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Three Old Elizabethans are taking part in an élite, mission-based teacher-training scheme, which aims to place the brightest graduates into some of the toughest and most socially deprived schools in the country.

Kwamina Korsah (OE 2000-2007), Joe Sherman (2000-2007) and Kalil Rouse (2002-2009) are all part of the Teach First initiative, which puts graduates through an intensive course of on-the-job training to develop them into inspirational leaders, as well as teachers.

Kwamina Korsah read History at Magdalene College, Cambridge, before joining a brand consultancy on graduation. After 18 months he took some time out to travel and re-evaluate. “I needed a new challenge and decided to apply to Teach First because of the ethos of the programme,” said Kwamina. “You’re thrown in at the deep end; you spend nearly the whole two years actually teaching in your placement school, completing essays and the theoretical side in the holidays. The skills you acquire, such as organisation, presentation, communication and time management are all eminently transferable to other spheres.”

Teach First is a registered charity dedicated to enabling young people to overcome social disadvantage through education. It takes bright graduates and puts them through an intensive six-week course before placing them in a school. Kwamina is doing his training at Hatch End High School, a large mixed 11-18 comprehensive in Harrow with 1,800 pupils. “Being in a London suburb, it is by no means the toughest school in London but there are a lot of pastoral issues that constantly arise.” He also spent a week at QE, gaining valuable experience of working with very able children. His other placement will be at the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, inner London. “I expect this is the one that will prove to be the toughest placement,” added Kwamina.

Whilst Kwamina is in his first year of the Teach First programme, Joe Sherman is in his second year. “I’ve been teaching English to 11-16 year olds at The Bridge Academy in Hackney and although it’s a tough course it’s been very rewarding,” he said. Joe graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Politics; in addition to his teaching role he has, this year, had the extra responsibility of being a form tutor. The school became an academy in 2007 and its stated aim is to give young people the best possible education, whatever their background or ability. Joe will complete the course this summer and is then taking a six-month break to go travelling. On his return he will take up a place with management consultants Accenture.

“I am delighted that three of our old boys are taking part in a programme that has such a deep commitment to inspiring and developing young people through education,” said the Headmaster. “QE’s own ethos puts considerable emphasis on our boys making a contribution to society. A number of our pupils have chosen to enter the teaching profession over the years, although not through this particular programme. We count ourselves fortunate to have three OEs on the staff at the School: Nicholas Bird (1995–2002) who teaches PE; Hinesh Shah (1996–2003) who teaches Biology and Thomas Spenceley (2002–2009) who is currently training as an English teacher.”

The moral high ground prevailed in the Elizabethan Union’s 48th Annual Dinner Debate.

OEs Richard Alam (2002-2009) and Jamie Sherman (2002-2009) beat current Year 12 boys Kiran Modi and Surya Bowyer by successfully defeating the motion This House believes that cheats prosper.

The Headmaster said: “It was a splendid evening, with good food and a high standard of debate. I greatly enjoyed the chance to catch up with a number of old boys.

“As well as being an enjoyable social occasion, the Dinner Debate also provides Year 12 boys on the threshold of adulthood with a valuable opportunity to participate in a formal dining and debating occasion: we are always grateful to the alumni who support it.”

The keenly contested debate began with the traditional toasts to the Queen and ‘The Pious Memory of Queen Elizabeth I’. Captain of School Nikhil Patel then proposed a toast to the ‘Visitors’ (the OEs), with Gary Batistoni (OE 1962-1969) following suit with a toast to the Elizabethan Union.

As usual, the winners were decided by comparing the results of a vote before the debate with the results of one conducted afterwards: whichever side successfully persuades more people to change their minds – and thus ‘gains’ the most votes – wins the debate.

Nisha Mayer, teacher in charge of debating, said: “The debate chairman, Ben Collins, called it a large majority in favour of the resolution dropping to a small majority in favour. As such the OEs, who were opposing the motion, won.”

She pointed out, however, that in absolute terms, at the end of the night there were still more votes for than against the view that cheats prosper!

The evening began with a three-course dinner, with menu choices including falafel with a yoghurt dip, spiced chicken tagine with chickpeas & apricots and tarte aux pommes with cream.

I am pleased to report that the spirit of competition has been to the fore at Queen Elizabeth’s School throughout the Spring Term.

The celebration of excellence and the virtue of competition are ingrained into QE life from the very beginning of a boy’s School career here, as demonstrated recently by our fiercely contested Year 7 Music Scholarships and junior chess tournament. We are keen to foster competition through such regular events in our calendar; our Senior Awards ceremony is another important example.

Competition is a key aspect of our House system, which spans both academic and extra-curricular areas of School life. For example, through the House competition, boys who may not be picked for School teams can nonetheless enjoy the chance to represent their House in all the competitive sports played at QE. In other fields, too, our pupils are encouraged to prove themselves in numerous external competitive events and initiatives, whether at local, regional, national or international level.

Last year’s QE team in the Engineering Education Scheme achieved the highest score ever recorded in the national scheme’s 12-year history and have recently been talking to construction industry representatives about implementing their ideas for tower crane safety. This year’s entrants from Year 12 are also on course to do well.

QE has also reached the final for the first time in the prestigious Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition. Having knocked out Harrow School in the semi-final, we narrowly lost to St Paul’s School in the final. One of the team, Year 12 student, Gabriel Gendler, was also chosen to represent the UK at an international Mathematics competition in Romania, where the UK was placed third.

Also at an individual level, Madhi Elango’s success in reaching the Physics Olympiad training camp – a distinction achieved by only 16 candidates nationwide – is all the more impressive given that he is still in Year 12, whereas many other competitors are in the year above. Similarly, our former School Captain, Nigethan Sathiyalingam, has reached the last 16 in the Biology Olympiad. And Michael Zhao is the first-ever QE pupil to reach the final of the British Informatics Olympiad.

Competition is one important tool in motivating boys; inspiring them and broadening their horizons is another. This term we have been privileged to welcome a number of inspirational visitors to the School. They include Professor Chris Brink, Vice Chancellor of the University of Newcastle, our Guest of Honour at Senior Awards. He is not only a distinguished logician, but he also led the transformation of Stellenbosch University in South Africa from an institution closely associated with the former apartheid régime to an academically strong university that is playing a full part in the development of modern South African society. In a speech which resonated with our own ethos and aims, he told the boys: “It doesn’t matter where you come from; it is where you end up that matters.” As a young man, he grew up in a small town on the edge of the Kalahari desert and did not have the opportunity to travel or leave South Africa until he arrived in the UK at 24 to start his PhD at Cambridge. He also addressed the boys on the importance of overcoming not only disadvantage, but advantage too. “Those who overcome disadvantage make a better life for themselves, whereas those who overcome advantage make a better life for others,” he said. All at QE work to develop boys’ awareness that they achieve genuine fulfilment by seeking to make a contribution to society rather than pursuing only personal gain. In so doing, I believe the School satisfies Professor Brink’s final maxim: an institution should know not only what it is good at, but what it is good for.

Lord Sassoon, until very recently Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, gave Sixth-Formers an inside view of government when he spoke at our Year 12 formal luncheon. Baroness Coussins, who is part of the Peers in Schools programme, paid a welcome return visit. And Richard Peltier, of French education organisation Français Facile, gave our Year 10-13 pupils a useful day of immersion in the French language. Mathematics expert Matt Parker entertained all 180 boys in Year 10 with some ‘comedy’ maths, but with serious educational import. For our Sixth Form Extended Project Qualification science students, two post-doctoral researchers from Cancer Research UK covered the themes of DNA repair, while Professor Sarben Sarkar, of King’s College, London, (and the father of Year 7 boy, Robert Sarkar) spoke about astronomical black holes.

QE pupils have this year secured 29 offers to Oxford or Cambridge – our second-highest total ever, representing a good improvement on last year’s tally of 25. The recent trend for our boys to look towards a more internationally diverse set of university destinations continues: already Joseph Vinson has an offer to study at Yale in the USA, while Nigel Leung has been offered a conditional university place in Hong Kong. Given the introduction of tuition fees in the UK, I would similarly urge all our pupils at least to look at opportunities abroad – including any financial support that may be available – when they are considering their future academic path.

Our current major building project continues to progress well. I am pleased to announce that it will include an attractive new area to be known as Café 1573 – named after the year in which QE was established. (24th March was the 440th anniversary of the granting of the Charter by Queen Elizabeth I to found the School.) Set on a slightly lower level than the new Dining Hall and opening on to Red Square, Café 1573 will provide a coffee shop-style service for hot drinks and food, as well as a social area in which senior pupils can relax. It will also be used by the School for special occasions. The Dining Hall and Café 1573 are scheduled to open during the Autumn Term this year, with the Library on the floor above to follow.

I am working with senior colleagues, the Governing Body and the Trustees of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s on the further development of the School site. In the first place, we will be tackling an urgent maintenance issue: the leaking flat roof of the Fern Building. A planning application has been submitted to replace this with a new roof, which will include a curved roof on a large part of the building similar to that on the Martin Swimming Pool. We are also in the process of developing plans for improved accommodation elsewhere on the School site. These developments in our built environment are very much aligned with the outworking of the School’s strategic priorities for 2012-16.

I wish all our former pupils a pleasant Easter.

Neil Enright

As a successful diplomat Sir Leslie Fielding travelled the globe, yet it was QE that made him "blissfully happy".

Sir Leslie Fielding, KCMG, MA, Hon LLD, FRSA, FRGS (OE 1943-1951) graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a First in History; he studied Persian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Following his graduation in 1956, Sir Leslie was placed second in the open competition for the Foreign (now Diplomatic) Service. For his reference, he turned to his old QE headmaster, E H Jenkins, who wrote: “His character is sound, he has personality and polish, and he has an active mind in which seriousness and humour are combined. In short, he is, in my opinion, a really good candidate.” He also described his former pupil as “an able and public-spirited all rounder”.

When in his late fifties, he was offered the post of Master at Emmanuel and Warden at St Antony’s. Although he had been fairly content at both, he declined the offers "without much more than a second thought". He said: "It was QE, where I was blissfully happy, that made me, and opened up my careers."

Sir Leslie’s career as a diplomat has taken him to Tehran, Singapore, Cambodia, Paris, Brussels and Japan.

He joined the External Relations Directorate-General of the European Commission in Brussels in 1973 as the Director with special responsibility for Europe's relations with the US and the Commonwealth. He subsequently became EC Ambassador in Tokyo for five years, returning to Brussels as Director-General of External Relations from 1982 to 1987.  He was knighted in 1988.

After retiring from the diplomatic service he returned to England, where he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex from 1987 to 92. He was for some years a non-executive director of IBM (Europe) and a Special Adviser to Panasonic (Europe). He chaired the Geography Working Group for the National Curriculum in Schools and served for ten years as Honorary President of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies. He received his knighthood in 1988 and was elected an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1990.

He has been a Lay Reader in the Church of England for 30 years: in Exeter, Tokyo, Gibraltar, Chichester and Hereford dioceses, serving also on the General Synod. He was made a Reader Emeritus by the Lord Bishop of Hereford in 2007. After some initial scepticism he now very much approves of women priests.

In recent years he has been busy writing and publishing – mostly on international relations, but has also produced a novel and a screenplay. His work includes Mentioned in Despatches … is Diplomacy dead? which was launched in paperback at the Oxford Literary Festival in 2012.

More recently, he was invited to contribute to a volume of reminiscences by British civil servants and diplomats who were in the first wave to be sent to Brussels 40 years ago, in 1973, on UK accession to the then-European Community. In his article, he refers to the exhaustion of speaking French all day - “different facial exertions”- and attributes linguistic abilities to his education at QE.

Sir Leslie is married to the eminent mediaevalist Sally Harvey and they have two children, Emma and Leo.

Oliver Todd acknowledges his debt to the School as he looks to break into the competitive world of journalism.

Oliver (OE 2005-2010) has successfully combined his studies at the University of York with his commitment to journalism. In 2012 and 2013 Oliver was shortlisted for two individual student journalism awards and was on the winning team for a best publication award.

He was nominated for The Guardian’s award for best Student Journalist and for the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Student Journalist award – which effectively placed him in the top six in the country in both categories and credits the School with helping him to learn how to keep focused, particularly in the Sixth Form.

He received a Special Commendation from the NUS for his work and led his student newspaper, York Vision, to the runners-up spot in the Best Student Media category at the NUS Awards. He was also involved with the same publication the previous year when it was awarded Best Student Publication at the Guardian Student Media Awards.

Oliver has undertaken a wide range of work experience with national media organisations, including The Guardian, the Daily Mail, Sky News and Sky Sports and is aiming to pursue a career in the industry once he has undertaken more training.
 

Kwamina Korsah is inspiring the next generation through an élite teacher-training scheme targeting the socially disadvantaged.

He is taking part in Teach First, a programme run by a registered charity which aims to place the brightest graduates into some of the toughest and most socially deprived schools in the country.

Kwamina (OE 2000-2007) read History at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and then joined a brand consultancy on graduation, but after 18 months he took some time out to travel and re-evaluate. Needing a new challenge and finding the ethos of Teach First inspiring, he signed up to the programme.

Teach First begins with an intensive six-week course. Almost the whole of the two years of the programme are then spent teaching in placement schools – in Kwamina’s case, Hatch End High School, a mixed comprehensive in Harrow with 1,800 pupils, and the Mossbourne Community Academy in inner-city Hackney. Essays must be written and the theoretical side mastered during the holidays. During his placements, in addition to teaching his subject he is expected to deal with frequent pastoral issues.

Kwamina also spent a week of the programme at QE, gaining valuable experience of working with very able children. He values the transferable skills gained through participation in Teach First, such as organisation, presentation, communication and time-management.