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