster a lifelong passion for sport and to be aware of the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle
- Learn how to be effective in competitive, creative and challenging situations as an individual and as a team
- Develop personal, social and emotional skills including concepts of fairness, responsibility and commitment
We compete in national and regional competitions and take great care to produce a fixture list that supports our aims and provides the best learning experience for our students. We do not promote a ‘win at all costs’ mentality, more a desire to create a positive, engaging and most importantly, an enjoyable sporting environment.
Students are encouraged to gain representative honours and elite athletes enjoy extensive support from the Department.
Bedales Senior Sport Curriculum
The major sports at Bedales include Hockey, Tennis, Netball and Football. Each of these sports has a ‘Head of Sport’ who is responsible for creating a pathway for talent development and participation across the three schools. The major sports are complimented with a strong focus on basketball and in the summer term cricket, swimming, athletics and rounders. Students are encouraged to exercise and be physically active and have access to a huge variety of activities that range from fencing to Zumba.
Students are able to make full use of excellent sporting facilities at the school, these include a full size astro-turf, swimming pool, floodlit tennis/netball courts, large sports hall and extensive playing fields with a picturesque cricket pitch, fitness studio and well equipped multi-gym.
In Block 3 students have three double lessons per week, Blocks 4 and 5 have two double periods and and 6.1 and 6.2 have one double period. There is also the opportunity for students to bolster their timetable with lunchtime and after school activities and training sessions. The opportunity for additional sport remains with the students throughout their time at Bedales.
- Blocks 3 and 4 (Years 9 and 10)
- Block 5 and Sixth Form (Years 11, 12 and 13)
Sport is a core curriculum subject which is taught in single sex groups by specialist sports staff within the timetable. Block 3 students have three double periods per week and Block 4 have two double periods per week, with two compulsory sports lessons and the other two can be either Sport or Outdoor Work. These take place in the afternoon and this is when team training takes place for our major sports. Our aim is to develop successful teams and still allow for maximum participation.
Block 5 pupils have two double lessons per week and one of these can be Outdoor Work. Sixth Form pupils have one compulsory sports lesson per week and they must choose one more lesson of either Sport or Outdoor Work during an afternoon. Senior teams train together and are made up of both Block 5 and Sixth Form pupils. They compete very well against local schools each week and we strive for excellence. We also have a broad range of sports options for those who are not in the school teams such as Zumba, fencing, multi-gym, badminton, swimming and dance.
Both girls and boys teams for netball, hockey, rugby, football and tennis are also competing in local, county and national competitions throughout the year and competing very well. We encourage our pupils to play sport outside of school and a number of them play for local clubs and also represent the county in a number of sports.
Our extensive campus and fantastic facilities enable us to offer superb training facilities for teams as well as a broad range of sports.
Read Bedales Director of Sport Spencer Leach's blog post, 'Encouraging lifelong interest in sport'.
Head of Department: Spencer Leach