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ou might not have heard of Bredon school. I hadn’t until a couple of years ago when I interviewed Aatif Hassan, the chairman of Cavendish Education, the group which owns Bredon. He told me about this fabulous school in Gloucestershire for children with specific learning needs that has an award-winning shooting team. They give children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and highfunctioning autism guns. Yes, guns. We’re not talking Rambo here, rather clay-pigeon shooting. But still, it’s quite a thing isn’t it? I have never forgotten how Hassan’s eyes lit up as he told me about the discipline, focus and sense of self-worth Bredon students have gained from shooting. It was one of those anecdotes that lodges in one’s mind, the brilliant audacity of it… “That’s Bredon for you,” says Koen Claeys, Bredon’s Belgian headmaster, when I relay this story. “It doesn’t matter your
“We unpick what the child needs help with and then we give them that help. Not only do we ensure they get that support but we allow that child to explore who they are and what they can do. The result is that the child flourishes.” And flourishing they are indeed. Bredon is currently lousy with gold stars from those that matter. It received ‘Excellent’ across the board from the Independent Schools Inspectorate last October and according to Government figures, published in January this year, it ranked number one out of more than 4,000 schools and colleges in England for ‘value-added’ for students aged 16 to 18 years. Claeys is cock-a-hoop with this accolade. “This is a remarkable achievement and recognises the high quality of our specialist teaching and learning approach,” he says. “Because it’s not about how many A* you have, it’s about progress. It’s not difficult being a top selective school and then saying, ‘Look at our amazing A* rate.’ But to show progress, that’s what matters to me.” The school, near Tewkesbury in
them and also give them extra lessons to get those all important pass grades in the core subjects that they need,” he says. “But we want to be sure they leave school with something amazing.” A typical Bredon child - “if such a thing exists”, says Claeys - might do say 5 GCSEs, plus 3 BTECS or 1 or 2 A-Levels plus 1 or 2 BTECS. “We have staff here who can pick the right course for every student and support them during that process,” says Claeys. The staff at Bredon are a highly trained, highly qualified bunch. All teaching staff have a minimum of Level 3 SpLD qualifications from the British Dyslexic Association but SLS staff (Specialist Learning Support) have a Level 5. Four of the staff have Level 7 qualifications “which allows them to read EdPsych reports at a glance,” says Claeys. The children come from all over the country; approximately 80 students are boarders, with 50 coming from the UK and 25 are international. Most are privately funded places but there are also
WE ALLOW CHILDREN TO EXPLORE WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY CAN DO. THE RESULT IS THAT THE CHILD FLOURISHES situation - we will find something for you,” he says. To illustrate this point he tells me about a new pupil, a 14-year-old who has recently arrived at the school. This child suffered paralysis down one side of his body following an operation to remove a brain tumour. He has since taken up shooting with one arm at Bredon and excelled in a school competition just before Claeys and I talk. “We are quite unique,” says Claeys. “A boarding school with 80 acres of grounds and a working farm. We give children the chance to work and explore the outdoors - a lot of them find it hard to sit still. There’s an awful lot they can get their hands on here.” Claeys believes Bredon is all about second chances. “We see children here who might have been told they are dumb or stupid in previous settings. They might have stopped going to school, their self-esteem is low, sometimes it has affected their mental health,” he says.
Gloucestershire, currently has 220 pupils from Year 3 to Year 13. There are just under 30 students in the Junior School, and 40-45 in the Sixth Form. Most of the students at the school will have one or two “disses” as Claeys calls them - and/or high-functioning autism and possibly ADHD. The school does not accept children with emotional and behavourial problems. But “we have a lot of children who have not been diagnosed with anything,” says Claeys, “we will often carry out our own diagnosis, we have very experienced staff”. Academically, the school isn’t “linear”, says Claeys. By this he means that a student might be sitting their Art A-Level while receiving extra tutoring in English and re-sitting their English GCSE exam for the fourth or fifth time to get the all important Grade 4 (old style C). “We won’t stop the students from picking subjects they excel in - we will support
30% of pupils who receive local authority funding from more than 20 different local authorities. But one of the bonuses of its fee-paying status is the school is resource rich. “We part fund teacher training,” says Claeys. “If a member of my staff approaches me and says they want to gain a new qualification or level, I say: ‘Great, let me find the money.’” What really sets the school apart though is the way it teaches children with SEN. Claeys explains: “When I arrived two and a half years ago I couldn’t get my head round why children were being taught in a class together - say in a geography lesson - and then some of the children would leave that lesson and be taught exactly the same thing again but in a specialist setting.” Now the whole class is taught in a SEN-friendly way. “We are moving the specialism away from the individual to the classroom,” says Claey. “The teacher should have the passion and SUMMER 2019 | A B S O LU T E LY E D U C AT I O N | 59
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