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In a video filmed for The Times newspaper, QE’s Head of Technology Michael Noonan explains how he is leading urgent work to 3D-print face shields ahead of a predicted UK peak to the COVID-19 virus in the next few days.

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Mr Noonan is spearheading a London-wide effort to 3D-print the Personal Protective Equipment.

And with QE’s own machines running around the clock and several pupils following suit on their home 3D printers, hundreds of face shields are currently being despatched from the School.

“We have material, we have manufacturing facilities, we have knowledge and skill and we have the ability to create sanitary environments, so we are putting our skill and all of our facilities into solving [the PPE shortage] problem right now,” Mr Noonan told the team from The Times when they visited to film him at work (while maintaining safe social distancing).

“And there are makers and engineers, designers, consultants and DT departments all over the country that have answered this call and that have pitched themselves into volunteering to help with this effort.”

The video explains how the face shields can be put together from two 3D-printed frame parts, combined with a transparent plastic shield and an elastic strap, or even a rubber band.

• Click here for more information on how Mr Noonan and the pupils got involved and on how the face shields are being distributed locally.
• Click here to support the fundraiser by 3DCrowd UK.

Head of Library Services Surya Bowyer has been making sure that boys are aware of the wealth of resources that are available online – both for study and for leisure.

He is using the shutdown to develop the way the Library team uses technology. And, as a result, they are not only supporting the boys in the holidays and in their remote learning during term time, but also deriving benefits that will long outlast the current crisis.

“When it became clear that schools would be forced to close as a result of Covid-19, our first thought was: ‘What does a library do when its doors are locked and lights turned off?’” Mr Bowyer says.

In the first few days, a small number of boys whose parents were designated key workers used the library to continue their studies. Meanwhile, for boys at home, the Library team has shared audiobooks and e-book databases, and they are recommending a Book of the Week, which is made available to read free online. The first recommendation was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“We have also released a list of activities of things you can do with the book you are reading, that go beyond simply reading… for example, designing a map of the book’s locations, or designing a new book cover.”

Mr Bowyer and Library Services Assistant Corinna Illingworth have also put together their own guide to digital galleries and museums that are available to browse online. “There’s a wealth of art and history out there on the internet: it’s our job, as librarians, to publicise and share these resources throughout the QE community.

“This is a key issue with the internet more widely – there is a lot of information, so much so that it’s often difficult to get a sense of what is worth your time. This is a key job of The Queen’s Library during these increasingly digital times,” said Mr Bowyer.

A number of activities and competitions have taken place to stretch the boys and encourage them to use their imagination and be creative. These included a ‘blackout’ poetry workshop, during which boys had to black out the majority of a piece of text, leaving only a handful of words to make a poem. Head of English, Robert Hyland, launched a Brave New World poetry competition, which was followed by an art competition on the same theme.

Just before the sudden start of the shutdown, the editorial team were able to put together the second edition of the Arabella – the pupils’ own magazine, open to contributors from Years 7-13. Included in this online edition, which may be viewed here on eQE by current QE families, are poetry, prose and art.

Editor-in-chief Josh Osman, of Year 13, said: “Sadly we were unable to put out a print edition. But the Arabella has been our way of uniting the School through creativity, taking in submissions from all year groups.”

Josh also heralded the success of the blackout poetry workshop: “It allowed people who would not otherwise have ventured into poetry to try their hand at something accessible yet deceptively complex.”

Surgeon and former School Captain Ash Kalraiya is one of only 11 Fellows appointed for 2020 to the prestigious NHS Innovation Accelerator. The honour recognises his work as founder and CEO of MediShout – a company dedicated to helping hospitals solve their logistics problems.

While celebrating news of the fellowship, Ash (OE 1997-2004; School Captain 2003) has in recent weeks turned MediShout’s attention towards helping to meet the huge challenge posed to the NHS by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We have currently adapted our platform so hospitals and GP practices can report all Covid-19-related issues, such as not enough PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], a need for more stock or equipment and issues with new patterns of working.

“We just had 150 GP practices ask to sign up and several NHS Trusts, so it’s super-busy as you can imagine! However, we’ve managed to improve things for hospitals using our technology so far, which is nice to know.”

After leaving QE, Ash read Medicine at Imperial College London from 2004-2010, also completing a BSc in Management at Imperial as part of his studies.

Currently an Orthopaedic Registrar with NHS North West London, Ash says: “I’ve worked in the NHS over the past decade, and during that time realised my biggest frustrations were when logistical issues (like missing stock, or broken equipment, printers not working etc) delayed me every day and meant I had less time to spend with patients.”

MediShout’s website recounts that a particular turning point for Ash came when several of his operations had to be cancelled one morning because a lightbulb in theatre was broken. Even more frustratingly, several members of staff had known of the problem, but not reported it.

“The NHS has actually seen a 32% increase in cancelled operations due to equipment issues, so it’s a huge, neglected problem,” he says. “So, I created a solution called MediShout: an app for staff to instantly report such issues to the person or team who creates change.”

The MediShout app and platform uses cloud-based technology to connect people, helpdesks, smartphones, tablets, IT systems and RFID tagging. NHS staff use the app to make instantaneous reports of any logistical issue that threatens to hamper them in their work, and the system’s algorithms then ensure this information gets to the right people.

Furthermore, the combination of big data and artificial intelligence means that Medishout can “predict problems before they even happen,” Ash adds, thus driving long-term improvements, in addition to identifying the issues most affecting patient care so that these can be fixed first.

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), now in its fifth year, is an NHS England initiative delivered in partnership with England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs). It recognises and supports those offering high-impact solutions supporting the priority areas for the NHS in England, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

The NIA’s recognition, which is both for him as a Fellow and for MediShout, follows several years’ hard work in building up the business. “We started to get some traction with quite a few hospitals, so got accepted to the quite competitive NHS Innovation Accelerator. It is a huge honour to be accepted as one of the Fellows,” he says.

The NIA’s rigorous selection process includes review by over 100 clinical, patient and commercial assessors, an informal review by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), interviews, and due diligence.

Concerned about the impact that the cancellation of this year’s A-level examinations might have on current QE boys, Ash has been in touch with the School to offer them his encouragement.

“Journeys to success are long, usually a lifetime. So, A-levels are a stepping stone, not the final destination,” he points out, adding that not having the desired A-level grades on their CV will not stop boys from fulfilling their big ambitions in life. “It’s ok not to succeed every time. It took me five years to get into the QE rugby A team. I failed my first-year exams at medical school. I failed both my surgical exams first time. I’m pretty happy with my journey, as failing and learning is what pushed me to keep going!”

Ash keeps in close touch with old QE friends. “My funniest and most active WhatsApp group is with friends from my year – Joe Besser, Mat Houghton, Anil Haldar, Ed Hughes, Gideon Adler, and Deepon Sen Gupta (he didn’t actually go to QE, but most people assumed he did!).

“Joe is in Australia and visiting him in 2015 is when I met my now wife, Sonal Lodhia, who moved to London. It’s a funny old world but I can indirectly thank him, that I’m being well fed during this Covid-19 lockdown!”

Sixth-former James Tan is believed to be the first QE boy ever to reach the final of the country’s premier coding competition.

James, of Year 12, made it through to the 2020 final of the British Informatics Olympiad after scoring highly in the first round of the annual competition, which was a three-hour examination sat in school.

The residential final had been due to take place at Cambridge University’s Trinity College, but was switched to an online event because of the Covid-19 restrictions. The results have not yet been announced.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations to James on making QE history by getting through to the final. It is not only in this competition that he is making his mark with his programming skills: he is also the programmer for our highly successful HYBRID VEX EDR robotics team and is teaching coding to primary school children as part of our Year 12 volunteering programme.”

James first developed his interest in coding by building websites in his spare time. He then learned the Python language, which, he says “opened up a whole new realm of possibilities”. He has taken part in a number of programming competitions, including the online Google Code Jam.

“I enjoy the puzzle-like aspect of coding, where each small section of code fits together to solve a much large problem. There is also a great sense of satisfaction when I find a particularly elegant solution, especially after spending a significant period of time on a programming project.”

James’s weekly volunteering work involves teaching Scratch (a block-based programming language) to primary school children in Years 3 and 4.

He found the first stage of the British Informatics Olympiad challenging but enjoyable, and professed himself very pleased with his score of 79 out of 100. “My preparation mostly consisted of trying to solve past questions in my spare time, which proved to be sufficient, given my prior experience with competitive programming in online contests.”

In the five-hour online final, contestants had to tackle four problems, based around scenarios involving settings such as a training ground for spies and a film studio. Each problem required a complete program as a solution. “In the end, I managed to solve two of the four, which I am quite pleased with,” said James.

In previous years, following the national final, the best four competitors were selected to represent Britain in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).

This year, however, the IOI has also been postponed, so the British Informatics Olympiad organisers are planning to run some further selection activity over the coming months, the details of which have not yet been disclosed.

The School’s Saxophone Ensemble have been named among the 2020 Chamber Champions in the prestigious Pro Corda Music Festival.

After participating in a highly competitive semi-final at Westminster School, Nathan Woodcock of Year 9, Conor Parker-Delves of Year 11 and Ifeatu Obiora and Drew Sellis, both of Year 13, qualified for the final, which had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 virus restrictions.

Following the cancellation, the Pro Corda educational charity took the decision to name all the finalists ‘2020 Chamber Champions’, stating on its website: “It was one of the highest-standard festivals yet, so all the groups who reached the final pulled off a stunning achievement.”

Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “I congratulate the boys on this fantastic achievement, especially as this was their very first attempt in this competition.”

At the final, which was to have taken place at Sevenoaks School, the Saxophone Ensemble had planned to perform Sonata, First Movement by Phil Woods, arranged by Wilson.

The saxophonists comprised one of the three QE ensembles to reach the competition’s semi-finals, together with the String Quartet and the Celli Ensemble. Each of these ensembles had received expert feedback from the first round.

“All three ensembles took advantage of this advice to refine their performances still further and performed very well indeed,” said Miss Partington, adding that, although they did not reach the final, the String Quartet “played the best they have ever played”.

Established in 1969, Pro Corda provides musical training for a wide range of young people through ensemble training and performance, specialising in chamber music.