Impact Report 2022-2023

7 IMPACT REPORT

All Lower Sixth pupils choose from a range of placements in primary and specialist schools, care homes, charity shops, museums and community colleges. They attend weekly 90-minute placements for the whole of their Lower Sixth year, building relationships, learning and testing life skills and also developing their knowledge of self and the power they have to make a difference to others. All students undertake a six-week training programme before starting their volunteering placements including first aid and safeguarding training, managing cultural differences and communication and wellness skills.

ImpactEd ImpactEd data helps us to evaluate both the learning of our pupils and the benefit to our community. All pupils complete a survey at the beginning and end of their year’s placement. The following independently assessed data has been derived from the responses to those surveys. What was the impact of Teddies Collaborates on pupils’ community empowerment, sense of perspective, attitudes to leadership, self-efficacy and wellbeing? Teddies Collaborates had a positive impact on pupils’ community empowerment, attitudes to leadership, and self-efficacy. This was particularly true for female pupils who experienced greater increases in these measures compared to their male peers. When segmenting the data by placement, we can see that pupils who volunteered at Wytham Woods saw the biggest increases in their community empowerment and attitudes to leadership scores. In their qualitative feedback, pupils who participated in Teddies Collaborates reflected that they enjoyed the programme and observed that they had developed a wide range of skills including communication skills, confidence, and sense of perspective. What was the impact of Teddies Collaborates on the local community? Partner organisations and charities who hosted volunteers as part of the Teddies Collaborates programme were overwhelmingly positive about their experience. They felt that the Teddies Collaborates programme helped students to develop their sense of community, and that the pupil volunteers were able to build positive relationships and skills in their placement setting.

What was pupils’ feedback about the Teddies Collaborates programme?

As part of the baseline survey, we asked pupils in Autumn 2022 what they thought would be the biggest thing they would learn about themselves through the Teddies Collaborates programme. The most common answers were related to communication skills, leadership, confidence, and patience: • How I can adapt to unknown situations • How to improve my people skills and communication skills • How I impact and affect the wider world • How to interact better with people from different backgrounds to me In the final survey, we asked pupils to reflect on what they had learnt over the course of the programme and what they felt had the biggest impact on them. Here, pupils gave much more in depth answers, demonstrating the wide variety of skills they learnt and experiences they had through participating in the Teddies Collaborates programme: • Interaction with other people away from St Edward’s. It is so good to see different communities and meet new people • My ability to become independent and determined to complete a task • I felt impacted by seeing the younger years benefit from our teaching • The insight into the effort put in by refugees to learn English and integrate into the community • It really built my confidence because at first I found it quite difficult being in the environment but I came to love the people and the carers • I feel a sense of joy and gratitude that I am giving something back to the community

Many commented on the positive attitude, willingness to learn, and enthusiasm of the pupils from St Edward’s School.