Bedford School Study Centre
BSSC was established in 1996. Since then the establishment has been extended and enhanced, and
currently consists of bedrooms for 30 students (10 girls, 20 boys or 11 girls and 19 boys), two English
classrooms, a science lab, an ICT lab, a Maths room and Library. This equates to six teaching spaces
for five groups. Our classrooms accommodate a maximum of six pupils.
The Study Centre is deliberately smaller compared with some other similar institutions in the UK.
Reasons for this include the size of the accommodation available, but this in itself creates opportunities
to teach small groups of students. This in turn has led to BSSC having a niche in the market which is
well-known to our agents. We deal well with younger students, and can also accept students aged 15+
too academically or linguistically weak for a GCSE programme. We offer meaningful short-term
programmes where many competitors will only take students for a full year.
What do we offer?
An academic year programme with entry points in September, January and April. Typically, a
September intake of 30 will see 3 or 4 aged 10-14 move on at Christmas, replaced by new students in
January or April who may already have their September school lined up.
We teach 40 minute lessons, mostly doubles according to the following plan: 18 x English, 8 x Science,
6 x Maths, 4 x ICT, 2 x Sport, 1 x Pronunciation, 1 x Vocabulary, 4 x Saturday morning activities = 44
lessons. Each term is exactly 10 weeks long, with a long weekend (Friday evening to Tuesday evening)
for half-term at the end of week 5.
We also run two 3-week summer courses in July and August. These comprise 45 minute lessons
according to the following plan: 16 x English, 4 x science or maths, 4 x ICT = 24 lessons. 2 afternoons
sports and swimming, I afternoon activity each week, trips every Saturday and Sunday.
Current staff
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Teaching
o English coordinator, full-time
o English teacher, full-time (currently a job-share)
o English teacher part-time, payment as advised
o Director, 10 lessons English per week
o Deputy director and science teacher, full-time
o Biology teacher part-time, payment as advised
o Maths and sports teacher, full-time
o ICT teacher, part-time, payment as advised
Admin
o Admissions Secretary, full-time
o Finance & Travel coordinator, 20 hours per week
House
o Houseparents, who line manage
 Assistant Houseparent
 2 matrons, part-time
 Handyman, 12 hours per week
 4 domestic staff, varying hours
 Evening duty staff, part-time, payment as advised
We strongly advise interested applicants to view the BSSC website here:
http://www.bedfordschool.org.uk/Study-Centre-Home You will also find a video outlining the work of
the Study Centre here.
The current Director, Ms Olive Heffill, is also happy to answer any questions interested applicants
may have: oheffill@bedfordschool.org.uk; Tel: +44 (0)1234 362300