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Only a few short months after starting his job as a Civil Service economist, Old Elizabethan Andrei Sandu was already advising a Government Minister at a European summit, he told senior boys at a special lunchtime lecture.

Andrei (OE 2007-14) took up his role in August last year with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of the economists’ group of the Civil Service Fast Stream. By the autumn of 2017, he was called upon to attend a Council of Ministers summit in Brussels, where he advised Lord Henley, of BEIS, throughout the session.

“There are few jobs where just four months in you are able to shape UK policy and EU law,” he told the boys as he promoted Civil Service careers. After his lecture, he also conducted a number of mock interviews with pupils considering studying Economics at university.

Thanking him for his visit, Head of Year 13 Michael Feven said: “This was an ideal opportunity for boys to hear about an interesting and rewarding career path in economics.”

After leaving QE, Andrei read Economics at Durham, where he gained a first-class degree last year.
In broad terms, he set out for the lunchtime audience both the departmental structure of the Civil Service and his own role, which involves advising the Government of the day and supporting it in implementing its plans, while remaining politically neutral. He also provided information about BEIS, including the history of the 2016 merger of the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills with the Department of Energy & Climate Change to form the new department.

His role at BEIS is as lead economist working on EU energy regulations, analysing draft laws and regulations to explore which aspects the UK would consent to and which it would want to see amended. He considers factors such as how much implementation would cost, the likely policies required to achieve particular targets and how measures should be phased in – whether, for example, to stipulate even progress each year or whether instead to specify an incremental build-up.

Andrei will return to QE on 22nd November for the School’s annual Careers Convention, where he will give his support and advice to boys in Year 11 beginning to think about their future career paths.

More than 300 QE sixth-formers gathered to hear about career opportunities from some of the largest employers and associations representing professionals.

High on the agenda was the topic of the new graduate apprenticeships, which allow undergraduates to ‘earn while they learn’ – simultaneously studying towards a degree and gaining practical experience, with the advantage that the apprentice is not accumulating student debt.

Representatives from IBM, accountancy giant BDO, consumer credit reporting agency Experian and CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) were among those who met QE’s Year 12 and 13 pupils.

Companies ran workshops on employability skills such as psychometric testing, using social media to network, writing effective CVs and interview techniques.

Thanking the participating organisations afterwards, QE’s Head of Pupil Development, Sarah Westcott, reflected on the success of the event: “Students certainly got an overview of what modern apprenticeships can offer, as well as improving their awareness of what companies look for in applicants.”

The event was part of QE’s ongoing careers programme, which is designed to broaden boys’ horizons about the world of work. It was facilitated by young entrepreneur Dan Miller and his organisation, Young Professionals UK. It was, he said, a “great day” and he had enjoyed the opportunity to engage with such a large group of sixth-formers.

Two of the latest recruits to QE’s team made significant contributions to the School’s achievement in finishing fourth at the 2018 Millfield International Schools’ Chess Tournament.

The teacher in charge of Chess, Geoff Roberts, said: “Joshua John and Andreas Angelopoulos performed strongly in this, their first, Millfield International tournament, which fills me with confidence for a bright future for chess at QE.” Both boys are in Year 7.

“The competition is a 12-board tournament; all our boys acquitted themselves well amongst the élite chess-playing schools from across the UK.”

After two qualifying rounds, the participating schools were divided into two groups, which went on to compete for either the Championship or the Major trophy. Having performed strongly in the qualifiers, the QE team were selected for a place in the Championship section as one of the top six teams, before finally being placed fourth.

The event, which is held annually at Millfield, the Somerset boarding school, is held in high regard by the English Chess Federation. Its website states: “The Millfield International is a unique event because, with teams of 12, schools cannot rely on one or two star players, but need a thriving chess community and team spirit to challenge for the top prizes.”

A leading academic expert on Artificial Intelligence set out both its huge potential for education – and some of the looming pitfalls.

Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL’s Knowledge Lab, took as her starting point in the Senior School lecture assembly the need for deep human understanding: “AI is the inter-disciplinary study of intelligence – if we don’t understand intelligence, we can’t automate it.”

Together with educationalist Sir Anthony Seldon and entrepreneur Priya Lakhani, she is one of the leaders of the new Institute for Ethical AI in Education. Headmaster Neil Enright was among those who attended its launch this month at Speaker’s House in the Palace of Westminster.

During her lecture at QE, she highlighted ways in which Artificial Intelligence might obviate an impending global shortage of teachers – an estimated 69 million more will be needed by 2030. It could, for example, be used in teaching larger groups, releasing human teachers to focus on particular aspects of the curriculum with particular children.

However, Professor’s Luckin’s work takes in not only how AI can be used to assist human education, but also how education itself may need to change in response to the new technology. And in her lecture to the boys and staff, she said that, since AI can learn information faster and more accurately than humans can, there is a need to move beyond a focus on subject knowledge. This, she acknowledged, was already being done at QE, with the School’s emphasis on skills such as problem-solving and on synthesising and understanding the meaning of data.

She pointed to some of the ethical issues presented by the new technology. AI is built upon “big data”, she told the assembly, and it was not only in the area of data security that there were concerns, but also in how representative the data used is. There have been cases where AI has delivered skewed results, such as facial recognition only recognising certain ethnicities, or has shown a gender bias in its decisions. “We need to be appropriately sceptical,” she said – careful about what is automated ensuring that companies and technologies are held to account. “We need detailed explanatory answers when being presented with a seemingly nice solution to something.”

There were specific issues in education which AI was particularly well-suited to tackle: speech recognition might be deployed to help people with disabilities, she said, noting that Google has predicted that developments in speech recognition will be more significant than driverless cars. Yet doing so was no easy matter, because of the ways in which voices change.

In a question-and-answer session with the boys after the lecture, Professor Luckin delved into: issues of AI and consciousness; understanding what knowledge is and where it comes from; the need for AI that can explain its decisions, and how the education sector should be engaged in the development of the technology. She also explained the importance of inter-subjectivity in teaching and learning to make the best use of AI – that is, achieving the right blend between human interaction and machine-learning.

In thanking Professor Luckin, Year 13 pupil John Tan said: “Whilst we live in a society characterised by technology and technological advance, her talk emphasised the importance of the human connection in education.”

In addition to her work in education, Professor Luckin is also working with the Department of Health on a project commissioned by current Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt (in his previous role as Health Secretary) into how AI will impact and can help the NHS.

A copy of Professor Luckin’s book, Machine Learning and Human Intelligence, which was published in June, was donated to The Queen’s Library.

A Year 11 pupil is now a published author after an article he penned through the School to gain a national qualification appeared in a specialist magazine.

Aaryan Sheth wrote a 2,000-word essay for his HPQ (Higher Project Qualification) which was so highly rated by Animal Spirit magazine that it has now appeared in the periodical’s autumn edition, in which most of the other articles are written by academics, theologians or leaders of animal welfare and conservation groups.

Aaryan’s article explored whether it is acceptable “to sacrifice animals to save humans” in the pursuit of medical science. He decided to research this topic on his HPQ course last year because, he said, coming from a household following Jainism, he is a vegetarian who values the lives of animals as highly as his own.

“In my opinion, dietary choices and matters of life and death are very different things, so I wanted to use this essay to explore the relations between the different ways humans use animals, and whether some are more relevant than others, focusing on the topic of animal testing.”

After discussing the pros and cons of animal-testing and looking, in particular, at animal suffering and unnecessary cruelty, he concluded that some animal-testing is still necessary for medical advances. However, he argued that there should be stronger guidelines and legislation to enforce the removal of needless suffering to laboratory animals and also greater investment in research techniques that do not involve animal-testing.

“I really enjoyed doing the research for the HPQ; being able to pick my own topic was exciting, and it was enjoyable to focus on something I’m really interested in. It was nice to get recognition from a magazine too. Plus, I’ve also learnt lots of important techniques to help with research in the future,” said Aaryan.

The HPQ is a standalone qualification that can be taken by students as an addition to their GCSE qualifications. At QE, it is taken by all Year 10 pupils.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate Aaryan for all the hard work he put into his HPQ project and for having his writing recognised in this way. The HPQ provides the boys with great experience in considering complex ethical topics in depth and I am pleased that Aaryan fully immersed himself in exploring this important issue. This experience will stand him in good stead for the rest of his time at QE and at university beyond.”

Jack Robertson, Head of Philosophy, Religion & Society, said: “There is no exam at the end of the HPQ, but it does count towards UCAS points and is considered a valuable qualification by top universities.

“The boys develop a key set of skills through the course. It is similar to a dissertation; pupils identify a topic of personal and academic interest, independently devise a question, then work over several months to research, plan and write up the final essay. They then finally present their findings and engage in self-reflection to evaluate the entire process.

“The quality of work produced by QE boys has been of a very high standard. Some carried out primary research which involved them interviewing university professors and specialists in fields ranging from philosophy, science and economics to religion,” added Mr Robertson.

Animal Spirit magazine is produced by the Animal Interfaith Alliance, a registered not-for-profit company. Its mission statement is: “To create a united voice for animals from all of the world’s faiths and spiritual beliefs, based on their founders’ teachings, to bring about the humane treatment of animals.” Aaryan’s article appears on page 40 of the magazine.