Bede's is a large independent school in East Sussex. About 800 children, aged between 13 and 18, attend the school, as both boarders and day pupils. The school has built its reputation on providing the opportunty for all pupils to find joy in ther pursuit of brilliance; as such, it has enabled those pupils to flourish in a variety of areas away from the conventional school curriculum - sport is very strong, there is a big emphasis on art and the creative subjects, there is a separate dance school - and there is the zoo.

It is unlikely that anyone looking at Bede's would question why we have a Mathematics Department. Or a Dining Hall. Or a string of Football pitches.

We're a school, and schools tend to have such things.

It might not be so immediately obvious, however, why we have a small zoo within the school grounds. A small zoo that, at the last count, contained about 40 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish and invertebrates.

The answer is several-fold, and the benefits the zoo brings to us, tangible and intangible, are many.

Most obviously, the collection we hold in the zoo forms the cornerstone on which is built the Sixth Form BTEC Animal Management course. This course provides a superb opportunity for those pupils who wish to work with animals, wild or domestic, or who wish to have something unusual to sit alongside their scientific qualifications. Since we started offering the course, in 2013, we have seen 89 pupils complete their BTEC qualification, with around 90% doing so at distinction level. Pupils who have undertaken the course have moved on to study veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing, zoology, conservation – and many other courses not directly connected with animals. Several of our alumni have gone on to work in zoos and aquaria around Great Britain, and further afield – with one former pupil working at Singapore Zoo, and another monitoring whale and dolphin populations in the English Channel.

The collection also provides the location for one of the school's most popular activities: the Zoological Society. Each week, large numbers of pupils are able to spend their afternoons feeding the Binturongs, cleaning out the Royal Pythons’ vivarium, or rearranging the branching in the home of the Spinifex Hopping Mice. And as part of their “Flourisg” curriculum, all of our First Year pupils undertake a course based in the school zoo, exploring issues faced by the wildlife of the world. We want to give our pupils access to a festival of opportunity - and the school zoo is very much an important part of that.

The zoo also enables us to look beyond our own school campus. The facility allows the school to participate in a number of national breeding programmes of endangered species: European Polecats, bred in Upper Dicker, have been released into the wild, in the Brecon Beacons; offspring from our Hazel Dormice have, similarly, returned to the wild to help replenish depleted natural populations. Meanwhile, pupils and staff from the school are involved with the breeding and tracking of wild Dormice, a small population of which is struggling to maintain a foothold in Sussex.

The Bede’s Zoo is not, primarily, a facility for sightseers: it is a working part of a school rather than a visitor attraction. However, each month we welcome many groups to the school zoo – from local schools, disadvantaged children, from our own Prep School, or anyone who is interested in the work we are doing.

Perhaps above all of this, however, we feel that a connection with animals is enriching, calming, fulfilling. Feeding mealworms to a Collared Lizard, gaining the trust of a Kinkajou, or simply appreciating the beauty of our Grandidier’s Vontsiras - beautiful Madagascan carnivores - brings something to the lives of the young people who are privileged to be able to enjoy these opportunities.

And, for all of these reasons, we are delighted that, alongside the school's Media Studies Studio, its Squash Courts and Swimming Pool, its boarding houses and Art School and Cricket Pavilion, there is also a small collection of animals at Bede's which have come to us from all around the world.