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Arjun Paliwal has moved back to London to a new role within Facebook and is now working with clients who are among the world’s biggest brands in the fashion and luxury industry.

The new job – as Client Solutions Manager – marks a further step up for Arjun (OE 2006-2013), who returns to the UK after nearly four years in Ireland, with the last 15 months spent in Dublin as a Senior Account Manager.

He relished the opportunity to live there, and considers the chapter important for not only his professional but also personal growth. “Dublin’s where I began to explore and accept my sexuality,” he says. “In coming to terms with my bisexuality I’ve had to (and will continue to) confront challenging feelings, such as shame – but I’ve also built a confidence I never had before. I bring more of myself to my work and my relationships, which is important because I’m more passionate and focused without spending my energy trying to be someone else.”

Amid all the change, however, one thing remains constant – his commitment to sustainability. “I’ve spent the best part of the last 18 months working to support and grow sustainable businesses. Sustainability is a horizontal across every vertical, so every business needs to be thinking about it, and I’m so excited to see our global teams working to amplify Facebook’s contribution to a sustainable world in the work we do with clients and agencies. This is additional to all the work the company has done and continues to do to be more sustainable, which is exciting to see happen and couldn’t be more urgent.

“I’m excited to take on the responsibility of working with some of our largest global fashion and luxury brands that define industry trends to help them be a force for good through their campaigns and communication on Facebook (FB) and Instagram (IG).”

After QE, Arjun read Fine Art at New College, Oxford, exhibiting in several galleries across the city and having a short film selected for a Ruskin Shorts exhibition.

Graduating in 2017, he joined Facebook in September of that year, initially as an e-commerce Account Manager.

“What I love about working at Facebook is our culture, where you can connect with anyone across the company to share ideas, learn and grow.”

His own career to date is an example of what this culture can produce: “Building a programme for sustainable businesses started as a passionate side project. Today, many coffees and brainstorming sessions later, we’ve got a global team working to support these companies in reaching more customers with their innovations, and senior leads are backing the work.

“My Facebook Dublin chapter has come to an end for now but I’m grateful for the journey I had there, particularly the opportunity to spend more time doing what I love while progressing my career. Being in a smaller city so close to the coast and surrounded by national parks motivated me to spend more time outdoors which I cherished. Whether it was a short walk by the sea during the day or a cycle to the cliffs after work, getting outside kept me sane, centred and humbled, so Dublin has taught me to always make time for that and do what I can to protect those experiences.”

“My journey has also made me much more aware of the importance of diversity and how critical it is to solving challenges such as sustainability. We need more authentic perspectives and experiences at the table,” says Arjun, who added that his own experience coming out – bolstered by his growing “understanding of the intersectionality of diversity and sustainability” – had shown him how important it was for more people to be represented and heard in critical conversations in order to see change.

* Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Pupils headed off into the countryside on a 10km walk and raised more than £4,500 for QE’s long-running Indian charity appeal and for the Piano Fund.

Torrential downpours forced a last-minute change of route, but the walkers were not to be denied their day in the Dollis Valley and relished the chance to stretch their legs in support of the Sathya Sai (English Medium) School in Kerala, southern India.

Extra-curricular Enrichment Tutor Katrin Hood, who is in charge of the School’s charity work, said: “It was a joy to see the boys chatting and laughing with their friends as we walked through the beautiful countryside around our School. Our heartfelt thanks to go all of those who have so generously donated.

“Before heading out, the boys attended an assembly to learn more the fantastic Sai School and our long-standing link with it. It was fascinating to hear from past and current students, as well as teachers from the Sai School themselves via video,” said Ms Hood.

During the assembly, the boys watched a video from Old Elizabethan Major Charles Russell (1997–2004), who spoke about his experience of visiting the Sai School in 2004. He still sponsors a child there. He is one of number of former pupils and staff to have visited, including former Headmaster Dr John Marincowitz (1999–2011).

The Sai School has both boys and girls and caters for primary and secondary-age children. Over the two decades the appeal has been running, QE has funded improvements including the construction of a new building, various repairs and, recently, the provision of a computer room that enables pupils there to sit digitally-based examinations.

During the assembly, the boys learned first of the problems caused by flooding in 2018 attributed to global warming and then of the current desperate plight of the Sai School because of the deleterious effects of Covid-19 on the Indian economy. Parents in the struggling rural communities have been unable to pay the school fees and teachers are not being paid, they were told.

The walks were part of QE’s Enrichment Week and were held on separate days for the two year groups. The Piano Fund, which was also a beneficiary along with with the Sai School Appeal, was established to help equip the new QE Music School opening this autumn to the highest standards.

The event followed a two-day football tournament earlier this month for Years 7, 8, 9 and 12, which also raised funds for the Sai School Appeal.

QE’s Combined Cadet Force headed off to camp and pitted their skills against each other in their first exercise since March 2020.

Cadets from Year 10 to Year 12 travelled to the camp in Hampshire and battled it out in an inter-section competition designed to test their abilities in activities ranging from archery to drill.

Contingent Commander Major Mev Armon has kept the boys active during the pandemic through specially designed programmes held at QE. But Major Armon, who is a Biology teacher, said the cadets nevertheless relished the chance to get away.

“For both the students and the team running the sessions, it was a welcome return to something close to normality and a fantastic chance to flush out any rustiness built up over the last two years, re-honing some of the fundamental CCF skills,” he said.

The event – formally the Londist CCF Army Central Camp 2021 Ex Cockney Fire Light – was held at the Frimley Park Cadet Training Centre near Farnborough.

The intersection competition included four elements, or ‘stands’.

These included the strictly regimented Queens Guard Drill and the “rather more chaotic archery tag”, where the boys enjoyed the chance to fire rubber arrows at each other – “with varying success”, as Major Armon reports.

A third stand was Patrol & Observation, where the boys put their skills into practice in a mock operation behind enemy lines. There was also the Mine Search, in which cadets worked together to mine-sweep an area of land using state-of-the-art military technology.

At pre-pandemic camps, the more senior CCF members would lead the younger team members through the activities. On this occasion, boys had to stay within their year group ‘bubbles’.

“This, however, did not diminish the leadership on display,” said Major Armon, “and with the three year groups in direct competition, there was plenty at stake, particularly for the more senior Year 12s keen not to be shown up by the fledgling Year 10s. By the end of the day, however, much to the dismay of the senior CCF members, the Year 10 section emerged triumphant, showing a real flair for the Queens Guard Drill.”

Overall, because it gave the cadets the long-awaited opportunity to apply the skills they have been developing every week in training, the camp was extremely motivating, said Major Armon.

International football fever has broken out at QE – and while some eagerly await the results of a certain game at Wembley tonight, celebrations of soccer successes even closer to home are already in full flow!

Boys from four year groups – 7, 8, 9 and 12 – turned out for a two-day, charity tournament to raise funds for QE’s long-running appeal in support of a school in India, while later this week, Years 8 & 9 will be taking part in a sponsored walk for the same cause.

Over the 18 years it has been running, the Sai School Appeal has funded significant improvements at the Sri Sathya Sai (English Medium) School in Kerala, including the construction of a new building, various repairs and, recently, the provision of computer room that enables pupils there to sit digitally-based examinations.

Languages teacher Katrin Hood, who mentors the Sixth Form team which runs the appeal, said: “The Sai School is going through a very difficult time at the moment; the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the area particularly hard. The boys have, therefore, been very keen to raise money and are being really active, in every sense of the word, in showing their support.”

Year 12 prefects Vishruth Dhamodharan and Varun Vijay Kumar, who lead the 2021 Sai School Appeal team, ran the five-a-side football tournament on both days.

Day 1 saw Year 12 and Year 9, while on day 2, it was Year 7 and Year 8 who took to the field. There was also a staff match in which a (largely) PE departmental team took on a squad drawn from other departments, with the former securing a 3-1 victory.

The winning teams from each year group, not including any substitutions, were:

• Year 7 – Veer Sanjeev, Peter Atanasov, Olic Fan, Yashwant Reddy Sunkara, Thomas Young
• Year 8 – Hamza Pasha, Jake Owens, Ubaidah Rahman, Rudra Patel, Sharvesh Sudhagar
• Year 9 – Avi Juneja, Rushil Akula, Seyed Jalili, Hadi Al-Esia, Raghav Kaushik
• Year 12 – Ahmed Rana, Shadman Rahman, Abdullah Chisti, Hathmi Abdul Haleem, Avik Gupta

“The event has so far raised £260, with money still coming in,” said Ms Hood. “I am grateful to Vishruth and Varun who did an excellent job on both days.”

This week’s sponsored walk, which starts and finishes at QE, will see Year 8 and Year 9 boys covering 10km to raise money both for the Sai School Appeal and for QE’s Piano Fund, dedicated to equipping the new Music School.

QE’s Young Enterprise team won an Innovation Award after impressing judges at a trade fair with their eco-friendly phone cases.

Adjudicators at the Young Enterprise Trade Fair at Old Spitalfields Market praised the InDex Young Enterprise company for their creative approach and for the salesmanship they showed there.

The Year 10 team also won plaudits from an Old Elizabethan attending the fair. Ninety-two year-old Elliot Page spoke highly of the phone cases, commenting specifically on the quality of the fit.

QE’s YE Co-ordinator, Academic Enrichment Tutor Alex Czirok-Carman, said: “The boys have worked very hard on this project and, despite the interruptions inevitably caused by the pandemic over the year, they have produced an excellent product and, most impressively, have grown as a team. The judges’ comments show how successful they have been.”

The judges were from Mastercard UK, the London Stock Exchange Group and bandwidth infrastructure provider euNetworks.

At the fair, the team sold their phone cases to the general public as well as answering questions from the judges about their product. The cases are biodegradable and have sustainable packaging.

In addition to these initial products, the boys have also been researching and designing cases with attachments to make them more user-friendly for people with difficulties in gripping. These are not yet on sale, although work on the production process for them is under way. The team’s InDex name is derived from ‘Inclusive Dexterity’.

“Our team impressed the judges massively,” said Mr Czirok-Carman. “They were extremely active – and very successful – in finding sales, and the judges therefore commented both on the creativity of the product and on their excellent sales techniques.

“The fair gave the team the chance to see a different side of business, and they learnt a great deal about how to interact with customers,” said Mr Czirok-Carman. “It was a great chance to learn about how to effectively run a business. The boys spent time interacting with teams from other schools who were there and swapped some of their products.

“This was a great way to round off an interrupted, but productive year for the YE team, who plan to continue to sell their products.”

The boys who attended the fair were: Kyan Bakhda; Abhinay Kannan; Ugan Pretheshan; Anban Senthilprabu; Sai Sivakumar and Varun Srirambhatla.