According to the Good Schools Guide, "Thoroughly unpretentious yet with lots to boast about, Bradfield is a heavenly place to learn and to grow.

As a tribute to his father, he set about restoring St Andrew's Church, Bradfield and commissioned Sir Gilbert Scott (one of whose architect sons, John Oldrid Scott, was later to marry Thomas Stevens's eldest daughter, Mary Anne) to effect the restoration.

Their education was to be based upon 'true Church principles', with focus to be paid on reading, writing, mathematics, and music, and later on, classics and history.

Soon after the formal establishment of the college, all references to 'true Church principles' were dropped, with the focus now being on providing an education like that of other British Public Schools.

The students who act in them receive no formal training in speaking Ancient Greek, and have only nine months to learn the lines and direction, while keeping up with their studies.

The 2023 Oedipus the King was the first hybrid production; the choral elements were performed in Ancient Greek, alongside scenes in Modern English.

?-1868 S. P. Denning 1868–1869 Henry Hayman 1869–1872 J. S. Hodson 1872–1877 F. A. Souper 1877–1880 Charles Thomas Crutwell 1880–1910 Herbert Branston Gray 1910–1919 Harold Costley-White 1914 to 1928 Beloe ?

Stevens was educated at Tonbridge School and then read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University, from where he received his MA.

He began his teaching career as a college lecturer while researching for a DPhil in Italian literature at Oxford University.

In December 2024, after a selection process, the Warden of the college announced that Jeremy Quartermain would succeed Stevens as Headmaster at the beginning of the 2025/26 academic year.

Since September 2012 Bradfield has offered the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) alongside the traditional A Level pathway.

In 2019 the last service was held at St Andrew's Church, with the college subsequently purchasing the building from the Diocese of Oxford, before then being deconsecrated.

[9] Each August, the college serves as the 'base camp' for the Bradfield Ringing Course, which aims to improve the standard of change-ringing in the United Kingdom.