Impact Report 2022-2023

2 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

Introduction

Our second year in the Partnerships Team at St Edward’s has been busy! Busy not just because of the multitude of primary school pupils we have welcomed, or the Lower Sixth service placements managed, or the external teaching hours taught, but because of all the listening and learning we have done with our partners, with other schools, with our pupils and with each other, as we strive to do more for the benefit of many. Learning is central to our Partnerships Programme, just as it is central to our academic programme. The feedback we received from our pupils and partners during the pilot year of our service programme Teddies Collaborates enabled us to roll out this important part of our Lower Sixth pupils’ experience with greater efficiency and impact, an experience which now involves all 180 Lower Sixth pupils as a compulsory timetabled part of their education here at St Edward’s. From page 5 you will learn more about the variety of charities and organisations with whom our pupils are working weekly for 90 minutes, building their own knowledge, confidence and sense of accomplishment, and also, we hope, benefitting many elderly visitors, primary and specialist-school children, museum attendees, refugees, trees and wildlife! Central to our learning is the importance of evaluation. All our programmes and events are evaluated appropriately to ascertain how both our pupils and our partners have benefitted, and how we can improve this experience or activity the next time. Evaluating the experience of 120 primary school first-time steeplechasers was a challenge but our Partnerships Team are inventive and are fantastic with young children, as you will read on page 11. Evaluation enables us to evolve, and evolution is a fundamental part of the Partnerships Team. Talking to our partners about how we can best support them is critical to developing a meaningful relationship. Celebrating together what we have achieved is good, but having the courage to recognise what could be adapted better to meet the needs of our partners as their challenges change is critical. The commitment to fit all this within an incredibly busy school day is testament to the courage of the conviction of the Governors who have invested in Partnerships at Teddies and to the support of our Warden, Alastair Chirnside. He takes the time to be involved in our endeavours whether it means singing alongside Father Christmas at our Science of Christmas event, calling into our Teddies Collaborates partners or giving out hot chocolate at our primary schools’ hockey tournament. Rachel Moffatt and Courtney O’Keefe, our two Partnerships superstars, put countless hours, passion and creativity into running these projects. Both of them represent the courage, kindness and integrity that we look to engender in our pupils through their Teddies journey. This booklet is testament to their dedication, to our community and to our pupils as we become ever closer, learning together. Rachael Henshilwood Director of Development and Partnerships