Chronicle Summer 2024

SUMMER 2024 | VOLUME XLII | NUMBER 686

CHRONICLE

In the footsteps of Olivier The illustrious history of Drama at Teddies

Future Forward

Be More Fred Remembering a beloved teacher and friend

A considered approach to technology and education

ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Dates for the Diary

You are warmly encouraged to make a note of the following important school events, most of which are open to parents. If you are not able to attend in person some of these events will be recorded – details will follow in E News.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival MONDAY 5TH – SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST Cup & Dagger Productions performs Honk! at theSpace @ Niddry Street, Edinburgh Book at edfringe.com Zoom Briefing for International Parents FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER Rugby: 1st XV v Merchant Taylors’ School FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER The University of Oxford RFC, Iffley Road The Steeplechase THURSDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER The annual cross-country races are preceded by Academic Briefings for Shell and Lower School parents; lunch and the Autumn Parents' Briefing for all parents. Steeplechase Tea will be served by the Martyrs Pavilion for race spectators Launch of Teddies UP! SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER Academic enrichment sessions for local primary school children House Bumps WEDNESDAY 9TH – FRIDAY 11TH OCTOBER The tradition of bumps races returns to Teddies with Houses competing on the River Thames over three days The Shell Plays SATURDAY 12TH OCTOBER

The Ballet Recital SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER A Festival of Fireworks SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER The School Musical: Our House WEDNESDAY 20TH – SATURDAY 23RD NOVEMBER The School Carol Service in Chapel SUNDAY 1ST DECEMBER The London Carol Service WEDNESDAY 4TH DECEMBER St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road W14 8AH The Bands’ Concert SUNDAY 19TH JANUARY The Choral & Orchestral Concert SUNDAY 2ND FEBRUARY House Plays MONDAY 10TH – WEDNESDAY 12TH FEBRUARY The Spring Dance Shows TUESDAY 4TH – SATURDAY 8TH MARCH Spring Parents’ Briefing FRIDAY 14TH MARCH

Cover image: Tildy de la Rosa, Sword of Honour, RAF, on CCF Inspection Day, photographed by Rory Cruickshank

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Word from the Warden

service of this year’s leavers. We also look back at more recent productions in our dazzling and colourful spread from page 34. I am grateful to David Flower, Sub-Warden Academic, and to Charles Wallendahl, Head of Theology, Philosophy and Ethics, for overseeing and setting out so clearly on page 22 such a balanced approach to the use of technology at St Edward’s. Our pupils’ wellbeing can be dramatically affected by their digital experiences, and we are determined at St Edward’s to do everything that we can to protect them and to set the foundation for their future habits. In my interview from page 6, I reflect on the progress which we have made over the last three years. This is the third Chronicle since I started as Warden in 2021, and I am very proud not only of all the achievements which it celebrates but also of the way in which staff and pupils have worked together this year to realise so many of our objectives. This dynamic, ambitious school continues to go from strength to strength, and I feel very privileged to be leading Teddies through this exciting period of growth and development. Elsewhere, we celebrate sporting silverware and success; we capture the joy and camaraderie of our Gaudy performances; we enjoy the stunning artwork created by our departing Upper Sixth; and we introduce the pupil leadership teams who will play such a big part in the life of the School next year.

As we look back on the end of the Summer Term and another year in the life of the School, I am delighted to introduce the 2024 edition of the Chronicle . Ceremony, spectacle and a strong sense of togetherness have been the defining features of the year, and they are the golden threads in this edition. We enjoyed the brilliant spectacle of the CCF Inspection in April and of the gathering of the whole School – pupils, staff, parents, Governors and friends – to celebrate the refoundation of the Quad at the tree planting ceremony in March. The significance of the moment and its place in the continuum of our history was captured by Heads of School Prisca Olagunju and George Freeland as they anticipated their return to Teddies as OSE to sit under the tree and to catch up with old friends. Everyone who saw it was captivated by the beauty and the brilliance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream , performed en plein air on Field Side on glorious summer evenings during Gaudy Week. Staged to mark the 100th anniversary of Laurence Olivier’s performance as Puck when he was a pupil at Teddies, the production prompted School Archivist Chris Nathan to take us back to the early years of Drama at Teddies from page 29, celebrating the many successes during the era of Wilfrid Cowell, whose 57 years at Teddies surpass even the extraordinary

Heads of School Prisca Olagunji and George Freeland dig in the Quad's new Cedar of Lebanon

The Chronicle Editor-in-Chief: Tracy van der Heiden Editor: Bonnie Robinson robinsonb@stedwardsoxford.org Contributing Editor: Chris Nathan, School Archivist There has been sadness too, and alongside its celebration of the year this edition of the Chronicle includes tributes to those whom we lost this year: Fred Tao, Gail Benson and John Adedoyin OSE. You can read about their lives and their contribution to our community from page 38. Zannah and I wish you a wonderful summer, and look forward to seeing you in September.

Picture Editor: Anna Cole Design: Chris York Design Find out more

Stay in touch with all the latest news by following our social media accounts. On Instagram @stedwardsoxford On LinkedIn St Edward’s School, Oxford St Edward’s School is registered in England and Wales as a charitable company limited by guarantee. Registered No.116784. Registered Offi ce: Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 7NN. Registered Charity No. 309681.

The School gathers in the Quad for the tree planting

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Teddies’ Girls’ VIII

Prefects and Heads of School

Top: Teddies’ Girls’ VIII secured silver in the National Schools’ Regatta, rowing through Henley Rowing Club and Headington in the final sprint. Congratulations to the crew: Katie Coates, Anna-Theresa Hoensbroech, Aisling FitzPatrick, Olivia Brotherton, Louisa Molloy, Julia Simmonds, Izzy Johnson, Kayleigh Batchelor, and Lucy Evans. Bottom, from left: Omolara Sowande, Jasper Fritze, Freya Heath, Charlie Hutton, Roli Oseragbaje, Corban Goodsell, Amber Butler-Adams, Will Mowat, Ollie Rogers, Aisling FitzPatrick, Rowan Campbell, Fifi Pucks-Fazel (Head of School), Cecily Brown, Bertie Gowen (Head of School) and Heather Young

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CCF Inspection Day

Top row, from left: Cpl Rafe Simpson receiving his Commendation Medal from Air Cdre (Ret’d) David Bradshaw (OSE Apsley); Sjt Marine Robert (Sword of Honour, Army) with Sgt Tildy de la Rosa (Sword of Honour, RAF) leading the Guard of Honour

Middle row, from left: Calvin Mok, Ayaka Kondo, Rosie Van der Gucht and Julia Zhu of the Concert Band; Sjt Harry Joslin (Wakeling Stick, Army) with Air Cdre (Ret’d) David Bradshaw and Sjt Marine Robert. Inset: Cadet Lydia Arnander-Richings, winner of the inaugural Fred Tao Award

Bottom row, from left: Prize Winners Sjt Harry Joslin (Wakeling Stick, Army); Sgt Tildy de la Rosa (Sword of Honour, RAF); Sjt Marine Robert (Sword of Honour, Army); PO Charlie Spencer (Sultan Award, Navy) and Cpl Sade McNichols-Thomas (Hopes Award, RAF) with CCF Contingent Commander, Sqn Ldr Nick Coram-Wright RAFAC, and Air Cdre (Ret’d) David Bradshaw; RAF cadets in the Guard of Honour preparing for the Inspection

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The Warden

The Girls' 1st XI on Chestnut

Tracy van der Heiden, Head of Communications, speaks to the Warden at the close of his third year at St Edward’s to take the temperature of the School, to find out what comes next and to explore the particular characteristics of Teddies which have contributed to its significant growth and development in recent years.

You’ve been at St Edward’s for three years now. Do you feel that you have delivered on the plans which you unveiled when you joined the School? Absolutely – in fact, I think that we have achieved even more in the last three years than I thought possible when I started as Warden. Oxford Lectures, Oxford Days, the St Edward’s Fellows have developed

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Reflects

have put service front and centre. There’s more to do – but I think that we have done a lot!

combination of ambition and friendliness, rigour and warmth. It’s the sense of fun that staff and pupils bring to every day that makes the culture at Teddies. There’s a huge sense of belonging – I think that people at Teddies know that they’re part of something special. That’s why people stay working here for so long, and why the end of the Summer Term brings such mixed emotions for the leavers.

the culture of scholarship. Our progress in building new netball and tennis courts and in refurbishing Mac’s, Segar’s and Tilly’s has delivered even more excellence in our facilities. Teddies Collaborates is now fully established in the Lower Sixth and rolling down into the Lower School. Together with the new mentoring schemes and the new avenues for pupil voice, those initiatives

People often say that the culture of Teddies is very special. How would you define it? They’re absolutely right – the culture at Teddies really is special. I’ve visited a lot of schools around the world, and in fact I’d say that the culture here is unique. It’s the

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How is it continually strengthened and preserved? Culture takes years to build – and it’s not enough to preserve it. If you don’t keep building it, strengthening it, there’s a real risk that you’ll lose it. The most important part of my job as Warden is to bring people into the School who will not just embrace the Teddies culture but also want to develop it further. We have done a lot of work on values in the last three years too, and I think it’s made a real difference. We

How would you summarise academic developments since you and David Flower, Sub-Warden Academic, joined Teddies? How do they resonate with the wider world of university study and careers? I’d say first that academic developments and achievements come from everybody’s work, not just mine and David’s. If pupils aren’t thriving in the co-curriculum and happy at school, they won’t do well in their studies. There’s a huge super-curriculum for you to explore. Before you know it, you will be competing for your House in school debating challenges or taking a trip into Oxford to listen to pioneering professors of Physics. FIFI

more emphasis on the academic. We’ve told pupils that they need to work hard – “time equals grades” is one of my favourite phrases – and we have made sure that they all have time to do just that. It’s also about culture, and we have had huge success in building the academic culture in the last three years. The Oxford Lectures have really taken off: since September, eight Oxford Professors have given talks at Teddies. On average, that’s one every three weeks in Autumn and Spring. There have been many more Oxford Days of learning in the city, and we now have seven St Edward’s Fellows, postgraduate students from Oxford, working with

talk a lot about integrity, kindness and courage. But talk’s cheap, and it’s much more important to act, to take every decision with those values in mind. David Christie, the

our pupils and teachers. It’s getting harder beyond Teddies – harder to get into the best universities, harder to get the best jobs – so

11th Warden, gave me a present in my first year. It’s a framed quotation from Confucius, and it’s on the wall in the Warden’s House: “To see the right thing and not to do it is want of courage”. So you’ve got to be able to see what’s right and then be willing to do it – that’s how you strengthen and preserve the culture.

our emphasis on endeavour is absolutely right. It’s also getting harder to decide what to do:

pupils aren’t just choosing between UK universities. They’re choosing between

universities in North America and Europe too. The jobs that they’ll take afterwards are changing all the time, and very fast. Dr Claudia Ord has overseen a huge increase in our careers provision, and James Sinclair is our first Head of Overseas Applications – so whatever they want to do, pupils at Teddies will have Has the new focus on academic ambition meant that there is less time for all the other opportunities? Absolutely not. We haven’t just had our best ever exam results in the last three years. We’ve also had more success in sport than anyone can remember – the boys’ 1st VIII winning Henley and the girls’ coxed four winning championship gold at National Schools last year, the girls’ 1st VIII winning silver at National Schools this year to become the fastest school crew in the country, the boys’ 1st XV getting back into the Daily Mail’s top 30 schools for rugby, the best seasons anyone can remember for hockey and netball, the boys’ 1st XI reaching the quarter-final of the National T20 competition and the girls’ 1st XI finishing fourth in the same competition, the Under 14A boys winning the county cup. 744 pupils represented Teddies at sport this year, in nearly 900 all the advice that they need.

That’s why the partnership between Clare Hamilton as Sub-Warden and David Flower as Sub-Warden Academic is so important. But, to answer your question, my summary would be short and simple: academic developments have been extraordinary! I’d point to the obvious things, like last year’s record-breaking exam results and the incredibly high levels of value added. All the pupils at Teddies take a cognitive ability test when they start, which predicts how they should do in their exams. When they do much better, the gap is the value which their teachers have added – and that gap had never been bigger at Teddies than it was last summer. That’s partly about structures, and it’s absolutely true that we have put

Rowena Ritchie with pupil Ricky Li

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life – in assembly, for example, we always celebrate all the activities in which our pupils are involved, and we try to say as much about participation and atmosphere as we do about outcomes and results. It’s also about making sure that we don’t just celebrate success; we need always to celebrate pupils’ willingness to be involved, whether they are front and centre in a team or a crew, a cast or an ensemble, or backstage in a supporting role. That all sounds very grand, and it’s actually the small things that make the greatest difference. The way the day is structured, the way in which we make sure that pupils have time for everything, the way in which we help them to avoid too many competing demands on their time. Nick Coram-Wright and Alex Tester lead on that in the management team, and they are brilliant at it. And how do you ensure that pupils manage their time so that they do not do too much? The HMs are responsible for that, and the teams of Tutors which they lead in their

fixtures. That’s a huge level of co-curricular achievement – and that’s just in sport. This summer, more than 200 pupils were involved in concerts, even more were on stage in the Dance Show, and I don’t think anyone can remember a more spectacular Gaudy. Backstage and onstage, a huge number of children have done amazing things! We should absolutely focus on academic ambition – it would be a huge disservice to pupils and their parents to do otherwise – but we should not do so to the detriment of anything else. And, on all that evidence, I think we’ve managed to get just the right balance. How do you ensure that the great hallmarks of a Teddies education, the culture of participation and the breadth of opportunity, are upheld? There are two parts to my answer here – the first is about ethos, the second is about practicality. For the first, it’s about making sure that we’re celebrating success in every form that it takes. It’s about inspiring pupils to give their very best in every area of school

Houses. It’s easy to draw up a timetable and to say that everything should work in theory. But things can be very different in practice. If you know a pupil well, you’ll be able to see when they’re getting over-committed, when they’re becoming too busy to do everything well. There’s pressure in life to manage lots of competing demands on our time, and there should be some moments of pressure in school – that’s an important point of learning. There should never be stress though – pupils should never reach a point at which they don’t know what to do next or how to cope. I’ve been meeting with the four new HMs recently, to give them some advice before they take over their Houses in September. I’ve been telling them to make sure that they have at least three conversations with every pupil in their Houses, every day. If you can do that as an HM, you’ll know them all really well and you’ll be able to tell very quickly if it’s all getting too much. There’s an important role for older pupils here too, acting as mentors to the younger pupils, listening to their peers, and making sure that everything’s in balance.

Heather Young and Sasha Oberoi in an Economics class

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Many famous single-sex schools have announced a move to co-education. Teddies has been co-educational for 40 years – how long do you think it takes to establish a fully integrated co-educational community? Has Teddies reached that point? I think that you can effect change in a culture very quickly – the academics at Teddies are a good example of that – but that it takes a very long time to make the change complete, comprehensive. I’d take a step back on this question because, despite all the progress which we have made in our society, there’s still too much inequality between women and men, and more generally too. We have more work to do in those areas at Teddies. On co-education at Teddies, 40 years is a long time but we’re still working to make our community fully integrated. One of the challenges is that most of the Houses are single-sex, most of the sports are played either by girls or by boys. That’s where friendships are often made, and it’s much easier in lessons and in unstructured time to gravitate towards your friends. Unless you’re actively addressing that issue, you won’t have an integrated community. That’s why we’ve started insisting on integrated seating in classrooms. That’s why we pair up boys’ Houses and girls’ Houses for social events and run mixed events for inter-house sport. The new arrangements in the Dining Hall next year will help too, bringing boys and girls together right from the start of their time in the Shell. We’re not there yet, but I think we’re a lot closer to having a fully integrated school than most co-ed schools. And the single-sex schools have a very long way to go! You’ve talked about wanting to make more of the School’s location in Oxford and you have introduced a number of innovative initiatives. Is there more to come in this area? We have done the heavy lifting in this area already, with the Oxford Lectures, Oxford Days, St Edward’s Fellows and all the local placements for Teddies Collaborates. I have a lot of other ideas for Teddies, but I think we have largely mined the Oxford seam! At the same time, we can always get more out of our amazing location. In the next few years, we’ll be finding more local placements for partnership work for pupils in the Lower School as we make service universal. As the society culture develops, there will be even more academics coming to give talks at

Samuel Esezobor, Harry Beale and Theo Williams in the Quad, Ludo Sears with pupils from Cutteslowe Primary School on a Partnerships Day, Judy Li studying in the Roe Reading Room

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put together with the help of OSE, friends of the School, and past and current parents. It includes the contact details of people who are able and willing to help with mentoring, advice and maybe even work experience for current and future pupils. If you’re reading this interview and interested in getting involved, let me know. If you’re reading this interview and already involved, thank you! Pupils completed the annual Pupil Survey last term. What were the strongest themes to emerge from it? Everyone in the management team was really pleased with the returns from the survey! The most important thing in any school – and for every parent – is whether the children are happy there. If you’re not happy, there’s no amount of success that can make up for it. So

centre of the School. Caroline and Claudia will be running our first whole-school careers festival in October, as well as an Enterprise Day for the Fourth Form and a Careers Day for the Fifth Form. We’re also launching the Teddies Business Directory, which we have

Teddies. Lots of the lectures in the University are open to the public, and I think we can do more to get pupils and teachers to hear them. Oxford is not just a university city; it’s also a thriving centre for business and innovation. One of our great strengths is that we’re a day school as well as a

boarding school, so lots of parents (past and present) are local. As we build up the Teddies Business Directory for careers advice and work experience, I think we’ll be able to make much more of our location for careers, getting more of our pupils into local placements. You have just appointed two new Heads of Social Responsibility: Sam Munday Webb, Head of Academic Drama, and Molly Brech, one of the Matrons in Cooper Lodge. What is their immediate focus for the coming year?

There has not been a single day where I have not laughed with my school friends and learnt something new. There is a lot of support, encouragement and kindness. Teddies is a very happy place to be with so much to offer and so many opportunities. NOAH

Sam and Molly have already started in their roles, getting ready for next year. Their first job has been to look at the Calendar, and to make sure that it includes all the events, festivals and points of focus which are important to pupils and staff at Teddies. They have some really exciting ideas: swap shops to promote sustainability in September, poetry and projections in the Quad for Black History Month, and other events to promote kindness, raise awareness, and start conversations. We’ve also commissioned an accessibility audit for the whole school estate, and Sam and Molly will be working closely with Ed Hayter and Richard Hayes, the Bursar and the Estates Bursar, to act on its recommendations. You told us last year that there would be a major focus on the School’s provision for careers. Can you tell us more about this important area? Careers are going to be a really important area for us to develop next year. Dr Claudia Ord, who ran a hugely successful programme at Oxford High School, is going to continue as Head of Employability and Careers. We’ve appointed our first Careers Adviser, Caroline Palethorpe, who will bring a wide range of experience and qualifications to the new Careers Department in September. They will have a new base in the cloister, just next to the Old Library, putting careers right at the

Phoebe Woods, Vanessa Cuatrecasas, Orla Huxtable, Ni Debhakam and Chloe Davids in front of the School's new Cedar of Lebanon in the Quad

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we’ve been much more focused on the negatives than the positives as we’ve analysed the returns. We’ve done a lot of work on pupil voice, but 30% of pupils don’t feel that they have enough opportunities to express their views and only 43% think that they have enough of a say in the running of their Houses. We’ll be working to move those numbers in the right direction next year. Some pupils also wanted more feedback on their work. That’s good and bad: it’s great that they want to do even better, less good that they don’t all think that they get enough commentary on their work. That’s another point of focus for next year. Too many pupils didn’t think that there was enough consistency on the school rules, so we need to make sure next year that everyone’s on the same page. The survey also told us that pupils want more education on personal finance, and we’ll be adding more units about it to the wellbeing curriculum next year. What has been the biggest challenge of the past three years? The biggest challenge has been to manage so many changes all at the same time, but I’ve been very lucky in having such great people to work with in the management team. We’ve also had to work hard to manage the growth in numbers, from 770 when I started to 820

the best figures were those which told us how pupils feel at Teddies. 73% told us that they felt happy at Teddies all or most of the time. We want that number to be 100%, but school isn’t always easy. It’s also not always easy to be a teenager. That number is also 10 percentage points higher than it was last year. We talk a lot about community, so we were really pleased when 92% of pupils at Teddies told us that they felt a sense of belonging here. We’ve tightened up lots of rules in the last few years, most obviously on mobile phones, so I wasn’t expecting the number of pupils who would recommend Teddies to their friends to go up! But it did – from 59% last year to 88% this year. I was also really pleased to see the increase in the number of pupils who think that there are equal opportunities for girls and for boys. It was 57% last year, and it went up to 72% this year. We’ve done a lot of work in that area, so it was great to see it recognised and appreciated in the survey. What are the main points of action as a result of the survey? That’s a much more important question. It’s right that everyone working at Teddies takes pride in the impact of the changes which we’ve made, but it’s much more important that we keep making improvements – so

in September. We’ve had to make sure that building projects don’t compromise pupils’ experience, and that our facilities keep up with the numbers. There’s more work to be done in those areas – but I’m pleased that we’ve nearly reached 840. That’s both our target and – quite rightly to keep the sense of community – our limit. I’d also point to two more challenges, one external and the other internal. It’s a nice problem to have, but it has been difficult to manage the increase in applications for places. We’re dealing with 120% more applications than we were three years ago, so there have been many more decisions to make about admissions – and it’s hard to get them all right. That’s been a real challenge, but I think we’ve developed good new systems to cope with it. Making all the interviews blind has really helped, because it’s allowed us to avoid making the intake too narrow. That’s been the external challenge. Internally, the biggest issue has been making sure that everyone knows what we’re doing – communicating about changes and the reasons for them is just as important as making them. Luckily there’s a great team in the Communications Department – but they have been busy! And what are the challenges to come? The prospect of VAT on school fees and the loss of business rates relief are obviously the

The Quad in June

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Clockwise from top left: Runa Bhandari in the Art Studios, Hero Barton painting a ceramic bowl by hand, Kit Holland, James Turnbull and Will Mowat on the rugby fields, Suri Shah and Noah Barkatali in the Quad, Corban Goodsell and Judi Li in a Chemistry class

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An A Level English trip to All Souls College, Oxford

What have you most enjoyed about Teddies over the past three years? I have loved all of it! It’s the people who make Teddies so special, and Zannah and I have really enjoyed getting to know the community. Whether we have been having lunch with the new Shell, hosting the Upper Sixth for drinks in the Warden’s House on their eighteenth birthdays, welcoming teachers and support staff or groups of parents for informal suppers, or just talking to colleagues in the Quad and on the playing fields, it’s been wonderful to become part of this community. That takes time for anyone joining a new school - and it definitely takes longer if you start as Warden! – but it puts the fun into work and it makes all the work worthwhile. Of all the new developments at the School, which do you think have had the most positive impact on pupils’ experience of the School? Honestly, I think it’s the mobile phone policy. Not everyone will agree with that, but I think that it’s made a huge difference. More pupils

school, but they don’t want them to grow up cloistered away on a campus in the countryside. More parents like the idea of our curriculum for their children too: the fact that children in the Shell can choose their subjects, the option to take Pathways and Perspectives alongside GCSEs, the ability to decide between the IB and A level – they’re all real strengths. I think that more parents and pupils, especially in the Sixth Form, have liked what we have done with our location in Oxford – increasing the number of societies and visiting speakers, running more visits into Oxford, creating more opportunities for service just minutes away by bus or by bike. More than anything, I think we have been successful because more people have liked what they’ve heard about Teddies, and they’ve come to visit. And when they come to visit, they meet such positive, happy children and such inspiring, committed staff that they can really see themselves becoming part of our community. So much success in sport and so much brilliance in the arts – those things have really helped too!

biggest challenges on the horizon. We don’t yet know the details or the timings, but we know that those challenges are coming. We’ve been working hard to generate more commercial income – our revenue from lettings next year is budgeted to be 50% higher than it was two years ago and we’re working hard to sign our first contract for an international school. We’re also working hard to control all our costs. At the same time, we don’t want to compromise our pupils’ experience at Teddies. If it’s becoming more expensive, a Teddies education also needs to become even better, even more worth paying for. Why do you think St Edward’s is enjoying huge popularity now, more so than at any time in its history? I think the biggest factor is that more and more people are subscribing to our philosophy of education: they want their children to do very well academically, but they also want them to have fun at school; they want their children to have all the facilities and opportunities of a boarding

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are involved in sport, music, dance, drama and art than ever before; friendships seem to form more quickly and more securely; we’ve seen a lot less unkindness online, and even more kindness in person. Teddies Collaborates has made a huge difference too. It’s taken pupils outside the “Teddies bubble”, and it’s made them think differently about their lives, about the privileges they have and the ways in which they should use them for the benefit of others. The other development in the last three years which has made a real difference is our work to make more of Oxford – there’s always been a rich intellectual life at Teddies, but it’s now shared more widely.

More pupils are talking about ideas, about the talks they have heard and the speakers who have come into the School. That can only be good for their academic ambitions. It’s also a great catalyst for hard work. To what should pupils and parents look forward in the Autumn Term ahead? Most people reading the Chronicle this summer will want to focus on enjoying their holidays – and that should be their priority! We have a lot of plans for the Autumn Term. We’ll have the bumping races back on the river. We’ll also have Teddies in Flight, our week focused on space and aviation with talks from the astronaut Dick Covey and the Concorde pilot Les Brodie. Pupils preparing their university applications will have more timetabled classes, more reading groups, and more mentoring from the St Edward’s Fellows too. The newly refurbished Dining Hall will make a big impression, and it will be exciting to see the new

Woody Davis, Ricky Li and Livvy Hughes in a Biology class

as Deputy Head Welfare is an important event too. Together with Eve Singfield, he’ll be working hard to develop our structures and to make pastoral care at Teddies even better. They will make a great team. More than anything though, pupils and parents should look forward to more of the same – more ambition, more friendliness, more fun at Teddies. That’s the philosophy that has put the wind in our sails in the last three years, and we won’t be changing tack.

Even though I have only been

at Teddies for a year, it already seems like ages because of all the different activities and fun things that I get to do every day. DRAGOS

carpet, the new colours and the new furniture. Dining will be very different in house groups too, and I think it will be much better. Dr Jim Panton joining the management team

Bethany Marett teaches the art of sketching to Tabitha Bowling and Runa Bhandari

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Guest of Honour Chris Macdonald OSE We were delighted to welcome Chris Macdonald OSE as Guest of Honour at Gaudy this year. Chris was in Cowell’s from 1980 to 1985.

What are your favourite memories from your time at School? The Shell House Play is a favourite, if painful, memory. My brother was the director for our House Play and he attempted the ambitious The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew . There was no nepotism, as I was the second soldier on the left in most scenes. On the night I forgot the one line I had been given, much to my brother’s frustration. I never forgot a line in any future school or university plays or speeches, thanks to that experience. Rowing has always been massively important at Teddies and I was lucky enough to be in the U16 VIII competing at the National Head of the River. The weather on the day was appalling with torrential rain and strong winds. We were a good crew but certainly not amongst the favourites. We watched on nervously as heavier crews sank or ground to a halt in the middle of the Thames, trying to navigate the conditions. Luckily we were a very lightweight crew and by focusing on our collective determination not to sink or drown, we somehow won in our class.

Chris has spent over 30 years in the advertising industry, starting in London as a graduate trainee and most recently based in New York as the Global CEO of McCann. In his role as the CEO of McCann, Chris led one of the biggest advertising communication networks in the world with offices in over 100 countries, with over 10,000 employees and partnering with some of the world’s biggest and most prestigious brands. During his career, Chris has worked across every business sector and with brands like Microsoft, Mastercard, Coca Cola and many others. In his ten years in New York, Chris helped to transform the network’s head office to become the most awarded agency in the US for both creativity and effectiveness. This culminated in McCann being named Adweek North America Network of the year in 2017 and Chris being named Advertising Executive of the year in the Delaney Report. The ultimate accolade came in 2019 when McCann was made Cannes Network of the Year. Chris was the Chair of the Advertising Education Foundation in New York for five years, focusing on building bridges between academia, students and the marketing industry with an emphasis on developing future diverse talent. As he says often, he is not retired but currently resting, before deciding on his next career move. Chris has three

Chris Macdonald in Ball Boys , July 1984

What did you take away from Teddies? How did it shape your adult life? Teddies gave me a self-confidence that I could do anything I wanted to do. This wasn’t arrogance, but came from the way the School created an environment in which you could discover your super power - whether academic, artistic or sporting (or all three!). The culture of Teddies was built on informality, mutual respect and humour. You were never treated like a child or patronised. I have definitely carried these traits with me in my personal and professional life.

grown-up children with Sarah and they now divide their time between London and East Sussex. We grabbed Chris as he came off stage to quiz him about his time at Teddies.

Cowell's 1985 - Chris Macdonald fourth from left, bottom row

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Gaudy 2024

Clockwise from top left: Tristan Reeves-Toy and William Allen play in the Bands Concert, Alex Mather as Ugly and Rowan Campbell as Bullfrog in Honk! , Sasha De Lima Allen and Kostya Gens in Lord of the Flies , Emmie Saidi, Rowan Campbell, Amber Butler-Adams and Honor Weir as ducklings and Edward Maxwell as Drake in Honk! , Ayaka Kondo plays in the Bands Concert, Luisa Raphael as Cat and Alex Mather as Ugly in Honk! , Alex Mather as Ugly in Honk!

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From top: The audience for A Midsummer Night’s Dream recline on picnic blankets and deckchairs in the sunshine, Immy Frost in Lord of the Flies , Anastascia Lind and Anya Firth in the Dance Show

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Clockwise from top left: Haruno and Yuki Watanabe in the Dance Show, crepe paper flowers by Layla Majzub, Ben Mattocks in the tech booth for Lord of the Flies , Omolara Sowande in the Dance Show, The Leavers’ Exhibition in The North Wall Gallery, Rowan Campbell in the Dance Show

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Peter Clements You joined us as Director of Music in September 2023. Tell us a bit about your education and career so far. I was a chorister at Bristol Cathedral and a pupil at Bristol Cathedral School; from there I went to Clare College, Cambridge as an organ scholar, where I read Music. My time in Cambridge provided me with some wonderful opportunities – some of them slightly scary (playing the organ on live broadcasts for Radio 3), some allowing me to witness history in the making at first hand (a tour to Riga, Moscow and Leningrad, as it then was, in the dying days of the USSR) and some bordering on the surreal (recording a CD of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in George Lucas’s Skywalker Studios in deepest California). My first teaching post was in Sussex, at Hurstpierpoint College, a school set in beautiful surroundings on the edge of the South Downs. From Hurstpierpoint I moved to Uppingham, where I was the Head of Academic Music. Uppingham has a very strong musical tradition and I spent 22 happy years there working with some very talented pupils and colleagues. Who or what inspired you to become a musician and to teach music? I think that the experience of performing wonderful music at a high standard five or six days a week as a chorister made a very big impact; it was a great musical education to receive at a very impressionable age, and one that opened my eyes and ears to a huge range of high-quality repertoire. What are your ambitions for Teddies musicians? As a Director of Music one wants pupils to leave the school with a love of music at some level (whether as a performer, creator/composer or listener) – and with a sufficiently broad-minded attitude to be open to exploring unfamiliar musical styles and repertoires. Yes, some pupils will go on to forge very successful musical careers, and one obviously takes great pride and satisfaction in seeing that, but, more broadly, music is a central block of the cultural ‘hinterland’ that we all need to nurture and maintain. Do you have a favourite place in Oxford? I love the atmosphere in some of the college chapels – the ambience of Magdalen Chapel at Evensong on a dark evening, for example. As a family, we’d vote for Mamma Mia, closely followed by the Temptations dessert restaurant on the Banbury Road! What are you currently reading? I am currently reading Citizen Clem by John Bew – a biography of Clement Attlee. I’m fascinated by the way in which such a modest and diffident character could turn out to be one of the most transformational prime ministers of the past century; in a rare flash of wit Margaret Thatcher apparently described Attlee as ‘all substance and no style’. Do you have a favourite piece of music to play or listen to? J S Bach’s Mass in B Minor . I’d be hard pushed to identify any other piece that so perfectly fuses the emotional, intellectual and (arguably) spiritual qualities of music. What can we look forward to in the musical life of Teddies next year? We’re still at the stage of finalising plans for next year but, in addition to the ‘standard’ routine of major musical events in Oxford, we are planning to hold a major concert at a London venue in the spring of 2025.

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Scholarships and Awards 2024 Congratulations to the following pupils who will join us in September.

Academic Scholarships Elizabeth Aldridge (The Dragon) Ada Baker (The Swan School) Jeremy Berkin (The Radcliffe School) Bella Brickell (The Dragon) Francesca Channer (The Dragon) Bethany Dowdeswell (Beachborough) Caspar Gardiner (Newton Prep) William Grounds (Summer Fields) Nabil Pucks-Fazel (The Dragon) Gabriel Sherwood (St Hugh’s) Olutobi Sowande (Brockhurst) International Community School) Alexander Baker (Summer Fields) Samuel Clarkson (Cheney) Lorna Moran (Truro High School) Noah Salah (Summer Fields) Alexander Sears (Cherwell) Eloren Thomas (Beaconsfield High School) Academic Exhibitions Zaky Aslam (Amsterdam

Music Scholarships Ilyas Beere (The Dragon) Sebastian Davies (St Paul’s Cathedral School) Nabil Pucks-Fazel (The Dragon) Music Exhibitions Ada Baker (The Swan School) Felix Gardiner (Newton Prep) Gracie Stott (St Michael’s, Jersey) Sports Awards Sophie Broom (Lambrook) Romy Earle (Spratton Hall) Harry Elkins (The Dragon) Steffan Jones (Bartholomew School) Drama Awards Bella Brickell (The Dragon) Laurence Buttress (St Hugh’s) Francesca Channer (The Dragon) Sebastian Davies

Dance Awards Bethany Dowdeswell (Beachborough) Zixuan Lian (British School of Guangzhou) Lorna Moran (Truro High School)

Art Awards Noah Salah (Summer Fields) Junjie Shen (Queen’s Gate School) Cameron Wood (Papplewick) Design Technology Awards Jeremy Berkin (The Radcliffe School) Miles Mayhew (Papplewick)

Sixth Form Scholarships and Awards Academic Scholarships Lily Maynard-Fallon (Queenswood School for Girls, Australia) Sports Awards Max Casey (Pangbourne College) Carter Horrix (The Island Free School, Jersey) Darcey Murphy (Castle Newnham School) Harry Westlake Zachary Gardner-Hutchinson (Harare International School) Academic Exhibition Liangyu Chen (Monmouth School for Boys)

(St Paul’s Cathedral School) Romy Earle (Spratton Hall)

(Queen Elizabeth School) Arts Award - Dance Luna Chatwin (Wellington School)

Alfred Huxtable (Oratory Prep) Lorna Moran (Truro High School) Amelie O’Keefe (Cheam School) Angus Wager (Caldicott)

The Choir at Windsor

The Chapel Choir sang Evensong at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in March

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Screen Time Digital Technology and Schools By David Flower, Sub-Warden Academic, and Charles Wallendahl, Head of Theology, Philosophy and Ethics

rather than enhancing them. At St Edward’s we always avoid a ‘Google it’ or ‘ask AI’ approach. Where tech has been most useful, it has been through the impact of the same apps that make most of our lives easier – our familiarity with Teams and OneNote allowed us to flip to online learning in the pandemic and eases the dissemination of notices and documents every day, just like they do in workplaces all over the world. Likewise, we make use of lots of testing and quizzing tools like Seneca, Carousel and Forms – the benefits of retrieval practice have been proved beyond doubt and these apps offer many stimulating ways for pupils to test their knowledge. Winkleman cites a UCL study that found pupils did worse at PISA reading, maths and science assessments done on a computer rather than on paper. At Teddies, most assessments are still paper-based and whilst some exam boards such as AQA are trialling digital assessments, most assessments will probably continue to be handwritten. There are some benefits to digital assessments, and the Pathways and Perspectives courses make use of a digital portfolio approach to showcase music, jewellery, art and design. During the pandemic, many universities moved away from traditional exams, but with the rise of AI, many have returned to assessments under more tightly controlled conditions to increase fairness and validity. Winkleman refers to a Valencian study that concluded reading from paper improves depth of understanding. Such studies are not isolated and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found a correlation between students who read books more often on paper, versus reading on devices, with higher reading performance and greater self-reported enjoyment of reading. Reading on a screen leads to more skimming and worse comprehension. Teddies introduced ‘Time to Read’ in 2022, a drop-

Winkleman echoes the calls for a screen-free childhood, most famously

The issue of how digital technology should be used in schools is very much an educational hot topic. Many educationalists argue that children need to be exposed to the technology that they will have to interact with in their adult lives and that the benefits of early exposure are self-evident in the digital literacy they acquire. Critics, however, rail against liberal mobile phone policies and the haphazard introduction of devices like iPads into classrooms before any educational benefit has been proved. Sophie Winkleman recently made a celebrated attack on technology in schools in the Telegraph , putting forward four main arguments, each of which we will consider here.

advocated by Jonathan Haidt in his book The Anxious Generation . Here at St Edward’s we introduced centrally managed Surface devices and banned mobile phones from classrooms until the Sixth Form in 2022, thus mitigating many of the risks that Winkleman and Haidt are rightly concerned by. Having kept abreast of the research, we have introduced further restrictions since, and our own survey data suggests that the school is an even happier place for it. A blanket ban, however, of the sort suggested in Winkleman’s article strikes us as rather dogmatic. Our Pathways and Perspectives and IB courses harness

technology and encourage pupils to become skilled in ways of working that will be a feature of their future lives whether they might be a designer working in CAD or a solicitor redrafting a contract. It’s hard to hit a sweet spot, but at St Edward’s we think we have done just that. Winkleman worries that EdTech products are unproven, have not been subjected to randomised controlled trials and have, in many cases, only been embraced for the sake of it, or for schools to appear ‘cool.’ We agree! Lots of EdTech products, like smartboards, attempt to solve a problem that did not exist. Daisy Christodoulou, a seasoned writer on educational topics, has pointed out in her excellent blog posts, that EdTech can be outright dangerous if it jeopardises memory and skill development,

Callum McPhail in a Computer Science class

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Multitasking is really task-switching as the human brain can’t multitask on two tasks using the same channel (visual or auditory). Some devices really encourage this behaviour and diminish attention. Teddies employs software to help pupils monotask on an application. As part of a UCL Masters course, Charles conducted some research on multitasking and strategies Teddies pupils use to help them focus. A highly successful strategy was Lower Sixth pupils filming themselves studying using the time-lapse features of their smartphones because it enabled them to track their progress while also incapacitating their phone. Sometimes pupils need a computer for their studies but there are many lessons when teachers choose not to use devices at all in the classroom. We do, however, recognise that devices can have benefits beyond the classroom in terms of sharing resources, communicating with pupils, setting prep, submitting prep, recording marks and giving feedback via Teams. The issue of screen time for young people is rightly the focus of much media and parental attention and we discuss it often in school. Winkleman is right to be a sceptic when it comes to EdTech – the false starts made elsewhere serve as a salient lesson whenever one is tempted to jump onto an EdTech bandwagon! Likewise, the flood of evidence that links poor adolescent mental health to unfettered access to the world of social media is something that advocates of online learning must confront. The problems are clear but, at the same time, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

everything-and-read initiative, which has succeeded in promoting reading for pleasure from paper books. Charles Davies, Jubilee HM, conducted research which found that ‘Time to Read’ led to pupils spending more time, on average, reading for pleasure both in term time and in the holidays, though it still lags behind social media scrolling. Search engines such as Google Scholar have, however, made research more straightforward, so pupils are taught by the Library how to access these resources, check their reliability and cite them appropriately. At St Edward’s we still issue a paper textbook as a resource for pupils in most exam courses. There is good evidence that paper textbook use in the Far East is correlated with high performing education systems. Studies have shown that handwritten notes lead to better understanding and retention of knowledge than typed notes since there is no attempt to transcribe information verbatim. Most pupils in the school, without access arrangements, handwrite their academic work. The Telegraph article mentions how Sweden reversed their decision to make devices compulsory in pre-schools in 2023. Such U-turns have precedent; Los Angeles cancelled a $1.3 billion contract for 650,000 Apple iPads and internet network capabilities in 2015 after less than two years. Pupils bypassed safety features, internet was patchy, devices broke. Teddies’ pupils are issued with

Khanh Luong during Time to Read

a Microsoft Surface. We have chosen these devices as they are age appropriate, updates can be centrally managed, it is easier to type long coursework assignments, security levels can be set, and safeguarding prioritised through filtering and monitoring software, Smoothwall.

At St Edward’s, we think it is possible to protect young minds from some of the dangers of the online world whilst ensuring we harness the power of technology to enhance our teaching and prepare our pupils for the world that awaits them when they leave Teddies.

Tom Phillips studying in the Roe Reading Room