At Queen Elizabeth’s School, education is not simply a means, but rather an end in itself. Our academic enrichment programme seeks to cultivate in every boy a lifelong love of learning and the attributes of a genuine scholar.
Recognising the considerable natural ability of our pupils, we seek to stretch and challenge them through the provision of a diverse and extensive programme that is carefully tailored to all year groups and is overseen by senior staff. This programme incorporates trips and visits, clubs and societies, academic symposia with leading girls’ schools, conferences, lectures by distinguished guest speakers and a host of special events, such as our annual TEDx conference.
Through it, boys have the opportunity to develop an appreciation and understanding of the liberal arts, as well as the practical skills of critical thinking, problem-solving and methodical research. Their creativity and independence are unleashed as they learn not only to increase their knowledge of a subject beyond the requirements of the curriculum, but also to expand their ability to apply that knowledge in order to come up with new insights and new solutions.
In areas such as our symposia and our lecture programmes, we expect boys not to be passive but to ask questions, challenging the opinions of others, probing received wisdom and even, at times, dissenting from the views of their teachers and of visiting experts, albeit with due respect. When based on sound knowledge and thoughtful reasoning, such an interrogative approach lies at the heart of free-thinking scholarship.
Our academic enrichment programme is a unique feature of the QE experience. It is based on the bedrock of many years of success in educating young men and of the culture of excellence that has been established and embedded as the School has flourished; its outcomes may be seen in the sustained academic achievement at the highest level demonstrated by Elizabethans in the Sixth Form, at university and beyond.
