13 Joining Booklet BEDFORD SCHOOL
Pastoral Care The Houses There are six day houses and six boarding houses in the Upper School. Each day house is twinned with a boarding house to ensure that all boys interact in every area of school life. Your son will remain in the same house throughout his time at Bedford School. Day House
Boarding House
Ashburnham
»
Sanderson’s
Bromham
»
Burnaby
Crescent
»
Pemberley
Paulo Pontine
»
Redburn
St Cuthbert’s
»
Phillpotts
St Peter’s
»
Talbot’s
The twinned houses regularly take part in activities together, such as House Singing, House Drama, House Tug-of-War, House Charity Run and numerous interhouse sports competitions, to compete to win the coveted House Cup.
Tutors Your son’s Tutor will also remain the same throughout his time at the school, which allows them to get to know each other well and build a high degree of trust. His Tutor will follow his academic progress closely and, in partnership with you, provide direct and individual support and guidance. Together with your son’s Housemaster, his Tutor will work to ensure that he settles in quickly and successfully. We encourage parents to contact Tutors by email if they have any concerns about their son that they wish to share with us. In addition to his daily Tutor periods, your son will also receive formal academic tutorials at specific points in the school year. Your son will be asked to
attend a one-to-one appointment with his Tutor to discuss his academic progress, and will be asked to set aspirational targets in all subjects. In instances where we believe a boy is under-performing, the school will be in touch with parents, either via the school reporting system, or directly. Likewise, when boys are doing especially well we are keen to recognise this and will be in contact with you.
Tutor Groups The school operates a vertical tutor group system, which allows new and younger boys to grow and develop alongside older boys, inspiring them to achieve similar levels of success. Boys meet with their Tutor every weekday at 08:35 before lessons. At the start of the year, boarders will join their vertical tutor groups from the outset, having plenty of time for informal induction during the evenings as they get to know their Housemaster, Tutor and other boys in the boarding house. New boys in all year groups apart from the Fourth Form will also be welcomed into their vertical tutor group from the start of term. Fourth Form day boys, however, will be guided through the first few weeks of school by their Housemaster, who will take them through an induction programme and spend time with them in the day house each morning for the first three weeks. This induction programme will take the place of their timetabled tutor period and will provide all the boys in the house with a chance to establish friendships, ask questions and generally help one another find their feet. Of course, we want all the boys to enjoy the benefits of our wonderful tutoring system, and the Fourth Form day boys will join their vertical tutor group ‘full-time’ from Monday 27 September (after our first Exeat). Before that, and to ensure a seamless transition as possible, boys will have the chance to get to know their Tutor and others in their vertical tutor group (such as their tutor group ‘buddy’) as part of their induction.
