Bishop Bell School

History

Formerly Bedewell School on Whitley Road, Eastbourne, (the town's Fire Station now stands on the old site) it was reopened in its current location in Priory Road on 25 May 1959 by Princess Margaret. It is named after Bishop George Bell, who ordered its construction and of whom there is a painting in the school. The old site was commemorated with the addition of a Science and Technology building across the road from the main site, which is named Bedewell. The two sites are joined by a skywalk which cost £800,000 in 2004, replacing an outdoor metal bridge which had been deemed impractical.

There have been several ecclesiastical visits from Bishops and members of the Christian faith. The school has had visits from the Quicken Trust, a Christian organisation which works with people in Kabubu, Africa. Bishop Bell has links with Schlenker Secondary school from Freetown, Sierra Leone, within which it helped to implement an IT centre in 2008.

In January 2016 the school announced that it will shortly be renamed. This is due to the Diocese of Rochester paying compensation and apologiing after sex abuse allegations were made against Bishop George Bell in a civil claim. The school is consulting on being renamed either St Edward's College and St Catherine's College.

Performance

Following a period of poor performance, the school's educational achievement improved when Terry Boatwright became head teacher in 1995. There was an increase in pupils achieving 5 A*-C grade GCSEs, which rose for eleven consecutive years. By 1999 it was one of the top improving schools in the country; this was attributed to Boatwright by the local MP. By 2006 the school was oversubscribed.

Curriculum

The school educates students from Year 7 through to Year 11, after which they may continue their education within limited post-16 positions in ICT and the school nursery. The school offers pupils a range of voluntary and compulsory GCSE subjects which are taken from Year 9 to Year 11. This is a change from the previous academic year (2007–2008) in which the school started GCSEs at Year 10, with pupils deciding their subject choices the year before.

The school educates all of its pupils in Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education. English, Mathematics and Science, the core subjects, are taught to all students throughout the entirety of the pupils' education at the school. The arts and foreign languages are optional as GCSEs in the upper school.

School day

The day comprises five one-hour periods, with breaks at 11.15 and 1.40. Mondays are shorter than the rest by twenty minutes to allow for pupil mentoring meetings at the end of the day.

Once every term (of which there are six in an academic year) there is an 'Academic Development Day' in which the school is divided up to partake in single subjects for the entire day. This time may be used to plan school trips, or sports days, or to complete coursework in the upper school.

Global Awareness group

This group has been active in many areas of modern ethical concern, including fairtrade goods and global education, for example the 'Send my friend to school' campaign and the subsequent 'My friend needs a teacher' campaign. The group undertook to make the school a 'fairtrade school' by encouraging fair trade use within the school; in 2009, they succeeded.

Child sexual abuse

The school has been at the centre of three major child safeguarding problems, including a child sexual abuse scandal: