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Boys are being encouraged to commit to a series of home enrichment New Year’s resolutions over the next six weeks.

With a wealth of suggestions on eQE to choose from, pupils can make the most of their lockdown by filling in the dedicated form with at least four ideas in each of the following categories: ‘expand my creativity’; ‘maintain my physical and mental health’; ‘exercise my mind’ and ‘take responsibility for those around me’.

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter reports that staff have worked hard to establish online activities for pupils on the eQE home enrichment page, while also creating links to a vast range of other extra-curricular opportunities and ideas. All subject areas on eQE have enrichment pages where boys can access activities such as competitions. In addition, the departments are working to establish remote learning clubs, such as the Sports Journalism Society run by English. Among activities that are lined up for the coming period, or are under way, or have already taken place are:

• A live, open School chess competition run by teacher in charge of chess, Geoff Roberts;
• An online piece of theatre involving the Year 8 cast from the postponed School production and directed by RM Drama’s Gavin Molloy. More details to follow!
• Live Thursday concerts run by the Music department;
• Live English Speaking Union debates against other schools run online by Academic Enrichment Tutor Tom Foster;
• VEX robotics competitions;
• A TedX Live event in July, for which QE has been granted a licence. Sixty boys have already applied to speak. (TEDx is a grassroots initiative modelled on the mission of the free, online TED to circulate ‘ideas worth spreading’).

As teachers and families grapple with the challenges of a second lockdown, the importance of pastoral care for all QE boys remains undiminished, reports Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan.

“Our aim is to look after the boys and provide the same level of pastoral care that we would were they to be physically on the School site. The focus is very much on ‘here today, looking at tomorrow’ – thinking positively about strategies to deal with the situation at hand, but also looking at the world beyond Covid (as we must!), ensuring that all the boys keep their sights fixed on their future and on learning about the world around them.”

The pastoral sessions held each week amount to more than three hours of contact time with tutors. These allow a range of issues to be discussed, as well as providing the boys with an opportunity to work in a slightly less formal way with their form-mates and have the human contact that is so important at this time, says Mr Ryan.

The sessions set out below make up the three hours:

• Every day, pupils have morning session with form tutors via Microsoft Teams. The tutors thus help to ease boys into their routine, dealing with any issues that arise (such as their wellbeing, or IT problems) and generally getting the day off to a positive start;
• Afternoon sessions are really important, too, adds Mr Ryan. Personal Development Time (PDT) occurs weekly and involves students addressing a range of issues in this half-term;
• Weekly discussion sessions have been taking place. “With all that has been happening in America, there have been lots of live issues to consider, alongside other interesting, and sometimes controversial, topics, such as vaccination priorities or the effects of leaving the EU.”;
• Bespoke tutorials have been taking place since the start of term, allowing tutors to meet boys in smaller groups and to give pupils personalised advice, as well as enabling discussions about ways in which the boys can support each other;
• Peer mentoring has continued as normal, with pupils meeting online, and feedback being forwarded to Heads of Year and form tutors.

If parents have any concerns that they would like to discuss with their son’s form tutor or Head of Year, they should contact enquiries@qebarnet.co.uk.

Mr Ryan highlighted some of the pastoral activities that have been taking place across the year groups. For Year 7, in recognition of boys’ increased time spent online during lockdown, a remote PDT session on eSafety was brought forward in the programme. Keeping boys safe and healthy has also been to the fore in Year 8, where form tutors have been asked to encourage pupils to engage in extra-curricular activities away from their screens in order to help with their mental health. Many boys have responded, taking part in activities such as exercise, meditation, reading and cooking.

The momentous events taking place across the Atlantic have not gone unnoticed. Year 8 had a PDT lesson on Getting the scoop, teaching pupils how to analyse their online sources of global news, with a focus on the US election. PDT lessons in Year 10 are taking place on democracy, media and the law, and the boys are also enjoying taking part in discussion sessions on topical events such as President Biden’s inauguration and on the interplay between politicians and the media. “There have been some good discussions on whether Twitter was right to ban Trump from using their platform,” says Mr Ryan.

On Mondays, Year 9 boys are discussing their GCSE options and looking at what particular skills are suited to which subject and future careers. This activity is closely linked to the newly introduced Collaborative careers task that the boys are completing. This task is focused on building a variety of skills – teamwork skills, in particular – and requires the boys to devise a way of working together in teams of eight outside lesson time. “It is a unique challenge that has been made possible due to the remote nature of our learning now,” adds Mr Ryan.

The Sixth Form also has its sights set on life after QE: Year 12 had three sessions of remote vertical tutoring from their counterparts in Year 13 to provide them with further support. This has involved using eQE’s forums function, with the Year 12s asking questions about university, and Year 13s who applied for the same degree subjects responding.

In another example of how the School’s investment in IT to facilitate independent learning has paid off, form tutors have reported how they much they have appreciated being able to use the ‘breakout’ function of MS Teams to split the boys into small groups, both to facilitate discussions of particular points by the boys and so that they can more easily catch up with members of the form. “Boys and tutors enjoy interacting with each other in these smaller groups, as they provide an opportunity to see, and speak to, each other more easily,” says Mr Ryan.

Head of Year 7 Tom Harrison pre-recorded one remote assembly, in which he advised Year 7 boys on ways to remain healthy and organised in the current situation, while in Chemistry teacher Tom Batchelor’s Year 7 Leicester form, the form captain and deputy have been creating PowerPoint presentations which they have used to lead weekly quizzes and give news summaries via MS Teams.

In line with previous Government requirements, QE had expected to launch a mass Covid-19 testing programme in School in the first weeks of term. This has now been postponed because of the lockdown. However, it is still expected that such testing will form part of the measures to enable a safe return to School, whenever national policy makes this possible.

Planning for testing is, therefore, continuing. The aim is to ensure a smooth return to on-site classes, with as little disruption as possible academically, with full pastoral support for all boys, and with minimal risk to public health.

Participation in the programme to be held at QE is not compulsory – participating boys or their parents can opt out at any point.

The School is, however, encouraging everyone to join the programme, since it will remove anyone who has the virus but is asymptomatic from circulation, while reducing the numbers who need to stay at home where they have been close to a person with a positive test result.

This testing programme at QE will be for those with no symptoms. If anyone develops symptoms at any time (such as a high temperature; a new, continuous cough; or a loss or change to their sense of smell or taste), he must immediately self-isolate, and book a test by calling 119 or visiting https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.

The QE mass testing programme will involve:

• Two lateral flow tests, which will be conducted near the point of return to School to identify asymptomatic cases.

Initial planning was also conducted on the basis of offering daily testing – for seven school days – for those identified as a close contact of a confirmed case. This would mean that, provided these boys do not test positive themselves, they would not have to self-isolate at home, unless they would prefer to do so. This part of the government’s testing plans is currently paused, as further evidence on the impact of this form of testing is gathered. Our consent form still takes account of this daily close contact testing so that we are ready should public health advice be that it is resumed.

The lateral flow tests are quick and relatively easy, involving a simple swab of the throat and nose. The swab will be self-administered, but with advice and guidance from a trained test assistant. The specimen is added to a solution in a tube and this is then applied to a test strip by a test processor. The lateral flow device then clearly displays the result in the form of horizontal bars on the test kit (similar to a pregnancy test).  The result is available in half an hour from testing.

Testing will in all cases be by appointment. Tests will be supervised by trained staff.

The test will be logged with the NHS at the point of registration. Registration is most easily done via a smartphone – as details, including a unique barcode provided upon arrival for each test, need to be entered online. For the purposes of testing, the School would therefore allow pupils to bring smartphones (including camera phones) with them. The results will be shared directly with those participating via notification from the NHS to the contact details entered in the registration process.

The School will only contact families in addition to the notification from the NHS if:

• The test subject has tested positive, or
• His test is void (whereby another appointment needs to be arranged), or
• He is identified as a close contact of a positive case.

Please click below to fill in the testing consent forms. These include an option to decline consent. Consent can be withheld by a pupil at any time – no one would be forced to take a test against their will. Without a valid consent form, tests cannot, however, be administered.

For pupils under 16, parents should complete the form and should discuss testing with their sons. Pupils aged 16 or over should complete the form themselves.

The School will require a response for all pupils.

Consent forms

Pupils aged under 16 (to be completed by parents)

Pupils aged 16 or over (to be completed by pupils)

With remote learning currently in place for all boys from Year 7 to Year 13, QE staff are drawing on the extensive experience gained from last year’s first lockdown, while taking full advantage of technological advancements now available to them.

Deputy Head (Academic), Anne Macdonald, says that the focus in refining online and other forms of remote learning is on keeping pupils’ experience aligned with the School’s customary strengths: “It is important that we continue to develop the boys’ independent learning skills, building confidence and resilience, and honing their organisational skills.”

Overall, a “blended approach” is being followed, combining both “guided independent learning”, through the eQE platform, and “interactive lessons”, given through Microsoft Teams. “The variety helps pupils to remain engaged with remote learning,” says Mrs Macdonald, who sets out below the specific features being used and their attendant advantages.

Among the eQE features proving particularly useful in lockdown are:

• Tasks and the subject pages in Academic Departments, which are used for sharing learning resources, such as PowerPoints, worksheets and weblinks, and for setting activities to support guided independent learning;
• The add comment feature for eQE tasks or eQE Forums, through which boys can ask questions and receive answers from their teachers and peers. Pupils can also share work and ideas on the Forum pages;
• eQE Class Tests: these are secure pages that can be set with timers and are thus useful for assessing boys’ learning during tests. These are being used for Year 11 mock examinations this week, for example.

Microsoft Teams is being used in two principal ways, as Mrs Macdonald explains. Either all boys and their teacher ‘join’ their MS Teams lesson at the start of the class, when they receive instructions about the learning objectives and learning activities to be undertaken. This is followed by a time of guided independent learning through eQE. It finishes with everybody ‘re-joining’ the MS Teams lesson so that the boys can review their learning and have an opportunity for their questions to be answered. Or full lessons are taught entirely through MS Teams.

The use of MS Teams:

• Provides an opportunity for accommodating different learning styles, with verbal as well as written instructions possible;
• Allows boys to receive answers to their questions, and teachers to assess learning;
• Enables interaction through class discussion and the development of speaking and listening skills;
• Gives a chance to demonstrate practical work and to hear performance work;
• Facilitates pair work or group work through using breakout ‘rooms’.

The screenshot image, top, is taken from Mrs Macdonald’s Year 12 Physical Geography class on Friday, which covered the topic of Tectonic Processes and Hazards. Mrs Macdonald used MS Teams’ Whiteboard feature to explain ‘slab pull’ as a process of tectonic plate movement.

We appreciate that, for various reasons, some families will need to drive their sons to and from School. We are keen to keep our boys and other pedestrians safe, and to be good neighbours, too. All drivers are, therefore, strongly requested to read the following important traffic and travel dos & don’ts.

Please do:

• Park only where it is safe and legal to do so. Do not park on double-yellow lines, over local residents’ drives, in resident permit bays or those reserved for those with disabilities. Ensure that your vehicle is not causing an obstruction or reducing visibility at a junction.
• Consider parking further away from the School, where it is less congested, and message your son so he knows where to walk and meet you.
• Be aware of your speed. The roads and pavements can get very busy at peak times, with many people looking to cross the road. Care is required to reduce the chance of an accident occurring.
• Ensure that all local residents are treated with the respect and courtesy they deserve, appreciating the challenges that those driving to and from the School can present for them.

Please do not:

• Leave engines idling when parked for any length of time. This generates pollution and negatively impacts air quality surrounding the School.
• Stop on the yellow zig-zag markings outside the main gate, or attempt to use the gate to turn your vehicle around.
• Use the end of Queens Road as a turning circle – this is dangerous for other drivers and pedestrians.

We know that most within the Elizabethan community already abide fully with these requests and serve as great and valued ambassadors for the School within both the immediate area and in the wider community. However, it is incumbent upon everyone to minimise the risks to others associated with travel to and from School and to act considerately to each other, our neighbours and members of the public at large.

Please note that the local Controlled parking Zone (CPZ) has been expanded to include Elizabeth Close and Regina Close. These roads are now for those with residents’ permits only.

Well done to the Junior School for throwing themselves into our Virtual Enrichment Week. I hope that this has been a welcome hands-on break from the year’s academic tasks.

As we now enter the holidays, I want to remind you all that the home enrichment pages on eQE provide you with a wealth of ideas, activities and suggestions.

Remember – only the boring allow themselves to be bored. In addition to the many possible activities listed, The Queen’s Library has created a special project to record this unique period:

LOCKDOWN LIVING PROJECT

At one point earlier this year, 20% of Earth’s population – that’s one in every five people across the whole world – was under lockdown. These feel like unprecedented times. However, there are some parallels to times gone by:

• While in lockdown during the Great Plague of 1665-6, Isaac Newton conducted his famous prism experiment
• After being sent home from university because of an outbreak of bubonic plague, John Milton write his first elegy
• And Lord Byron wrote his now famous poem Farewell to Malta while in quarantine.

But for many of us, lockdown has also been a time of great difficulty. We are inviting students and staff at Queen Elizabeth’s School to share their experiences of living with lockdown. We are asking for:

1. One sentence on something you have learned during lockdown.
2. One sentence on something you have missed during lockdown.
3. One image (photograph, drawing etc.) that illustrates your experience of lockdown. The image can be literal or abstract.

You can submit all three  of the above, or only one or two. It’s up to you.

We want to make sure that this project reflects the many varied experiences of those in our School community. We want you to tell your personal story in your own voice. So think laterally, and get creative! How can you tailor the above prompts to fit your own life under lockdown?

To enter, just fill in this simple Lockdown Living Project form and click submit.

Whatever you get up to, I wish you all a healthy, fun and productive holiday and I look forward to seeing you in September.

Mr Bonham-Carter