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The leader of QE’s Combined Cadet Force has been named the Best Adult Volunteer at the Tylers and Bricklayers 2020 Craft Awards.

The ancient livery company’s prestigious award recognises a quarter of a century of service to the CCF by Captain Mev Armon, who is a Biology teacher.

He received his award at a special luncheon at Carpenters’ Hall in Throgmorton Avenue, an event attended by the Master of the Company, Dr Michel Saminaden, and the Principal Guest, Lt Col Mark Stephenson, RE – Commanding Officer 1 RSME Regiment.

Capt. Armon has been a constant presence in the force since joining the School in 1994.

In his recommendation for the award, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Mev has provided outstanding and inspiring leadership during his time at the School. Such an active and oversubscribed CCF remains rare in the state sector, but the energy and organisation that he has brought to his role has meant that it continues to go from strength to strength.”

The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers received its first Royal Charter in 1568, although its roots go back to the 15th century. Its monopoly within the City was broken after the Great Fire of London in 1666, when a Royal Proclamation led to a requirement for tiles to be used in the place of thatch. This led to an influx of tilers and bricklayers into the capital.

Despite the diminution of its role in the tiling and building sector, it has continued to play a part in the life of London, pursuing an active charitable, educational and social programme. As part of its link with the Corps of Royal Engineers, the company each year makes awards to London’s Best Cadet and Best Adult Volunteer in the Royal Engineers Army Cadet Force.

“Under Mev’s tutelage and preparation, QE’s CCF has received very strong inspection reports and has been a frequent contributor to local civic events,” added Mr Enright. “His combination of high expectations, strong teaching skills, and personal warmth and charisma, have made him a role model to generations of cadets.”

In addition to his role at QE, Mr Armon has also led outreach work with other schools, for example, supporting The John Lyon School in Harrow with the development of its programmes.

“A number of QE boys have chosen to pursue careers in the military, but many more have simply enjoyed the unique opportunities for personal development that participation in the CCF has afforded.

“As Contingent Commander, Mev continues to be the driving force behind the success of our CCF and continues to be generous with his time a quarter of a century after joining us,” Mr Enright concluded.

Want to make the best use of your study time at home? Deputy Head (Academic) Anne Macdonald  has produced these handy hints to help you with your remote learning.

Keep to a routine: Undertake work Monday-Friday, following a timetable to build variety into your day and week, take breaks to rest, pursue hobbies and interests, and to exercise (whilst following Government guidance about social distancing).

Use eQE: Make the most of the support being offered by your teachers via eQE – ‘add comment’ to tasks set on eQE if you want to ask questions about the work or if you are stuck.

Be organised: Click ‘complete’ for tasks that are finished, archiving them to keep your task list organised; ensure you are following teacher instructions about how to set out and organise your work, printing and filing anything you are asked to by your teacher.

Collaborate: Where possible, collaborate with your peers on your work. You may already by doing this, but there are opportunities to test each other on new vocabulary or content, help each other when stuck, converse in French and/or German, play musical duets etc. This could be achieved, with your parents’ permission and guidance, via social media/communication platforms (some of which you may already be using) e.g. FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype etc.

Challenge yourself: When you have completed the set work, explore the subject pages on eQE, visit The Queen’s Library page to use the online resources such as links to free Audible audio books, The Day newspaper (including exploring the Become an expert links on any articles that are of interest) and so on.

Revision: Regular revision has benefits for your long-term learning; follow the guidance you are given by departments about how to develop/organise your revision notes, memorise new content and test yourself on it.

More information: After Easter, we will issue further information about how teachers will monitor and assess your learning.

David Ryan, Deputy Head (Pastoral), has some tips for boys and their parents on how to maintain psychological wellbeing during this challenging time.

Routine is important, as it gives us a sense of purpose; without that sense of purpose, it’s easy to feel down, so having a routine that we keep to helps us through a period of isolation, such as the one that we are experiencing. Differentiating Monday to Friday from the weekend, and doing something different then, is very helpful.

Talking is important, too, for all of us. Many people will talk as much to their work and school colleagues as to their family members, and losing this contact can make us feel a little lost. Ensuring that we talk as a family is definitely important. Also, while too much ‘screen time’ is not good, young people are very good at communicating and staying in touch with each other electronically and we shouldn’t under-estimate this as a way of keeping up spirits and alleviating boredom.

Positivity: In the time of a national emergency, it’s very easy for young people to perceive the world in a negative way. Therefore, it is important to encourage them to consider the many positive aspects of life that we see, even in a crisis. Many, if not all, QE parents will be able to tell stories of their parents, grandparents and other relatives in their family’s history who have had to overcome similar, if not greater, challenges than that which we are facing now. Reminding young people that while we are vulnerable to illnesses like this one, the human story is ultimately one of survival, can help the boys maintain perspective at this worrying time: there are many inspirational stories within families.

Re-thinking: Seeing the situation that we are in as an opportunity for reflection, re-thinking and doing some things differently is no bad thing, whatever our age. Having time to think about how we study or work; what our future plans are; what in life is important and what isn’t – these are all ways to help us get through the time that we have on our hands and to plan positively for the future.

Never be too proud: Some families may go through challenging times in the weeks and months ahead, personally, emotionally and financially. As a school, we want to do all that we can to assist all of our students and families; we would encourage you to let us know how things are for you, whatever the situation might be, and to tell us if they are problematic.

Further help: One of the biggest challenges of the current situation is how little time we have had to prepare for it, and that can affect people, as life seems to have changed radically, very quickly, and this can even lead to a sense of loss. Ensuring that the boys are looking after their mental health is very important, and we have a counsellor available to work online with students, if a parent has a concern. The advice available at this site is really helpful – hopefully it will be useful to you.

All QE entrants to the Royal Society of Chemistry UK Olympiad were awarded medals after successfully completing the first round of this testing and highly-regarded competition.

Last year’s School Captain, Bhiramah Rammanohar, and his fellow Year 13 pupil, Alejandro Lynch Gonzalez (pictured centre above), both secured gold. This put the Oxbridge-bound pair, who have offers to study at Jesus College, Cambridge, and Magdalen College, Oxford, respectively, in the top 8 per cent of the nearly 3,000 candidates who competed in the élite event, now in its 52nd year.

Chemistry teacher Charani Dharmawardhane said: “All the boys should be proud of their achievement: the competition consists of challenging questions that stretch pupils beyond the A-level specification.”

QE’s eight other participants – Fozy Ahmed, Manas Madan, Tai Oyama  and Sathujan Manmatharajah, pictured above, as well as Abilash Sivathasan, Dhru Patel, Pratham Upadhyay and Rushil Shah – all won either silver or bronze medals. All are from Year 13.

“Nearly a third of the contestants in the RSC Chemistry Olympiad did not receive any award at all, so our boys have done exceptionally well,” Miss Dharmawardhane added.

The RSC describes the competition as “a unique opportunity for students to push themselves further and excel in the chemistry field”. It adds that the olympiad helps develop critical problem-solving skills and creativity, while giving entrants the “chance to test their knowledge in new, real-world situations”.

Usually the first round is followed by a residential weekend for the top performers, with a national team selected from that for an international olympiad competition, but these stages have been cancelled this year.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan is putting the School’s 3D printers and laser-cutters to good use by manufacturing protective visors for the NHS – part of a co-ordinated effort to support the national fight against the Covid-19 virus.

In addition to coming into School twice a day to set up and run the machines, which would otherwise be idle, Mr Noonan is also co-ordinating 3D-printing efforts among volunteers from schools and individuals. The face shields and ventilator components are being produced for hospitals, GP surgeries and social care organisations.

He is being supported remotely by boys (many from the School’s robotics teams), who are working from home using their own 3D printers to boost production still further.

Mr Noonan says: “It’s a wonderful example of how design and innovation can help solve some of the big problems we face in the world.”

Headmaster Neil Enright added: “We are very proud to be able to play our part in supporting doctors and other medical staff – who include many of our old boys – working on the frontline to combat the virus and save lives. At a time of great national uncertainty, it is good to be able to report on something positive.”

QE staff are currently working from home because of the crisis, but Mr Enright was happy to grant Mr Noonan’s request to make short, twice-daily visits to use the machines in the School’s Fern Building.

The face shields are part of the Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE, in medical jargon) which are currently in short supply because of the heavy demand as the number of people confirmed as having the virus continues to grow rapidly.

Welsh engineer David Sims initially came up with the idea of using his home 3D printer to make the shields after a discussion on Facebook with others around the world working on designs to help health workers. He was quickly contacted by NHS doctors from around the country who placed orders with him.

The idea was then picked up by Tony Ryan, Chief Executive of the Design & Technology Association, who appealed to school Design & Technology departments to help.

Mr Noonan, who is a specialist in Computer-aided Manufacture and Rapid Prototyping using 3D printers, 3D routers and laser-cutters, immediately stepped in, not only producing the specialist masks and ventilator components, but also setting up dedicated a Facebook page and Twitter feed  (‘Design and Technology Education – Helping to fight the spread of coronavirus’) to guide other teachers.

“The idea is simple”, says Mr Noonan. “Individuals or schools use their 3D printers to print the visors using one of the many files that have been developed by teachers and designers around the country.”

After filling in their details on an online spreadsheet, they are then paired with a hospital close to them through the 3dcrowd, a volunteer group who are leading the national effort.

“I was one of the first London people involved, so I just kind of fell into coordinating,” Mr Noonan added.

“So far we here at QE have printed 20 visors, but now that we have the design finalised we are hoping to ramp up production to about 50 per day.

“We even have some of our wonderful QE students who have 3D printers at home helping us out.”

Eight QE boys are currently 3D-printing at home to help the effort: Year 9’s Niyam Shah and Soumil Sahjpal; Dillan Shah, of Year 11; Year 12’s Thomas Mgbor, Ukendar Vadivel, Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy and Devin Karia, and Akram Ahmad, of Year 13.

Several of these boys were recipients of this year’s Arkwright Engineering Scholarships and used their award money to fund the purchase of their 3D printers. Thomas is pictured, above, at work.

UPDATE: 3rd April 2020. Mr Noonan has now donated the first consignment of face shields to the NHS locally, handing over the supplies to Dr Ahmer Farooqi, Director, Barnet Federated GPs (and a QE dad), who have posted a thank you message on their website.

In recent days, the School has also donated its supply of 228 pairs of eye protection glasses to Dr Farooqi for use by GPs in Barnet.

To read more about the story of how and why Mr Noonan got involved, read Technology teacher Sean Kelly’s account, Designing a better tomorrow.

For more information on the national scheme, visit http://3dcrowd.uk