St Edward's - A Parent's View:

 by Philip Lea, OSE

I left St Edward’s in the summer of 1975. It had been a benign enough environment and I had, broadly speaking, enjoyed it. I was lucky - I was in a good house (Sing’s, 1971 – 75) and I had a Housemaster who was kindly and had great integrity.

When I left I doubted I would return, nor did I think that I would particularly want, or be able, to send my son there. I would never have wanted him to be in a single sex school that had an almost monastic feel to it and which was cut off from the surrounding community and - it felt at times - the real world.
Circumstances, the generosity of strangers, good fortune following on from bad fortune; but most of all dramatic changes in the school changed all that. I had been in Sing’s House, my son, Ed, is in Kendall. The geographical location is the same - nothing else is.

Since the very first day Ed got to Teddies, I know he has been in an inspiring and, vitally, caring, environment. He is in a year group that is friendly and mutually supportive - and funny. Walking along the cinder path, as it was, between the main school and the field houses, students look you in the eye and smile, girls and boys appear to coexist in an uncomplicated way, there are light hearted exchanges between staff and pupils, there is a connection between the school and the outside world.

The divisions between year groups seem to have gone and the arrival of girls has made the place more real and human. It seems like a place which is at ease with itself, where pupils get stuck in rather than being “stuck up”, where people care for and about one another. I was at a good school, Ed is lucky to be at a great one.