Bedford School admits girls from September 2027. Its own FAQs end Saturday morning lessons and make Burnaby the girls' house. A petition against has 526 signatures.
Bedford School will admit girls from September 2027, ending 475 years as a boys-only school. The Harpur Trust announced it on 28 August. A petition asking the governors to suspend the change had 526 signatures when we checked it on Friday.
The school has now published its own detailed answers to what happens next, in a booklet and a long set of FAQs on its website. They contain several concrete changes that go well beyond admitting girls, and one of them affects every family at the school from the year the girls arrive.
Saturday mornings change for everyone
From the 2027-28 academic year, core curricular academic lessons will no longer take place on Saturday mornings. The school says this is to give pupils and families more flexibility.
Saturdays do not empty out. Fixtures still run, and pupils picked for a school team are still expected to play. Rehearsals, concert practices and boarders’ activities continue. Saturday mornings will instead offer optional revision clinics, academic support and enrichment.
Games moves too. Thursday afternoons are unchanged, with the whole Upper School playing sport together for two hours. The session that used to fall on Tuesday afternoons moves elsewhere in the week, which the school says lets professional coaches and specialist staff lead it.
What the school says will happen from September 2027
Taken from the school’s own published FAQs:
- Girls join all year groups, subject to places and the usual admissions criteria.
- Girls can board flexi, weekly or full, from Year 7 upwards, in both the Prep and Upper Schools.
- Burnaby becomes the girls’ boarding house, redeveloped before the first girls arrive.
- For now, Burnaby also serves as the girls’ day house, so they have somewhere to change and socialise without boys present.
- Day and boarding houses in the Upper School stay single-sex.
- Girls and boys are taught together in the same classrooms across the school.
- A new Sixth Form Centre is being built, with a cafe, working areas and meeting rooms overlooking the library garden.
- CCF continues in partnership with Bedford Girls’ School.
- A review of the curriculum and academic structures is underway, with more to be shared when it finishes.
On staffing, the school says 85 per cent of its teachers have previously taught in co-educational schools, its staff body is evenly split between men and women, and 40 per cent of heads of department are women.
The petition, and what it asks for
The petition is titled “Stop Bedford School Becoming Co-educational, Keep It Boys-Only Now” and is addressed to Michael Sloan, the school’s Head Master. It is published anonymously. Its organiser contacted The Bedford Times to say he started it and is the grandfather of a current pupil.
It asks for four things:
- that governors and trustees immediately suspend further co-educational admissions
- an independent impact assessment on teaching quality, pastoral care and campus facilities
- an open consultation with parents, pupils, staff and alumni, to a clear timetable
- publication of the options, financial implications and timelines, and a formal vote by stakeholders before any final commitment
Its argument is that the change affects traditions, teaching approaches and an identity that generations of families expected, and that it was announced without clear consultation.
Two points of accuracy are worth setting straight, because the petition’s own wording blurs them. The school has not “recently been changed” to co-educational: girls do not arrive until September 2027. And the announcement came from the Harpur Trust, the charity that runs Bedford School alongside Bedford Girls’ School, Bedford Modern School and Pilgrims, rather than from the Head Master alone.
Was there a consultation?
This is the real dispute, and the two sides describe it differently in their own published words.
The Harpur Trust’s announcement says the decision followed “extensive research, consultation with parents and careful consideration of the changing landscape for independent education”. The school’s FAQ uses similar language: “extensive research, parent engagement and careful consideration of how the needs and expectations of families are evolving”.
Neither document says who was consulted, how many people took part, when it happened, or whether alumni and current pupils were included. Neither publishes a result. The petition’s demand is for a consultation with a published timetable and published financial implications, which is a different thing from research and engagement.
The school’s answer, in effect, is a series of information events for families, in person and online, alongside its regular open mornings, with current parents booking through the school portal.
The rest of the Trust’s announcement
The co-ed decision came inside a wider investment announcement covering all four Harpur Trust schools:
- Bedford School: co-education from September 2027, a girls’ boarding house and a new Sixth Form Centre.
- Bedford Girls’ School: a new music centre and recital space, a Wellbeing Hub, more investment in sport, a careers Pathways Programme for Years 10 to Upper Sixth and extra Sixth Form subjects.
- Bedford Modern School: a refurbished classroom suite reopening, a new multi-faith prayer room, site-wide Wi-Fi upgrade and a refreshed reception.
- Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School: expanded provision for children from nine months to four years, with up to 30 hours a week of childcare funding for eligible families.
David Steadman, chief executive of the Harpur Trust, said: “The world of education is changing rapidly, and we continually review how our schools can best meet the needs of current and future generations.”
The Trust says the schools are not in financial difficulty, and Bedford School’s FAQ says the same: the move is made “from confidence about Bedford School’s future”.
What it means for you
If you have a daughter and were looking at Bedford Girls’ School or Bedford Modern: from September 2027 there is a third Harpur Trust option in the town, and it takes girls into every year group rather than at set entry points.
If your son is at Bedford School now: the change that lands on him is the school week, not the intake. Saturday morning lessons stop in 2027-28, and the Tuesday afternoon Games session moves. His house stays single-sex.
If you are a boarding family: Burnaby becomes the girls’ house, so a boy currently in Burnaby or expecting a place there will be affected. The school has not published which house those pupils move to.
If you want to ask questions: the school is running information events, in person and online, and lists them on its co-education page. Current parents book through My School Portal.
What is not yet published: fees, the number of girls expected in each year group, which house Burnaby’s current boys move to, and what the curriculum review concludes. The school says it will share more as plans develop.
Sources
- The Harpur Trust Announces Major Investments Across Its Schools, The Harpur Trust, 28 August 2026
- Welcoming Girls from September 2027, including the FAQs, Bedford School
- Our History, Bedford School
- Stop Bedford School Becoming Co-educational, Keep It Boys-Only Now, mypetition.org, signature count checked 5 September 2026
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