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The sands of time may be slipping away for the crumbling coast of Essex – but not if QE’s A-level geographers can help it!

Braving a biting chill on the beach, the Sixth Form group investigated not only the threat posed by rapid coastal erosion at Walton-on-the-Naze, but also evaluated steps being taken by the town’s authorities to check it.

Geography teacher Chris Butler said: “Fieldtrips like this are so important in bringing to life what can be rather abstract concepts, such as coastal erosion and management. I was delighted with the boys’ approach across all three days of the trip. They worked extremely hard in challenging conditions and were a credit to the School.”

Walton has one of the fastest retreating cliff lines in the British Isles: on average, the cliffs are retreating between one and two metres every year. That the cliffs are falling away so rapidly is due largely to their geology.

“The fossiliferous clays and sands exposed in the Naze area belong to the London Clay and Red Crag formations, and provide evidence of prehistoric life and conditions 54 million years ago and 2.5 million years ago respectively,” said Mr Butler. “Fossils, such as those of shark teeth and mangroves, occur commonly throughout both, and the area has attracted fossil-hunters since the 19th century.

“However, the formations unfortunately represent a relatively weak barrier to coastal erosion.”

Local officials have implemented a large number of strategies in a bid to slow the rate of erosion and protect the town and its services.

As well as looking into the impact of the erosion on both landforms and the built environment as part of their A-level studies, the boys also investigated the relative success of each management strategy the town had introduced and the impact that these techniques have had on both physical and human environments.

“Although no fossils were recovered, the fieldtrip was a great success, and despite the weather being bitterly cold, the boys demonstrated admirable fieldwork skills in sampling and collecting their data before analysis back in the classroom,” said Mr Butler.

The party stayed just over the Suffolk border in the Field Studies Council’s (FSC) Flatford Mill, which was once owned by John Constable’s family. He immortalised the Mill in his famous painting, The Hay Wain, in 1821.

Mr Butler added: “The boys were complimented on their positive attitudes, outstanding work ethic and manners by FSC staff and teachers from other visiting schools.”

Top to bottom, the pictures show: Year 12’s Sabbir Hossain using a level to chart platform gradient; boys profiling the protected beach and ‘slope toe’ at Walton; Red Crag and London Clay formations; Flatford Mill, as depicted in The Hay Wain, and the mill as it is today.

A group of sixth-formers enjoyed the privilege of a special day at the Shoreditch offices of Amazon Web Services, where leaders shared their insights into the fast-moving technological world they inhabit.

The boys were special guests at one of AWS’s monthly re:Purpose days, on which AWS staff are encouraged to get involved in projects and initiatives outside of their normal day-to-day work.

Ben Moss, from the Digital Native & Enterprise Software and Software as a Servicer (SaaS) Team at AWS, said: “The theme of this re:Purpose day was collaboration, so I teamed up with the Queen Elizabeth’s School to deliver an Amazon insight day for several of their students. We heard from our AWS leadership, solutions architect, graduates and apprentices, all who shared their insightful experiences within AWS.”

Praising the QE group for their preparation and commitment, Mr Moss said it had been a “brilliant day for all”.

AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon. It offers hundreds of paid-for web-based products and services to individuals and organisations.

Enterprise Business Development Representative, Ella Cooper, who organised the day, together with her colleague, Juste Mena, said the day had seen the QE visitors “diving deep into careers in the cloud”.

The boys were able to see for themselves the potential of AI. One undoubted highlight of the day was a machine-learning live demo, including Amazon Rekognition, its SaaS platform that developers can use to add image and video analysis to their applications. The QE group saw it used to identify the features of familiar neighbourhoods and of celebrities.

They also heard from Senior Manager Joe Welton and Solutions Architect, Jack Bark.

Stephanie Tomlinson, QE’s Assistant Head of Technology, said: “Interestingly, Joe and Jack had shared aspects to their career pathways. Both spoke about the series of fortuitous moments which have led to their impressive and meaningful roles within AWS, highlighting to our pupils the reason we should use and follow our gut instinct!”

Thanking the team at AWS and praising the “seamless delivery” of the day, she said the boys had benefitted from a memorable experience: “Particular themes and lessons included the importance of mindset, attitude and establishing common ground. AWS is meritocratic, rewarding dynamic individuals who show skill and a strong emotional intelligence.

“Our boys undoubtedly took away a great deal – particularly the importance of learning and being curious.”

After a successful joint camp with the Beds and Herts Army Cadet Force, members of QE’s CCF are now looking forward to working with their near-neighbours again.

The School is planning a series of exercises so that QE’s Combined Cadet Force can try their hand against the local ACF.

The initiative follows a weekend camp in February, where cadets including those from both cadet forces received training in fieldcraft and personal development.

CCF Contingent Commander Major Mev Armon said: “The joint training at the camp was very successful. Our boys got to meet cadets from other places, collaborating and teaming up with new acquaintances, and adapting to new strengths and weaknesses in their units. This all led to a better and more realistic overall experience.

“Our boys found that they and the ACF cadets had a like-minded approach. New friendships were made, and there are now plans to work with them again. ACF will play the enemy in QE exercises, creating more realism – as our cadets don’t necessarily know how they will think.”

The half-term camp involving ten Sixth Form CCF cadets took place at the Cadet Training Centre Bassingbourn Barracks, Royston, north Hertfordshire.

During sessions on fieldcraft and tactics, some 3,600 rounds were fired among the QE group.

“Crucially, they also focused on how to communicate with each other under pressure and stress,” said Major Armon, who is a Biology teacher. “Cadets had to make small leadership decisions, learning quickly that these have consequences in the field.”

Another key element of the camp was the opportunity for cadets to try using a Dismounted Close Combat Trainer, which employs very advanced technology.

It is essentially a screen that plays out like a video game, yet allows users to try real weapons with the correct action, recoil, and so on. The trainer reacts to the user’s decisions and execution, thus demonstrating the impact of his actions.

The boys used it for range work competitions – such as practising marksmanship using digital glass bottles and plates.

The trainer can, however, be extended to full-battle scenarios, involving field combat, urban combat, and terror attacks, with different outcomes based upon the user’s inputs.

Pupils learned about the often grim – yet sometimes surprisingly positive – realities of life at the time the School was founded in 1573.

Year 8 boys conducted experiments to explore improvements in shipbuilding during Elizabeth I’s reign, to show how food was preserved in an age before refrigeration and to make their own Tudor-style soap.

The 450^th anniversary Science festival also featured a poster competition open to Years 7–9, while  Year 12 Biology students enjoyed some cutting-edge lectures and demonstrations at a Biology in Action day in London.

The Science festival was one of a number being run by academic departments under QE’s new Flourish extra-curricular programme.

Assistant Head Crispin Bonham-Carter (Pupil Involvement), who leads Flourish, said: “Subject festivals are a great way to stimulate boys’ academic curiosity by exploring topics outside the normal run of the curriculum.

“It is fascinating to see how my colleagues in the Science department have used the occasion of the anniversary to take a practical look at a diverse set of Science-related topics, to stimulate boys’ artistic creativity, and even to challenge one or two false beliefs about the Tudor age.”

The Year 8 boys carried out their experiments in a series of special workshops in their Biology, Chemistry and Physics lessons. They produced, said Head of Biology Gillian Ridge, some “fantastic work”.

One set of experiments focused on the challenges of keeping food safe in an age before modern refrigeration.

The boys grew bacteria on agar plates in different conditions to find out which preservation methods worked best. Agar plates are Petri dishes that contains a growth medium solidified with agar; they are used to culture microorganisms.

In their illustrated report on their experiments, Year 8 pupils Rishan Virmani and Sathvik Velan noted that they had “learned about the lack of hygiene awareness within Tudor society, and that biology and self-preservation [were not] important”.

The boys also found out about soap in the Tudor period, learning that, contrary to popular belief, it would have been used in every household, regardless of status or wealth.

After instruction in the principles of saponification – the chemical process of making soap – pupils tried their hand at making their own.

Another hands-on session involved making model boats out of aluminium foil to see which boat shape could hold the most mass. The boys learned that innovations by shipwrights during Elizabeth I’s reign allowed the introduction of ships that were faster, more manoeuvrable and carried heavier guns. The superiority of English ships was an important factor of the defeat of the Spanish Armada invasion fleet in 1588.

After their trip to London, the A-level Biology students prepared presentations to share what they had learned with the rest of Year 12 and with Year 11.

The Lower School poster competition was judged according to three criteria:

• Creativity
• Content (being clear, accurate and informative about a STEM topic)
• Effective communication.

Year 8’s Aathi Jeyanth won the competition with his colourful look at the food chain, which included cartoon drawings of animals.

Click on the thumbnails below to see highlights of the poster competition. First is Aathi’s winning entry, followed by posters produced by: Aaryan Prabhaker, Year 7; Arihaant Venuraju, Year 7; Zhekai Mao, Year 7, and Akshaj Vyas, of Year 9.

The PE department rounded off the season with its own anniversary celebrations in a QE 450 Rugby Festival.

With events targeted at players from all years, the festival was one of a number of innovative subject festivals being held as part of QE’s new Flourish extra-curricular programme.

Director of Sport Jon Hart said: “Competitive rugby has been played at QE for more than 100 years, so it occupies an important place in the School’s history. Therefore, we wanted to ensure the game was included in QE’s 450th anniversary celebrations.

“At the same time, our festival provided opportunities for boys of all ages – from giving our youngest Elizabethans the opportunity to have fun and develop a love of the game by playing against each other in an inter-House competition, through to helping our leading young sportsmen finesse their performance through learning about nutrition.”

The festival began with last month’s 47th Annual QE Rugby Sevens Tournament, the second-largest schools sevens tournament in the country.

Played at U14 as well as U16 level for the first time since before the pandemic, the tournament attracted 64 teams from many of England’s leading rugby schools. Tonbridge and Harrow schools took the U16 and U14 cups respectively, while QE’s own players performed well, achieving emphatic wins in both age categories.

The second event combined rugby skills with charity fundraising: a kicking event for pupils from Years 7–10 which raised money for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Barnet. The hospice has for some years been a popular target for fundraising efforts at QE.

Next came a Year 7 inter-House rugby competition. All Year 7 boys took part in this event, which ran during the course of an afternoon. Each of the School’s six Houses took on all of the other Houses.

Finally, caterers Holroyd Howe gave a specialist nutrition presentation, to which selected sportsmen from Years 7–10, including top rugby players, were invited. The aim was to develop these young athletes’ understanding of the important effect that nutrition has on sporting performance.