Day Students
Just over half of all students at Bedstone come in to school daily rather than boarding. Higher up the school, more students choose to board in order to concentrate on their studies and enjoy the social life that boarding affords. Bedstone College is committed to providing the same care, opportunities and education to both day and boarding students.
Day students enjoy free, private minibus transport throughout the region. Every parent has the mobile telephone number of their minibus driver – all of whom are carefully screened – in case of delays and particularly when there is bad weather. Day students are also welcome to board occasionally, for social or school events or in case of bad weather, at a very reasonable rate and the college does operate “flexi-boarding”.
Each student has a form tutor with whom they meet twice a day. In addition there is an extended form period every week. The tutor looks after the individual needs of their tutees and is the first point of contact for their parents. Day students have access to lockers in which they can safely store their sports and other equipment.
Bedstone runs a house-based tutorial system. Both boarding and day students are part of the same tutorial group which is, in turn, part of one of the three competitive houses: Hopton, Wigmore and Stokesay. The houses compete, often fiercely, at many events including debates, house music and on sports day. This initiative brings day and boarding students closer together and promotes closer links between students of all ages. Those who come into school daily are also warmly invited to join in with Sunday activities and have the choice of participating in either one or both weekly extracurricular activities on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. There is therefore no division between day and boarding students.
Parents of those young people who live locally are invited to come and watch fixtures whether home or away. On some days, they can also collect their children at “tea” (3:40pm) after fixtures or before one of the twice-weekly activities. This flexibility can be very advantageous to working families. They also have twice-weekly Head’s prep sessions where they can complete homework in school, under the Head’s personal supervision. This means that once students arrive home they can spend more quality time with their families.