For the first twenty-four years, Modern Tutorial College, or MTC, offered one-term, one-year and eighteen-month courses, specialising in helping students change the whole direction of their lives in a very short space of time. In the case of retakes, a typical scenario was that of a student with A-level grades of, for example, BDE who would arrive in September and need A or B grades by the following January in order to gain entry to competitive courses, and to make up for educational difficulties in his or her past. This was duly achieved for numerous students, when four months of intensive work at MTC had a positive effect on the next forty years of the student's life. During this period, we offered retakes and first-time courses covered in full in one year or eighteen months at both O- and A-level. Nationally, then, a small percentage of school leavers went on to higher education, whereas about 50% now do so.

 

The advent of GCSE, including coursework, in 1988 had a major impact on all educational establishments, and tutorial colleges were not exempt. Our response to this was to implement a major overhaul of all our teaching programmes, under the direction of the former Vice Principal and current Head of Examinations, which meant that we were doing far more teaching from the basics, and at a slower pace; less tutorial and more school. We registered with the Department for Education and Skills, as a school, in 1989, and accepted school-age students for the first time while introducing two-year programmes at both GCSE and A level. We still catered for students changing school at short notice.

 

In 1995 the college purchased the adjacent former Vicarage of St John's Church and converted the building into residential accommodation, enabling us to accept boarders for the first time. We also stopped teaching one-term A-level retake courses in the same year, in favour of a commitment to providing a continuous four-year programme from age 14 through to A-level. The college was re-named Bales College to mark these major changes. We continued our style of bringing students together in small classes, and of providing an interpersonal type of teaching aimed at having students improve across the ability range. Developments nationally have caused us to make further changes, and we are moving ever closer to a school while maintaining our particular expertise and using our experience in the way we teach and get the best out of young people.

 

 

In 2001/02, we ran an experimental Year 9 class for 13 year olds and following the success of this, we introduced a Year 9 programme on a permanent basis in September 2003. The gradual transition from tutorial to independent school moved further forward.

 

With the construction of the new science laboratories and ICT suite completed and the acquisition of a minibus fleet, we continue to see rapid change at Bales College. The future is bright!

 

To register your interest in Bales College, please contact us or use the enquiry form to obtain a prospectus.

 

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Also within this section:

• Why choose Bales?     • Staff List        • Inspections

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