Chronicle Spring 2022

7 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

wellbeing. The Teddies Talks series on pastoral themes will provide the model on which we will build, just as the Shell dinners of previous years have provided the model for the invitations which Zannah and I are looking forward to extending to all parents every year. It’s the 25th anniversary of being fully co-educational this year, and the 40th anniversary of the first Sixth Form girls arriving at the School. Why is co-education so important in modern education? Every child is different, every parent’s decision about their education is unique, and there are great schools educating boys and girls separately – so co-education is not a precondition for a successful school or an excellent education. At the same time, it’s very unlikely that anyone opening a new school today would want to open anything other than a co-educational school. From all that we read in the newspapers and see around us in society, it is clear that we need more togetherness, more diversity, more integration. We certainly don’t need more separateness or more exclusivity. The purpose of education is to prepare children to take their places in society and to lead successful and fulfilling lives.

especially as we are aiming for an equal balance between boys and girls in five years’ time. The first diggers will be onsite in the autumn. The plan covers much more than sport though – new teaching spaces, better reception facilities for visitors and for visiting teams, less traffic and more security on the Field Side, more accommodation for staff. For the second, there are so

many plans that they would make up a Chronicle article by themselves. One good example is the way in which we engage with parents – we are changing the way in which we report on pupils’ progress and we are creating new opportunities for dialogue with parents about the most important aspects of their children’s education, about their development as people, about their

Deputy Head Academic David Flower gives a talk on Malcolm X’s visit to Oxford in 1964 as part of Academic Forum – an engaging series of evening talks by staff and visiting speakers open to all pupils