Rhubarb October 2022

INTERVIEW

The Dance Show 2022

Sweeney Todd. Photography: Jonathan Eden

That’s absolutely not the case here.Teddies has a reputation for being a happy, welcoming, friendly school – and that is exactly how Zannah, Mary, Lizzie and I have found it. If you pushed me to give you examples of two surprises, one positive and one negative, I’d point to the extraordinary standard of the arts in the School. Although I watched the 2020 Dance Show online with Mary and Lizzie in our kitchen in Harrow, nothing could have prepared us for the brilliance of the pupils in action live in the Olivier. Sweeney Todd was the best production I have ever seen on a school stage, by a wide margin. The one negative surprise has been that too few people seem to know how great a school Teddies is – I’ve never met anyone who left one of our Open Mornings or finished a visit unimpressed by the School, but I’ve talked to too many people who have been surprised, who didn’t expect to enjoy their visit so much or to be so impressed.We’re working hard to change that, obviously – and to judge from the 800 expressions of interest so far for the next Shell intake, we’re making good progress.

What’s next?What are your plans for the School?

The biggest change for my family and for me will be our move back into theWarden’s House.We have just packed up at 289Woodstock Road, where the last threeWardens have lived, to go back to the future in the Quad. It has been exciting to recreate the house that the architect Wilkinson built for Warden Simeon. He designed the Randolph Hotel, so it will be a great house in which to live! Much more importantly, it will be good to be right in the middle of school life this year. Five-year plans don’t always have a good association, but the first year of our five-year plan for St Edward’s has delivered record-breaking exam results, brought outstanding new teachers into the School and pushed demand for places sharply higher – so I have high hopes for the second! We’re launching our new reading strategy, in which all pupils and their Tutors will spend 45 minutes every week reading in the Houses. The new Lower Sixth will be the first generation of pupils to be universally involved in service, going out

Moving into the Warden’s House

every week for 90 minutes to work in the community. Virginia Macgregor, our first Director of Wellbeing, is rolling out our new wellbeing curriculum for all year groups, with input from Emma Speed-Andrews, our new School Psychologist; Nic Bond, the new Director of Sport, is unveiling our new vision for sport and exercise and we are working on plans for new sports facilities on Field Side.We’re also embarking on a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of full co-education, the 40th anniversary of the first girls arriving in the Sixth Form, and the 150th anniversary of the School’s move to Summertown. There will be a lot to read about in the next edition of Rhubarb!

The Warden’s House circa 1880

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