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Queen Elizabeth’s School marked Black History Month with a diverse range of special activities both inside and outside of the classroom that drew lessons from the past, while also saluting those building a path today towards a better future.

One undoubted highlight was the online assembly given to the Sixth Form by Roni Savage ­(pictured above) – engineering geologist, founder of a multi-million pound construction industry consultancy, multiple award-winner…and a QE mum.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We sought to provide lots of different opportunities during Black History Month to ensure that our boys could, in the words of a BHM slogan, ‘dig deeper, look closer, think bigger’, coming up with an array of innovative ideas. These ranged from our Lower School History Raiders group researching ancient Black kingdoms and civilisations, to Year 7 PE lessons promoting sports in which athletes have either faced racism or have changed the world due to their participation, such as basketball, boxercise and indoor athletics.

“I am especially grateful to Mrs Savage, who, as a Black woman working at a high level as an entrepreneur in construction, is a true pioneer in her industry, with an impressive list of achievements and accolades to her name. She has certainly proved people wrong who doubted her because of her race, gender and age.

“And she inspired our sixth-formers with her injunction to ‘stand up, stand out, stand tall’ and her insistence that ‘there are no limits to what you can achieve’ with hard work and talent.”

Mrs Savage, whose son, Jayden, is in Year 13, is the founder of Jomas Associates, a large engineering and environmental consultancy, and Policy Chair for Construction within the Federation of Small Businesses. She is a Fellow of both the Royal British Institute of Architects and the Institute of Civil Engineering, and is on the current UK Powerlist of Britain’s most influential people of African/Caribbean heritage.

Her message was that diversity is vital to the capacity, capability and sustainability of all sectors, but that to achieve it, the status quo, with its harmful stereotypes, must be challenged.

Here is a selection of the many activities and initiatives that took place at the School as part of this year’s Black History Month:

• A discussion in MedSoc (Medical Society) of the work of Malone Mukwende, who as a second-year medical student at St George’s, University of London, developed a book to help doctors diagnose skin rashes and diseases on black and brown skin, addressing decades of racial bias in medical education;
• The Year 9 Shakespeare Film Club watching Othello and discussing the racial issues in the play, as raised in a British Library article;
• Publication of a special Black History Month (and COP26) issue of the Economics department’s magazine, Econobethan;
• Cancellation of all Music rehearsals one lunchtime, with the pupil team from the Music Enrichment Society instead giving a presentation about Black musicians. Pictured, above, are boys giving a special performance ahead of the talk;
• Year 9 had a special Depicting Jesus Philosophy, Religion & Society (PRS) lesson, which focused on different representations of Jesus, including those from the Ethiopian Church and Rastafari traditions, and on the use of images of white Jesus for imperialist ends;
• Year 8 geographers started a new, permanent unit on Migration towards the end of October, with a first homework task linked to Black History Month.

2018 leaver Samuel Akpan has been named in Future Leaders magazine’s Top 150 list for 2021–2022.

Samuel, who graduated in Politics & International Studies from Warwick this year, has already made his mark in fields including social enterprise, sport and  anti-racism work at the university.

An annual publication, Future Leaders profiles 150 of the most outstanding black university students in Britain. His citation in the magazine highlights:

• His role as Warwick’s Anti-Racism Disability Officer as part of an executive team charged with coordinating responses to racist incidents on campus
• The talk he gave last year to parents of deaf children about his experiences growing up with unilateral deafness in which he shared insights into the challenges deaf people face and the practical support available to them
• His entrepreneurial creativity: this included designing a red jersey exclusively for the Sickle Cell x ILL London jersey raffle in December 2019 that helped sell tickets to help raise money for the Sickle Cell Society.
• Samuel’s success in becoming a qualified football referee in November 2019, since when he has been speaking with the Birmingham FA about ways of increasing the number of BAME match officials.

Interviewed for the alumni section of Warwick’s website, Samuel (OE 2011–2018) said: “To be named as a Future Leader is a massive honour. To be given such a ‘heavy’ title means you have been recognised for your competencies and your future potential.

“Also, for me it’s an extra achievement, as I’m…deaf in my left ear. When I’m older, whatever field I’m in or wherever I am, I can look back and be proud of the man I’ve become.

“The award has made me think about what it means to be a leader and I definitely feel that it’s about making sure you excel by giving back where you can.”

Samuel is especially pleased that the accolade recognises his social enterprise work, which began while he was still at QE. “In 2017, there was a craze where everyone wanted to make fashion brands, so I made printed T-shirts with my brand ILL London,” he explained.

“When I got to Warwick, I also made sweaters in different colours and added my logos. I ran a raffle for a one-off football jersey with my logo on, and 50% of the money raised went to the Sickle Cell Society. It helped raise awareness of the importance of giving blood if you can, as it’s essential to helping people with Sickle-Cell Anaemia.”

He told QE Connect that he remains in regular contact with a large number of the friends he made at QE (many of whom went to Warwick).

“I am thankful for all the time and energy the teachers gave me to help me even make it to university,” he says, adding that he particularly appreciated his positive experience of studying Philosophy and Politics for the first time in the Sixth Form “as it gave me a lot of direction going forward”.

Outside of the classroom, his “stand-out memories” include the infamous ‘elephant dip’ during cross-country runs and the time he slipped during his 100m race on Sports Day: “It cost me at least a top-three finish, I’d say ­– and caused a lot of general laughter!”

His enjoyment of sport continued at Warwick, where, although he was not on the Philosophy, Politics and Economics course, he played for the league-winning PPE FC side.

He is now focusing on his sports writing: during his recent time at BCOMS (Black Collective of Media in Sport), an initiative partnered by Arsenal Football Club, he covered three matches and also had the opportunity to meet some of the biggest names in football journalism.

Samuel, who did not take a gap year, is currently enjoying a break from full-time education while he considers his future career direction. Asked where he sees himself in ten years’ time, he replied that he hopes to be working in the football sector “in a position that allows me to help the younger black generation”.

Five Year 9 boys who devoted their summer holidays to preparing for a new season of robotics have been rewarded with early success in a competition – a victory which takes them straight through to national championship level.

The five, comprising team 21549E, put their holiday planning to good effect and duly won the local VEX Robotics event hosted by Greig City Academy in Hornsey.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “By the time they reached this competition, the boys definitely had the right mindset and the right strategy, having drawn on their past experience of robotics to develop a robot capable of taking on this season’s challenge. They handled the pressure on the day well and rightfully enjoyed the celebrations after their victory.”

The five team members are: Neel Bhatt; Adokshaj Magge; Ishaan Bhandhari; Anik Singh and Mukunth Natarajan.

Anik, whose role included design, explained that the task for the 2021-22 season involves shooting balls into a box to win points. It is, he says, quite different to the challenges set in previous years as it involves the “technical aspect of finding out ways of getting the scoring game object into a high goal, alongside new rules and limits”.

Teammate Neel, a designer, builder and driver of the robot, reflected on the benefits of good preparation: “Putting in hours and hours of accurate design work is necessary; it makes our robot work to the best of its abilities during competitions.”

With 21549E now set to compete against some of the best robotics teams in the country in the national championships, the boys will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of other QE teams in recent years who have gone on to take part in the international finals in the spring.

They are, however, taking nothing for granted. Mr Noonan added: “One of the main things they have learnt from this competition is that there is always something to improve on, whether that be building, driving, programming, or simply the strategy used to score the points around the pitch.”

Boys studying Geography headed off to both city and country as field trips returned to their pre-pandemic ‘normal’ for the first time.

On their Human Geography trip, A-level students investigated gentrification in Wandsworth, where they met residents only too willing to share their views on how their area had changed.

On their more rural trip, pictured, Year 11 geographers encountered some locals, too ­– deer in Epping Forest ­­– while also having to face the challenge of understanding why the results of their practical investigation did not line up with classroom theory.

Head of Geography Emily Parry said: “We took 159 boys on field trips ­– 131 Year 11 pupils to Epping Forest over two days and 28 from Year 12 and Year 13 to Northcote ward in Wandsworth.

“It was great to be able to get out again, as so many trips had to be cancelled last year. Fieldwork is a very valuable part of Geography, as it gives the students real-world experience of what they have been studying in the classroom – helping both to consolidate and extend their learning. It also helps them develop skills which are difficult to develop in the classroom alone, such as teamwork and dynamic problem-solving in a changing environment.”

The Year 11 Physical Geography fieldwork in Epping Forest involved answering the question: How do river characteristics change with distance downstream along Loughton Brook? The boys went to three sites along the river and investigated its width, depth, velocity and sediment size & roundness. The fieldwork was led by staff from Epping Forest Field Studies Centre and was part of the AQA GCSE Geography course.

The field trip helped to consolidate boys’ understanding of rivers, which they had previously studied in a unit titled Physical Landscapes of the UK.

“We were lucky to have dry weather on both days and fortunate to see the deer,” Miss Parry added.

“We found that the width, depth and velocity did change downstream as predicted by the Bradshaw model, but there wasn’t a clear trend in terms of sediment size and roundness. This was in part due to human error during data collection, and in part due to the fact that this is a seasonal river and that, because of the lack of rainfall recently, water levels were low.”

“This was a valuable learning opportunity, as it enabled pupils to better understand the ‘messiness’ of ‘geographical reality’,” said Miss Parry.

For their Human Geography studies, boys made a short visit in the summer to investigate the question: To what extent is Barnet High Street a successful high street?

More recently, this month’s visit by Year 12 and 13 pupils to south London had as its goal exploration of the question: To what extent has Northcote ward undergone the process of gentrification? The visit was for part of a unit of study for the Edexcel A-level course entitled Regenerating Places, under which the sixth-formers are looking at the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Newham.

The fieldwork study allowed them to gain first-hand experience of how the borough of Wandsworth has changed. They completed a range of fieldwork techniques, including environmental quality surveys, land-use mapping and questionnaires.

“It was concluded that the Northcote ward area has been gentrified. This was evidenced through the range of boutique and high-end shops found along Northcote Road, the quality of the housing and built environment, plus the changing demographics of the area.

“The boys met some local residents who had lived in the area a long time and were keen to share their views on how the area has changed dramatically in recent decades – some sharing a view that people were being priced out of the area.”

The trip also included one further discovery of note, Miss Parry added: “The Year 12 & 13 boys were very happy to find out there was a Nando’s on Northcote Road where they could have their lunch!”

Twice postponed because of Covid-19, the 2021 School Play, an adaptation of the best-selling book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has finally been performed.

A cast drawn from Year 9 performed the play to their year group classmates in the morning and then again to parents, staff and visitors after school.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), said: “After all the disappointments surrounding the previous postponements, this was a good day, even though a couple of cast members still had to miss it because they were isolating: it was just fantastic to have live theatre taking place in the School once again, and for boys to have the opportunity to perform to an external audience.

“I pay credit to our resident Theatre Director, Gavin Malloy, for helping the boys construct such an impactful presentation of the story. Hopefully, the success of this production will inspire other pupils to get involved in drama opportunities, such as the free workshops that Mr Malloy runs.”

Based on Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel, the moving, darkly comic, and ultimately inspiring story centres on the challenges a boy with autism faces in navigating the world. It also explores themes of family breakdown and the mystery of who killed Wellington, the eponymous dog.

The performance captured the full dynamic range of the story, from the chaotic, disorientating noise and bustle of public spaces (with which the protagonist, Christopher Boon, struggles), and the outbursts of anger as the nature of the family breakdown is laid bare, to the intimate and emotional moments as Christopher’s parents try to explain what has been happening.

“All the acting performances were strong, but William Joanes, in the lead role, did a superb job, being on stage for the vast majority of the production. Appropriately for QE, his character gets an A* in A-level Maths before the play is out!” said Mr Bonham-Carter.

“The cast, technical crew and director were also brilliant, with the performance ‘in the round’ really drawing the audience into the heart of the action. The staging was particularly effective and was aided by the great work on the sound and lighting by Old Elizabethan Chris Newton, of School Stage.

“Well done all – it was worth the wait!” Mr Bonham-Carter added.