Bedales School: Does it live up to its reputation?

Bedales School – a progressive, co-educational public school in the heart of Hampshire – is well-known for its famous alumni. Lily Allen, Sophie Dahl and Minnie Driver were all educated there, and celebrity parents include Mick Jagger, Jude Law, Jeremy Paxman and Boris Johnson.

Such an institution, and such a clientele, will inevitably attract media attention. It is no surprise, therefore, that the school frequently has to endure the ignominy of having its dirty laundry made public. When six students were thrown out for drugs offences last year, the story made the national headlines; when two more were expelled last summer for “having sex in a sandpit,” it caused even more of a furore.

The novelist Amanda Craig – who herself went to Bedales forty years ago – was among the most vociferous critics of her former school. Writing in the Daily Mail, she recounted how she was sexually assaulted by a gang of boys while walking back from an evening assembly. From then on, she writes, she was “relentlessly bullied,” and became “tense, white-faced and desperately lonely.”

Last week, as Bedales’ writer-in-residence, I had the opportunity to assess it from the inside. I spent five days leading workshops, speaking to the literary societies, meeting children of all ages for one-to-one tutorials, lecturing and advising staff. And although I concede that my time there was limited, what I saw had little in common with the Bedales of Amanda Craig four decades ago.

I didn’t go to Bedales myself (I didn’t even go to a public school), so when I first arrived I was slightly disconcerted by the laissez-faire atmosphere. There was no school uniform, children called teachers by their first names, and ate side-by-side with them in the dining hall. When I was introduced to a class on my first day, two girls were lying on the floor under a table and murmured their greetings therefrom; their teacher coaxed them out gently rather than laying down the law, and this I found surprising.

It soon became apparent, however, that a core of discipline was nevertheless in place. By and large, the rules were followed and visiting speakers were listened to with respect. I saw few instances of bad behaviour, and no sign of bullying or disharmony. Every student I met – and I tutored more than fifty of them – was courteous, thoughtful and engaged. And the standard of writing was outstanding.

One of the quirkier Bedalean traditions is the twice-weekly hand shaking ritual. Teachers stand like a football team at the end of the hall, and the entire school – 500-odd students – files past, shaking them each by the hand. The idea is that by the end, every student will have shaken hands with every teacher. Once the dust has settled, the kids wander off to their dorms, the teachers dash off to wash their hands, and the community generally disperses. This seemed to me emblematic of a sense of respect for the individual that is reflected throughout the school. Bedaleans are very good at shaking hands, one teacher told me. In my view, that counts for a lot.

Now, I’m not naïve enough to suggest there weren’t things going on behind the scenes. A few kids were obviously smoking, and I saw others being anarchic on the playing fields. But this is a school, isn’t it? If nothing like this ever went on, I’d frankly be rather suspicious.

Above all, it was the children that made an impression on me. The 13-year-old boy who nervously showed me his nascent political novel; the thoughtful sixth former whose knack for prose eclipsed that of many professional writers; the 14-year-old who, having lost her mother at a young age, had a dignity and perceptiveness beyond her years. These children will doubtless enjoy the brightest possible futures, despite the negative media attention that is occasionally directed at their school.

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