Creating critical thinkers at Bedales Pre-prep

Bedales Pre-prep has been featured in Absolutely Education’s Summer 2024 Prep and Pre-Prep issue for its approach to enquiry-based learning.

The article, written for the School by freelance writer Helen Martin, explains how Bedales Pre-prep uses enquiry-based learning to prepare its youngest students for a technology-enabled future. 

At Bedales Pre-prep, children are encouraged to adapt, analyse, think creatively, solve problems, collaborate and experiment - skills favoured by the most demanding universities and entrepreneurial world. Bedales Pre-prep fosters these attributes, guiding children to be critical thinkers in the years to come, and equipping them with skills to navigate an unpredictable future.

The relationship between Bedales Pre-prep’s learning approach and the School’s founding principles to educate the whole individual through ‘head, hand and heart’ is highlighted in the article; enquiry-based learning promotes intellectual curiosity (head), hands-on experimentation (hand) and collaboration and empathy (heart).

The partnership piece details the learning enquiries that children at the Nursery explore each term, such as an immersive focus on cultures that saw the youngest Bedales students ‘travel’ to different countries on a magic carpet, exploring the languages, traditions and cuisines. 

Through hands-on and real-world projects, Pre-prep students learn to communicate effectively, embrace curiosity and develop resilience, which will serve them throughout their education at - and beyond - Bedales.

Read the article here.