Bedales student Olivia Brett (16, from Rogate, West Sussex) has been selected for a prestigious School Leadership Award by national educational trust the Rank Foundation, which aims to ‘nurture leaders for the benefit of society’.
Now in her final GCSE year at the senior school having joined from Bedales Prep, Dunhurst, Olivia has received this award in recognition of her outstanding leadership potential.
Keith Budge, Headmaster of Bedales, comments:
“Olivia leads not only by example and inspiration, but also through organisational energies and sheer talent. Although she is a very fine academic and an outstanding example of a scholarly student, it is in music where she shows her leadership potential most clearly. Olivia is an exceptionally gifted musician, both academically and practically and is an outstanding singer”.
Rank scholars attend a leadership day each year and undertake two community action placements with youth projects. On completion of A Level studies, they then join the Rank Fellowship and continue their association with the Foundation, whose members include cricketer Chris Adams and Simon Beaufoy, winner of an Oscar for the screenplay of Slumdog Millionaire.
To strengthen the school’s outreach, Bedales has been broadening its bursary provision over the last couple of years under the umbrella of the John Badley Foundation (JBF). The school has recently made two further Badley scholarship awards for students to join its prep school and sixth form in September 2012 and is keen to hear from young people who would like to join the scheme next year. Ideal candidates will be those who will make the most of such a life-changing opportunity and have the potential to make a positive contribution to both their own and the Bedales communities. Bedales is also one of a handful of schools in the UK developing a pilot project in partnership with children’s charity Buttle UK, to expand dramatically the availability of fully funded boarding places available for vulnerable children.