Bedford Academy is part of the HEART Academies Trust in Bedford and has existed as an Academy for nine years. The school has grown from an Upper School to a Secondary School and has been continuously making progress in terms of student outcomes.

Bedford Academy puts great emphasis on developing student employability skills, resilience and career management skills, while guiding them to explore and develop career ideas and high aspirations. Some of the academy’s achievements include winning School of the Year Careers Excellence Award 2019 and being the first school in South East England to meet all eight Gatsby Good Career Guidance Benchmarks in July 2018.

Why EtonX courses?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and students were forced to learn remotely, the Academy was keen to continue offering students the same great opportunities that they would normally offer face to face as part of their award-winning careers and extra-curricular programmes.

Mr Dave Marsham, Achievement Leader for More Able Students, was keen to find courses which best suited where each year group was in their academic journey. He was particularly impressed by the pedagogical quality of the EtonX courses, as well as the flexible nature of the self-paced study which fit well with students’ busy remote learning schedules.

Year 12 and 13 students completed courses aligned with the Gatsby Benchmarks, such as Making an Impact or Resilience which align to benchmarks 1 and 3. Students in Years 9–11 participated in courses such as Public Speaking to boost their extra-curricular activities and replace in-person opportunities that the school would normally offer.