The Chronicle, Spring 2019

7 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Belief, Reflection and Growth A St Edward’s Education

The academic ethos at St Edward’s is fuelled by a number of complementary principles and beliefs. We urge our pupils to look to long term life goals rather than just exam results; we encourage pupils to be reflective and to find their own solutions to challenges; and we value and promote a range of different learning techniques, actively helping our pupils to understand which work best for them. The Shell Curriculum introduces our youngest pupils to these concepts, and the new academic facilities being built in the Quad will enable us to embed them ever more firmly into school life. Sixth Former Octavia Hamilton talked to Deputy Head Academic, Matthew Albrighton, about these principles, how they shape our academic approach and how they impact our understanding of what it means to be successful.

Can you tell us how the balance between passion and structure supports our academic ethos at Teddies? There has been an interesting transition from the historical view of teaching as a series of inspirational ‘performances’ from the front of the classroom, to today’s focus on developing within pupils the skills to allow them to learn. I hope that at St Edward’s we get the balance right. The real danger of relying on an inspirational approach is that if the inspiration misfires, it can leave a large number of pupils behind. However, at the other extreme, there is a danger of being instrumentalist, too skills focused, where pupils switch off and are uninspired by the experience.

Ben Hutchinson, Jess MacLeod, Barnaby Singfield and Archie Nicholson