We believe that the quality of primary and secondary state education in the United Kingdom can be significantly better. We therefore strive to show what can be different. A very large number of teachers and school leaders from across the country have come to visit us to see our very high expectations of staff and pupils in action. Our schools adopt an outward facing approach to welcoming academics and cultivating links with the highest performing schools in the country. We expect our pupils to work very hard to meet the high expectations that the school and parents have of them. Our aim is that pupils who come to Bedford Free School break through any barriers and achieve their full potential. Alongside a number of our staff members, our CEO and Director of Education send their children to schools in our trust, and our maxim – that if it is not good enough for our own children, it is not good enough, is shared by all staff members.
Set up in 2012 by local teachers and parents, Bedford Free School exists to offer families a choice in Bedford.
Bedford Free School is a unique school with a fantastic educational offer. We really do believe that our pupils can go on to achieve extraordinary things. In our young history, we have proved they can and we are now one of the highest performing secondary schools not only in the area, but in the country.
BFS is a small school of only around 500 pupils, so staff get to know each pupil as an individual and we have a family feel. This allows us to encourage, demand and collectively strive for academic and personal success.
We believe that all pupils deserve a ‘grammar-school’ style education, with access to an academic curriculum, strong discipline, high expectations and access to highly selective universities, and a wide range of extra-curricular activities.
Bedford Free School Prospectus
Bedford Free School Website
In 2017, Elstow School was proud to join Bedford Free School and become part of an exceptional offer to families in Bedford.
Elstow School offers a truly enriched and academic curriculum. We really do believe that our pupils can go on to achieve extraordinary things.
We take our values of We Care, We Share, We do our best, very seriously. They underpin our routines, our curriculum, and what we strive to develop in our pupils.
We work hard on our culture in which the highest expectations and aspirations surround all of our pupils, delivering on our families’ demand for excellent educational opportunities.
We deliver a knowledge-based curriculum to enable our children to go on to excel at secondary school and beyond. We make sure that the latest research informed practice guides our teaching development and this in turn means that the lessons are coherent.
Elstow School Prospectus
Elstow School Website
Queen’s Park Academy joined Advantage Schools in December 2021.
The school serves a diverse and international community, and staff pride themselves on helping every child develop as happy, confident, and aspiring learners.
We work hard to demonstrate our golden rules of be kind, be safe and be ready to learn. They are embedded in much of what we do including the culture and behaviour expectations within the school.
The school curriculum is designed to ensure the children learn more over time. We provide them with the knowledge they need to continue to be successful as they progress onto their next stage of education. Learning extends outside of the classroom through visits to places that link to curriculum as well as places that are outside of our children lived experiences. We offer a large range of extracurricular opportunities.
Queen’s Park Academy Website
Laburnum Primary School in Sandy is a small, friendly one-form entry primary school at the heart of the local community, where pupils are known and cared for as individuals.
Laburnum joined Advantage Schools in March 2024 with a view to becoming a local centre of excellence, able to deliver a high quality of education to pupils by focusing on effective classroom learning and wider enrichment experiences. Staff at the school particularly value working closely with parents to ensure children can succeed within a culture of high expectations.
Laburnum Primary Academy Website
Houstone School opened in September 2022 and we are determined to make a positive difference to the educational landscape in Houghton Regis and the surrounding areas.
There are some key differences that we believe make Houstone School so distinctive.
Houstone School will have very strong standards of behaviour, a different approach to pupils with additional needs that believes that they can meet the heights of their peers, and aspects like longer school days that fit in with modern family life, alongside a real commitment to getting the curriculum, teaching and learning right.
Houstone School, shaped by the families and the educational teams who design it, has freedom to direct resources where they are most needed, and to ensure that our curriculum is truly aspirational.
We believe that our combination of firm discipline, very high expectations, an academic knowledge-based curriculum, and a humble approach to feedback means that we can go on to be one of the highest-achieving schools in the country. We really do want to be a ‘grammar school for all’.
Our ambition is that every single pupil will be able to attend university, and most will attend the most selective universities. We are ambitious to be the best school in the country.
Houstone School Prospectus
Houstone School Website
