Our mission

Our mission is to teach boys to think intelligently, act wisely and be fully engaged in a challenging and changing world. In order to deliver this, we concentrate our efforts in three main areas: developing the young man within, realising his academic potential and providing sustainability over time. More detail behind each of these strands can be found in our strategic focus document.

Strategic Focus Document

Whilst our mission remains a constant, what is needed to achieve it requires regular reassessment, against both internal and external criteria, to ensure we focus our efforts and resources effectively.

Our current areas of strategic focus are the result of a series of discussions with our governors, where we asked them which skills they felt their own world of work would be requiring in the next few decades. From the results of these discussions, combined with a wide reading list around the subject, and recourse to the World Economic Forum’s Skills for Your Future paper, two clear findings emerged: firstly, that the boys will be entering a highly technological world, but secondly that it has never been more important to accentuate the wonders of being human. Whilst machines will always be faster and more accurate than we can ever be, the human skills of empathy, creativity, imagination, and sophisticated communication, amongst others, will be more critical than ever for the next generation.

In order to address these findings specifically, the following three areas of strategic focus were therefore defined:

Digital Technology

As the world boys enter on leaving school becomes increasingly digitised, it is vital that their education mirrors this and builds skills to complement its requirements. Every boy needs to be safe and comfortable with digital technology as a minimum, and for those with even greater focus and interest, we need to provide opportunities for them to really fly.
Explore Digital Technology

Community Partnerships

Before he leaves Bedford School, our aim is for every boy to have made a meaningful contribution to the local community. Through mutually beneficial partnerships, boys engage more fully with the world around them and learn about their local town and how to be responsible citizens within it.
Discover more about our Community Partnerships

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial thinking is a key skill identified by Bedford School as one that boys need to acquire in order to be successful in the world of work when they leave. Principles such as design thinking, rapid prototyping and storytelling are skills that many boys will have to learn and apply, whether they take on a corporate career, an academic pathway or start a business.
Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Bedford