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Media reports about the extent of divisions within the parliamentary Conservative Party over the Brexit negotiations are well wide of the mark, MP Mike Freer told sixth-formers.

The Tory MP and former QE governor came into School to speak to Year 13 in a special assembly and responded robustly when asked whether he thought splits in the party would prevent the Government from winning any vote on Brexit.

“I sometimes feel as if I work at a different House of Commons to what I see portrayed in the media,” said Mr Freer, an Assistant Government Whip and MP for Finchley and Golders Green. He stated that the vast bulk of the Parliamentary Conservative Party supports the Prime Minister, adding that not only had she been a successful Home Secretary, but that she also knew Europe and understood that good deals inevitably happen at the very last minute.

And Mr Freer had another example of how perceptions of British politics can be affected by the media: he pointed out that although the chamber of the House of Commons usually appears quite empty on the BBC Parliament channel, this was because most of Parliament’s work was in fact conducted outside the chamber.

Mr Freer was on QE’s Governing Body when he was as a councillor in the London Borough of Barnet, where he served as Leader prior to running for Parliament. He spoke to the boys about the true role of MPs in the legislative process and about how to effect changes in public policy, before answering their questions on a wide range of political topics.

An MP’s job is to scrutinise the law, not make it, he explained. The law usually comes from the Government, which is the executive. However, there are a number of ways in which MPs can achieve a change in the law, through lobbying, questioning, building consensus, and trying to amend legislation as it progresses through Parliament. One approach is to hang an amendment on to a piece of legislation already tabled – known in the US as a Christmas tree bill. Westminster Hall debates – for which MPs sit in a horseshoe arrangement intended to encourage non-confrontational discussions – provide another opportunity to influence, he said.

Mr Freer recounted how he had secured changes to the law to:

• Make residential squatting illegal
• Remove ‘poppers’ from the list of drugs controlled under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (having challenged the Department of Health’s evidence about their health impact).
• Make PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) available on the NHS. (PrEP is when people at very high risk for HIV take HIV medicines daily to lower their chances of getting infected.)
• Extend the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine’s availability to include boys.

“Changing public policy is the most worthwhile thing about being an MP. I’m proud if I’ve stopped one person getting an HPV-related cancer,” he said.

Boys challenged Mr Freer in a number of areas during the Q & A session. He was asked, for example, “how do you reconcile the fact that your constituency voted for ‘remain’ with the Government’s position (that you are whipping)?”

“Easy! I’m a democrat,” he replied, adding that the Brexit referendum was the largest democratic vote in the country’s history and that all should therefore respect its outcome.

There were also questions on his voting record, including one on tuition fees. One sixth-former put a particularly thoughtful question about community relations: how did Mr Freer reconcile religious rights with the rights of other groups, such as the LGBT+ community, within such a diverse constituency. His answer was that trust is built over time as people get to know you as their MP and see you working hard for the local area; this allows you to disagree on particular issues without destroying those relationships.

After the assembly, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a wide-ranging talk and set of questions, which engaged the boys and which will have aided their understanding of the political and legislative processes, not least in terms of gaining an insight into how MPs influence public policy. It is important that our pupils are able to consider a range of political perspectives on the key issues of the day and engage critically with them.”

Boys from Years 7 and 8 were able to explore the huge and diverse range of extra-curricular activities available to them at QE’s Clubs & Societies Fair.

Whether pupil or staff-led, the societies used their stalls to seek new members: boys were encouraged to join at least three different clubs.

Among those showcased at the annual fair were ‘History Raiders’ and ‘Geo-explorers’, as well as religious societies and groups focusing on areas such as engineering, robotics, language games, wildlife photography and 3D printing.

Many of the clubs and societies provide opportunities for the boys to mix with others from different year groups.

Rebecca Grundy, Head of Extra-curricular Enrichment, said: “There is huge scope for boys to get involved, find new interests, hone their skills and eventually run societies of their own. A significant proportion of the clubs are run by the boys, giving them valuable experience in leadership, organisation and teamwork.”

These clubs and societies are in addition to those extra-curricular activities the School offers in sport, music, drama and public speaking. In addition, QE often works with outside organisations, either to provide specialist expertise in school sports such as water polo, or to offer wider opportunities, such as circus skills.

“What goes on beyond the classroom is of equal importance is and key to developing the rounded young men we seek to produce,” said Miss Grundy.

Many of QE’s senior players visited Canada on the School’s first-ever rugby tour to the Americas.

During the ten-day visit, the touring party took on several leading youth rugby sides, while also finding the time for some sightseeing.

Head of Rugby James Clarke said: “Canada is a rapidly developing rugby nation and, having twice visited Sri Lanka in recent years, we were keen to see another culture.”

Led by four members of staff, the 19 tourists spent seven days in Toronto and three days in Niagara.

They took on Ontario Provincial A, currently the second-best regional team in Canada, and were defeated 47-7. Against the Ontario Provincial B side, the QE boys came much closer, losing 17-15, while they scored a convincing 46-7 victory over Niagara Rugby Club.

Among the attractions they visited were Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario – the country’s first major theme park, which, at 134 acres, remains its biggest – and Toronto’s 553.3m CN Tower. They enjoyed watching the local professional baseball team, at the Rogers Centre, the club’s home ground. And they made the most of their visit to Niagara, not only visiting Niagara Falls but also jetboating on Niagara River.

Mr Clarke said: “The boys were able to experience a different culture, as well as enjoying the hospitality of the hosting sides and the international camaraderie after each game with opposition players.

“Furthermore, our boys really ‘gelled’ as a squad, which is already having a positive effect on senior rugby here at QE this year.”

The ‘stand-out’ players were Fozy Ahmed, Samuel Burgess and James Loebell, all of Year 12, and Samuel Wong of Year 13, Mr Clarke added.

Performance coach Kam Taj’s new book offers students his own innovative and detailed holistic approach to achieving success as a student.

Entitled The Ultimate Guide to Exam Success, the book is the latest in a series published through UniAdmissions, an education consultancy which helps students applying to Oxbridge and medical schools.

Announcing its publication, Kam (Kamran Tajbaksh, OE 2004–2011) told his Facebook followers: “In many ways, I wrote this book for my younger self – it’s everything I wished I knew as a student and teenager.

“For those of you who don’t know, I graduated from Cambridge University with a 1st class in Engineering. But my path was anything but smooth. I went from failing my A-level Further Maths mocks to getting an A* and meeting my offer. I only achieved my 1st class after getting 2.2 grades in my first two years at Cambridge. I tell my story in more detail in the book, as well as sharing the tools and techniques which helped me to transform my failures into success – and have helped many of my private clients since.”

The first four chapters of the 182-page paperback are on: time-management, study tools & techniques; mind-management and on-the-day performance.

“Unlike any other book on exams, the final four chapters are on optimising our lifestyle so we can stay physically and mentally healthy throughout our studies,” Kam adds. These chapters of the book, which is published by RAR Medical Services, look at: movement & physical activity; nutrition & hydration; sleep and support groups.

Kam studied Manufacturing Engineering at Churchill College, Cambridge. After graduating, he initially took up a post as a management consultant with a global company. However, he had begun doing performance coaching work while still at university and in 2016 left the consultancy world to concentrate fully on coaching and motivational speaking.

He works predominantly with students and young professionals, speaking at leading schools and universities. Last term, Kam visited QE to lead a workshop on Oxbridge preparation for 32 sixth-formers.

The content of the new book is similar to The 8 Principles of Exam Domination, which was self-published by Kam on Kindle last year.

Klimt’s Magic Garden, a virtual reality experience created by filmmaker and academic Dr Frederick Baker, proved so popular in the artist’s Austrian homeland that its run was extended by nearly six months.

The experience, which eventually ran from February until early October in Vienna’s MAK (Museum of Applied Arts), is also now being staged at a leading arts centre in Brussels.

Timed to coincide with the centenary of the Gustav Klimt’s death this year, Klimt’s Magic Garden is a virtual reality tour for which Fred (OE 1976–1983) was inspired by the series of three mosaics that the Art Nouveau doyen created for the Stoclet Palace, also in Brussels. To produce the experience, Fred used high-resolution digital photographic material to create a rich, shimmering virtual paradise.

Born in Salzburg but brought up in London, Fred studied Anthropology and Archaeology at St John’s College, Cambridge, Tübingen and Sheffield universities and went on to gain a PhD from Cambridge in 2009. He now lives in Vienna and London.

Fred was a Producer Director for the BBC, working for the corporation from 1994 to 2006. He is the owner of the Austrian film company, Filmbäckerei, and a College Research Association at the Centre for Film and Screen Media, Wolfson College, Cambridge.

He returned to St John’s in 2014 to create a hugely atmospheric screening of the film classic The Third Man, which became the first film ever to be mapped on to the college’s Bridge of Sighs.

A specialist in Austrian cinema, he has published extensively on The Third Man – the Carol Reed-directed film starring Orson Welles, which was set in Vienna and used a screenplay by Graham Greene, who had also written it as a novella. As well as examining the film for his doctorate, Fred made a 90-minute documentary about its making, entitled Shadowing The Third Man.

He is also the founder of Cambridge’s annual international research symposium, Picturing Austrian Cinema, and has lectured at universities in Weimar and Berlin as well as at Middlesex University. The winner of numerous awards at film festivals from Cannes to Hollywood, Fred has made acclaimed documentaries on subjects including Stalin and Rebuilding the Reichstag (about the reconstruction of the German parliament building overseen by the architect, Norman Foster).

• Klimt’s Magic Garden, which is experienced using virtual reality headsets, runs at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (also known as BOZAR) in Brussels until 20th January 2019. A sample of the experience is available on YouTube.