We interviewed Old Bedstonian Rupert Sheppard about his life beyond Bedstone.

Name:   Rupert Sheppard

Age: 24

Years when you were at Bedstone College: 2005-2012

Please describe your education or work since leaving Bedstone College:
University of Bristol Veterinary Science BVSc programme. 2012-2017
Assistant Farm Vet with ProStock Vets Ltd, Carmarthen 2017- Present

Please describe your interests since leaving Bedstone College:
Travelling, Cricket, Farming, Shooting, Rugby, Cows

What was the best part of your education at Bedstone?
Opportunities to develop skills for life whilst doing things I enjoyed doing: Cricket and Rugby teams, DofE, debating, Spoken word, being Head Boy.

What was the best thing that you learnt at Bedstone College?
‘The more you put into life the more you get out’ Michael Symmonds, every assembly ever. Never truer words spoken.

What would your autobiography be called?
I haven’t achieved a tenth of what I will need to fill it..

If you could give your younger self a piece of advice what would it be?
If you think you are currently working hard- forget it. Someone, somewhere will have the same goals as you and they will be working harder.

At Bedstone we aim for our school leavers to be curious, robust, adaptable and tolerant. Please could you tell us which of these skills has been most useful to you since leaving Bedstone and why?

 (a)     Curious: so they are willing to explore concepts and ideas that are currently beyond their  horizons

 (b)     Robust: so they are able to deal with the inevitable challenges and disappointments that life will bring

 (c)        Adaptable: so that they can learn and develop new skills rapidly and hence be successful in an ever-changing world

 (d)       Tolerant: so that they are able to understand the importance of, and see the value of, the contributions that that people of other faiths, cultures and lifestyles bring to the global community

My time at Bedstone taught me a great deal about all of these things. However I feel being robust is probably the most important thing. Lots of people are good at achieving their goals when life is going your way. You will learn more about yourself when you fail to achieve what you want the first time. Losing is fine as long as you don’t lose for the same reason twice.