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Having experienced the highs and lows of life as an élite rower, paralympian Tom Aggar is now revelling in his new career as a teacher.

Tom (OE 1995-2002), who until he retired was the longest-serving member of the GB Para-rowing squad, won the gold medal in the Arms-Shoulders Men’s Single Scull at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008, and was crowned World Champion in the same discipline in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. He bowed out of rowing while still competing at the highest level, having taken bronze at the Paralympics in Rio in 2016.

He is now teaching full-time at Claires Court Senior Boys, an independent day school in Maidenhead, and has heard during lockdown that, following his successful final submissions under the teacher-training process, he is now fully qualified as a teacher.

“After retiring from competitive rowing, I worked for a pharmaceutical firm for a short time, before taking the plunge and training as a teacher,” he says. “I had always thought about teaching, but for one reason or another had talked myself out of it. I should have trusted my instincts as I have thoroughly enjoyed my time teaching so far.”

Tom who read Bio Sciences at Warwick University, teaches Chemistry and Biology.

“It’s a fairly small school (by QE standards) of around 450 boys, but very sporty and a really great environment to work in. It’s funny now, as a teacher, how many of the QE standards I find myself holding the boys to here!”

Tom was an accomplished sportsman at QE and has fond memories of his time as a pupil. “I played rugby for so many years with a great group of friends; I really enjoyed my studies, particularly into the Sixth Form. I also had the opportunity to represent the School at so many sports throughout my time there.”

Tom was injured in a non-sports related accident in 2005 and took up rowing as part of his rehabilitation programme. “[Former Headmaster] John Marincowitz and the whole School were so very supportive of me after my injury and it has been great to still keep in touch with QE,” he says.

When Tom stepped down from competitive rowing, he took a break from sport and all the training for a while. But now he tries to keep fit and trains before work most mornings. “I guess old habits are hard to break, and although I don’t miss the pressure that came with being on the team and competing, I still enjoy keeping active.”

Tom is married to Vicki and they have three children, two boys and a girl. He enjoys spending his spare time with them, going for walks and swimming.

“Both the boys have started playing rugby now at Maidenhead in the U7 and U6s, so most of my Sunday mornings are spent on the side of a rugby pitch now!”

The Year 8 Inter-House Debating Final was won by the finest of margins, following an evenly matched contest between Stapylton and Leicester.

After fluent and compelling debate from both sides, the Leicester team, opposing the motion, This house believes that censorship has no place in a democracy, prevailed by just a single point.

Head of English Robert Hyland, who organised the event, said: “At QE, we are fully persuaded of the importance of nurturing effective oracy and skills in public speaking and debating among our pupils. All the boys who took part in this final are therefore to be congratulated, as they presented an excellent, well-argued debate in the best QE tradition of closely competed inter-house competitions.”

Zaki Mustafa, the first main speaker for Stapylton, presented the proposition in his allocated five minutes. He argued that freedom of speech is a pillar of democracy and a key human right, adding: “Democracy means that we decide how our country is run – the government is there to implement our decisions, not to make them.”

He also referenced the Watergate scandal, suggesting that the suppression of information resulted in “disastrous consequences” leading to US President Nixon’s resignation. He also pointed out that in Turkey, censorship has led to the arrest of journalists which, in turn, has affected information flow to the public.

Ady Tiwari, who recorded the highest individual score on the day, presented a robust argument for the opposition in his five minutes: “Not all speech is equal,” he said. “Censorship reduces the impact of hate speech. Hate speech historically has led to oppression such as slavery and the denial of the vote to women.” He pointed out that live broadcasts by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan are illegal – clearly a case where censorship “stops hate and promotes equality and justice”, he said.

He also suggested that, for reasons of national security, government information needs to be kept secret. He argued that removing censorship would help terrorists and other criminals, such as identity thieves.

Ady added that censorship is needed in many key areas of society, including the internet, television, film and the media, and that, without censorship, children could search online for information about pornography and buying drugs. Democracy necessarily “includes censorship and we should use it to make the world a better place”, Ady concluded.

Among the topics covered by Stapylton’s second main speaker, Koustuv Bhowmick, were parental controls: these were an effective way of controlling children’s internet use, yet they could be classified as restriction, rather than censorship. He also looked at the deleterious effects of censorship in regimes such as North Korea and China, arguing that, in the latter case, it was abuse of censorship that had led to the coronavirus scandal.

The opposition’s second main speaker, Adi Kaneshanatha, returned to the dangers of hate speech, stating that “hate crime causes violence” and warning that it increases the social stigma of the groups discriminated against, which, in turn, affects mental health. He looked at the issue of fake news, arguing that censorship will help stop it, and urged speakers to trust the Government’s judgement in ensuring that its citizens are not exposed to inappropriate material.

Three speakers from each side raised points or questions from the floor. For Stapylton, Joel Swedensky, Harrshiv Vyas and Akshat Bajaj touched on the importance of educating people with negative or hateful views rather than just silencing them. Leicester’s floor speakers, opposing the motion, were Abhay Halyal, Nikhil Mark and Pranav Haller, who cited as an example of the serious dangers of an absence of censorship the fact that terrorists can learn to make bombs online.

The event was adjudicated by Dharrshan Viramuthu, of Year 12, who is a member of QE’s Cambridge Union Schools Debating Competition team. He congratulated all the speakers and also dispensed some advice, suggesting inter alia that they try to minimise reliance on scripts.

He awarded opponents Leicester 59 points out of a possible 70, thus just pipping proposers Stapylton, who picked up 58 points. An indicative vote from the floor was fairly evenly split, but again just favoured the opposition.

Members of the cast for QE’s forthcoming 2020 School Play enjoyed the opportunity to see a critically acclaimed London production and to meet both an actor and a stage director.

Year 8’s Girish Adapa won the group’s trip to the sold-out production of Albion at the Almeida Theatre in Islington as the prize in a Christmas quiz in The Day, an online daily newspaper for teenagers.

Albion, by Mike Bartlett, is a play is about nostalgia and national identity. It has widely been seen as a Brexit allegory.

The actor who met the QE group after the performance was Helen Schlesinger, known for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Albion, she plays a novelist who is the friend of the chief protagonist of the play, giving a performance described by the Telegraph’s theatre critic, Dominic Cavendish, as “brilliantly wafting”.

The boys asked her questions about: acting techniques; the career progression of an actor; managing rejection and stress; the relative merits of stage and screen work; working with directors and other actors. and getting into character.

The trip was organised by Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter and Gavin Molloy, from QE’s external drama partners, RM Drama.

The boys, many of whom will be involved in this year’s School production of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on 25th and 26th March, were also given the opportunity to meet Almeida’s Stage Manager, Linsey Hall, who answered their technical questions on how long it took to build the set, the practicalities of using real plants on the stage, and how they drained water from the grass.

Head of English Robert Hyland, who accompanied the QE pupils, along with Head of Library Services Surya Bowyer, said: “The boys thoroughly enjoyed the trip – it was a valuable experience to see a professional play of this calibre. I found the production intensely powerful: it’s a play which resonates with the ‘now’ of British society in a rich, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving way.

“I know that many of our boys were taken aback by the force of the performance, and the complexity of the message behind it,” added Mr Hyland. “It’s a really rare opportunity for them to be able to see a play with such high production values, and even rarer to be able to meet members of the cast and production team after the show. The questions asked by students were probing and reflective, both from the perspective of performance and stagecraft, and from the perspective of meaning and metaphor.”

Girish, whose quizzing skills led directly to the outing, agreed with Mr Hyland’s assessment, saying the play was “very moving”.

Fired up by his own struggles in getting into Law, Izzet Hassan, who now works at one of the five so-called Magic Circle City firms, has set up his own online network to advise others seeking to follow in his footsteps.

While at QE, Izzet (OE 2005-2012) was captain of the tennis team and a noted rugby player. He then read Law at Warwick before going on to take a Master’s degree in Philosophy at Cambridge.

After working at various law firms as a paralegal and in their vacation schemes, Izzet won a training contract with Slaughter and May, where he started in September 2018.

Today, as well as his job as a Future Trainee Solicitor, he runs the Aspiring Commercial Lawyers Network (ACLN), which he set up on Facebook during the autumn of 2019.

“ACLN is a platform designed to help students, graduates and aspiring lawyers break into the legal profession,” he says. “As the first member of my family to go to university, I had to learn the hard way how difficult it is to secure an entry-level position in the field of commercial law.

“My aim is to use the knowledge I have accumulated over the years to help others break into this field.”

The group has expanded rapidly and in its first four months topped 1,000 members.

Izzet is also becoming very well-known on LinkedIn, dispensing nuggets of both general life advice based on his own experience as well as specific guidance for those aiming for a top career in Law.

Writing in February, Izzet said: “My exposure on LinkedIn has grown exponentially over the last two months. Following a few viral posts which have been viewed by almost half a million people, I have become very active in the legal sphere.

“I believe that LinkedIn, as a social media platform, offers an organic reach that is second only to Twitter.

“This, combined with its academic/professional exposure, allows me to advise aspiring lawyers and chime into legal discussions on a much larger scale than would be possible otherwise.”

Here is one recent example of his posts:

• “I am delighted to announce that I have passed my Stage 1 LPC exams.

The LPC happened to coincide with a very difficult time in my life; at times, it felt as though I was being attacked from every possible angle.

When you’re experiencing adversity, sometimes it is very difficult to see beyond the pain you are suffering.

During times like these, I often think about my greatest fears in life and draw strength from the fact that no matter how bad things may seem, they are still nothing compared to what I fear most.

I don’t believe that life gets any easier; I believe we just become stronger and more resilient over time.

How do you deal with adversity?”

Izzet also pays tribute to the support he received from the specialists at Rare Recruitment, billed on their own website as ‘leaders in diversity graduate recruitment’.

“Rare Recruitment were a great resource for me when I was applying,” he says. “The organisation aims to help aspiring lawyers from less privileged backgrounds break into the legal sphere. I benefited greatly from their support, application reviews and mock interviews.”

Having had a long-term interest in investing, Izzet has developed expertise in property and in CFD (Contract for Difference) trading.

“CFD trading is a relatively new form of derivatives trading which allows investors to speculate on the price of the underlying assets. For example, trading gold has historically been very expensive, however, trading CFD gold contracts allows investors to speculate on the price of the underlying gold assets, without actually having to buy the gold itself.

“I am currently developing an algorithm which will allow me to automate the trading process so that I can trade ‘passively’.

“In terms of property, I am very early in my investing career and have spent a lot of time educating myself on various models, particularly the ‘serviced accommodation’ model. By attending regular networking events, I have formed connections with a number of investors and other property investors which I believe will facilitate my progress.”

Izzet visited the School in 2018, along with his QE contemporary, Suraj Sangani, to speak to boys in Years 11-13 as part of the Senior Lecture Programme about how to pursue a career in Law.

Izzet was scheduled to be the guest speaker at the 55th Annual Elizabethan Union Dinner Debate, which had to be called off because of the pandemic.

Kiran Patel is enjoying a highly successful medical career that has taken in work and study in locations ranging from Harvard to the London hospital where he was born.

Now a Clinical Research Fellow and a cardiology specialist registrar at the National Heart and Lung Institute based at Imperial College, Kiran (OE 2000–2007) is a member of the Royal College of Physicians. The winner of a string of prizes and awards for his work and research, he graduated from King’s College London with a First in 2010 and then from the college’s medical school with triple distinction three years later.

Kiran says he has “very fond memories” of his time at QE, where he was in Leicester House and where he was appointed a Senior Vice-Captain.

He was in the form group of current Headmaster Neil Enright, starting from September 2002 when Mr Enright arrived at QE as a new member of staff. “I remember lining up outside room A in 2002 on his first day as Head of Geography and form tutor for 9L. He subsequently remained our form tutor for three years, bringing us much-needed consistency after having had four form tutors in the preceding first two years at QE. This was in addition to our Geography lessons with Mr Enright during these years and again in Sixth Form.

“After QE I went on to study medicine at King’s with an elective – an eight-week period built into the curriculum to allow students to explore health service outside of the UK – at Harvard medical school. I deliberately chose to pursue a laboratory-based project investigating cardiovascular development in zebrafish, which was inspired by my undergraduate BSc research at St Thomas’ Hospital. The experience afforded me the opportunity to develop scientific skills in preparation for applying for an academic foundation programme after graduating from medical school. As one would expect, Harvard provided a highly intellectually stimulating environment that carried with it a palpable ‘buzz’. One could sense that ground-breaking, cutting edge research was being conducted all around the medical campus.

“Upon my return to the UK, I was surprised that my short undergraduate project at Harvard was short-listed for the Young Investigator Award at the London Cardiovascular Society, and found myself competing against doctoral candidates with considerably more experience than me.” He was named runner-up for this award.

On graduating from medical school in 2013, Kiran was offered two academic posts, one at Cambridge University and the other at UCL. “I chose to remain in London to pursue my interest in academic cardiology, a decision I believe reaped its rewards when I was able to present my research into inherited heart disease internationally.

“My first posting as a junior doctor was at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital, where I had done my work experience placement in 2005. It felt somewhat of a homecoming, and I was glad that I was able to give something, however little, back to the local Barnet community after being schooled in the area and having done my work experience there as well.

“I then rotated to UCLH [University College Hospital] in 2014 – the hospital where I was born! – and then another local hospital, Northwick Park, in 2015.

“The last three years have been particularly busy; in 2017 I passed exams to gain membership of the Royal College of Physicians, applied for and started specialist training in cardiology in north west London, and married my wife, Jaime.

“Thankfully, we had a month after our wedding and before I started practicing as a cardiology registrar at Northwick Park and Central Middlesex Hospital in October 2017, so we decided to spend that time on honeymoon exploring Australia.

“In 2018 I temporarily paused my clinical training to pursue a PhD at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, investigating the impact of fat and obesity on cardiac electrophysiology (the sub-specialty of cardiology that focuses on management of rhythm problems).

“My work spans the spectrum of bench-to-bedside-to-population spectrum with three related but well-defined projects. It is a particularly relevant topic given the increasing prevalence of obesity and heart disease, and the health and economic burden that they represent.”

He and his team hope that their research will provide a mechanistic insight into obesity-related heart disease, and determine how weight loss can cause favourable changes to heart function.

“I am currently supervising two undergraduate BSc students and will be presenting some of this research at a European conference later this year.

“My longer-term ambition is to complete sub-specialty training in cardiac electrophysiology in London and remain committed to my teaching and academic interests.”

Kiran continues to do ad hoc shifts at Northwick Park Hospital. He lives in Stanmore, where he and his wife bought a house last year.

“We see our family regularly and I have remained in touch with several OEs, although this has largely been through work; in 2018 there were at least 12 OEs working at Northwick Park Hospital across different specialties, including me in cardiology and others in respiratory, emergency medicine and acute medicine. It felt like a QE reunion and was a privilege to work alongside my OE peers as doctors, and to be able to teach, support or advise whenever required of me.”

Kiran also fondly recalls being QE’s Guest of Honour at the Founder’s Day church service and Roll Call in 2014.

“It is always wonderful to hear from my alma mater and see that QE continues to grow strength to strength,” he adds.