Rhubarb 2024

From the WARDEN ALASTAIR CHIRNSIDE

E veryone reading this edition of Rhubarb will remember singing the School Song. Pupils and staff at Teddies still sing it today at the start and at the end of every term, raising the roof of the Olivier Hall every time. It is not just the music that echoes around the Quad afterwards; it is the sense of togetherness and community that lives on, long after the last notes have died away, long after the pupils of today become the OSE of tomorrow. For keen students of Latin at Teddies, it is a wonderful example of Classics in action.The hymn to St Edward’s ends like this: floreas et floreamus / Edwardienses . Loosely translated, it means “may you flourish and may we flourish, the children of St Edward’s”.

FROM THE WARDEN

It may not be true for independent schools more generally, as the Bursar notes in his article about VAT, but it is certainly true for Teddies today: on every measure, our school is flourishing.The roll continues to grow: with 810 pupils at Teddies today, we are on course to reach 840 next year – which is both our limit and our target.Those numbers include more scholars, exhibitioners and holders of co-curricular awards than ever before.We are also on track to bring

the number of girls and boys at Teddies into perfect balance in two years’ time.

We have celebrated in the last two years record-breaking examination results, and this year promises to be even better.The proportion of pupils leaving Teddies for universities ranked in the top ten in the world doubled last year, and the early indications are that the measure will be even better next year.

Those results were achieved in a year in which the girls’ 1st XI reached the semi-final of the national T20 competition in cricket, in which the girls’ 1st VIII was the fastest school crew at the National Schools Regatta, in which the boys’ 1st VIII reached the semi-final at Henley, in which four school records were broken in athletics, and in which the number of pupils involved in art, dance, drama and music set new records. All that success has created even more interest in Teddies. Despite the headwinds for the sector, admissions numbers at Teddies continue to rise: the lists from which the Registry are working to fill the final few places for September 2025 are nearly 50% longer than they were last year. The Bursar has set out our response to the philosophical issues and practical challenges of the new Government’s plans to impose VAT on school fees. Our guiding principle is not to let the new policy change

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