Rushmoor School & St Andrew’s School Partnership Vision

The Governing Body recently purchased a 40 acre site at the top of Manton Heights in Bedford. A lot is going on behind the scenes in regard to this project with planning, but it is very exciting to think of the development potential.

The vision is to provide a modern, purpose-built ‘diamond’ structure school, combining St Andrew's School and our partner school, Rushmoor School. Each school has a long history and have been working in partnership since September 2013 under the leadership of Mr Daniel, Principal of both schools.

The plan is for the new building to cater for 550 pupils, providing education and care from Nursery to 6th Form. The ‘diamond’ means boys and girls are taught together until the age of 11, separately from 11 to 16, before coming back together again in a joint 6th Form. The main advantage is ‘diamond schools’ are able to retain many of the positive characteristics of small schools, while benefiting from the infrastructure and economies of scale of a larger school.

Boys and girls develop differently and this is particularly noticeable during their teenage years. They have a different approach to learning, so teaching academic subjects separately can help. However, co-curricular activities together maintain an appropriate level of social contact. So when they move on together into the sixth form, there is sufficient maturity for them to cope with co-education without it being a distraction. The best of both worlds really and this has been highlighted in the national press recently who have reported the research into the subject.