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Three-tier Education System

Central Bedfordshire runs a three-tier education system, as opposed to the two-tier used in Bedford Borough, Hertfordshire and other areas of the country. This three-tier system is divided up in to lower schools, middle schools and finally upper schools or community colleges. The three-tiers in use at the moment are separated thus:

• Lower School - Students aged 5yrs to 9 yrs
• Middle school - Students aged 9yrs to 13yrs
• Upper school - Students aged 13 yrs to cessation of education or entry to University

The Samuel Whitbread Pyramid

You will read the expression "Samuel Whitbread Pyramid" frequently on this site, so it may help you to know exactly what that is. (Please note: while this site aims to provide information and help to any parents, parts of it are specifically aimed at parents whose children are in schools which form part of this pyramid.)

The Samuel Whitbread Pyramid has 23 schools, two of which - Arlesey Nursery and Childcare Centre, Hitchmead School - are independent to the rest. Hitchmead is situated in Biggleswade and is a special educational needs schools, catering for pupils who have special requirements. That leaves 21 schools. Of these 17 are lower schools. These schools feed pupils into the three middle schools , who in turn pass on their pupils to the Samuel Whitbread Community College in Shefford. You can see now why the pyramid analogy is used, because as the children progress through their education, the number of schools at each level gets fewer and the number of pupils at each school gets bigger, until everyone ends up at Samuel Whitbread.

Progression

The usual progression up the pyramid is as follows:

Samuel Whitbread Community College fed by three middle schools:

Henlow Middle School* fed by:

• Langford Lower School*
• Raynsford Lower School*
• Clifton Lower School*
• Derwent Lower School*
• Meppershall Lower School

Etonbury Middle School* fed by:

• St Mary's Lower School*
• Roecroft Lower School*
• Gothic Mede Lower School*
• Fairfield Park Lower School
• Stondon Lower School

Robert Bloomfield Middle School* fed by:

• Southill Lower School
• Campton Lower School
• Haynes Lower School
• Gravenhurst Lower School
• Shefford Lower School
• Shillington Lower School
• Clophill Lower School

Plus:

• Hitchmead Special Needs School*
• Arlesey Nursery & Childcare Centre

The schools marked with an asterisk (*) have joined together to form the Bedfordshire East Schools Trust, or BEST, which is an amalgamation of 12 schools working closely together to enhance their service provision.

Important SWCC Handbooks

Samuel Whitbread produces two important handbooks to help students both with the transition from middle to upper school and in settling in to their first years at the upper school. Please download and read these handbooks:

Student Transition Handbook - Year 8

Student Handbook for Students - Years 9, 10 & 11 (3.23mb)

Childcare Centres, Nursery & Pre-school Provision

As well as these we have three other child care centres within the pyramid, and these centres offer support and help to parents and carers with young families, both in the area they are located and to families situated in the surrounding villages. They are: The Orchard Childcare Centre at Shefford, which is attached to Shefford Lower School; The Stondon Childcare Centre which runs from Stondon Lower School; and Stotfold Childcare Centre which is based at St Mary's Lower School in Stotfold. Permanent facilities for Stondon and Stotfold should be built and in place by 2011.

Aside from these we also have privately run pre-school/nursery facilities within three schools in the pyramid. These are full time facilities, staffed by professionals and are based at: Poppies Nursery, St Mary's Lower School, Stotfold; Poppyfields Nursery, Fairfield Park Lower School on the Fairfield Park estate, Arlesey; and a full-time Nursery facility based at Samuel Whitbread Community College, Shefford.

The scope of the organisation

It is a big organisation, over 5,000 pupils of all ages, hundreds of teachers and support staff and many millions of pounds of local and central funding. Collectively, these schools offer hundreds of before, during and after school activities for their pupils, ranging from maypole dancing to cheerleading, breakfast clubs to basketball and sports clubs to help with homework. All have established programmes to offer pastoral support to pupils, as well being there to help parents if the need arises.

Many host out of school activities for adults including adult learning, fitness classes and parent support evenings. Some are used by local churches to hold services while others invite the community in to help the children with activities, such as gardening.

All the schools pride themselves on having excellent links with their parents and with their communities, and all aim to give every child the opportunity to thrive, learn and grow whilst they are at school.

If you want more information on your child's school, or the schools they will attend when they get older you can visit either the schools own website, which are all listed on this site, or you can look at the OfSTED website.