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Boys from Years 7–10 relished the opportunities offered to them during Enrichment Week 2021, when all four year groups were given a day off from their normal lesson timetables.

From the cerebral and scientific challenge of cryptography to the literary, emotional and rhetorical attractions of Shakespeare, the week featured a very diverse range of activities designed to be both stimulating and fun.

For Year 10, the brief was to work in groups to design and construct ‘wearable architecture’, using 6mm paper tubes.

Assistant Head (Pupil Progress) Sarah Westcott said: “The boys were asked to give consideration to form and structure. Many of the groups demonstrated good team-working skills, with some of them even managing to include moving parts.”

Year 10 were also involved in drama workshops that included performances of a heavily abridged version of Romeo and Juliet.

Year 7 enjoyed the chance to apply a little lateral thinking in an RAF cyber security challenge.  This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) activity involved tackling a series of cryptography and coding tasks and helping a company retrieve its stolen data from cyber criminals. Working in teams of six, the boys competed against each other and against the clock, battling to be the first to unlock the stolen data.

The task helped inform them about ‘phishing’ and other techniques used by criminals to compromise their targets’ data.

Originally the day was to be led in person by RAF personnel, but because of Covid restrictions, the School managed it virtually, starting the day with a live stream through YouTube in which the boys were given an outline of their tasks and an overview of the importance of cyber security. Funded by the RAF, the event was run in collaboration with the Smallpeice Trust, an educational charity promoting careers in science and engineering to young people.

“We wanted to raise awareness of digital careers, whilst developing students’ problem-solving and research skills,” said Dr Westcott. “Students found it challenging to work to time and benefitted from the need to think creatively to solve problems whilst coordinating their team’s efforts.

“The event was intended to give an insight into the types of skills required for careers in cyber-forensics. The boys discovered that it isn’t all about coding – you must be a collaborative member of a team and keep a cool head under time pressure, too.”

In addition, Year 7 flexed their vocal cords in a singing workshop, while Years 8 and 9 took to the countryside on their respective sponsored walks.

QE pupil Adithya Raghuraman has been declared the national joint winner of a prestigious Shakespeare performance competition – after live-streaming his entry from his bedroom.

Adithya impressed judges with his animated rendering of Brutus’s speech from the play, Julius Caesar, in which the orator and conspirator seeks to justify the assassination of the eponymous Roman dictator to the populace with the famous lines “…not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”.

Adithya made his inspired performance in the Grand Final of the English-Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare competition despite his plans being thrown into disarray when he, along with a number of his peers in Year 8, was sent home to self-isolate following a classmate’s positive lateral flow test.

Head of English Robert Hyland said: “His joint-victory is fully deserved, and a credit to all the hard work he has put in. Adithya is in my English class, so when I saw his preliminary performance, I knew we were looking at something good; in the preliminary round in December, he was the only student to score full marks – and that in a top-set English class. However, I don’t think we recognised then how good his performance was!

“In the Grand Final, in the face of considerable adversity, he showed maturity well beyond his years by delivering with real aplomb a demanding speech that combines high emotion with a strong appeal to reason. Performing in his room with no other audience than the computer in front of him, Adithya still made it feel like he was addressing the masses.”

In November 2020, all 192 Year 8 pupils at QE were asked to learn a Shakespeare speech by heart to perform in the classroom. They could choose any speech from all of Shakespeare’s 37 works. Speeches from Othello were popular choices – as a play pupils were studying at the time – and many of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues and soliloquies were performed, including Jaques’ “All the world’s a stage” from As You Like It, Macbeth‘s “Is this is a dagger that I see before me?”, and Hamlet‘s “To be or not to be”.

Teachers judged them according to the ESU competition’s criteria. “Even at the preliminary stage, the standard of competition was very high,” said Mr Hyland. “Remembering 25-30 lines of Shakespeare is in itself a powerful test of memory, but the idea of having to interpret it for the purpose of performance, and have the confidence to deliver it in front of your peers, is especially challenging. It is to the credit of the whole year group that they were able to rise to the challenge so successfully. This preparation was done without direction from teachers, or classroom rehearsal time, and the boys had full autonomy over their choices.”

The 12 best performers in the year were asked to record themselves delivering their speeches, and the top three videos were subsequently sent to the ESU for judging. “We were delighted that Ash Iyer received a judges’ commendation, and that Adithya was announced as a finalist – one of only two in London, and one of 22 from Years 7-9 in schools across the UK.”

The victory in the final was “reflective of Adithya’s wider ability in English, not only as a young man who has an extraordinary ability to infer meaning from challenging texts, but one who is able to communicate it through an almost flawless artistic expression,” said Mr Hyland. “He is a model for other students, both in his own year group, and in future year groups, of the standard that is possible.”

Adithya began his four-minute video submission by speaking of his enthusiasm for the “thrilling nature” of the play. He explained why he chose Brutus’s speech, rather than the still-more-famous monologue (“overvalued in my opinion”) of Mark Antony, which begins “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” and which follows immediately afterwards in the script.

Adithya said: “Brutus, who is one of Caesar’s dearest friends, is partly attempting to repair his reputation with the public and, I must say, he delivers such a thoroughly convincing speech that he has partly persuaded me to take his side of the argument.”

Immediately after his performance of the speech, from Act 3, Scene 2, the Grand Final’s online Master of Ceremonies, Jenny Stone, said: “I am convinced by that eloquent introduction: I shall be joining ‘Team Brutus’ from now on….good, good choice!”

He impressed a panel of judges comprising both actors and Shakespeare experts, which was chaired by Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall, former executive director of the Royal National Theatre, board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. Adithya received personalised feedback from one of them, Peter Kyle OBE (former CEO of Shakespeare’s Globe, and currently chair of Shakespeare’s Birth Trust). He was “very impressed by [Adithya’s] introduction, setting out the speech in the context of the play”. Adithya made clear what he was trying to achieve and – then went on to achieve – said Mr Kyle. And he was “very convincing in role”, particularly for his “physical focus and direction of intent”.

Reflecting later on his triumph, Adithya paid tribute to Mr Hyland for his support throughout and said: “I had not expected to even get a ‘highly commended’, so this was too good to be true. I was overwhelmed, and it took me a few hours to let it sink in.

“From the competition I benefitted in many ways; I came out a more confident speaker with new ideas under my belt and also with more knowledge of the greatest playwright of all time.”

He hopes to participate in drama at the School in the future and in further external events: “I would love to take part in more of these competitions, maybe in a group next time, as they are a lot of fun.”

Founded in 1918, the English-Speaking Union seeks to promote better communication between people of different cultures and countries.

Brutus’s speech

Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus’ love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him. As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it. As he was valiant, I honour him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honour for his valour, and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak—for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak—for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak—for him have I offended. I pause for a reply…

Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol. His glory not extenuated wherein he was worthy, nor his offenses enforced for which he suffered death.

[Enter Mark Antony with Caesar’s body]

Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying—a place in the commonwealth—as which of you shall not? With this I depart: that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to need my death.

When the Spring Term lockdown forced a sudden end to rehearsals for the School play, QE’s young actors harnessed technology so that they could still perform to an audience.

With the help of QE’s resident Theatre Director, Gavin Molloy, members of the Year 8 drama club learned, staged and filmed dramatic monologues from home .

And, after weeks of preparation and practice, at the end of term, their highly varied work was revealed to classmates, staff and parents alike as the monologues went live.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) said: “The speeches were taken from a range of classic and modern texts by authors ranging from Charles Dickens to Michael Morpurgo. The boys went to great lengths creating costumes, props and backdrops in their own homes.”

The recorded Zoom videos were put together in an online showcase, which was watched in School by boys during form time and has now been published for parents on the School’s eQE online platform.

Fifteen boys took part in the showcase, which was split into two halves for the presentation on eQE.

Their selections drew on some of the best-known authors and stories from the history of English literature. Ash Iyer performed from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None; Soham Kale read from An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley; Simi Bloom picked one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Adi Dhan chose Dickens’ Great Expectations.

But more modern authors were certainly not forgotten: Aadam Aslan’s monologue was taken from Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful. Keon Robert performed from The Class, by playwright and Game of Thrones actor Luke Barnes, while Karan Somani performed an excerpt from Roy Williams’ play about boxing and racism, Sucker Punch.

One boy, William Joanes, read from the play that was postponed, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon’s novel of the same name.

With lockdown over, full-scale rehearsals to put on this award-winning play resumed towards the end of term. It will be staged in June as the 2021 School Play.

With theatres across the land closed because of Covid-19, QE boys revelled in a rare chance to see live drama as part of this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival.

Year 9 Drama Club members performed an abridged version of Hamlet – and thanks to QE’s year group bubble system, their entire year were able to watch the performance in the Main School Hall.

Afterwards, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), Crispin Bonham-Carter, praised the cast for putting on such an engaging production: “They told the story clearly, and it was genuinely moving. Something we will all treasure.”

The boys have spent weeks preparing for the Shakespeare School Festival (SSF). Their work included a special workshop before half-term led by Brian Mullin, an Artistic Associate with the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation (the organisation which runs the festival) and Gavin Molloy, of RM Drama (the company which provides drama direction for the School).

In normal years, QE boys join other schools to give their abridged performances at a special SSF evening at the Arts Depot in Finchley.

This year, it had originally been planned to live-stream performances, but in the end it was decided simply to have the boys perform live at the School, with Mr Bonham-Carter filming them.

Before the performance, Mr Bonham-Carter circulated a PowerPoint presentation to help tutors explore with their groups the famous revenge tragedy set in Denmark, which in its full form is Shakespeare’s longest play. He outlined the complex plot, which revolves around Prince Hamlet and his fluctuating desire for revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother.

Mr Bonham-Carter urged the boys to consider questions exploring the key themes of the play, including grief, madness and vengeance, and the complex, multi-faceted characters.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most quoted plays, with famous quotations including:

• Neither a borrower nor a lender be
• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
• There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
  Than are dreamt of in our philosophy
• Brevity is the soul of wit
• Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t
• To be or not to be, that is the question
• The lady protests too much, methinks
• Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest
• Goodnight, sweet prince,
  And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

On the day of the performance, which replaced a Year 9 English lesson, Mr Bonham-Carter introduced the occasion, saying that Hamlet is a “play for us all”.

He pointed out that, with theatres nationwide currently lying empty, the audience was very lucky to be able to see actors take to the stage live.

Mr Molloy, who directed Hamlet, said the play had received a great reception from the boys. The audience clearly enjoyed the bloody final fight scene, in which the young Danish Lord, Laertes, kills Hamlet in revenge for the deaths of his father and sister, only then to die himself, having been wounded with the same poisoned sword.

The actors were given a hearty round of applause by their classmates at the end.

“I am so proud of the boys, taking on this epic story and really making it their own,” said Mr Molloy.

Pandemic or no pandemic, the show goes on at QE, with a special Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) workshop held to help Year 9 boys prepare for next month’s performance of Hamlet.

Rehearsals for the play, which opens with the ghost of the King of Denmark instructing his son, Hamlet, to avenge his murder, are now in full swing at the School. During the workshop, boys rehearsed the fight in the bloody final scene during which the young Danish Lord, Laertes, kills Hamlet in revenge for the deaths of his father and sister, only then to die himself, having been wounded with the same poisoned sword.

To maintain the safety of QE’s year-group bubbles, all the actors for this year’s SSF production come from Year 9, while the festival itself will also be different, with every participating school’s performance live-streamed instead of being performed in front of a theatre audience.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, QE’s Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), who is himself a former professional actor, praised the work being done in Year 9 to stage “Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy”, while adding that weekly drama sessions are taking place in Year 7 “developing the key skills of collaboration, timing, story-telling and – most importantly – having a great deal of fun!

“It’ll take more than a national pandemic to stop QE boys’ enthusiasm for drama,” he said.

Leading the workshop were Gavin Molloy, of RM Drama (the company which provides drama direction for the School), and Brian Mullin, an Artistic Associate with the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation (the organisation which runs the festival).

Mr Molloy said: “I am lucky to have such a keen cast from Year 9, with a mature and ‘can-do’ way of working. They perform well together, working as an ensemble. I am very excited with what is to come.

“It’s a little different this year, as obviously we are working with some limitations: our version of Hamlet will not be performed in front of a live audience, but rather on a live video feed to the Shakespeare Schools Festival on the evening of November 20th.”

But, he said, progress to date has been strong, with all boys involved already having gained an understanding of the plot of Hamlet. Asked what the themes of the play were, the Year 9 boys instantly responded: “Revenge!”, “Murder!”, “Madness!” “Power!”

“I added to the list by saying it’s also a play about grief. A son who loses his father, and how devastating that is for him. I also tell them it’s what The Lion King is based on!” said Mr Molloy.

“We have a totally blank canvas and are working collaboratively with thoughts, ideas and production decisions. We share ideas, talk about productions we may have seen and also discuss how we will need to make a lot of character choices as we have only 30 minutes to re-tell probably the most famous story in literature, as we are working with a heavily cut-down script for the festival.

“The boys have also been having some fun learning of the double meanings of some of Shakespeare’s dialogue. I am very excited with what is to come. The play’s the thing!”

The final photo (right) shows a recent bonding exercise in the Year 7 Drama Club.

Members of the cast for QE’s forthcoming 2020 School Play enjoyed the opportunity to see a critically acclaimed London production and to meet both an actor and a stage director.

Year 8’s Girish Adapa won the group’s trip to the sold-out production of Albion at the Almeida Theatre in Islington as the prize in a Christmas quiz in The Day, an online daily newspaper for teenagers.

Albion, by Mike Bartlett, is a play is about nostalgia and national identity. It has widely been seen as a Brexit allegory.

The actor who met the QE group after the performance was Helen Schlesinger, known for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Albion, she plays a novelist who is the friend of the chief protagonist of the play, giving a performance described by the Telegraph’s theatre critic, Dominic Cavendish, as “brilliantly wafting”.

The boys asked her questions about: acting techniques; the career progression of an actor; managing rejection and stress; the relative merits of stage and screen work; working with directors and other actors. and getting into character.

The trip was organised by Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter and Gavin Molloy, from QE’s external drama partners, RM Drama.

The boys, many of whom will be involved in this year’s School production of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on 25th and 26th March, were also given the opportunity to meet Almeida’s Stage Manager, Linsey Hall, who answered their technical questions on how long it took to build the set, the practicalities of using real plants on the stage, and how they drained water from the grass.

Head of English Robert Hyland, who accompanied the QE pupils, along with Head of Library Services Surya Bowyer, said: “The boys thoroughly enjoyed the trip – it was a valuable experience to see a professional play of this calibre. I found the production intensely powerful: it’s a play which resonates with the ‘now’ of British society in a rich, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving way.

“I know that many of our boys were taken aback by the force of the performance, and the complexity of the message behind it,” added Mr Hyland. “It’s a really rare opportunity for them to be able to see a play with such high production values, and even rarer to be able to meet members of the cast and production team after the show. The questions asked by students were probing and reflective, both from the perspective of performance and stagecraft, and from the perspective of meaning and metaphor.”

Girish, whose quizzing skills led directly to the outing, agreed with Mr Hyland’s assessment, saying the play was “very moving”.