International Women's Day at Bedales Prep
On Friday 8 March, students at Bedales Prep celebrated International Women’s Day with a day off-timetable, attending empowering workshops delivered by a range of inspirational women.
The children experienced a variety of engaging and educational sessions throughout the day, hearing and learning from women in different fields.
In the STEM workshop run by members of professional engineering institution IHEEM, students designed and built their own eco-friendly hospitals using LEGO®, and in the interior design workshop the children created detailed mood boards using cuttings from magazines. Other creative sessions also took place, such as an immersive dance and movement workshop, a design talk with the Creative Director at Aspinal of London and a silent disco, with songs written and performed by inspirational women.
Other sessions in the day involved hearing from a paramedic for the Air Ambulance, learning about amazing women in black history, discovering helpful yoga strategies and listening to the story of war journalist Lee Miller, told by the actor who played her in the 2023 film Lee. Throughout the day, students also enjoyed willow weaving in Outdoor Work and an insightful talk about a key founding figure in Bedales’ history, Amy Garrett.
The guests were invited to a social lunch hosted at Head of Bedales School Will Goldsmith’s house, where they had the opportunity to talk about their personal experiences and journeys before continuing the afternoon workshops.
The day’s successful programme was organised by Teacher of Group 2 (Year 5) Alice Azemi, who is also lead of the School’s Equality and Diversity Council.
Speaking about the day, Alice said: “It was such a success and greater than I could have ever imagined when I initially thought of putting the project together. Having so many inspirational women in one place inspiring the students at Bedales Prep was just so beautiful to witness. There was a real buzz about the day and I really hope it will be the first of many like this.”
See a short video of the day below.