News Archive

Moving with the Times

01 February 2008

Working harder during the week will earn pupils at St Bede's Prep School in Eastbourne the whole weekend off from classes, as from September.

Since the 450-strong School was founded 113 years ago, pupils in the senior part have always had lessons on a Saturday morning.  Three years ago Year 5 lessons were removed from the Saturday timetable and now the Governors have decided that all lessons for all pupils should be take place between Monday to Friday in the new academic year.

A full activities programme will continue to be run on Saturday mornings, but this will be voluntary and there will be no need to wear school uniform. All drama rehearsals, which will be compulsory for those involved in plays, will take place on Saturday mornings and the School will continue to maintain a full fixtures programme on Saturday afternoons.

Headmaster, Nicholas Bevington said: ‘Saturday morning school was very much a feature of prep school life when many such schools were predominantly boarding, indeed at one point in its history St Bede's was only boarding.  It is important for a school such as St Bede's to reflect modern day life and these days most of our pupils live in Eastbourne and the surrounding area and are either day pupils or weekly boarders. There is also the issue that parents want family time at weekends.

‘At the senior end of the School our pupils start work at 8.30am and don't finish until 6pm with many staying on for extra activities until 7.15pm - a long day in the workplace for anyone, let alone youngsters aged 10 - 13.

‘The children will not lose any classroom time, as this will be made up during the week and weekday activities will run as normal.  I believe it is a very positive move which will allow St Bede's children to have a full weekend to recoup from the rigours of the week and to spend more time with their families.  And they will of course still have the opportunity to come into School on Saturday to take part in activities if they choose to.

‘I also think it is very important that we will be maintaining a strong fixture list for all sports on a Saturday afternoon and indeed it will widen the net of schools we play against as buses will be able to leave much earlier for matches'.