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Experts have been helping QE A-level students see the exciting topical applications of their subjects in the real world in a series of lectures streamed into the School.

Sixth-formers have already enjoyed stimulating day-long sessions on Medicine in Action, Chemistry in Action, Product Design in Action and Geography in Action, with a similar event for Biology due to take place in December.

The training days are run by The Training Partnership, the leading provider of external educational study days in the UK, and would normally be held in London, but are this year being conducted remotely because of Covid-19.

QE’s Head of Technology, Michael Noonan, said that the Product Design A-level students, and even a couple of “enthusiastic non-subject specialists”, enjoyed a “superb day” of lectures. “Favourite amongst the talks attended by students was Pioneering aeronautical innovation by Sam Rogers – an aeronautical engineer working in product development for Gravity Industries, a company who are currently developing a jetpack suit.”

One of the pupils attending, Paul Ofordu, of Year 12, said: “It was amazing to see the application of prototyping, testing and iterative design in such a high-end product development project.”

The Resourcefulness and design lecture, delivered by Kingston University Senior Lecturer Pascal Anson, stimulated a practical activity, pictured. “Here we see some examples of structures which were resourcefully developed by the students using VEX IQ and EDR Robotics game elements – great thinking on their feet!” added Mr Noonan.

Chemistry students gathered in the Main School Hall to hear engaging contributions from speakers who ranged from Andrea Sella, a synthetic chemist and broadcaster, talking about mercury – “the most beautiful element in the periodic table and the most reviled” – to marine engineer Hayley Loren exploring whether nuclear fusion could provide the solution to the world’s energy issues.

Julia Lister, QE’s Head of Chemistry, said: “The engaging Chemistry in Action lectures covered an array of topics. Streaming these lectures took students from key concepts to cutting-edge science and future directions across many applications of the subject.”

The Geography lectures were similarly wide-ranging. One talk, entitled Lessons in sustainability: An explorer’s tale, was by Jason Lewis, the first person to circumnavigate the earth without using motors or sails. Another featured academic Martin Evans, from the University of Manchester, speaking on Landscape Systems in the Anthropocene. And Emily Parry, Head of Geography, highlighted lectures on water insecurity and on how COVID-19 has impacted the Pacific Islands.

“The boys enjoyed the talks, which both built up content covered in their A-level course and extended their knowledge on a range of issues facing the planet,” she said.

“Each lecture was followed with a Q&A session in which the boys could send in questions to the lecturer. Often questions focused around what young people themselves could do to help address some of the issues explored such as climate change, river pollution and how we choose a sustainable future.”

Head of Biology Gillian Ridge said that after the forthcoming Biology in Action day, boys who attend will be invited to give a series of lunchtime presentations to the rest of their year based on the talks.

Year 8 geographers have been getting creative as they grapple with the possible future effects of unchecked climate change.

The boys spent the first half of this term studying the topic, with many entering a QE competition challenging them to compose a poem or short story describing the world in the year 2100, when the world has warmed by 2 degrees.

The Geography department teamed up with Head of English Robert Hyland to judge the entries. Keon Robert has now been announced as the winner in the short story category, while Shreyas Chandrasekar was adjudged to have submitted the best poem.

Emily Parry, Head of Geography, said: ‘I was very impressed with the standard of submissions and the boys’ awareness of the potential impacts of climate change. The creative poems and stories clearly highlight the threat that climate change poses for all of us.”

The competition results were announced as the British Government unveiled its plan for a “green industrial revolution”, bringing forward a ban on petrol and diesel cars and announcing other measures, such as an expansion of offshore wind, hydrogen and nuclear power generation.

In his story, entitled Our Planet is on Fire, Keon imagined a dystopian future in a polluted city of 3 billion souls, its population swelled by immigrants from other countries seeking refuge from the effects of climate change.

There is no respite from the gloom: the story ends with the protagonist attending a meeting at his factory which, as he suspected, is to be closed down, as the authorities  try desperately – “too little, too late” – to deal with the crisis.

He reflects ruefully on the missed opportunities to deal with climate change that had brought the world to this point: “We knew it was going to happen, but we never did anything about it. In the end, it strikes us when we least expect it.”

Most of Shreyas’s poem is equally bleak – “none of us will survive” – and he adds anger into the mix:

Throw your wrath, your fury, your ire
To those who destroyed our Earth

But his work, entitled Every Little Helped, ends with just a hint of optimism, the voice from the future warning us that all may not yet be lost:

It’s time to act, to change, to make a better choice,
Or there will be no Earth left at all.

Riyan Siyani, who took second place in the poetry category, imagines how his grandchildren’s generation might look back on the present day:

It is the year 2100,
Nothing is the same, all hope has been squandered
We look back to the year of 2020
And remember how food was aplenty.

The runner-up in the short story category was Adam Liang, who draws out the effects of climate change on nature and on different groups in society, including the young – “babies are crying constantly…children complaining that it’s too hot” – and the old – “the first to go…they wasted and wilted away, just like dead flowers in the wind”.

• Main image above by Tumisu from Pixabay

With physical meetings ruled out by Covid-19 restrictions, QE turned to technology for its first parental consultation evening of the year.

Teachers and the parents of Year 13 pupils were able to link up online after the School invested in specialist software provider SchoolCloud’s dedicated Parents Evening Video Appointments service.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is a crucial term for our final-year students, as they apply to universities and work intensively towards completing their A-level studies next summer. We realised, therefore, that we needed to make special provision to ensure that contact with parents was kept up at such a pivotal time for their sons.

“We will be now be using this channel of communication for all this term’s parent consultation and review evenings; our staff look forward to meeting QE parents in this new, adapted way.”

Several teachers, as pictured here, initially tried out the system from their own offices at the School. Thanks to the security-enhanced aspects of the service – all video calls between staff and parents are encrypted, for example – on the evening itself, both teachers and parents were able to conduct the consultation meetings from their own homes.

Tara O’Reilly, Deputy Head (Operations) said that, from a technological perspective, the evening had been overwhelmingly successful; teachers experienced little difficulty in connecting and communicating with families as parents took up their appointments online.

For their part, teachers acknowledged that the use of technology is ensuring the maintenance of the home-School relationship, even during lockdown.

Julia Lister, Head of Chemistry, said: “The online system enabled the evening to proceed successfully and efficiently,” while Head of Economics Shamendra Uduwawala said simply that it was “a good system under difficult circumstances”.

The Parents Evening Video Appointments service includes an ‘efficient scheduling’ feature, through which the teacher or parent is automatically connected with the next person in their appointment schedule.  It is also designed to work simply through a web browser, with no app to download.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has joined the London Schools Eco Network – and a sixth-former has already played a leading role in supporting its work with his contributions to this month’s Youth Climate Summit.

Year 12’s Aadarsh Khimasia was QE’s delegate at the summit, a week-long series of lockdown-adapted virtual discussions and activities for primary and senior school pupils across the UK organised by the network to raise awareness of sustainability issues. Aadarsh subsequently took part in a Sustainable Innovation Forum, along with two other Summit Ambassadors.

“We presented five Climate Calls decided upon by the summit Finale to a wider group of international business and government representatives, hoping to see changes in business and laws in the near future to make our nation and the world more sustainable,” said Aadarsh.

After the forum, he was interviewed by Sky youth TV presenter, Ella Meeks, for the channel’s FYI Kids show: the interview was broadcast three times, including once on the main Sky News channel.

Aardarsh had also appealed for young people to lend their support when he appeared in the promotional video for the summit, organised under the slogan Transform our world.

QE Extra-curricular Enrichment Tutor Micah King said: “I’m incredibly proud of Aadarsh, who is using his talents in difficult circumstances to raise awareness of the climate crisis, and our role in combatting it.”

Coordinated by the charity Global Action Plan and supported by organisations such as Greenpeace, the WWF and Oxford University, the summit’s stated aim was to empower students to create a more sustainable and healthy future for the planet.

It was organised around three main themes: climate, social and racial justice; education, skills and careers, and health & wellbeing. Examples of the sessions held include one on Fast Fashion another on Careers in Conservation.

In the promotional video published last month, Aadarsh was one of only four young people selected to speak. He said: “We all call this planet home, meaning we all share the responsibility to safeguard it.

“Our earth is on the brink of irreversible damage putting us and millions of other species here at risk, but strides are being made in the right direction and we need you to help us along the way to a safer, healthier and more sustainable future.”

Aadarsh, who hopes to become a vet, teamed up with fellow delegate Andra, who is from a school in Belfast, to interview Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.

Afterwards, the summit host, Dr Jessica Tipton, who is Head of Sustainability and a languages teacher at St Paul’s Girls’ School, said to the pair: “That was absolutely fantastic, a massive well done for leading an informative yet relaxed interview with Caroline Lucas just now. [The] questions [were] great and you were really articulate in your responses.

“Aadarsh is really an excellent ambassador for the summit and your school! I’m so glad he’s got involved,” she added.

The School observed today’s Armistice Day two-minute silence with a ceremony that was adapted this year because of Covid-19 restrictions.

When boys fell silent at 11am on 11th November it was in their classrooms, while a smaller-than-usual wreath-laying ceremony took place at the World War I Memorial outside the Main School Hall.

The event is an opportunity for all today’s pupils and staff to reflect upon the service and sacrifice of those killed, injured or impacted by military conflicts, including the 113 Elizabethans who lost their lives in the 20th century’s two world wars.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “While the size of our commemoration here at the School had to be reduced this year and there was no QE Combined Cadet Force representation at Barnet’s scaled-back civic Remembrance Sunday event either, the importance and solemnity of the occasion was undiminished as we collectively marked the sacrifice of Elizabethans from generations past.”

The bugler who played the Last Post and Reveille at the School ceremony was Theo Mama-Kahn, of Year 11, who is studying GCSE Music. The cadet laying a wreath was Lucas Lu, of Year 12.

CCF Contingent Commander Major Mev Armon said: “Due to Covid, drill words of command cannot be given indoors, so Lucas represented the contingent, saluting the memorial on my behalf.”

Among current CCF cadets, Lucas stands out for his prowess in the field, added Major Armon, who is a Biology teacher.

Since not everyone was in earshot of the bugle, three short bell rings sounded at 10:58 as a signal that all boys should place their work aside to stand and prepare for the 11:00 bell ring marking the beginning of the silence. There was a final short bell at the end of the two minutes.

To ensure boys of all ages understood the significance of the occasion, a PowerPoint presentation detailing the history of the day was sent to form tutors to spark discussion among the pupils. It explained the importance of poppies – the first flowers to bloom on the World War I battlefields of Belgium and France – and included the famous poem they inspired, John McCrae’s In Flanders fields. Boys were also invited to watch a video featuring the Last Post.

House representatives throughout the School were involved in selling poppies to the year-group bubbles, including Leicester’s Victor Angelov (Year 11, pictured). The representatives brought the poppies round to the forms, giving everyone a chance to buy one in time for Remembrance Day.