Chronicle Summer 2024

11 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

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