Viewing archives for

Parent Governor election results 2021

Following a change in Government guidance, the earlier national recommendation that face masks should be worn in classrooms has been lifted.

In a special message, Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan sets out below for the boys what this does – and does not – mean for daily life at QE, while adding a few further pointers for families on staying Covid-safe.

For the boys

A change in Government guidance means that as of Monday 17th May, there is no longer a recommendation to wear masks when you are in classrooms.

Keeping our School community safe has, and continues to be, our main focus as we deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, could we ask you to be aware of the following:

• You may still wear a mask in a lesson if you choose to do so. Also, please do be aware that there are others in our school community who continue to need to do so.
• There may be some lessons in which you are asked to wear your mask; please do so where this is the case.
• We may, of course, be advised to reintroduce mask-wearing for a temporary period in response to a localised Covid outbreak. Were this to be the case, we would advise you to do so from the start of the School day.
• Thank you for the responsible attitude you have already shown in continuing to wear masks in corridors. We will ask you to carry on doing so until further notice: this allows us to maintain a high degree of Covid safety as different year groups mix.

For all QE families

As the national situation improves, I am pleased that we have now been able to return to a single, School-wide lunchtime, albeit while maintaining the year-group bubbles for eating and for extra-curricular activities.

May I appeal to you to continue to ‘play your part: help control the virus‘; is it important that we remain vigilant as a School community, still adhering to our three key messages: Please keep your distance, Wash your hands, and Catch it, bin it, kill it. Further details may be found in our Back to School Guide 2021.

I would like to remind families and older pupils to register their home-test results with the Test Register system, as well as with the Government website.

Finally, may I also remind drivers of our short list of traffic and travel dos and don’ts. We are keen to keep all pedestrians safe and to maintain good relations with our neighbours, so we strongly request that you comply with these simple rules.

 

 

 

 

 

QE’s Year 12 Engineering Education Scheme team have been nominated for the Innovation prize in this year’s Constructing Excellence Awards after their design for a machine to reduce dust on construction sites impressed judges.

The four boys overcame the challenge of having to work through lockdown – depriving them of access to tools and of the opportunity to do a live construction site visit – to put together a fully-illustrated 66-page project report.

They will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of several successful QE teams of the past. In 2020, the QE entrants, working with office design company Morgan Lovell, won not only the Innovation category in the Constructing Excellence SEBCE Awards, but also the People’s Choice Award – a prize that this year’s team is eligible for, too.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “These awards are competed for by adults working full-time in the construction industry, so our four Product Design students have done very well indeed to be nominated. They worked extremely hard and used their engineering, design and research skills to good effect in putting together a comprehensive and well-thought out report, which they then presented well.

“I commend them on their success and thank their sponsors, Morgan Lovell, for all their mentoring and support throughout the project.”

The team comprised leader Lucas Lu, lead designer Ben Pang, lead researcher Rohan Sira and Jayden Savage, who led on the project planning and organised the tasks to be done. Technology teacher Tony Green facilitated the boys’ involvement in the scheme.

Morgan Lovell’s Health, Safety & Wellbeing Manager, Alex Wood, set them the challenge of tackling the large amount of harmful dust found on construction sites.

Workers normally guard against inhaling dust either by wearing face masks or by using square-shaped dust-reduction devices, such as the one made under the tradename, DustCube.

The boys had the option of either improving on the ‘DustCube’-type device – they actually stripped one down to investigate how it worked – or of designing an entirely new product.

Having identified a number of drawbacks with the existing machine, including the high cost of replacing their HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters, they chose the latter route.

After exploring no fewer than 13 concept ideas and producing more detailed analyses of around half of these, the team eventually devised a product that they dubbed the ‘Dust Cylinder’– since it was cylindrical, not cube-shaped.

Ben says: “It makes use of a water filtration system: essentially, the dirty air is passed through a tank of water, all of the dirt is trapped and suspended within the water tank, and all of the clean air is released back into the room.”

It has, he says, a number of advantages over machines currently on the market:

• The ease with which operator will be able to tell when the water needs to be changed.
• Minimal maintenance costs
• The high volume of air it can filter
• Its ability to filter particles smaller than those removed by HEPA filters.

“All of this was done either in school, or at home (during the lockdown). Doing the work at home meant that we we were unable to manufacture the actual product due to a lack of tools. We faced many issues ranging from poor internet connection to glitches with the conferencing software.”

With coronavirus restrictions ruling out a physical visit to a site, Mr Wood instead arranged for them to make a virtual site visit to 80 Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, London, where the interior was being renovated by Morgan Lovell.

After delivering their presentation online, the team were exhilarated to find out that they had reached the finals of the Innovation category, says Ben.

“We were never expecting to make it this far, especially considering the fact that almost all of the other teams consist of people who do this kind of thing for a living – to to be pitted against them is a huge honour.”

The Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards virtual ceremony will take place on 1st July. Online voting for the People’s Choice Award is expected to open early next month.

Brothers Jaydon and Kiaron Lad and their mum, Anjuna, are well past the half-way mark in their quest to run and cycle 300km to raise funds for the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (FQE) charity.

Inspired by Kiaron’s success in raising money for the NHS during last year’s lockdown in a fundraising event created by QE’s Director of Sport, Jonathan Hart, the Lad family members set themselves the challenge of covering 100km each before this year’s FQE Founder’s Day on Saturday 19th June.

So far, they have successfully overcome near-freezing temperatures, illness and technical issues (a malfunctioning tracking app and bike speedometer) as they have clocked up the miles towards their ambitious target.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Sadly, as in 2020, this year’s Founder’s Day will have to be a virtual event. The Founder’s Day Fete, organised by FQE, is usually our single biggest annual fundraiser, bringing in around £20,000 to help us provide state-of-the-art facilities and increased opportunities for all our pupils. Last year, thanks to the sterling efforts of many across the Elizabethan community, we successfully reached that target.

“I commend the Lad family on their efforts on FQE’s behalf and wish them well as they seek to complete their ambitious challenge. As we look forward to the day itself, I hope many will sponsor them and will also back the exciting fundraising activities we are planning.”

Jaydon, of Year 7, said: “During lockdown, both the School and my parents stressed the importance of staying active and exercising (outdoors if possible) in order to look after our mental and physical health. We were keen to do something that would provide a challenge – so nothing too easy and straightforward, but then on the other hand nothing too difficult.

“My brother has been going out running and has also inspired our mum to take it up. Not being a fan of long-distance running myself, I thought I could join them on my bicycle, and, from there, the idea of raising money for the School was born.”

It was, said Jaydon, a challenge which fulfilled the desired ‘SMART’ criteria, since it was Specific, Measurable (using the speedometer and apps), Achievable, Realistic and Timely (if steady progress was maintained, they should have sufficient time to complete it before the Founder’s Day deadline).

Venturing out mostly at weekends, the Lad trio got off to a strong start, covering 31.76km between them on their first excursion.

It has not always been easy.  Jaydon initially found it difficult to adjust his speed to that of the runners, and, on week 2, in addition to his “not really feeling it”, his speedometer started displaying in mph instead of kph, necessitating a little mental arithmetic to make the conversion on the fly. A few days later, Kiaron, of Year 9, and his mum headed out again, but Jaydon felt unwell and stayed in bed, making up the distance missed with his own solo effort a few days later.

The three’s longest distance came the day after Jaydon’s 12th birthday when, in honour of the occasion, his mum suggested they try to cover 12km each. They duly hit this target, with a combined total of 37.01km.

Two days later, they were out again. “I was expecting another slow bike ride today, but boy was I wrong!” reported Jaydon in his fundraising diary. “As we were only aiming for 5km, my mum and my brother were looking at trying to beat their previous run times and were running faster than normal.” Both of them achieved it.

That speedy effort took the total for their first seven runs and rides to 183.63km, which leaves them well set to meet their overall goal of covering the 300km on or before Saturday 12th June, the weekend before Founder’s Day.

• To sponsor the Lad family, simply visit the Virtual Founder’s Day JustGiving page which has just been set up, mentioning ‘The Lads 300km’ in any accompanying message.

When his father told him he wanted to retire and invited him to take over the family coffee business, Colin Smith had already established a successful career in teaching.

There was no obligation for him to make the move – his father had always valued the fact that a QE education gave Colin (OE 1957–1964) opportunities that he had not enjoyed himself. And it was not a decision Colin wanted to take lightly – “I thought about it for around a year”.

But in the end, he was drawn by the challenge and duly made the move, working as the third partner alongside his father and uncle for about two years, before then taking the helm at the business his grandfather had established in 1936.

Since switching careers in 1980, he has not only greatly expanded Smiths Coffee Company, but has also established himself as an international award-winning expert in specialist coffee, while putting his expertise to use in charitable and philanthropic work, too.

“With the knowledge I have accumulated through many years of experience in the coffee industry, I am attempting to create a much better coffee world,” he says.

Colin has many happy memories of the education that his father so prized. He was a regular QE actor – appearing, for example, as the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw’s St Joan and as Mrs Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

A Sub Prefect and a keen athlete, he was also editor of the Elizabethan magazine, sang in the School Choir and did Scottish dancing in a club run by Languages teacher (and Old Elizabethan) Derek Fry, where the boys enjoyed the chance to dance with their counterparts from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School.

“John Todd and I were the first pupils to take A-level RE, under the personal supervision of John Pearce (Deputy Headmaster – Second Master), who gave up his free time to tutor us,” says Colin, who won the Broughton Divinity Prize.

Colin was heavily involved in scouting activities, representing Hertfordshire at the Marathon Scout Jamboree 1964 and becoming a Queen’s Scout – the highest award given in the movement.

He also secured his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. “I remember asking Mr Edwards [Headmaster Timothy Edwards] for a day off to go to the presentation at Buckingham Palace, showing him the card from the equerry to Prince Philip. His comment was: ‘I don’t think I have much say in the matter; my authority doesn’t go that far.’”

After leaving QE, he went to St Luke’s, a teacher-training college that is now part of the University of Exeter, where he studied PE & Biology, took up fencing and sang in the college’s Chapel Choir.

Qualifying as a PE teacher, from 1967 to 1971 he taught at Beaumont School, St Albans, becoming head of department there.

He took a year out to study Laban Movement at the Art of Movement Studio in Addlestone and then moved to become Head of PE and head of year at Oldborough Manor School, Maidstone, Kent.

Even when he took over his father and uncle’s business, his links with education remained strong. He served as a Governor of Dollis School in Hendon for 15 years until his company moved from its factory in Mill Hill to new premises – a factory in Hemel Hempstead – in 1997.

“The company has developed from roasting coffee in a shop window at my grandfather’s grocer’s shop in Mill Hill in 1936. Smith’s Coffee Company now roast around approximately 10 tonnes of coffee per week for the retail and catering markets. I am also a partner in a small shop roasting business in Leighton Buzzard.”

Smiths Coffee Company specialises in quality coffees and teas and has an organic and Fairtrade branch, The Natural Coffee Company. “We also have a company, Arabica Espresso Services, which supplies & maintains espresso machines & coffee making equipment.”

Five years ago, Smiths developed a process for flavouring coffee to meet an ever-increasing market: “Now we are probably the biggest coffee flavourist in the UK”.

Having won major contracts over the years, such as roasting coffee for Whittard’s 125 shops, the company has grown and today it continues to expand: it recently secured a major account with Warner Leisure Hotels. As a result of this expansion, it is looking for new premises once again.

“I was a founder member of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) in 1997 and was President from 2005-2007,” says Colin. He served on the board of directors until 2011 and in recent years has organised around 18 trips so that members can visit places where coffee is grown – around three a year. The countries visited include India, Kenya, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras, Sumatra, Tanzania, Panama, Papua New Guinea and the US (Hawaii).

“Visiting the farms and tasting the coffees at origin has expanded my experience and knowledge of the product, with its progress through the roasting, cupping and blending processes.”

He has also organised SCAE educational activities and assisted in the arrangements for the SCAE World of Coffee event each year. “I have represented the SCAE in Japan, Costa Rica, USA, Sumatra and many other countries and in 2006, I represented Europe on the panel of judges who cupped the coffees for the Costa Rica Cosecha d’Oro, at their invitation. I appeared on TV to discuss the importance of quality coffee to the European market. I am also asked occasionally by local radio to comment on various aspects of the trade. The last one was on Kopi Luwak, a very rare and expensive coffee!”

He is a member of a four-strong Which magazine panel which samples and assesses retail coffee products. In December 2011, he was awarded the Allegra European Coffee Award for outstanding contribution to the European Coffee Industry and in June 2013 the SCAE Award for Excellence: Lifetime Achievement Award.

“My extensive knowledge of the subject enables me to give many talks and lectures on all aspects of coffee, as well as training sessions on the use of coffee-making machinery. I am often asked to give advice on the setting up of roasting plants and coffee shops.

“The knowledge gained through all this experience has helped the company to focus on a range of coffees, from real speciality to good grade coffees for the selective market.”

In 2017, the SCAE combined with the Specialty Coffee Association of America to form the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), for which Colin is an Ambassador.

“My ethos is to educate members of the coffee industry and the consumer to understand the value of speciality coffee.  This will further the speciality coffee market and enable more people to assess the quality of better coffee.”

He also puts his expertise and knowledge to good use in serving wider society. He maintains close contact with the local Hospice of St Francis’s Corporate Partnership Committee on a voluntary basis, supporting many of their events with supplies of coffees. “I also give many talks on coffee and the money raised is used to support the St Francis hospices and the Peace Hospice in Watford.”

A qualified SCA trainer, he has worked with local prisons to train prisoners in a rehabilitation programme before release. “Until December 2019, at The Mount Prison and Bedford Prison, we had a café in the visitors’ room which enabled the prisoners to gain experience in communication with the public and to practise the skills learned in taking the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) barista Foundation Course. Profits gained from the cafes were given to HACRO, the Hertfordshire Association for the Rehabilitation of Offenders.”

Colin lives in Berkhamsted and is married to Marina, his second wife. Between them, they have 13 grandchildren. He has two daughters with his first wife, Sue, and one with Marina.  “Also on a personal level, after 40 years I no longer play hockey for St Albans, but I am I am trying to play golf.”