Viewing archives for

Year 10 boy Arjun Patel has won the plaudits of his teachers for an account of life in lockdown that ends with an unexpectedly positive twist.

Arjun was ‘highly commended’ for his short story on the theme of Silence, written as a remote-learning English class task.

Head of English Robert Hyland said: “Arjun’s impressively mature writing vividly captures many of the images that have become the ‘new normal’ – the empty shops and cinemas, the rainbow symbols – but reassuringly he has structured his writing to reveal an optimistic view of tomorrow, rather than taking it in a dystopian direction, which would have been easy.”

Arjun said he drew his inspiration for the story from a walk that he took during the first lockdown last year, when he remembers having been “astounded at the lack of noise and activity.

“On coming back to my home and hearing all the noises of daily life, I thought about how even though the country is shut down, we don’t have to be alone. Even if you live by yourself, there is always a way to cut out the silence from your life – video calls are a great example.”

His class teacher, Yioda Menelaou, said: “Arjun’s writing captivated me as he displayed his ability to write so gracefully about the way the pandemic has changed people’s lives. His honest depiction of the silence which has engulfed society was elegantly explored, and his final understanding of the importance of family and staying home at such a critical time was both poignant and hopeful. A truly remarkable story, one that will, I am sure, resonate with all of us.”

The story was also technically proficient, she added, with Arjun showing plot progression within the constraints of the 400-word limit, as well as a wide range of vocabulary and a varied structure.

Arjun begins the composition by describing the “deafening stillness” of the empty streets.He observes the boarded-up “bright, pastel-coloured shops” and a deserted park, its swings covered with spiders’ webs. Arjun thinks sadly back to the fun he and his friends had had on these same streets only a few months before, when they heard “the cars rushing past, the low buzz of people walking by” – sounds that were so normal in those pre-pandemic days.

But just as the coronavirus gloom threatens to overwhelm, he comes back to his home “nestled in a cosy corner, of a cosy street, in a cosy town” and its “many sounds”. These, writes Arjun, were the “the sound of laughter. The sound of the crackling fire, and the steaming pots from the kitchen. The sound of the TV, a bad comedian doing his bit. The sound of my family chatting away.

“At that moment, I realised something – I didn’t have to put up with the silence. I had all the noise I could ever want, right here. At home.”

As QE focuses on continuing to deliver a first-class education in the midst of a second national lockdown, news that no fewer than 39 pupils have won offers from Oxford and Cambridge has brought welcome winter cheer to the School.

The figure is second only to last year’s all-time QE record of 40 Oxbridge offers and comes after final-year boys have had to wrestle with months of turmoil and uncertainty because of Covid-19.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Theirs is a truly stellar achievement, achieved in the face of considerable uncertainty and additional challenge. I congratulate these 39 pupils on their hard work and application and I salute my colleagues who have done so much to make possible their success.

“As QE teachers labour tirelessly to maintain a full timetable to our customary standards in a virtual classroom environment, and to ensure that the complex process of university applications proceeds smoothly, this wonderful news is confirmation of the success of those efforts at the very highest levels.”

The places awarded are at a wide range of colleges, from the biggest of all in terms of the number of undergraduates, Trinity at Cambridge, to the much smaller St Benet’s Hall at Oxford. The subjects being studied are varied, too: those chosen include Economics, Engineering, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Modern & Medieval Languages and Natural Sciences.

Mr Enright was joined by Assistant Head (Pupil Development) Michael Feven and Head of Year 13 Helen Davies for a special celebration with the Oxbridge boys in a video meeting using Microsoft Teams. The group, pictured top, was so big that they could not be fitted on to a single screenshot.

“I happily acknowledge the debt owed by these pupils to their parents and other family members who have supported them, and, in fact, I urged the boys in our video meeting to express their gratitude for this.

“Of course, it is important to recognise that not everyone who applied to Oxford and Cambridge was successful,” Mr Enright added. “A number of outstanding candidates have missed out on offers and will understandably be disappointed.”

“But offers from other sought-after universities are continuing to come in for these and for other boys. Year 13 as a whole are making great progress with their offers and support for them will continue throughout the UCAS process. We hope that everyone will receive an offer from a top-quality institution at which they will thrive and be happy.”

QE has a University admissions Support Programme – or USP – which is supported by many Old Elizabethans, especially through the online QE Connect alumni platform. Special arrangements were made this year with, for example, many old boys conducting online mock interviews for sixth-formers.

Mr Enright thanked the many alumni who have supported current pupils with advice and interviews through the pandemic.

“This year’s leavers will soon be the next entrants to our thriving alumni community, and I trust that they will similarly step up to help out future generations of Elizabethans, giving back to our community.”

Following the cancellation of GCSE, AS and A-level examinations this summer, the exams regulator Ofqual recently published its consultation on how grades should be awarded this year.

The consultation document proposes that pupils continue with their normal education during this academic year and that they are then assessed by their teachers in a period beginning in May and extending into early June.

Ofqual is proposing that exam boards should provide “guidance and training” to help teachers make “objective decisions”. It also suggests that exam boards make available sets of papers for teachers to use with students “as part of their assessment”, arguing that this “would support consistency within and between schools and colleges.” The consultation asks for views on: the proposal to use such papers; the form any such papers should take; whether the papers  could re-use material from past papers; when the papers should be made available, and whether their use should be compulsory.

The consultation document adds: “The teacher, through the marking of the papers, could consider the evidence of the student’s work and use that to inform their assessment of the grade deserved. The exam boards could also sample teachers’ marking as part of the external quality assurance arrangements and to seek to ensure this was comparable across different types of school and college, wherever students are studying. The use of exam board papers could also help with appeals.”

Ofqual is also proposing that teachers should draw on a “range of broader evidence of a student’s work in making their final assessment”.

Teachers would submit grades to the exam boards by mid-June, with external quality assurance by the examination boards taking place throughout the same month.

The results would be issued to pupils once the quality assurance process is complete. This is likely to be in early July.

Any pupils wishing to appeal against their results could do so immediately after receiving them. These appeals would be considered in the first instance by the schools and colleges attended by the pupils, with the appeal to be heard by a “competent person appointed by the school or college, who had not been involved with the original assessment – this could be another teacher in the school or college or a teacher from another school or college.”

A further appeal could then be made to the exam board, but such an appeal would only be allowed be on the grounds that the school involved had not acted in line with the  board’s procedural requirements.

The consultation closes at 11:45pm on 29 January 2021. The consultation document and a facility to respond online to it are available here.

Boys are being encouraged to commit to a series of home enrichment New Year’s resolutions over the next six weeks.

With a wealth of suggestions on eQE to choose from, pupils can make the most of their lockdown by filling in the dedicated form with at least four ideas in each of the following categories: ‘expand my creativity’; ‘maintain my physical and mental health’; ‘exercise my mind’ and ‘take responsibility for those around me’.

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter reports that staff have worked hard to establish online activities for pupils on the eQE home enrichment page, while also creating links to a vast range of other extra-curricular opportunities and ideas. All subject areas on eQE have enrichment pages where boys can access activities such as competitions. In addition, the departments are working to establish remote learning clubs, such as the Sports Journalism Society run by English. Among activities that are lined up for the coming period, or are under way, or have already taken place are:

• A live, open School chess competition run by teacher in charge of chess, Geoff Roberts;
• An online piece of theatre involving the Year 8 cast from the postponed School production and directed by RM Drama’s Gavin Molloy. More details to follow!
• Live Thursday concerts run by the Music department;
• Live English Speaking Union debates against other schools run online by Academic Enrichment Tutor Tom Foster;
• VEX robotics competitions;
• A TedX Live event in July, for which QE has been granted a licence. Sixty boys have already applied to speak. (TEDx is a grassroots initiative modelled on the mission of the free, online TED to circulate ‘ideas worth spreading’).

As teachers and families grapple with the challenges of a second lockdown, the importance of pastoral care for all QE boys remains undiminished, reports Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan.

“Our aim is to look after the boys and provide the same level of pastoral care that we would were they to be physically on the School site. The focus is very much on ‘here today, looking at tomorrow’ – thinking positively about strategies to deal with the situation at hand, but also looking at the world beyond Covid (as we must!), ensuring that all the boys keep their sights fixed on their future and on learning about the world around them.”

The pastoral sessions held each week amount to more than three hours of contact time with tutors. These allow a range of issues to be discussed, as well as providing the boys with an opportunity to work in a slightly less formal way with their form-mates and have the human contact that is so important at this time, says Mr Ryan.

The sessions set out below make up the three hours:

• Every day, pupils have morning session with form tutors via Microsoft Teams. The tutors thus help to ease boys into their routine, dealing with any issues that arise (such as their wellbeing, or IT problems) and generally getting the day off to a positive start;
• Afternoon sessions are really important, too, adds Mr Ryan. Personal Development Time (PDT) occurs weekly and involves students addressing a range of issues in this half-term;
• Weekly discussion sessions have been taking place. “With all that has been happening in America, there have been lots of live issues to consider, alongside other interesting, and sometimes controversial, topics, such as vaccination priorities or the effects of leaving the EU.”;
• Bespoke tutorials have been taking place since the start of term, allowing tutors to meet boys in smaller groups and to give pupils personalised advice, as well as enabling discussions about ways in which the boys can support each other;
• Peer mentoring has continued as normal, with pupils meeting online, and feedback being forwarded to Heads of Year and form tutors.

If parents have any concerns that they would like to discuss with their son’s form tutor or Head of Year, they should contact [email protected].

Mr Ryan highlighted some of the pastoral activities that have been taking place across the year groups. For Year 7, in recognition of boys’ increased time spent online during lockdown, a remote PDT session on eSafety was brought forward in the programme. Keeping boys safe and healthy has also been to the fore in Year 8, where form tutors have been asked to encourage pupils to engage in extra-curricular activities away from their screens in order to help with their mental health. Many boys have responded, taking part in activities such as exercise, meditation, reading and cooking.

The momentous events taking place across the Atlantic have not gone unnoticed. Year 8 had a PDT lesson on Getting the scoop, teaching pupils how to analyse their online sources of global news, with a focus on the US election. PDT lessons in Year 10 are taking place on democracy, media and the law, and the boys are also enjoying taking part in discussion sessions on topical events such as President Biden’s inauguration and on the interplay between politicians and the media. “There have been some good discussions on whether Twitter was right to ban Trump from using their platform,” says Mr Ryan.

On Mondays, Year 9 boys are discussing their GCSE options and looking at what particular skills are suited to which subject and future careers. This activity is closely linked to the newly introduced Collaborative careers task that the boys are completing. This task is focused on building a variety of skills – teamwork skills, in particular – and requires the boys to devise a way of working together in teams of eight outside lesson time. “It is a unique challenge that has been made possible due to the remote nature of our learning now,” adds Mr Ryan.

The Sixth Form also has its sights set on life after QE: Year 12 had three sessions of remote vertical tutoring from their counterparts in Year 13 to provide them with further support. This has involved using eQE’s forums function, with the Year 12s asking questions about university, and Year 13s who applied for the same degree subjects responding.

In another example of how the School’s investment in IT to facilitate independent learning has paid off, form tutors have reported how they much they have appreciated being able to use the ‘breakout’ function of MS Teams to split the boys into small groups, both to facilitate discussions of particular points by the boys and so that they can more easily catch up with members of the form. “Boys and tutors enjoy interacting with each other in these smaller groups, as they provide an opportunity to see, and speak to, each other more easily,” says Mr Ryan.

Head of Year 7 Tom Harrison pre-recorded one remote assembly, in which he advised Year 7 boys on ways to remain healthy and organised in the current situation, while in Chemistry teacher Tom Batchelor’s Year 7 Leicester form, the form captain and deputy have been creating PowerPoint presentations which they have used to lead weekly quizzes and give news summaries via MS Teams.