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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.

Twenty-four boys from Year 10 had the opportunity to learn how to compose a speech from scratch and then deliver it with confidence in front of classmates in a day-long workshop at the School.

The boys learned about the importance of the three corners of the Communication Triangle – delivery, content and structure – in making a successful speech. They gained insights into overcoming nerves and tips on how to listen and give constructive feedback to each other.

The event, run by Jack Petchey’s ‘Speak Out’ Challenge!, was led by author, coach and speaker Hari Kalymnios. Four participants from each of the six forms in Year 10 were nominated for the workshop by their form teachers.

Extra-curricular Enrichment Tutor Oliver O’Gorman, who organised the day, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for a select group of Year 10 boys to develop their confidence speaking in front of their peers, as well as learning some top tips for public speaking.”

Jack Petchey’s ‘Speak Out’ Challenge! is supported by the Jack Petchey Foundation, which is named after entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Jack Petchey and was established with a brief to inspire and motivate young people across London and Essex. The challenge involves an annual public-speaking competition with a number of rounds culminating – in normal non-Covid years – in a Grand Final held in London’s West End at which participants speak in front of an audience of around 1,000,  including MPs, mayors and other leaders.

The workshop, which was held in QE’s Conference Centre, included an opportunity for each boy to deliver a speech to the group on any subject of their choice.

One of the boys involved, Abdullah Khalid, said: “I really enjoyed participating. I learnt how to control my breathing whilst doing a speech, which I found really useful. I hope we can do something similar again!”

Those reaching the final held on the day as part of an assembly were Victor Shyptur, speaking on Winston Churchill, Ethan Nauth (the US election), Aman Padala (Leaving things to the last minute) and Moniejan Pagareethan (Laziness). Topics selected during the day covered areas including mental health, politics, sleep, video games and social media.

The workshop leader, Mr Kalymnios, has a degree in Physics and has worked in sectors from Law to financial services, and for employers from Accenture to Sainsbury’s. He also spent three years travelling the world.

He became fascinated with what it took to become a high-performance leader and has studied experts from a wide-ranging set of industries, as well as looking at topics from nutrition, practical psychology and personal development, to science, spirituality and business.

With coronavirus restrictions precluding a repeat of last year’s inaugural University Mock Interview Evening at the School, QE’s old boys and supporters have instead been turning out in force online to make sure current pupils don’t miss out.

Using the School’s QE Connect social media platform, Assistant Head (Pupil Development) Michael Feven paired up Year 13 boys with Old Elizabethans happy to conduct virtual interviews via Zoom and Skype.

“Whilst we are disappointed not to be able to hold our Mock Interview Evening in person this year, the value of these interviews in supporting boys with their university applications cannot be overstated,” said Mr Feven.

The Autumn Term is a busy time for Year 13 boys, with UCAS applications due in, university admissions tests taking place for Oxbridge places and for degree subjects such as Law and Medicine, and with Oxbridge interviews being held in the run-up to Christmas. Mock interviews constitute an important element of the detailed programme of support that the School provides to help senior pupils secure places on the best courses and at leading universities.

OEs have been helping out sixth-formers with interview practice for many years, but last year’s dedicated mock interview evening at the School, which was attended by nearly 40 alumni and supporters of QE, was the first of its kind. This year, dozens of online-only mock interviews are instead being held; they continue throughout November.

Among those paired together for the mock interviews were Zac Howlett-Davies (OE 2006–2013, pictured) and Year 13’s Zeke Essex, who is applying to read Modern Languages at Corpus Christi, Cambridge. Zac, who read Modern Languages at Durham, uses his French and German on a daily basis in his role in European copyright licensing for printed music publisher Hal Leonard Europe.

“Mr Howlett-Davies gave excellent feedback based on his own experiences and it was great practice before the real thing. He was very knowledgeable and was very easy to have a conversation with,” said Zeke.

Sai Bodanapu, who is among QE’s aspiring medics, pointed out that the specific benefit of meeting his interviewer via Zoom in this pandemic year: “My mock interview helped me as it gave an actual representation of how online interviews will take place.” Sai was interviewed by Andleeb Ahmed, who is an NHS GP and mentor; her son, Fozy Ahmed, who left QE this year, is studying Medicine at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge.

“I am hugely grateful to the longstanding support from our Old Elizabethan community and from other Friends of the School who each year so generously give up their time to support our Year 13 students in this way,” Mr Feven added.