Bedales School

Bedales School

The Bedales School Logo
Motto	Work of Each for Weal of All
Established	1893
Type	Independent school Boarding and day school
Headmaster	Keith Budge
Founder	John Haden Badley
Location	Church Road Steep Hampshire GU32 2DG England
DfE URN	116527 Tables
Students	761
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	13–18
Former pupils	Old Bedalians
Campus	Rural
Website	Bedales School

Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventional Victorian schools. Bedales continues to be one of the most expensive public schools in the UK. For the school year 2015/2016, boarders' fees are £11,230 per term, a similar figure to that charged by Harrow (£11,095) or Eton (£11,090).

Bedales is renowned for its liberal ethos, relaxed attitude, fashionable parents and famous alumni. The Tatler Schools Guide used to cite Bedales as "a bohemian idyll with bite", and The Good Schools Guide states that, although the school is "less distinctive than in the past", it is "still good for 'individuals', articulate nonconformists, and people who admire such qualities".

Since 1899 the school has been on an 120-acre (0.49 km²) estate in the village of Steep, near Petersfield, Hampshire. As well as playing fields, orchards, woodland, pasture and a nature reserve, the campus also boasts two Grade 1 listed arts and crafts buildings designed by Ernest Gimson, the Lupton Hall (completed in 1911) and the Memorial Library (1921), and two contemporary award-winning buildings: the Olivier Theatre (1997) and the Orchard Building (2005).

The school was started in 1893 by John H Badley and Oswald B Powell after they had been introduced to each other by Goldie Lowes- Dickinson, whom they both knew from their Cambridge days. Their wives, Amy Badley and Winifred Powell were an essential part of the team. A house called Bedales was rented just outside Lindfield, near Haywards Heath. In 1899 Badley and Powell (the latter borrowing heavily from his father, the Vicar of Bisham) purchased a country estate near Steep and constructed a purpose-built school, including state of the art electric light, which opened in 1900. The site has been extensively developed over the past century, including the relocation of a number of historic vernacular timber frame barns. A preparatory school, Dunhurst, was started in 1902 on Montessori principles (and was visited in 1919 by Dr Montessori herself), and a primary school, Dunnannie, was added in the 1950s.