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Ten sixth-formers completed a personal development course designed to help young people take charge of their own lives.

The WhyOhYou programme is run by the DVS Foundation – a philanthropic organisation established by the family of Old Elizabethan Priyan Shah (1991–1998).

Priyan’s wife, Asmi Shah, who is the Programme Lead, said: “When we don’t take time to know ourselves and what we want, it becomes very difficult to make decisions that are truly right for us. We can become victim to passively following life, which over the years can lead us into the wrong professions, friendships and relationships.

“Our ambition with WhyOhYou is to help address this by empowering youth to ask themselves critical questions early on.”

Mrs Shah runs the WhyOhYou (a play on the letters of YOU) programme with a colleague, Rupal Shah, who is the DVS Foundation’s Head of Philanthropy.

The programme runs over five weeks and provides young people with the space and tools to explore who they are, what they want and how to achieve it. It covers topics such as personal values, goal-setting, coaching, having a ‘growth mindset’ and resilience, with an underlying message on the importance of self-responsibility.

It is not the foundation’s only involvement with the School. Last summer, Priyan visited QE, together with his parents, Dhiru and Rami, to present DVS Foundation Awards to ten sixth-formers for excellence across various subjects and in extra-curricular involvement. The family business is a company specialising in UK institutional real estate investment. The foundation was set up in 2012 to formalise the family’s giving.

One of the ten Year 12 pupils selected to take part in the WhyOhYou Programme is Eashan Raja, who said he had derived considerable benefit from participating.

He highlighted various aspects of the course:

• Asking the question, ‘who are you?’
• Practicing meditation in the classroom
• Many creative tasks, such as learning to coach friends, as well as making vision boards
• A ten-minute dance activity at the start of every session to loosen participants up a little: (“Although a little strange to be dancing in the classroom, I feel it was a good activity and definitely made us be more open in the sessions.”)
• Discussions covering topics such as how participants could achieve their goals and how to deal with their emotions.

“Some things were new to me, such as meditation and really deeply thinking about ‘who I am’. There were also some things I already knew, but it was definitely a good reminder to me – such as how to deal with our emotions in positive ways.

“I also feel I have become more confident talking about personal things and feelings in front of my peers, which I believe is very important, especially in our society today, where it is uncommon for men to talk about their feelings and personal things about themselves.”

Eashan thanked the course facilitators: “They were both amazing. They were really kind and considerate, making a safe place for all of us to talk about what was on our minds about the topic at hand.

“They were clearly very keen and passionate about the topics they were talking about, and this definitely showed – and made us more interactive and open. I truly do not think they could have done a better job with us.”

He was also full of praise for the resources they provided, “from the snacks, to the PowerPoint slides, the pens, paper and juggling balls!”

 

The 11^th edition of The Econobethan – QE’s pupil-led magazine focusing on Economics, as well as on Politics and Sociology – spans the centuries and roams the continents.

It includes original writing from Year 12 pupils on topics ranging from the ancient world – the economic history of the Roman Empire – to the very contemporary concern of the climate crisis, and from the underlying causes of Africa’s poverty to Japan’s ‘apology culture’.

The 27-page magazine also has as its special theme, ‘Black history’, with four articles in a dedicated section. The Econobethan was published just ahead of this month’s launch of a statement expressing QE’s vision for a broad, diverse and inclusive curriculum.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Econobethan is always a stimulating read, and this issue is no exception, with high-quality, considered submissions from the contributors that should serve to inspire deeper thinking and research from other pupils.

“The theme of Black history is timely: through the launch of our long-term vision for a broad, diverse and inclusive curriculum, we seek to build on the very thoughtful work that has already been done at the School, ensuring that our pupils are well-equipped to thrive in our diverse, modern world.”

The Econobethan is edited by Aditya Kute, Avinash Srivastava and Nishanth Bhasuru. In their introductory editors’ note, they write that the magazine aims to “shed light on economic points of interest, as well as providing a platform for some of the School’s most talented writers to delve into current economic affairs”.

In the Black history section, Aditya looks at why Black History Month is important. He spotlights Sir Arthur Lewis, still the only Black winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics (which he won in 1979), and Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the American civil rights movement, who, at the age of 15, was arrested in 1950s Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white woman.

Aston Daniel looks in more detail at the work of Sir Arthur, while a piece from Avinash is entitled How Does Systemic Racism Continue to Impact Economic Outcomes for African Americans? and Keith Correia writes on How was the war on drugs in the US used as a segregation tool?

Elsewhere in The Econobethan, Nishanth explores Underworld Economics and concludes that while informal markets do cause ‘numerous issues’, nevertheless ‘contrary to the common belief, they aren’t completely negative’, since, for example, they ‘provide a pathway for low-earning families…to get by and survive’.

In the Languages section, Aayush Backory discusses Le fer et les finances: partie 1: l’économie du Luxembourg du 19ème siècle (Iron and finance Part 1: The economy of 19th century Luxembourg) and Arjun Patel writes in German on How do we Deal With the Climate Crisis? (Wie Bewältigen wir die Klimakrise?)

Boys from across the School gave free rein to their creative side in the latest edition of the pupil-run magazine, The Arabella.

The 37-page colour publication features contributions from boys in every year group under the theme of ‘hidden beauty’.

The contents from the 26 contributors include poetry, art, creative prose writing in English, French & German, and essays on music.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate all those whose work has been featured: it is another high-quality edition of our creative magazine, with plenty of examples of the sort of free-thinking scholarship that we seek to cultivate at Queen Elizabeth’s School.”

The most entries were for the poetry section, where the ten contributors’ poems – with titles as diverse as The Passageway (Ishan Nakadi, of Year 9) and Introspect (Akheel Kale, of Year 11) were interspersed with examples of boys’ GCSE and A-level artwork.

The section featuring writing on modern languages is prefaced by the editor-in-chief, 2023 School Captain Darren Lee, of Year 12. Addressing the pupil readership, Darren writes: “Don’t feel restricted to only writing in French or German: we would love to see entries in languages spoken at home! In the next edition, we hope to extend the languages section and include Classics submissions…”

In the music section William Joanes, of Year 10, takes a highly technical look at Hidden Science in Music, illustrated with a picture of the inner ear, while Year 12’s Tharun Dhamodharan delivers a paeon to the human voice, The Hidden Instrument.

The creative writing section is similarly varied, from final-year student Antony Yassa’s science-based examination of The Microscopic World to Year 11 pupil Shreyas Mone’s musings on Beauty in destruction – “a different kind of beauty” – where he cites examples such as volcanoes, thunderstorms and even videos of building demolition.

Six artists’ work is featured, including the front-cover illustration by Year 13’s Dylan Domb, pictured top, and pieces by Gabriel Gulliford (also Year 13), above right, and Year 12’s Pratham Bhavsar, left.

As the foreword explains, the magazine is named after Arabella Stuart, a descendant of Henry VII and sixth in line to the crown, who fell foul of King James I when in 1610 she secretly married another potential heir to the throne, William Seymore. While her husband was sent to the Tower of London, Arabella was committed to the care of the Bishop of Durham, but fell ill in Barnet en route. She stayed for some months at the home of a Governor of the School, Thomas Conyers, while her spiritual needs were attended to by another Governor, Rev Matthias Milward, who was also subsequently appointed Master (Headmaster) of the School.

Darren led an editorial team of 21 boys. Staff assistance and support came from: Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane; Head of English Robert Hyland; Curator of QE Collections and Head of Library Services Jenni Blackford; Library Services Assistant Corinna Illingworth, and from teachers in the Languages department.

Submissions are now being invited for the next issue, which will be issue 8 and is on the theme of ‘The Lure of Power’.

• Anyone with access to the School’s eQE portal may read The Arabella here.

The 2023 School Captain, Darren Lee, has taken a prize as one of the runners-up in a prestigious national German essay-writing competition.

Following an adjudication process that looked both at content and language, Darren was named among the prize-winners by King’s College London.

The A-level German writing competition run by King’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures was on the theme of how to tackle and overcome the climate crisis (Wie bewältigen wir die Klimakrise?).

Congratulating him, Assistant Head of Languages Burgunde Lukasser-Weitlaner said: “Darren’s prize is richly deserved. His competition entry was creative; it displayed his impressive language skills to good effect, and it also made a convincing argument.”

Darren opened this 443-word piece with an original poem, before then setting out to break down the issue into the ‘macro’ and the ‘micro’, considering how both large corporations and individuals could tackle the climate crisis.

The poem takes an apocalyptic view, ending with the words “…unsere Masken können nicht den Gestank eines sterbenden Planets reinigen”. (“Our masks cannot clean the stench of a dying planet.”)

But thereafter, while not flinching from the difficulties, Darren, who is in Year 12, strikes a cautiously optimistic note, stating that although it might appear that humanity is already doomed, there is in fact some progress.

He concludes his essay by urging people to eschew the temptation to blame others (“Es ist zu einfach, die Schuld auf anderen zu geben”), whether it be the rich, previous generations or huge, faceless corporations.

Instead, businesses can work together at the micro level, he urges, and thereby collectively reach the macro targets needed to provide a healthy environment for future generations.

He thanked both Frau Lukasser-Weitlaner for providing him with the opportunity to submit his essay in the competition and his German teacher, Rebecca Grundy, “for equipping me with the skills to write it!” Darren attended an online prize-giving organised by King’s.

The runner-up prize is only the latest success for Darren, who officially took over as School Captain on New Year’s Day and recently won a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship for engineering.

 

 

Two Old Elizabethan entrepreneurs and a friend have launched an innovative business that leverages the power of AI to help students revise and learn.

Their online business, Save All, uses machine learning to turn students’ own input into interactive quizzes. As well as a website, there are iOS and Android Save All apps.

Backed by venture capitalists, QE contemporaries Paul Evangelou and Petros Christodoulou (2001–2008) and their business partner, Robin Jack, are keen for Old Elizabethans to try out Save All for themselves.

“You can paste or type in pure information, and our AI automatically turns it into interactive quizzes,” says Paul. “It recognises key words and generates questions.” Users can also upload their own images to be used.

“These quizzes apply principles from cognitive science research – such as spaced retrieval, active recall, and interleaving – to maximise effectiveness for memory.

“Please try it and let us know what you think,” Paul says.

After graduating from Cambridge, Paul became a teacher, and during that time conducted research into cognitive science. Having realised the value of using quizzes to aid learning, he introduced the concept to Petros and to Robin, whom the pair had met at Cambridge.

For his part, after Philosophy at Cambridge, Petros’ career has included a spell working in YouTube marketing for Google and a period as an analyst. He later developed his interest in AI, taking a postgraduate diploma from Birkbeck, University of London, and a Master’s in Machine Learning from Imperial in 2018–2019, where he came top out of 60 students in his year. He then worked for nearly two years as a machine learning specialist for Amazon.

The three friends realised that existing quiz software was very slow and difficult to use, but that by deploying artificial intelligence and marrying that with effective design, they could make it much faster and deliver a much better experience for the user.

Each of them plays to his strengths in running the business. Paul handles the marketing and the web design, including the user experience (UX). He spent the past year learning visual design – “that has kind of been my hobby” – by following online courses and having weekly sessions with a mentor. He has also been focusing on learning how to do TikTok marketing and has made many TikTok videos – several have clocked up view counts in the tens of thousands. [link to  https://www.tiktok.com/@saveall.ai]

Petros is responsible for the machine learning and website front-end coding. Robin’s role centres on the backend database.

The three lived together in a shared house for the first two years. All three now have partners but still live within 30 minutes of each other in East London.

Having raised a six-figure sum, Paul, Petros and Robin all went full-time with the business in 2021.

“We have built something that people really like,” says Paul. “Now we are looking to expand. We have 50,000 active users, including GCSE and A-level students as well as university students. It’s a good start, but there is a long way to go to reach the billion-plus numbers that we are aiming for. We want to be as big as, or bigger than, Duolingo and Quizlet.”

They have built Save All using a ‘freemium’ model. “We have used aspects of gaming design, where, for example, standard users have a certain number of lives. If they use all of them, there is an enforced ‘cool down’ period, but this can be bypassed by buying a monthly subscription and gaining more lives. We will also allow the purchase of other add-ons in a way that is familiar to gamers.”

They are now working to towards the next round of funding.

Focused on their student market, they will keep the pricing affordable, Paul says.

However, he adds that Save All is by no means only targeted at the young and those in full-time education.

“We have had a woman in her sixties who used it to help her memorise bird characteristics, having taken advantage of the site’s facility for uploading images and diagrams.”

Other actual and potential users include those preparing for their driving theory tests and cognitive behavioural therapists, who could use it to monitor their patients’ mental health. Their corporate customers have included Starbucks, who use Save All to test employees’ knowledge of different varieties of coffee.

As a proud Old Elizabethan and member of Underne, Paul cherishes fond memories of being taught History by Mr Lewis: “That was really fun: the lessons were animated.” He went on to read History at university.

Paul also enjoyed playing rugby, fluctuating between the A and B sides, while Petros held a more fixed position in the A side.

• You can try Save All here.