Rhubarb 2021

ST EDWARD’S

warden’s welcome

A ny new job is an obvious and frequent talking point in conversation. Some of the conversations between my appointment last summer and the start of my time as 14thWarden in September

WELCOME

were structured. I met with almost everyone who works for the School across all departments to ask them what they liked about Teddies, what they wanted to celebrate and promote about the School, and what they were looking to see developed and improved.

Their answers have informed the setting of the School’s strategic direction this year.They were also inspiringly positive: a testament to Stephen Jones’ vision and ambition for Teddies, and to the sense of community which Stephen and Katie fostered during their ten years at St Edward’s.

Conversations with people outside the School were different, not least because I sometimes had to explain that Warden means headteacher. Outside the Teddies community, it otherwise makes people think of prisons and the enforcement of strict rules. Anyone who has found themselves parked in the wrong place on a visit back to Oxford will know what I mean. Seeking the derivation of my new title, I was pleased to find a very different etymology and a relationship between the English word and the French gardien. The idea of the Warden as the guardian of the School – its history, its traditions, its community, its position – seems to me absolutely right. It also fits much better with my conception of leadership. In many schools, headteachers too often use pronouns and possessive adjectives in the first person – my school, my strategy, my staff. Those pronouns should be plural – our school, our community, our strategy, our future. The alumni of a school are a critically important part of that community. Governors and staff – includingWardens – will come and go, making their mark on the School in different ways and to varying degrees.Their legacy will be the impact they have on pupils, through their decisions and through their interactions.Those generations of pupils, however, are defined by their time at school to a much greater extent than those who teach or support them. In turn, through the way in which they work, live their lives and contribute to society beyond their time in education, they will define the school, creating its reputation and determining its standing.

Alastair Chirnside,14th Warden of St Edward’s

I have taken up my appointment as Warden at a time of great uncertainty and change, economically, politically and socially.To lead St Edward’s at such a time is an immense privilege and a great challenge. It is not, however, a challenge to be met alone. Already, through the work of the Governors and those many conversations with staff, the outlines of the strategy for the next phase of the School’s development have started to take shape. I am looking forward to defining them more clearly and to adding the colour that will make the picture complete.That process has started within the School this term, but your experience of the world as OSE – at university, in work, in life – is critically important: we need to know from you what pupils need to take away from a 21st century school. I am looking forward to engaging with you in that context and, more personally, to welcoming you back to Teddies. In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy this edition of Rhubarb, with its review of the past, its celebration of the present and its look to the future. To lead St Edward’s at such a time is an immense privilege and a great challenge.

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