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Leading politicians of every hue took to the stage at a conference for A-level Politics students – and showed each other nothing but respect.

QE’s Year 12 A-level Politics student who had travelled to the event in Westminster Central Hall heard discussion of a wide variety of issues.

Year 12 pupil Rehaan Bapoo, Chairman of QE’s Politics Society, said: “In a world of increasingly hostile politics, it was refreshing to see that in the UK politicians can still be civil with each other, despite their differing beliefs.”

The day featured 15-minute speeches from various senior political figures, such as House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sir Alan Duncan, Leading Labour backbencher Chuka Umunna, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and Douglas Carswell, the sole UKIP MP.

One constant theme was the speakers urging that young people should engage with politics and vote regularly once they come of age. Chuka Umunna explained that he had attended the same conference 20 years before and it had stimulated his interest in Politics by giving him an opportunity to get his questions answered. He said he hoped this year’s event would do the same for the sixth-formers there.

Rehaan reported that the boys were engrossed with the speeches, which ranged in topic from the future of the Conservative Party and the position of Britain in a post-Brexit world to diversity in Politics.

The opportunity given for members of the audience to ask the speakers questions after they had concluded their speeches resulted in “many riveting debates stoked by intriguing questions”. And Rehaan contributed with a question of his own to Sir Alan Duncan: “Were [Leader of the French Front National, Marine] Le Pen to be elected and remove France from the EU, would this be the beginning of an increasingly isolationist Europe?”

QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon, said “Our Politics students have attended this conference every year and are invariably surprised and challenged by the speakers. It’s a unique opportunity to speak directly to national leaders.”

A Model United Nations Conference was a challenge in more ways than one for the seven QE pupils involved – but they rose to it magnificently.

The boys represented Rwanda and Qatar in debates on topics that brought together practical politics and moral dilemmas.

The topics on the agenda for the event held at Benenden, the Kent girls’ boarding school, were the:

• Militarisation of space
• Protection of rights of the LGBTQ+ community
• Issue of capacity-building in failing states
• Integration and assimilation of migrants into new environments.

Physics teacher and Extra-Curricular Enrichment Tutor Georgina Garfield, who attended with the boys, said: “The conference was excellent, with some fascinating debates. You’d think that Rwanda wouldn’t have a vast amount to say about whether or not we should have weapons in space, for example, but that team – and, indeed, both teams – researched everything so thoroughly that they were able to participate and represent their countries really well.”

And Year 12 pupil Nikhil Shah said: “It was an amazing experience to participate in an event where I could take on the role of a delegate of Qatar, even though it was challenging to voice opinions which are at odds with my own.”

After the debates in the individual committees, all the delegations met in the hall for the General Assembly, where a resolution that had been passed in SPECPOL (Special Political Committee) was debated in more detail. The resolution was in relation to capacity-building and essentially said that education should be a key priority in trying to improve failing states. Year 13 pupil Shayen Sathiananthan took the floor, speaking in favour of the resolution for Qatar; he took ‘points of information’ from delegates of other countries. “The rest of our delegates were also keen and confident, and challenged the views put forward by other delegations,” said Miss Garfield.

In addition to Nikhil and Shayen, the QE representatives were: Tej Mehta, of Year 11 (representing Rwanda); Mipham Samten, of Year 11 (Rwanda); Zayn Riaz, of Year 12, (Rwanda); Dhruv Kanabar, of Year 12, (Qatar), and Atul John, of Year 12 (Qatar).

Zayn said: “The conference was an insightful experience and helped me understand the importance of cohesion between member states in the UN.”

The boys are now working to prepare for a mini-conference to be hosted by QE soon. They will also be representing Mexico, Germany, Senegal and India at a Model United Nations conference at The John Warner School in Hoddesdon in February.

Senior boys learned about the importance of developing their personal brand from an internationally respected leadership expert.

Roger Delves, Dean of Qualifications and Professor of Leadership Practice at Ashridge Executive Education, Berkhamsted, gave a lecture during a Senior School assembly.

After being introduced by Year 13 Sanchit Agrawal, Mr Delves urged boys to start thinking about and developing their personal branding early in their careers. Since all QE pupils are bright, intelligence is not what will set them apart at School, nor later at work. Those who do not have a strong brand leave themselves open to others stereotyping or caricaturing them, he warned.

Going to university is a “watershed moment,” he said; it represents an opportunity to re-do your personal branding, to drop certain behaviours, to pick up new ones and even to escape the nickname that has dogged you.

But he cautioned that a brand has to be credible – “You have to be able to live up to it.” Its essence lies in one’s personal values and it was thus important that boys should not hide what they believed in, since people can respond emotionally to that. In fact, while brands need both rational and emotional appeal, it is the latter which is more important, since it makes the greater impression.

Mr Delves, who is the father of a boy in the Lower School, currently leads the Personal Impact module on both the Ashridge and Hult Executive MBA programmes. (The two business schools merged operationally in 2015.) Voted MBA Professor of the Year by both MBA and EMBA students of Hult’s London campus in 2012, he has taught for Hult in London, New York, San Francisco and Shanghai. He previously worked as a UK Board Director for international advertising agency DMB&B. His special interests are understanding the roles of authenticity, emotional intelligence, ethics and integrity in leadership and in decision-making.

He explained to the Year 11-13 boys gathered in the Shearly Hall the difference between management and leadership. Management involves coping with complexity to produce the “narrowest possible gap between what the organisation should be doing and what it is actually doing”, and improving the culture that exists. Leadership concerns coping with change and bringing about change or setting the future direction, as well as creating new cultures and inspiring people to follow you.

Both leaders and managers need a personal brand, but it will be different, and “as a leader you would need to think about what would make others want to follow you”, he said.

In a question-and-answer session, Mr Delves was asked about using social media as part of personal branding. He urged great caution, since a mistake could cause enormous damage. Questioned on university interviews, he advised boys to be themselves, but in a way that respected their surroundings: they should dress reasonably smartly and always show mutual respect, while still demonstrating their personal brand in their answers, making sure the interviewers heard about their qualities and the things they had achieved. And when asked what differentiates a good leader from a great one, he said that anyone could be a good leader, but that to be great you had to have something in you that makes you love to lead: “it has to be in your blood”.

QE’s pupil librarians had the opportunity to gather inspiration from a leading girls’ school’s library when they paid a visit to hear a talk by a successful author.

Fifteen boys headed off to North London Collegiate School, where they were given a tour of the independent school’s McLauchlan Library after hearing from Young Adults (YA) author Keren David. They joined pupils from several other schools, including Hemel Hempstead, John Lyon, Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, Sacred Heart and Copthall.

Keren spoke about how she became an author and combines it with a career in journalism. She also related her experience of turning her novel, Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery, into a script for a musical.

She always writes in the first person and, therefore, before starting a new book, she must find the voice of a person whose story she wishes to tell. In her latest work, Cuckoo, the protagonist is a young, homeless actor who ‘sofa-surfed’ with friends to avoid sleeping on the streets – a form of hidden homelessness that is relatively common among young people because of family breakdown, as she pointed out to her audience at NLCS.

After the talk, the boys were free to explore the library, which dates from 1999. With study space for around 100 pupils, the NLCS library is similar in capacity to The Queen’s Library at QE, which opened in 2014.  There are, however, some obvious differences: “Our boys were particularly taken with the vertical design of the McLauchlan Library, which is housed over four floors with a central spiral staircase,” said QE librarian Ciara Murray. Year 10 pupil Saifullah Shah wanted to see another floor devoted to books at QE: “The Library needs to colonise even more of our School!”

The non-fiction collection at NLCS is long-established and Saifullah said he would like to see the breadth of QE’s non-fiction collection increased. However, Ms Murray said that after the visit, the QE pupil librarians reflected that The Queen’s Library’s fiction collection is a particular strength.

Saifullah also wishes to have more author talks at QE. Another Year 10 pupil, Alex Beard, was inspired by the languages collection at NLCS – Ms Murray pledged that QE’s own collection will be growing to match. Year 8 boy Arjun Patel collected some of the Year 7 recommended reading lists from the McLauchlan Library to help him with his current project, which revolves around making recommendations to people once they have finished one book and want something similar to read. He has devised visually attractive ‘recommended read’ cards to be inserted into the back covers of books.

Overall, although the boys had enjoyed their trip to the McLauchlan Library and were intrigued by the multi-floor design, they preferred the fact that in The Queen’s Library, it is not necessary to walk up and down stairs to get to different subject areas, Ms Murray added.

Year 7 boy Ansh Jassra took first place in a House competition that gave boys the chance to practise their skills in oratory by speaking about a photograph.

Ansh’s speech inspired by the image of Donald Trump was judged to be the winner for Leicester House after a grand final in a Year 7 assembly in which he was pitted against representatives of the other five Houses.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Ansh delivered an excellent, topical and wide-ranging speech. As well as weaving in detailed biographical information, he gave a good account of the US election and the controversies associated with the new President, and he included a topical reference to the recent marches.”

“This competition is one of a number of opportunities that we give pupils to develop their oracy and their skill in public-speaking.”

The competition began during the boys’ Personal Development Time (PDT) sessions – the extended time they spend with their Form Tutor at the start of the afternoon three days a week. The Year 7 boys were each challenged to select a photograph and prepare a three-minute speech about it.

They performed to their respective House tutor groups. The best one was selected by the Form Tutor for participation in the final.

Dr Michael Taylor, Assistant Head and Head of Year 7, introduced the assembly by reminding the boys that, at the launch of the competition, he had shared with them the well-known axiom “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  Their challenge had been to pick a photograph that not only had considerable significance but one which offered an opportunity for giving an outstanding verbal presentation – thus perhaps contradicting the saying! Their goal was to demonstrate their eloquence.

Second place in the competition went to Aum Amin, of Broughton, who presented a photograph of Mount Everest, and third to Om Chakrapani (Staplyton), who spoke about a photo of the Roman Baths in the city of Bath.

The other finalists were:

• Sudhamshi Gummadavelli (Harrisons’) on Mount Titlis in Switzerland
• Surya Dhaka (Pearce) on the refugee crisis
• Akhil Walia (Underne) on the game of chess.

Boys at QE have ample opportunity to practise their speaking skills. Sixty-six of the current Year 7 pupils entered their first LAMDA public-speaking examination towards the end of the Autumn term, with 44 of them (67%) securing a distinction. Debating is highly valued at the School and boys have opportunities to develop their skills through competitions and through partnership activities, such as the debating events held with the girls of The Henrietta Barnett School.

A medical expert who has advised some of the country’s biggest companies on stress spoke to QE boys about mental health and wellbeing in a special assembly.

The lecture to Years 8 and 10 by Dr Charlie Easmon comes just a few weeks after Prime Minister Theresa May made a high-profile announcement of plans to improve support for mental health, with the emphasis firmly on children and young people. In 2014, a Commons Health Select Committee report had warned of large increases in self-harm and serious psychological problems among under-18s.

Dr Easmon’s visit was organised by School Librarian Ciara Murray (pictured left below), who co-ordinates QE’s lecture programme, and by Head of Pupil Development Sarah Westcott (pictured right below) as part of the School’s Personal Development Programme.

Dr Westcott said: “We believe that boys here are generally happy and well-adjusted, but no school can afford to be complacent about the mental health of its pupils: at QE, we recognise that taking positive steps to promote wellbeing is both important and necessary.”

A primary care physician who provides occupational health and mental health services to many FTSE100 companies, Dr Easmon trained at St George's Hospital Medical School in South London and performed his medical elective period in Ghana. Since then, he has worked with a number of international medical organisations and charities and is currently President of the International Association of Physicians for the Overseas Services. His special interest is in mental and occupational health in the corporate setting, and particularly within high-stress arenas. His visit to QE was run through The McLellan Practice, an organisation which provides schools with speakers on important and challenging issues.

The special assembly represents just one element of QE’s work in this area. Promoting wellbeing is one of the emphases of the Pastoral Development Time programme, which is facilitated by form tutors. A mental health professional is available for a few hours a week from the NHS-run Barnet Schools Project for any pupils experiencing difficulties at school. The project also gives training to form tutors to help them develop their expertise in delivering the programme for tutor groups effectively. In addition, form tutors and pastoral leaders at the School are now supported by a partnership with Rephael House, a New Barnet-based charity, which makes available a school-based counsellor for any QE boys who might benefit.

Within the School, the long-established peer mentoring scheme provides support for boys from other pupils: it is based on an understanding both that younger pupils sometimes need support and that they may find it easier to discuss their worries with a fellow pupil than with a member of staff.

There are extensive resources relevant to wellbeing and mental health in The Queen’s Library, which has a new Shelf-Help: Reading Well collection. This is based on the Reading Well – Books on Prescription programme that is run in public libraries with the aim of helping people understand and manage their own health and wellbeing through self-help books that have been endorsed by experts in the field. The collection includes self-help and advice books on topics such as dealing with stress, anxiety and depression, and the importance of mindfulness, as well as more general books on growing up, identity, puberty, sex, relationships and LGBTQ issues. There are books about specific topics such as eating disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Asperger Syndrome and autism.

“All these books are carefully selected to inform and advise, allowing boys to recognise that they are not alone in whatever problems they may experience, and to equip them with skills to deal with them – or to ask for help when they need it,” said Ms Murray. “Furthermore, we have a wide-ranging and diverse collection of young adult fiction that showcases many of these issues.”

Following Dr Easmon’s talk, boys in Year 8 and Year 10 have been asked to consider their top three ‘must-reads’ that have had a positive impact on them, and Ms Murray will be compiling a list based on their recommendations.