St Bees School

St Bees is “where West meets East”. China is a rising star in the economic firmament and an enterprise super-power. Our twin-campus approach between St Bees UK and St Bees China aims to develop a free-flow of students between the two campuses, united through their shared curriculum. All of our UK students learn Mandarin Chinese as a first foreign language and their bilingual competence will place them head and shoulders above other students in their future university applications and job interviews. We recognize that China’s advanced approach to the teaching of mathematics makes them world leaders in this regard, and in partnership with Durham University’s School of Education – No1 in the UK – we offer a ‘fusion’ maths curriculum which expresses every St Bees student’s competence in this subject.

Here at St Bees we recognize that character is key and this means that our students develop academic attainment in tandem with character attributes.  St Bees students will develop into confident, caring, creative, independent young people. They will harness a global mind-set and they will walk away with competencies necessary to seize the opportunities that the future holds.

Our focus on character development alongside academic subjects sets St Bees students head and shoulders above the rest.

Through our Global Awareness Programme, every student learns essential life skills that will help them develop confidence, presentation, problem-solving and teamwork abilities – something that many schools don’t cover.

On the academic side of things, we’ve taken the best of the education system here in the West and merged it with what education in the East can provide to create a true fusion learning experience.

This helps our students balance their personal character development and their academic success and gives them the confidence to prove that they are prepared for the future – both in their studies and as a person.

All students also learn Mandarin from the moment they start with us. China is a huge influence when it comes to developing the future of our world, and giving our students the ability to speak Mandarin fluently by the time they leave the school gives them a skill that not many other 16 or 18-year-olds have and that will be a massive boost with regards to international job opportunities later in life.

St Bees School welcomes students from all over the world. Our global mindset helps international friendships flourish, and our children are able to work alongside and learn from children from other cultures and backgrounds. All this contributes to our dedication to character development and preparing our students for an international future.

Vision
To develop the next generation of global leaders

Mission
To provide the educational environment required to develop the next generation of global leaders, combining:

• Fusion - integrating the best of West and East
• Academic attainment (IQ) in balance with character development (EQ)
• Nurturing virtues
• A global school with a world of opportunities
• Future - equipped with the mindset and ability to succeed in the future world…

… which will build on Archbishop Grindal’s legacy.

Values

• Empathetic, respectful, responsible – promoted through the House system and lived through the School ethos
• Resilient – the ability to set and achieve personal targets and to cope flexibly with change, developed through the School’s personal tutoring system
• Caring and considerate – a commitment to service and to improving the lives of others, developing the maturity to understand the needs of others and promoting their interests within a tolerant residential community
• Principled – acting with integrity and honesty, taking responsibility for one’s own actions and understanding the consequences
• Reflective – finding ways to be better, striving to understand our strengths and weaknesses to improve ourselves and the world around us.