Chronicle 687

13 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

work more closely with other independent schools in Oxford to coordinate our partnership work with state-funded schools and local charities. We have plans to publish new reading lists for subjects, to train pupils in the Sixth Form to act as academic mentors for the Shell and Fourth Form, to become a centre for the training of teachers in Maths and Physics, to give pupils more access to university lectures in Oxford, and to encourage more participation in external essay competitions. We also have plans to develop inter-House sport, to host our first Model United Nations conference, to work with the careers services at Oxford and at Oxford Brookes, and to involve parents even more in the careers programme. We obviously have ambitious plans for the estate too – starting work on the new facilities for sport on the Field Side and on the extension and refurbishment of the Chemistry and Physics laboratories on the Quad Side. How do you ensure, in the midst of so many advancements, that Teddies retains its very special ethos so beloved of generations of pupils and staff? That’s been our absolute priority for the last four years, and it will always be our priority.

Ethos, character, values – they don’t come from strategy documents, Governors or Wardens. They come from all the people who work at Teddies, who go to school at Teddies, from all the people who have been part of the Teddies community in the past and who want to see Teddies thrive in the future. Among all the facts and figures of the last few years, we’re very pleased and very proud that more and more OSE are interested in Teddies for their children – if you wanted proof that we have taken the School forward but kept the ethos the same, I don’t think you need to look any further. Lots of things have been new at St Edward’s in the last four years, and many more will change over the next few years – but it’s still Teddies, and it always will be.

richness of super-curricular life at Teddies. The Academic Review has been good for teachers’ scholarship too – it includes articles and papers written not only by pupils but also by teachers at Teddies. The same is true for Time To Read – the reading strategy which we launched in September 2022 and which gives teachers time in every week to read for pleasure together with pupils. We’ve also created more formal structures for lesson observations within and between departments, to encourage more conversations about teaching and learning. Learning isn’t confined to academic departments though and we have done a lot of work to provide more in-service training for all staff at Teddies, encouraging further study and further qualifications. horizon for the Teddies community? We have a lot of plans for 2025-26 – it is going to be another busy year! We have plans to create programmes for pupils from high schools in America and in Europe to join the Upper Sixth for a year, enriching our community and broadening our pupils’ horizons. Closer to home, we’re aiming to What should parents look out for in the coming academic year? What is on the

Boarding teaches you above everything, how to co-exist. OSCAR PINEY, LOWER SIXTH PUPIL

Isla Martin, Ana Galvani-Silva, Isla Scott-Dalgleish and Poppy Burdett with HM Sam Munday-Webb in Jubilee