The Chronicle January 2020

24 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Shaping our Community By Sixth Former Caris Baker

Focus on Values Simon Roche, Segar’s HM, and James Cope, Deputy Head Pastoral, worked on this project with the pupils. Simon writes: St Edward’s has always been values-led and this community project has sought to find the right words to capture those values. These Core Community Values have come from the pupils themselves and are their voice. They serve, we hope, to set out a mission statement for what the school community is when it is at its best – the best version of ourselves. The project came about using focus groups consisting of a cross section of our pupils from different Houses and year groups. During these sessions the pupils, under the guidance and leadership of Prefects and Peer Listeners, worked through scenarios that encouraged a value-led response and discussed what our values are; they then had the opportunity to write their ideas down. These were sifted and edited into the seven values listed on the opposite page which the focus groups all agreed were most representative of our school. The Prefects and Peer Listeners introduced the new Shells to these values at the start of the year. Gradually we hope to embed these further into our community, perhaps to such an extent that we know them by heart.

Caris Baker and Ella Leeson

At the start of term, Ella Leeson and I were appointed Pastoral Prefects. This means that we are the bridge between the pupil body and members of staff concerned with the wellbeing of pupils and of the school community as a whole. It is a role that means a great deal to us – listening to pupils and taking on board their views is an essential element of how Teddies works, and part of what, in my opinion, sets it apart from other schools. The manner in which the pastoral care works here is fundamental to the quality and atmosphere of the School: it allows each pupil to thrive in their own respect.

One of our main projects this year, in response to feedback from pupils, has been rethinking and adjusting the core values we hold as a school. Early last term, Upper Sixth Prefects and Peer Listeners ran focus groups with junior pupils. They were led by the senior pupils, and what emerged were some amazingly open and honest discussions about how we want to behave as a school community. Following on from this evening, using feedback directly from the pupil body, our core values have been further developed and refined to reflect what really matters to Teddies. A key role of the senior pupils is promoting these values in Houses, and

in everyday school life, leading by example and encouraging conversations surrounding understanding and practice of values such as optimism, tolerance, courage and respect. For example, every Friday the Prefects have lunch with a different year group, allowing ongoing relationships and dialogue to evolve between the pupils as one pupil body. Ella and I have since been working with designers to create a poster encapsulating the School’s ethos. We have picked out seven key statements that we hope go some way to representing this which will be put up around School and in Houses as a reminder of what our school really values.