With some 60 of last year’s leavers returning recently to contribute to the Year 12 Universities Convention, this event has become one of the biggest examples of OEs’ engagement with the School, writes the Headmaster.
Given their new experience of university life and fresh memories of the university application process, the visitors were able to give some really useful first-hand advice to current sixth-formers.
Staff always enjoy the opportunity to hear how these, the newest of our alumni, are getting on – even if it can sometimes be hard to recognise some, with their ‘civilian’ clothes, beards and new, non-QE-approved hairstyles!
An invitation
After the success of the Universities Convention, the Dinner Debate and Rugby Sevens, I would like to invite all our alumni to our next major calendar event, Founder’s Day, on Saturday 15th June 2019. It is an excellent a great opportunity for OEs to catch up with old friends in a relaxed atmosphere.
The day begins with the Founder’s Day Service in St John the Baptist Parish Church at 11am. We can seat a small number of Old Elizabethans at the service on request.
The afternoon’s events start with a buffet lunch open to all Old Elizabethans at approximately 1pm, immediately after the traditional reading of the School Chronicle in front of the Main Building. And, of course, there are attractions to suit all interests at the Founder’s Day Fête on Stapylton Field.
Of particular interest to many alumni is our annual Past XI v Present XI match (the Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match), which will be played on the Third Field. Relaunched a few years ago, this fixture now draws many cricket fans from among our alumni.
If any old boys would like to play in that match, do get in touch – we would love to hear from you. In fact, as we plan our welcome, it would be helpful if any former pupils who expect to be at Founder’s Day could let me know by email in advance, especially if you would like to attend the church service or lunch. Finally, if any old boys would like to make contact with particular members of staff, present or past, at Founder’s Day, do please email and we will do our best to make it happen.
Neil Enright
Universities Convention
The School welcomed back a large group from the newest cohort of OEs for the Universities Convention, who are viewed as a trusted and valuable source of information for the sixth-formers.
The annual Year 12 convention is part of QE’s University admissions Support Programme (or USP), which is designed to ensure boys receive the best advice, guidance and assistance in preparing university applications.
The returning alumni had the opportunity to catch up both with each other and with their former teachers in a buffet lunch held for them on the day of the convention in the Main Hall, which was provided with assistance from the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s.
At the convention itself, the Year 12 boys were encouraged to be quite specific with their questions to the alumni, asking, for example whether there was anything the students wished someone had told them before they applied.
The current pupils also quizzed the OEs on topics such as the cost of accommodation in university cities.
The Universities Convention and USP sit alongside the School’s broader careers provision, through which boys can look at the jobs, professions and industries they might wish to pursue after university, or what other paths they might want to take upon leaving the School.
- Some of the students at the convention had also been in to the School the previous week in order to speak to Year 13 on similar issues: Abbas Adejonwo, Rehaan Bapoo, Dhruv Kanabar, Yashwanth Matta and Oliver Robinson gave advice based upon their experiences as first-year undergraduates at Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick.