Headmaster’s update

The long Autumn Term began with the School still in celebratory mood following August’s excellent public examination results.

Our 2013 leavers matched the very considerable achievements of the previous year’s record-breaking cohort, with the proportion of A*-B grades at A-level remaining above 98% this year. The GCSE results were equally impressive: the proportion of A* grades (66%) set a new QE record for the second consecutive year.

As the term has unfolded, QE has reaped the rewards of this repeated high academic achievement in the form of national media acclaim and several new accolades. The School topped league tables in the Daily Telegraph and the Times, as well as taking first place in the Sunday Times Parent Power academic results league table of the top 500 State Secondary Schools. In the latter, QE matched the A-level results of St Paul’s Girls’ School, which headed the separate table for the top 425 Independent Secondary Schools. I recently had the honour of being presented with QE’s Evening Standard Award for Academic Excellence, based on our 2012 results, by Michael Gove.

The Education Secretary was also present at City Hall for the first London Education Conference, during which our School was appointed an inaugural member of Mayor Boris Johnson’s London Schools Gold Club. Member schools are those adjudged to have been exceptionally successful, taking into account the backgrounds of their pupils.

At the conference I attended a number of stimulating debates, seminars and workshops, including one looking at social mobility in relation to access to leading universities. At QE, we pride ourselves on being an entirely meritocratic School: boys may rise as high as their ability and application will take them, regardless of their social or ethnic background. Importantly, we seek to apply this principle not only to the time that boys are at the School; we also encourage them to aim high after they leave us, both in terms of their choice of university and of their eventual career.

To this end, we have a number of programmes and initiatives that seek to prepare boys fully for their future. We recognise that there is an inevitable gulf between the somewhat cloistered day-to-day lives of pupils and students on the one hand, and the world of business on the other. Last year’s Education and Employers Taskforce report identified a clear link between work experience at school and job prospects. To be most effective, work experience should not simply rely on parents’ connections, which may of course be limited in the case of those from modest backgounds; instead, participants should be directed towards diverse employers, the report found. That is exactly what we do at QE – through our work experience programme, to which we attach great importance, through encouraging boys to participate in programmes run by organisations such as the Sutton Trust, and through our annual Careers Convention for Year 11. I am happy to report that this event was well supported again this year, with many parents, friends of the School and OEs acting as advisers.

Similarly, our Sixth Form mock interview programme introduced earlier this year gives boys experience of a formal interview conducted by OEs and friends with significant professional expertise. It is available to all who receive invitations to interview from any university, although this relates mainly to those applying to study Medicine and Dentistry, as well as those looking to Oxford and Cambridge.

Prospective employers value attributes such as: critical thinking; adaptability to different ways of working; an aptitude for technology and, perhaps above all, the ability to continue to learn. Resting on the laurels of past academic achievement, whether at School or university, is not enough. Our School Priorities reflect these requirements. Of course, this should not be understood to imply any dichotomy between knowledge and skills: it is not all about the latter. I regard it as essential that we keep the curriculum under review, making sure that the subject content remains suited to our boys.

While it was gratifying to see a strong first set of results following the introduction of the more rigorous IGCSE Science qualification, the real importance of this change is that our new cohort of Advanced Level scientists in Year 12 now have a stronger foundation. The current Year 11 are preparing to take IGCSEs in Geography and Mathematics.

The Autumn Term concluded with a busy festive musical season, including charity performances at Barnet’s Spires shopping centre and our carol service at the parish church.

May I wish all our alumni a happy Christmas and a prosperous 2014.

Neil Enright