Bedford School is probably unusual as a Senior Public School in that (in addition to a weekly Chapel service) the Head Master holds two full school assemblies in the Great Hall each week. Each Monday there is a talk from the Head Master and then a talk from another member of the community (often a staff member, but sometimes a current pupil or old boy or indeed visitor) on Friday.
The aim of these assembly talks is to get boys to think, but the talks also encourage groundedness and a sense of gratitude for what they have. Topics are regularly values-based (not only our four core values of integrity, responsibility, endeavour and curiosity; but also kindness, empathy and the ‘old-fashioned’ values of duty and respect). However, speakers also draw on current affairs, ethical issues, our sense of shared history and (as part of our wider UK educational duty) ‘fundamental British values’. We hope these assemblies convey an idea of Head Master’s own values and interests, whilst also providing something of a record of weekly affairs in the school and the wider world.
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Together
For once, welcome back seems a rather strange way to start this term –...
Head Master’s Assembly – March 2020
Well, this is not how it was meant to be. The length of my...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Giving
When my wife and I were travelling in Florence a few years ago, we...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Social Divisions
Not an awful lot is known about the Eleusinian Mysteries, a strange cult worship...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Auschwitz
Last weekend was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Lucas Inman...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Chicken Farming
This is a talk about grandparents; and indeed older people generally. Specifically it is...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Responsibility
The Prep School assemblies each term take a theme, and often from our school’s...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Pantomime
Once this assembly is finished, I ask you to judge just how utterly useless...
Head Master’s Assembly Talk: Day One 2020
Many of you will know Kate Larson, the excellent Talbot’s House matron, who also...
