Viewing archives for

Senior Awards is always an important event in the QE calendar, and, although arrangements for this year’s celebration were different because of the coronavirus, the unique situation did not make the achievements of the prize-winners any less significant, said Headmaster Neil Enright.

“Indeed, I would argue rather that it underlines them,” he told boys in the Main School Hall, adding: “We have gathered this afternoon, despite the challenges, because you are deserving of this recognition.”

Senior Awards was split into two ceremonies to enable year group bubbles to be maintained, with boys from Years 10–11 coming to the hall first, followed later by the Sixth Form. Because of Covid restrictions, it was not possible to invite parents, the whole staff and the VIP guests who normally attend.

Collectively, the boys received more than 140 separate prizes. In addition to subject awards and prizes for extra-curricular involvements such as debating & public speaking and chess in each year group, there were awards for the boy making the best overall contribution to his year.

There was also a large number of special prizes for particular areas – The Queen’s College, Oxford, Extended Project Awards, for example – while in the Sixth Form, 12 prizes were given this year for commitment & service and nine for leadership & involvement.

The prizegiving was interspersed with a number of musical interludes, with the music being performed by the School’s senior musicians.

In his address, the Headmaster told the audience of prize-winners and a small number of staff: “To be part of this select occasion is particular testament to your motivation, dedication and resilience over the past year. You have not just coped with the circumstances caused by the pandemic but have continued to thrive.”

He reflected on how much had changed since the last such ceremony at QE: “Looking back, it now seems utterly remarkable that our Senior Awards event in March of 2020 was in fact so normal, given the extraordinary situation that was about to unfold, and has continued to develop ever since. Both education and everyday life have been disrupted in a way not seen in our lifetimes.

“But, with increasing confidence, we can say we are now emerging, slowly but surely, from the crisis phase and, perhaps, into a new era of regeneration and renewal. We have done things as individuals, as a School, as a community, and as a country, that we probably couldn’t ever have imagined. If we can do that in an unprecedented crisis, then why not after it too?”

As with previous crises – he mentioned World War II and the Great Fire of London of 1666 following the plague outbreak of the previous year – the Covid-19 pandemic could become an “opportunity for progress”, he said, pointing to the argument of 20th-century Danish economist Ester Boserup in reference to population growth and agricultural production that “necessity is the mother of invention”.

Citing the watchword of Captain Sir Tom Moore, “Tomorrow will be a brighter day,” Mr Enright continued: “Despite the undoubted challenges, today is already bright for you.

“I am excited to see what you can achieve with further growth. How you can be beacons among your peers and be shining lights in your communities, industries, and in society at large, in the years ahead.

“Congratulations on your awards. Enjoy them, celebrate them with your families, but also reflect on what you have put in to achieve them.

“With continuity in the character you have shown, I am confident that you will succeed in navigating the changing world and have every reason to be optimistic about your tomorrow.”

In his traditional vote of thanks, the 2021 School Captain, Siddhant Kansal, of Year 12, told his fellow prize-winners: “Despite it being a smaller ceremony than it would usually be, the achievements that we are marking, your achievements, are as great, if not greater than they would be in a normal year because of the challenges that have been faced along the way in this most extraordinary of years.

“All of us know how good the competition out there is. So, without being smug, we can be rightfully and genuinely proud at being chosen to be here today.”

The musical contributions for the younger two year groups were from: Year 11 trumpeter Theo Mama-Kahn, performing William Boyce’s Trumpet Voluntary as a processional; pianist Harishan Thevalingham, of Year 10, with Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G Minor; Jao-Yong Tsai, of Year 11, playing Brahms’ Sonata in F minor Op. 120 No. 1 Movement 1, and Arjun Patel, of Year 10, playing Richard Kershaw’s Tango Till You Drop on the saxophone as a recessional.

For the Sixth Form awards, the processional was Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, performed by final-year saxophonist Khai Tran, who also played the recessional, Czardas by Vittorio Monti.  Year 12 cellist Raphael Herberg played Popper’s Tarantella, while Conor Parker-Delves, of Year 12, performed Prélude et Saltarelle by Robert Planel on the saxophone.  QE’s piano teacher, Tadashi Imai, was the accompanist.

I began my report in the Christmas edition of Alumni News by stating that the Autumn Term had felt “much more normal”; as I now look back on the past three months, that is certainly not a phrase which I would employ to characterise this Spring Term.

From the very start, we faced rapidly changing circumstances, firstly gearing up to run a testing programme in early January, and then having to put it on hold at the eleventh hour as the country abruptly entered a further lockdown and we reverted to remote learning for all the boys.

Once again, both staff and pupils have demonstrated very commendable adaptability, even in the face of often-worrying news about the national and international situation, and, for some, closer to home, too. We have stuck together as a community, and there has been a resilient determination among my colleagues to ensure that boys at Queen Elizabeth’s School continue to receive an excellent education in the difficult circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Thanks to an extraordinary amount of work and a great deal of flexibility, our teachers and support staff have now developed very considerable expertise in using MS Teams and the resources and tools available through eQE, such that they are able to deliver an online school which is the envy of many, and which replicates as closely as possible the normal, rich QE classroom experience.

The whole Elizabethan community was seen at its very best recently, when everyone contributed to making sure that we had a wonderful reopening on 11^th March. The in-school testing programme was an unprecedented logistical challenge which, of course, had to be carried out in strictly controlled conditions to ensure it was Covid-safe: I heartily commend the commitment of our volunteers and staff who ran it so cheerfully and efficiently, and I give my thanks to QE parents and boys who played their part by signing up in great numbers for the tests.

We have maintained an extra-curricular programme, adapting activities as necessary so that we can continue with as many of them as possible. The 2021 QE University Convention, held over the final week-and-a-half of term, is a fine example of the way in which we have ‘flexed’ to ensure that important events in the School calendar are retained in order that pupils do not miss out on opportunities.

It has also reflected one of the really characteristic aspects of the lockdown, namely the enthusiastic engagement of our alumni in supporting current pupils, aided by our QE Connect platform and the new technology we are using as a School. Well over 50 alumni were scheduled over the 19 sessions and, as has become customary, most, although not all, were those who left QE last summer. They were therefore able to relate to our current pupils their experiences of their first two terms at university during this pandemic.

We have also welcomed a number of alumni during the term as virtual speakers. They include football agent Max Hassell (OE 2002–2009) who reflected on his diagnosed ADHD, anxiety and depression in a talk to senior pupils in a talk during Children’s Mental Health Week, and Bilal Harry Khan (OE 2003-2009) who took part in our new series of bitesize Perspective discussions, speaking about why ‘micro-aggressions’ are so harmful and suggesting ways that the issue can be addressed. My thanks go to all Old Elizabethans who have supported the School this term.

Another major event that was run in adapted form was this week’s Senior Awards. I reiterate the congratulations I offered at the dual ceremonies to all our prize-winners from Years 10–13.

One very bright spot that came in the darkest days of the shutdown was the announcement that our boys had secured 39 offers of places from Oxford and Cambridge. That is a very remarkable total, second only to last year’s highest-ever tally of 40 places offered. Yet in one sense, it is also an encouraging indication of ‘business as usual’ – a sign that, pandemic or no pandemic, we will continue to nurture our very able students, fostering in them a love of learning, high-level thinking and deep intellectual curiosity, and preparing them to thrive at the world’s best universities and in their careers.

Our new School Development Plan launched at the start of the term will play a considerable part in helping us achieve that. To amplify further our current distinction as a School, we recognise in the plan that we must ensure that the mix of attributes and skills we develop in our boys remains relevant in a world, which, as the last 12 months have demonstrated, is fast-changing and sometimes unpredictable. I am pleased that the plan was so well-received, and I look forward to working with colleagues to implement it over the next four years.

Through all the turmoil of recent months, work on the Music School building project has continued unabated, and we remain on schedule to open this exciting new facility in the autumn of this year.

As we look forward to the Summer Term, we have a carefully worked-out plan in place for our GCSE, AS and A2 cohorts. Boys in Years 11, 12 and 13 have a lot of work to do in terms of the final summative assessments that they will be taking in the early weeks of the term. All the best to them as they embark on their last push with their revision and preparation! Year 12 will then quickly be moving on to A-level preparation for their final examinations in the summer of 2022. We also have a programme for Year 11 – a bridge between GCSE studies and the Sixth Form – so that they can use their time productively.

While certain aspects inevitably remain uncertain, we hope that the next term will see a period of stability as the country progressively emerges from this crisis.

In the meantime, my warm wishes go to all alumni.

Neil Enright

Headmaster

Connor Sandford has overcome low self-confidence, serious illness and a dramatic change of degree course before finding satisfaction in life.

Now a senior consultant at Deloitte, he spends his days helping major companies in the battle against hackers and IT fraudsters.

“I suppose the role has worked out perfectly for me,” Connor (OE 2007-2014) says, adding that, because of companies’ increased reliance on remote IT during the pandemic, he has probably been busier over the past year than over the previous two combined.

Connor’s is a story of triumph over adversity, which started early: “I initially found it very hard to adapt to school life at QE and I remember very clearly my parents coming in one evening to discuss behavioural issues with teachers when I was only a couple of months in to Year 7. It was strange because, knowing my mum and our family values, I was expecting her to be very angry and disappointed with me, but instead she had sympathy for me and asked me if I wanted to go to a new school.

“This was a different environment to what our family was used to, but I now realise my resilience in saying ‘no, I want to stay here’ made this perhaps the best decision I have ever made – and certainly the best for my future career prospects.”

In time, Connor found his feet at School and soon he was no longer in the bottom sets. “I gained the confidence that I wasn’t actually ‘lucky to be here’ with all these clever boys around me, but I actually deserved to be there. It took me until about Year 11 before I realised just how unique an environment this School was and how well it was set up to help us succeed.”

One area in which he thrived was rugby. “Like almost all the other boys, football was what I grew up playing, but I learned to love rugby and continued to play all through university. I remember my rugby coach Mr [Tim] Bennett and my other PE teachers, all of whom were a great support not only in rugby but in life. I certainly had my moments of misbehaviour in School, but the PE department helped to encourage me to get back on track. Maybe it was their words of wisdom about life, or maybe it was the prospect of missing out on captaining the School on a Saturday morning on the rugby field that got me back on track time and time again. It’s hard to say which helped more!”

Before his GCSEs, he had to face the trauma of catching meningitis, which led to him missing three months, including half his examinations. “I had lost weight and forgotten many things, including spelling the simplest of words – not the best thing when I was due to start English Literature A-level at the end of the summer. I also had migraines frequently that continue until today – but not as badly or frequently as when I was in Year 11 and 12.

“QE was fantastic at providing me all the home support I needed to complete my exams from home initially.” Despite the difficulties, he went on to do even better than his predicted grades.

“This gave me the confidence to keep going and achieve great grades in my A-levels as well. I have to thank all my teachers in those last two years, where I really think the level of education reached a new height.” He remembers boys “passionate about their chosen A-level subjects” making for “an incredible learning environment.” Connor adds: “I suppose I also have to thank my fellow classmates for encouraging new ways of thinking and essentially making me enjoy learning.”

“Having overachieved at A-level, I was excited to go to my first-choice option, CASS Business School, and start my Business Studies degree.”

A few months in, however, he realised that he was not enjoying his education as he had at QE, and, moreover, he was regretting not having the opportunity to follow his interest in fashion.

“I remember my Art A-level classes being the best escapes from other stresses during the week and I thrived with the guidance of Mr [Ashley] West and Mr [Stephen] Buckeridge.

“I got back in contact with Mr [David] Ryan at the School who dedicated time to helping me complete my new university application and offered kind words of support about my decision to change my career path. I always knew I wanted to do something more creative, and fashion management was the perfect option, ensuring that I got a worthwhile degree while also enjoying what I was studying.”

Connor went to Manchester, loving the change of scene from London. “I found that by doing something you are passionate about, it will always give you a better chance of succeeding. I completed my course, gaining a first-class degree and enjoyed the amazing university experiences I had, including continuing my rugby career for the University of Manchester team.”

Using what he was learning on his course, Connor started a bamboo sock business, intent on giving proceeds at the end of his time at university to a local homeless charity, coffee4craig, that had supported the fledgling company.

“The business was fun and relatively successful, but while I liked the business element, I had lost some passion for the product,” he says. And so, after graduating in 2018, his career path took another sharp turn, as Connor joined Deloitte and went into the technology sector. “Every cloud has a silver lining, and without the sock business, I wouldn’t have had to create a website and maintain the IT elements of the business – and that is where my interest in technology and risk was sparked.

“Essentially, I have always found it best to follow my instinct: if I like something, I say to myself ‘Go for it’, and if I don’t, ‘Stop’. Yes, there may be risks, but life is far too short not to do what you enjoy, so I firmly believe you should not continue to do something just because you had chosen to do it in the past, but instead you should adapt to what you want to do in the future.”

“I loved the change into the corporate world and I have especially loved the nature of the company that has supported me and taught me more about IT than I ever could have imagined back when I handed in my GCSE IT coursework in Year 10 – the last time I had studied the subject before I started my role here at 23, says Connor, now a Technology and Digital Risk Consultant with Deloitte, having recently had a promotion. “Unexpected things happen and it’s not wise to say ‘Never again’. You never know what opportunities will arise and how things in your life or your perspective and interests can change. I suppose the role has worked out perfectly for me.

“There is a growing need to ensure that businesses are reacting appropriately to new risks around fraud and security created by the online storage of data. That’s what my job involves on a daily basis. I perform testing and report on the risks for our clients due to their IT vulnerabilities or weaknesses. They can then use our findings to drive or shape improvements in their systems and minimise any security breaches in the future that could damage their reputation of earnings.”

The hacking of Microsoft’s servers by Chinese hackers in recent weeks is a high-profile example of the sort of incidents that Connor works to prevent among his clients, and he pointed to the damaging subsequent fall in Microsoft’s share price as one sign of how important good cyber security is.

“Not only have I learned a lot in a great environment since joining Deloitte, I have also had the opportunity to travel across Europe to see our clients, and I am look forward with some excitement to resuming that when COVID allows.

“I am now so comfortable and satisfied in life with my own home and a meaningful job. I live with my girlfriend, and at weekends, I spend time with my friends and with family – those who supported me through my time at QE.

“Before COVID, I still saw many other Old Elizabethans at weekly football sessions, but due to the virus and a combination of injuries and work, I have not had the opportunity to recommence these yet. I look forward to doing so in the near future, however.”

 

 

Following the success of last term’s inaugural QE-wide online chess competition, the School has now held its first-ever Blitz tournament, attracting a large field eager to play the high-speed version of the game.

A second whole-school online chess tournament with classical time controls also took place. It was won by one of QE’s youngest and most talented players – Year 7’s Nishchal Thatte – who competed fresh from his victory at the U12 British Online Chess Championships run by the English Chess Federation.

Having first won his qualifier in the national event, Nishchal had progressed to victory across seven rounds at the championships, each lasting about two hours. He was also runner-up in in the national Rapidplay tournament – losing out on a tiebreak.

Congratulating him, teacher in charge of chess Geoff Roberts said: “In our own event, he was competing against players of all ages and his talent was on full display. Although Joshua John, of Year 9, and Yash Mahajan, Year 11, pressed hard, both finishing just half a point behind, Nishchal was a worthy winner.” This event saw 72 boys and two teachers compete, with similar numbers taking part in the Blitz chess competition, which was won by Daiwik Solanki, of Year 8, narrowly beating Yash, the runner-up, by half a point.

“The success Nishchal and some other younger boys had in these tournaments is particularly impressive and bodes well for a bright future for the game at the School,” added Mr Roberts, who oversees QE’s chess provision with the support of a number of external coaches.

Nishchal started playing aged five, taught by his father, and began playing in tournaments when he was seven. “I like to play very aggressively, as I’m good at that style,” he said.

Asked why he enjoys chess, he said: “It is a strategic game. There are only 64 squares, but so many different possibilities.”

He has a chess coach outside of School but also attends QE’s Chess Club, enjoying both the practice it provides and the social side – “a fun thing to do”.

It was his third time entering the British Championships, which was held online this year because of the Covid-19 restrictions. Video technology was used to ensure that competitors were not being assisted by others.

Andrew Kettenis’ work as a digital experience consultant can be both diverse and sometimes high-profile: recent projects have included working on the UK’s vaccine roll-out and providing support for an AI-powered automatic ship, the Mayflower.

And the ship’s purpose – gathering data about the oceans for scientists looking at climate change, pollution and marine conservation – points to an area of focus for Andrew, namely sustainability.

After four years with IBM, he is currently transitioning to a new job as a UX (User Experience) designer with a leading London agency – “exactly what I enjoy doing”.

And yet Andrew (OE 2003–2010) acknowledges that his professional life today is very different from the career he expected when he was at School. “When I look back at my subjects for A-level, the two I focused on myself were Maths and Economics, but when I look at what I use, it’s Design. I use the principles I learned in it every single day, yet it felt at the time like a bit of a rogue one!” (Andrew also pays tribute to the support of Ian Clift, his Design Technology teacher.)

After leaving School in 2010, he went to study at Birmingham. “At university, I did International Relations, with Economics ‘on the side’.  In normal QE fashion, I was intending to focus more on the Economics and how that might relate to finance, but I actually enjoyed the politics side more, especially the sociology.

“My whole career view changed quite a bit, taking on a more human-centric focus, particularly with regard to sociology and how technology relates to that.”

Reflecting on all this, Andrew has his own advice for current QE pupils: “Follow the things you love, and lean into the things you love and that you find special or unique about yourself.” Unless boys are set on a very specifically vocational degree, they should choose a university subject simply because they find it interesting, he says.

After completing an MA at Birmingham in International Law, Philosophy and Politics in 2014, Andrew worked for a few months as a technical specialist for Apple. He then headed off to Osaka in Japan, where he spent 16 months as an English language teacher.

“I loved it. It was one of the hardest, but also by far the best, two years of my life,” he says, adding that he was speaking Japanese at conversational level within six months and learned many transferable skills. At QE, he had been a keen member of the robotics club. That experience now came into its own: “I brought a lot of that to my classes, using technology as a medium. I took a very tech-centric approach to my lessons.”

It is an approach which he has followed in his subsequent career. “Technology is an effective tool for social change and is pretty central to any social or entrepreneurial mechanism.”

He worked briefly for specialist IT training consultancy Optimum Technology Transfer – “a really good job” – and then went to IBM in 2017.

“IBM is where I found essentially what I will be doing for the foreseeable future – product and service design.”

Among the projects he has enjoyed most recently has been his work on the Mayflower Autonomous Ship project. “What the Mayflower essentially is, is an AI-powered automatic ship that has been developed by ProMare, a marine research and exploration company, in partnership with IBM. It incredibly important for our sustainable future to understand how our planet is changing. It’s really cool!”

Andrew’s side of the work has been to help design the people-facing digital products that will be used by scientists and by the wider public.

The ship has already been launched and is due to go on its first mission in a few weeks, sailing from Plymouth in the UK to Plymouth in Massachusetts – hence its name, recalling another pioneering venture, that of the Pilgrim Fathers, who established the first permanent settler colony in New England after arriving at Plymouth Rock aboard their own Mayflower in 1620.

He has also been involved in some of the UK vaccination work, re-designing the experience from a service user’s perspective, so that it works better and reduces waste, looking not at apps or the website, but at the general experience being offered.

“UX design is about what the end-to-end journey looks like,” says Andrew, who adds that his aspiration is to cultivate his skills “for a wider societal impact”.

He has developed a specialism in the sustainability of supply chains and products. He has, for example, just finished working with an automotive company to help them with their thinking about the future – “the big stuff, envisioning exactly how they will provide energy and mobility to people – how energy and electric vehicles tie into our future”.

Andrew, who is based in London, helps a number of mindfulness charities on a pro bono basis. He has worked with Dose of Nature, a charity promoting the benefits of engaging with the natural world which “does some really good work in mental health”.

He is encouraged by the ethical approach of many of his fellow OEs: “They are an upstanding bunch of human beings – just really good people, whatever path they have gone down, which I think is super-encouraging.”

A music-lover and media enthusiast, Andrew also enjoys gaming in his spare time. To find out more about Andrew’s projects and interests, visit his website.