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Paralympic preparations among Team GB’s rowers have gone well, according to QE old boy and defending champion Tom Aggar.

Tom (OE 1995-2002), who won the gold medal for the single sculls at Beijing and is the world champion in the discipline, said he is looking forward to defending his title at Eton Dorney.

Speaking in the final run-up to the games, he told The Times newspaper: “We’ve prepared well as a team, and since Beijing, we’ve set our sights on trying to repeat the same success as a squad.”

The team are competing in three of the four Paralympic rowing events.

Tom said the Paralympic athletes had been buoyed by the success of the Olympics rowing team, who had a similar training programme. He added that he was eager to hear the ‘Dorney roar’ for himself.

Tom started rowing as part of the rehabilitation programme he undertook after an accident in 2005 that left him paralysed. In five years of competition he has never been beaten.

Barnet and Whetstone Press, Wednesday 29 August 2012

A record percentage of A* grades at GCSE has been recorded at Queen Elizabeth’s School. This year, the A* grade was awarded in 63.3% of examinations taken – an 8% increase on 2011. A* or A grades were given for 90% of GCSEs at the School.

The average point score per pupil also increased, reaching 620.16, against 596.53 last year.

Congratulating the boys on their achievement, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “These figures represent a dramatic jump in attainment at the top end. Taken overall, our GCSE results reflect the relentless pursuit of improvements in teaching & learning at the School. They are also the just reward for a great deal of hard work by the boys, backed by support from parents and others who are friends to the School.”

“Only last week, we announced our A-level results, which appear to be the best of any state school in the country. Our summer examination results at both GCSE and A-level thus form an exciting springboard from which we will shortly launch our new School Development Plan.”

Twenty-three boys achieved straight A*s, typically in ten GCSE subjects. In Mathematics, which was taken by all boys, 158 (90%) gained an A*. Similarly, in English Literature, another compulsory subject, 128 boys (73%) achieved A*, which is significantly higher than in 2011.

Of the 176 boys in Year 11, 96% were awarded five or more A*s or As, and the entire year group achieved the Government’s benchmark of five or more A*-C grades including English, Mathematics and Science.

The proportion of boys achieving the English Baccalaureate (EBac) performance measure is 96%. Introduced into league tables by the Department for Education in 2010, EBac recognises the success of pupils who attain GCSEs or iGCSEs at grades A*-C across a core of academic subjects – English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language.

QE boys and staff have been reflecting on their never-to-be-forgotten visit to ‘Super Saturday’ at the Olympics.

Eight places were awarded to QE pupils and two to accompanying members of staff through the London schools allocation for the morning session at the Athletics Stadium in the Olympic Park. Boys and staff had to enter an internal ballot in School to win their tickets.

“The atmosphere was fantastic and the 80,000-seater stadium completely full,” said Margaret Gibson, who runs the School’s Front Office. Her name was drawn along with PE teacher Nick Bird.

“We were lucky enough to see Jess Ennis compete in both the long jump and javelin disciplines of her seven-event heptathlon, and her performances in both these events set her up brilliantly to win her final discipline of 800m in the evening session which gave her the gold medal! We also can say that ‘we were there’ for the historic occasion when Oscar Pistorius ran in the 400m heats.  Thank goodness that no one blinked, as we had the 100m heats and saw the fastest men in the world and probably the biggest character in athletics today – Usain Bolt!”

The eight boys successful in the ballot were Musaji China, John Woods, Ameen El-Hariri, Joel George, Ghavin Kuganesan, Zarius Meher-Homji, Karan Sanghavi and Tomas Vieira-Short.

“It was a wonderful experience for all concerned: the stadium and cauldron containing the Olympic flame were magnificent, the whole park and its landscaping set out brilliantly,” concluded Mrs Gibson.

QE pupils, staff and alumni are now all eagerly awaiting the beginning of the Paralympics, at which old boy Tom Aggar (1995-2002) hopes to repeat his Olympic rowing gold from Beijing in 2008.

Following the completion of a new purpose-built area, Food Technology is being introduced at QE for the first time. It will be part of the wider Technology curriculum that is taught to boys in Years 7-9.

The aim of the course is to develop basic cooking skills, increase knowledge of nutrition and enable pupils to make increasingly informed decisions about diet and health.

“This will be the first opportunity for many of the boys to participate in cookery,” said Head of Technology Simon Vincent. “The new food facilities will offer pupils the chance to learn what is, in fact, an essential life skill. In today’s busy times, it can be difficult for parents to find time to teach their children to cook from raw ingredients. Ready-made meals and sauces are ever-more prevalent, but studying Food Technology will give pupils the knowledge to choose foods that are nutritious and healthy and give them the practical skills to prepare them safely.”

During the first year of the Food Technology course, pupils will acquire familiarity with working with a range of kitchen equipment, including the safe use of vegetable knives. They will learn how to: prepare a range of fresh ingredients; weigh and measure ingredients accurately, and how to use the oven safely. They will then progress to use electric hand tools, a cook’s knife, and the grill and hob. By the end of the course, pupils will also be able to make dough and pastry and a range of sauce bases.

Alongside cooking skills, pupils will also develop their ICT skills, using computers to research recipes, analyse nutritional content, plan meals and scale ingredients for different numbers of people.

There are plans for extra-curricular food clubs to be started later in the year. “The initial focus for these will be on the Sixth Form,” said Mr Vincent. “We feel it’s important to offer the boys who will be leaving in a year or two’s time the food skills they’ll need for university survival. Definitely no tins of beans in sight!”

Tom Aggar, (OE 1995-2002) who had been widely expected to retain his Paralympic title in the men’s single sculls, finished outside the medals in the final at Eton Dorney.

The 28-year-old, who took gold in Beijing, and was previously undefeated in international competition, finished fourth. He had qualified comfortably for the final, although the Chinese competitor, Cheng Huang took five seconds off Tom’s world record in his qualifying heat.

After the race, Tom spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m absolutely devastated. The standard has really improved year-on-year and I’ve always managed to stay ahead of the curve. I’ve turned in Personal Bests all year, but today, when I dug deep, there was nothing there.”

Later, Tom was philosophical in defeat: “It’s sport; you’ve got to take it on the chin. I’ve loved every minute of this experience and it’s definitely made me more determined now.”

“We are very proud of Tom’s individual achievements as an international rower,” said QE Headmaster Neil Enright. “He has contributed magnificently to improving standards in the sport. As he implied himself, he was the target to beat and he has handled this first defeat with great dignity.”

London 2012 has seen other standard-bearers reeled in by the following pack. Britain’s Lee Pearson was hot favourite for his tenth Paralympic gold in the 1A Dressage, but was pushed into second place by Joann Formosa of Australia. Another shock result was that of Oscar Pistorius, beaten into second place in the 200m by Brazil’s Alan Oliveria.

Latin is being reintroduced to the QE curriculum in September 2012. The subject will be taken by all boys in Year 7 and will remain compulsory until Year 9, at which point pupils may opt to continue the subject to GCSE.

“The study of Latin, with its grammatical rigour and long association with scholarship, is very helpful in developing the application of logical thought processes,” said Headmaster Neil Enright. “In many ways, the subject underpins the academic curriculum and teaches transferable skills that can be applied to any area of study. I’m confident that Latin will be of great value to the boys in supporting their learning.”

Initially pupils will be taught in their form groups, with sets introduced by the end of the first term. Following the compulsory introduction at Year 7, the voluntary extra-curricular Latin classes currently running will continue for boys in Year 8 and 9. They will run throughout the 2012-13 academic year continuing as hour-long classes containing language studies, explanations of grammatical terms and references to Roman culture and history.

The focus in the Year 7 Latin teaching will be on developing the skills required to read passages of written text, answer comprehension questions and translate passages into English.  Pupils will also learn about Roman history, society and culture.

As well as giving boys a sound knowledge of the Latin language, the lessons will provide them with a thorough grounding in general language principles. This includes identifying similarities between words that have been inherited from Latin.

The School will follow the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) through Key Stage 3 and 4, supplementing the material presented in the course textbook with other resources.  The CLC is widely recognised as the leading beginners’ course for Latin, and has been extensively developed and revised throughout its 45-year history of use in schools.