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Performance coach Kam Taj’s new book offers students his own innovative and detailed holistic approach to achieving success as a student.

Entitled The Ultimate Guide to Exam Success, the book is the latest in a series published through UniAdmissions, an education consultancy which helps students applying to Oxbridge and medical schools.

Announcing its publication, Kam (Kamran Tajbaksh, OE 2004–2011) told his Facebook followers: “In many ways, I wrote this book for my younger self – it’s everything I wished I knew as a student and teenager.

“For those of you who don’t know, I graduated from Cambridge University with a 1st class in Engineering. But my path was anything but smooth. I went from failing my A-level Further Maths mocks to getting an A* and meeting my offer. I only achieved my 1st class after getting 2.2 grades in my first two years at Cambridge. I tell my story in more detail in the book, as well as sharing the tools and techniques which helped me to transform my failures into success – and have helped many of my private clients since.”

The first four chapters of the 182-page paperback are on: time-management, study tools & techniques; mind-management and on-the-day performance.

“Unlike any other book on exams, the final four chapters are on optimising our lifestyle so we can stay physically and mentally healthy throughout our studies,” Kam adds. These chapters of the book, which is published by RAR Medical Services, look at: movement & physical activity; nutrition & hydration; sleep and support groups.

Kam studied Manufacturing Engineering at Churchill College, Cambridge. After graduating, he initially took up a post as a management consultant with a global company. However, he had begun doing performance coaching work while still at university and in 2016 left the consultancy world to concentrate fully on coaching and motivational speaking.

He works predominantly with students and young professionals, speaking at leading schools and universities. Last term, Kam visited QE to lead a workshop on Oxbridge preparation for 32 sixth-formers.

The content of the new book is similar to The 8 Principles of Exam Domination, which was self-published by Kam on Kindle last year.

A visit to a chateau in rural Normandy offered boys at both ends of the School the opportunity to throw themselves into French language and culture.

The 50-strong group, comprising mostly pupils from the current Year 8 together with a smaller number of Year 13 boys, spent a week based at the Château de la Baudonnière, near Avranches, on a trip organised by the Languages department.

The younger boys consolidated a year of language-learning, seizing the chance to practise their conversation skills with native speakers. The range of team-building activities provided meant the trip also helped the boys make new friends and deepen existing friendships.

For their part, the sixth-formers undertook work-experience placements in locations including a bakery, restaurant and shop.

Head of Extra-Curricular Enrichment Rebecca Grundy said: “We took a day out to see the Bayeux tapestry and the D-Day beaches, while the boys also watched a film about the Allied landings in June 1944 at a 360-degree cinema.”

The activities undertaken by the younger boys included rock-climbing, archery, raft-building and tackling an assault course, while there were also French lessons during the week.

QE’s Geography department has received a prestigious award in recognition of the excellence of teaching and learning in the subject at the School.

The Geographical Association announced that QE is among a select group of schools from across the country to receive the Secondary Geography Quality Mark (SGQM) for 2018–21.

QE previously won the award in 2015 and had recently submitted detailed evidence in the hope of having it renewed. In response, the association’s Moderator Justin Woolliscroft and the National Moderation Team gave QE’s Geography team a glowing report: “Your students are very fortunate to have access to a rich and varied curriculum allied with such a committed teaching team. It is clear that you are very proactive in a wide range of areas spreading good practice through your activities.

“Geography provision is clearly extremely strong and we are delighted to confirm the SGQM award for a further three years.”

The award recognises quality and progress in Geography leadership, curriculum development and learning and teaching in schools.

QE’s Head of Geography Emily Parry said: “The department are proud to have received this award in recognition of the high-quality geographical education delivered here. We strive to provide an engaging and topical curriculum.”

Rebecca Kitchen, GA Curriculum Manager, said: “The SGQM enables schools to focus critically on what they are doing and why, in order to provide their young people with the knowledge and understanding they need to live in the modern world.”

The moderators’ report singled out a number of areas for special praise: “The need for refreshed and revised curricula for both KS4 [Key Stage 4] and KS5 have understandably been an important focus for the department, and it is good to read that these have been accepted very positively by the students and that the new schemes are now influencing what is offered at Key Stage 3. We like the challenge offered through the extended homework essays which clearly support the students in becoming more independent, so helping them with the demands placed upon them at GCSE and beyond.”

The report also lauded the department’s:

• “Continuing collaborative work” with the University of Hertfordshire and the Prince’s Teaching Institute
• “Important role” in hosting the World Wise quiz for local schools – an annual Geography competition
• Fieldwork, which “remains a strength, with numerous exciting opportunities offered to your students”.

Twelve sixth-formers heard two lectures from mathematicians chosen for their distinction in the subject and their communication skills.

The Year 12 boys heard Dr Jennifer Rogers, from Oxford University, and Dr Katie Steckles, of schools outreach organisation, Think Maths, deliver this year’s London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures at Bush House.

In her talk, entitled Living is a Risky Business, Dr Rogers explained that we are bombarded with statistics every day and that it is therefore important to be able to discern the truth behind a shock headline.

She discussed, for example, the statistics behind the newspaper headlines about bacon sandwiches causing a higher risk of cancer and being equally as bad as smoking. She explained that there is a 1 in 80 lifetime risk of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer so scaling this up, this is the same as a 5 in 400 risk. A 20% increase would therefore mean that the lifetime risk of getting pancreatic cancer is now 6 in 400.

The headlines only considered statistical significance without quantifying it in any way. For comparison, there is a 4 in 400 chance of being diagnosed with lung cancer if you have never smoked. Smoking more than 25 cigarettes a day increases that to 96 in 400 as you are 24 times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. Both results (bacon and smoking) are statistically significant but they do not pose the same risk as each other.

Afterwards, one of the QE Year 12 audience, Nico Puthu, said: “I’m really pleased to find out that it’s perfectly safe to eat as much bacon as I want!”

Dr Rogers finished by explaining her dealings with Ryanair. As Vice President of the Royal Statistical Society, she was asked by the TV programme, Watchdog, to investigate the claims by Ryanair passengers that if they did not book seats in advance (and pay for this privilege), then they were always given a middle seat. Four researchers booked four different flights and all were allocated middle seats. She calculated that this would have a probability of 0.2% which suggests that seat allocation is not random. Ryanair, after many denials, finally admitted that their seating algorithm was not random.

QE attendee Sahil Shah said “I enjoyed hearing about her battle with Ryanair,” while Mudit Tuslianey added: “Dr Rogers’ talk linked well to what we have been studying at A-level.”

For her lecture, Dr Steckles spoke on The Greatest Unsolved Puzzles in Maths. One of her demonstrations involved taking a piece of A4 paper and folding it three times, always folding along the longest edge, and then cutting off all four corners of the resulting shape. How many holes will you have made in the A4 paper when it is unfolded? she asked. (Answer: three). This led on to the introduction of the Euler brick which is a cuboid which has integer lengths and integer face diagonals. Some examples are shown in the image here.

Mathematicians are currently searching for the perfect cuboid which is an Euler brick that also has an integer body diagonal, Dr Steckles explained.

QE’s Assistant Head of Mathematics, Wendy Fung, said: “She finished by saying that all the unsolved problems that currently exist will be solved by people who, when they see a puzzle, don’t give up.”

Akshat Sharma and Aadi Desai spoke afterwards of their appreciation of the puzzles she set. Their classmate, Kiran Aberdeen, said: “I found Dr Steckles’ talk very amusing.”

The sixth-formers helping QE’s youngest pupils at the Year 7 Maths Fair were the first generation to have taken part in the competition themselves.

Now in its sixth year, the House challenge features a morning of activities designed to stretch the Year 7 boys’ mathematical abilities. It was inspired by the UK Mathematics Trust’s Team Maths Challenge events.

The winners for 2017-2018 were Broughton House, with 837 points, followed by Pearce with 825 and Stapylton with 805. Broughton were subsequently presented with the trophy, the Scarisbrick Shield, in assembly. The shield is named after former Head of Mathematics, Fauziah (Gee) Scarisbrick MBE.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “Each team was supervised by a Year 12 Further Maths student and it was a great opportunity for these sixth-formers to interact with Year 7, whether they were supervising a team or helping with the logistics of running the event: we couldn’t have done it without their help.” She pointed out that the Year 12 boys had themselves been participants in the inaugural Maths Fair, back in 2013.

The boys took part in a carousel of activities – some were more familiar mathematical problem-solving activities (A Question of Maths) and others more practical (Tangrams). Then, all teams took part in the Relay, which combines speed in movement about the room and speed in solving a maths problem.

“The idea is to show boys that mathematical problems come in many different formats as well as to help them to develop team-working skills,” said Miss Fung.

Year 7 Broughton pupil Aradhya Singh spoke of his happiness at his House’s victory, adding: “We hope that Broughton can win it again next year.”

All six Houses were also required to create a poster entitled What is Mathematics? Each of the teams within each House had to create part of the poster and was asked to prepare in advance by coordinating the different sections so that their poster would encompass the many facets of the subject.

The award for best poster went to Staplyton; it was put on display afterwards in the Mathematics department.

Siddarth Sridharth said: “We’re really happy to have won the poster competition and that our efforts paid off,” while fellow Stapylton House member Yash Patel added: “We spent a lot of time discussing how to show Maths in the best possible way.”

Boys in Year 8 pitted their talents against each other in a competitive Dragons’ Den-style challenge, first designing an innovative product and then pitching it at the end of the day.

The event, held as part of the School’s Enrichment Week, aimed to get boys using skills in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

They had to design a product to solve a real-world problem, while also considering their marketing and business proposition. To create their prototypes, the participants were allocated a budget which they could use to buy the basic materials (such as card, tape and wooden sticks) from a ‘market’ in the hall.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This event encompassed problem-solving and combining knowledge of science, product design, technology, finance and business acumen to come up with a new product that was a practical proposition – and all in the space of a day. The boys successfully produced some very interesting and promising proposals.”

All boys in Year 8 took part in the challenge, which was split across two days. It was led by Simon Kettle, Executive Director of STEMworks, a not-for-profit company dedicated to promoting STEM. Simon also judged the boys’ projects.

Afterwards, Simon said: “The students were given the opportunity to design and develop ideas that use some new, cutting-edge technologies. I talked through a few new materials and the associated technology – and the students did the rest. They came up with a wide range of new product ideas, with the best being presented in the Dragons’ Den.”

The winners’ product on the first day, which they named SOLAcharge, used small portable solar panels to charge a mobile phone. The second-day winners designed Simon’s particular favourite – SafeSensors, a sports helmet which not only protected the head but also had built-in impact sensors that could notify the team coach or doctor of any impact that would require a player to be treated or substituted (in cases of concussion, for example).

Other ideas included mobile phones with in-built smoke alarms, smart baths (that would self-regulate temperature and could not over-fill), and even a helmet capable of styling the wearer’s hair!