WHY WORK FOR US?

ABOUT ADVANTAGE SCHOOLS

At Advantage Schools, we aim to provide all children with the highest quality of teaching of an excellent curriculum, which enables them to become highly educated and active participants of society.

We provide sector-leading professional development offer and extensive networking opportunities, and excellent opportunities to develop and grow in a successful and expanding trust

ABOUT BEDFORD FREE SCHOOL

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.   We now wish to appoint more outstanding professionals to join our team.

Our staff will:

• share our values of respect, honesty and high expectations
• believe that every student, regardless of background is capable of the highest level of behaviour and academic success
• be expert in their subject

In return we offer well-motivated, polite and hard-working pupils and the opportunity to join an exciting school as it begins its next phase of development. We believe in 'growing our own' staff and as such, there are always opportunities for further training and career progression. We have a reasonable approach to workload with our 'no marking' feedback policy, no requirement for formal lesson plans, and a large amount of professional autonomy. 

WELCOME LETTER FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your interest in joining Bedford Free School. BFS is a very successful school. In the last three years the measure has been available, pupils achieved progress 8 scores of 0.9, 0.99 and 1.11, placing us amongst the top 40 to 50 schools in the country. Our last Ofsted report, in January 2025, reaffirmed that we are outstanding in all categories.

Our school values of Respect, Honesty and High Expectations drive what we do every single day to ensure that we give our students the best possible education. If you are able to visit, you will see an address on our values delivered to the whole school in the playground at the start of the day, extended time given to numeracy, literacy, knowledge quizzes and reading, silent, purposeful corridors and other carefully planned, consistently implemented routines, impeccable student behaviour in lessons and around school, and extra-curricular activities which every pupil takes part in.

We have no onerous marking policies, graded lesson observations or appraisal, written reports or requirements to submit lesson planning. We centralise detentions so that teachers aren’t all chasing their own. Our leadership team are highly visible, supporting teachers and maintaining order.

We value curricular thought and subject expertise, believing that every pupil is entitled to learn the best and most life changing knowledge human cultures have to offer, and are unashamedly ambitious about the fact that our pupils deserve us to work hard so that they achieve some of the very best outcomes in the country.

We also know that we don’t have everything right yet and are committed to learning from expert professionals and other schools who are doing things better than we are.

In short, this a unique opportunity to join a successful school where teachers can get on and teach—and pupils can get on and learn—unhindered by unnecessary bureaucracy, poor behaviour, or low expectations, and contribute your expertise to our mission to be one of the very best schools in the country.

If you are a well-qualified expert looking to work with truly wonderful students and staff, I would encourage you to visit and see how we do things for yourself. We are situated in the heart of Bedford, just 30 minutes from London, and welcome visitors at any time during the school day.

Tom Wood

Principal

INTEGRITY AMBITION EXCELLENCE

We are a unique family of schools, sharing our practice and beliefs to enable young people to achieve the very highest standards. At Advantage Schools, we provide exceptional opportunities for all to be knowledgeable with experiences that broaden horizons. We ensure our children, students and adults cultivate a strong self-belief so that they can flourish and develop into successful, well- rounded, self-respecting people.  Our commitment to this vision can be demonstrated by our values.

INTEGRITY

We:  provide a caring, nurturing environment where children and young adults feel happy, healthy and supported. Our academies will be places of safety, enabling pupils to develop courage, strong ambition and be the best that they can be act honestly and transparently, advocating for pupils even when this causes difficulties work together to share innovative practice and to provide a wealth of opportunities for all pupils and staff focus on the development of all our colleagues through quality recruitment and retention, with excellent opportunities for clear and dynamic career progression.

AMBITION

We:  provide exceptional lessons enabling our pupils to be highly successful. We share the most impactful approaches to teaching, curriculum and assessment, ensuring an interesting, inclusive and challenging education is on offer in each of our schools.  Our aim is to guarantee excellent 2-19 provision, with clear progression routes for all. You can expect excellent behaviour and conduct at all times, allowing all to make progress and achieve.

EXCELLENCE

We:  enable all of our pupils to develop and flourish, through close working and regular communication with our families and local community.  Our Cross-Trust focus is to ensure children are supported to meet ambitious targets and to provide exciting opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom.

CAREER PROGRESSION

At Advantage Schools, we are committed to helping every colleague grow, thrive, and achieve their full potential. Supporting career progression is at the heart of what we do.

To empower our staff, we provide fully funded opportunities to study for NPQs, along with tailored middle leader training for eligible colleagues.

Additionally, we offer a wide range of CPD training through various partnerships and platforms, giving all staff access to an extensive selection of professional development courses.

Join us and take your career to the next level with our exceptional development opportunities!