Queenswood School 2024

YEAR 7JOINERS 2023

Last June, we were thrilled to welcome our 2023 UK Year 7 Joiners to Queenswood for an energetic induction morning. Looking fantastic in their purple Queenswood Joiners’ hoodies, our youngest cohort threw themselves into a morning of team building activities led by the Problem Solving Company who specialise in educational team building events for young people.

After the activities, the girls were taken on an orientation tour of the campus and then enjoyed a delicious lunch in the Dining Room whilst their families got to know each other.

The morning closed with talks from the Senior Deputy Head, Mr Sheldon, Mr Williams (Queenswood’s Bursar) and Willow Hayes, Head Girl for the 2023/2024 academic year.

Whilst our international Year 7 Joiners were unable to attend the morning, we were delighted to welcome them into the group when they arrived in September. It was wonderful to see our newest UK and international students together as they embarked upon their Queenswood careers as the Year 7 of 2023.

Queenswoodian 2023-24

Welcome to what has turned out to be the biggest ever edition of the Queenswoodian magazine. What makes this such a jam-packed issue?

For a start, there have been a plethora of international trips this year – to New York, Sorrento, Seville, Ypres, Paris and many other locations. Look out for the special Queenswoodian travel stamps throughout the magazine, and see if you can work out how far Queenswood pupils have collectively travelled in the last twelve months!

We have reports on all manner of academic activities –journalism seminars at the BFI, biodiversity research in rural Surrey, a Model United Nations conference, celebrations for the Mexican Day of the Dead, investigations into coastal erosion in North Yorkshire, and much, much more. We have more pages than ever showcasing the stunning work produced by our artists and designers. All the major music concerts and drama and dance productions are featured, and we have included QR codes where possible to allow you to relive the performances. There’s a comprehensive round-up of the many sporting triumphs achieved by teams and individuals at Regional, National and International level.

We also demonstrate our values of kindness, honesty, accountability and integrity as we focus on the many charitable and community-based projects that our students and staff have been involved in this year – from mentoring in a local primary school to donating Christmas gifts for deprived children around the world. And there are also features on our new and refurbished facilities, including the stylishly renovated ABC classrooms and science laboratories and the tranquil Wellbeing Centre.

As well as all this, there are thoughtful poems and short stories to be devoured, fiendish maths puzzles to be tackled, delicious recipes to savour – and even profiles of the many fourlegged friends that share our campus.

So put your feet up and enjoy this bumper review of another very happy, very successful year at Queenswood.

Nick Kelley and Vanessa Leigh, Editors

4 10 22 25 58 68 98 112 104 118 122 108 62 70 76 64 38 46

Queenswood School Shepherd’s Way, Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL9 6NS 01707 602500 • go@queenswood.org • www.queenswood.org @QueenswoodSch queenswoodschool queenswood-school @QueenswoodSch

Examination Results 2023

Pupils, parents and teachers at Queenswood School celebrated a richly deserved set of A-Level results in August 2023. Year 13 students were rightfully rewarded for their dedication and hard work.

They were able to progress to exciting undergraduate courses at some of the leading institutions in the UK and USA. These include: Geography at Cambridge; Computer Science at St Andrews; Medical Bioscience at Imperial College London; Veterinary Science at Aberystwyth; Classics at King’s College London; Music Production at Berklee (Boston, Massachusetts); Criminology at Liverpool; Spanish and Management at University College London; Journalism at Leicester; Fine Art at Goldsmiths; and Illustration at the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Almost a third of grades were A*-A, with a fifth of students achieving at least three A*-A grades. 100% of grades achieved in Dance, Design and Technology, Geography, Media Studies and Spanish were A*-B.

Commenting on the results, Principal Jo Cameron remarked: ‘Our students and staff have worked extremely hard to achieve these results, which are all the more impressive given the significant disruption they faced during the first year of A-Level study. I would like to wish the class of 2023 every success as they embark on the next exciting stage of their careers.’

Year 13 student Izzie Engestrom was delighted with her four A*s. ‘I am thrilled to have had my place confirmed at Cambridge. As this was my first set of formal exams and the grade boundaries have been tightened this year it was a relief to see the results this morning. I would like to thank the Geography Department who went above and beyond to support me throughout the application, interview and exam process.’

At GCSE, despite the tightening of grade boundaries this year, 71.1% of grades were 9-6, with 50.3% at grade 7 or above.

There were some tremendous individual success stories, with over half of students achieving at least nine grades 9-6 and several receiving five or more grade 9s – an outstanding accomplishment. Subjects with the highest number of grades 9-7 include Physics, French, Geography, Latin, Chemistry, Design and Technology and Art.

Mrs Cameron was thrilled: ‘I congratulate our students on their individual achievements. They worked hard and have received the results they deserve. Once again we see the benefit of our holistic education reflected in strong results across the board. I would like to thank the teachers for their dedicated support and encouragement of the pupils.’

Head Girl’s Reflections

It’s difficult to reflect on everything I have learnt over my time at Queenswood. I couldn’t have been luckier to be part of this special community through some of the most important years of my life. All the exciting experiences over the years have shaped me into the person I am today, from playing hockey in Barcelona, to sledging down Trew Lawn and creating Mamma Mia-themed dinners. But most of all I have appreciated my duty as Head Girl, where I have been able to have my own chance at responsibility. Looking back on this journey, while every Monday seemed like it went on for days, the last seven years have gone by so fast.

Now, although we might all be unsure of what lies ahead, I know I can tackle it with the courage and resilience I’ve acquired at Q. Change can often feel daunting but I have come to realise that it should not just be fear of failure stopping you, but what might happen if you don’t try at all. Making the most of all the opportunities thrown at you is so important.

I would like to say a few thank-yous to some very important people who have made Q so memorable.

To my amazing friends, whom I have formed lifelong bonds with: I couldn’t have survived this year without your help, humour and smiles. I will miss our study periods that were certainly always filled with study, our weekly South Mimms trips and the cold cloister mornings before Chapel. It will be strange

not seeing your faces every morning, five days a week, however I am eager to see where life takes us next.

To my brilliant teachers, who have put up with my endless questions and off topic chats: I have been so fortunate to have such a compassionate and diligent group of teachers who have guided me through the last seven years. While I might still be lacking in musical ability, they have really helped me develop skills that reach far further than just the classroom. I couldn’t have been more inspired to follow my ambitions.

And finally to Mrs Cameron, who has guided me through this year with warmth and expertise: I have learnt so much from this incredible role and I can only thank her for giving me this opportunity.

School makes up those formative years where you can truly begin to work out who you are as an individual, so while I’m still learning what I enjoy, what I strive to do, Queenswood has given me the confidence to explore this wholeheartedly and develop into a person I am proud of. I am certainly still on this journey to discovering who I am – who knows if you ever totally get there? –but I hope I am well on my way.

And when I look back at my school years, years filled with fun, friendship and support, I’ll always be proud to have been a Queenswood girl.

Willow Hayes, Head Girl 2023-24

Two of Queenswood’s creative writing students took part in a national poetry competition called ‘Lest We Forget’, which invited 4-18 year-olds to write a poem in any style on the theme of ‘war and peace’ to mark Remembrance Day.

Hope Dies

Hope dies at the end. Where conflicts from a man

Spread to a much bigger span

Hope dies. Hope dies at the end. Where children await

For what is now the army’s bait

Hope dies. Hope dies at the end. Our own countless tragedies Are just their abnormalities. Hope dies. Hope dies at the end. But when we are done And all is now won

Hope dies. Hope dies at the end. So now I look across a sea of blood. It comes down. Down as a flood. Hope dies. Hope dies at the end. Though, when all hearts rise

And all but blood stained lies, Hope begins anew. And peace is out to lend.

Mia

Rosenberg, Year 9

Loveless

We waited anxiously by the door. Breath baited, hearts hitched in our tiny throats.

A single, white envelope dropped through the door.

The world went quiet, no one dared to move.

My mother pushed everyone aside, busily sweeping up the cream coloured, crinkled letter, with a blood red stamp slapped on top.

As if the finery and fanciness would be able to make up for the contents.

We heard our mother’s scream, but no one rushed to comfort her. No one was able to move.

The breath escaped our lungs by our barely beating hearts, as we fell on top of one another in a flood of fear and pain.

Issy Naylor, Year 10

Two Villanelles

Auburn hair and floral fields.

Inked quill, crackling fire, With my pen our love will be revealed.

The weaponry I wield, I polish for you, shining like an angel’s choir, Auburn hair and floral fields.

Far from your trusted bield,* My inked sword regains a desire. With my pen our love will be revealed. Dragging my stained shield, The din of my armour, ringing out to enquire, Auburn hair and floral fields.

Crimson pool, already congealed, I can feel you, my heart as my scryer, With my pen our love will be revealed.

In my concluding moments my affections will not be concealed Rid me of wealth, rid me of voice, closing as a martyr, upon this pyre.

Auburn hair and floral fields, With my pen our love will be revealed.

*chiefly Scottish: shelter, protection

Alone in the reflection, but I felt you, I’m sure. The fragrant smell of pine, Our time not forgotten and still so pure.

Your letters I kept secure, In solitude against your words, I resign, Alone in the reflection, but I felt you, I’m sure.

My love will not expire; my heart can assure, Seek it, you will find its memory divine, Our time not forgotten and still so pure.

This longing, this yearning, oh, bring me a cure, Upon my messenger, this mission I assign, Alone in the reflection, but I felt you, I’m sure.

This distance between us, as if I am kept mure,** Hoping to seek solace in a stronger wine, Our time not forgotten and still so pure.

A final note, the ink is weary and your message obscure, I fear you may be lost, but my love forever held for thine, Alone in the reflection, but I felt you, I’m sure, Our time never forgotten and still so pure.

Freia Trinder, Year 13

** imprisoned or shut up in an enclosed space

Why do young children focus so much on growing up?

When I was ve years old, sixteen seemed aeons away. I used to imagine all the cool things I would do when I was older. To me, sixteen was a fantasy.

As a child, people constantly tell you ‘you’re too young for that’. I was told I was too young for two piece bathing suits and high heels and painted nails when I was ve. And as a kid, that’s all I wanted. To grow up and get to do all the things I was ‘too young’ to do. Get my ears pierced, dye my hair, wear clothes that my mother didn’t pick out for me, that was freedom. e high schoolers used to cut across the playground to get to class after lunch. When I was in second grade, I would spy on them walking by and analyse them: one girl had highlights in her hair, another had dangly earrings and platform shoes, each holding their phones and talking to each other, in my head probably about some awesome party they had been to recently, and all I would think was that I couldn’t wait to be older so I could be cool like them. e gap between my age and theirs seemed like an eternity.

is is not an uncommon feeling. Many young children strive to grow up instead of cherishing their childhoods. ey focus on the ‘can’ts’ instead of the ‘cans’. When I was ve years old, I could climb trees and do the splits and hide in cabinets. When I was ve years old I could go downstairs on Christmas morning and see what Santa had left me under the tree, and believed in magic. It is sad that kids feel like they have to grow up so fast, and feel like they can’t enjoy the present because they are

Do blankets grow along with you?

I often think about the uses of blankets. It’s a strange topic to think about upon rst glance, but I have always found it interesting how their usage changes throughout your life. When I was a baby, I had a small blanket, covered in safari animals, that I slept with to keep me warm. It was fuzzy and soft, and in all of the pictures of me using this blanket as a baby, I had always managed to rmly tuck the corners around myself, looking like a baby burrito, to retain as much of the heat and comfort as possible.

When I was ve, I used blankets as castles, and caves and enemy forts. e blanket became not a source of heat, but a source of imagination and play. Fort building encourages a child’s imagination, as when they are building these forts, they can create their own world and story. ey can imagine themselves as pirates, or princesses or knights. A new study by Microsoft Surface found 84% of parents in the UK believe that creativity and imagination is as important for a child’s development as education and its core subjects, and blanket forts are one of the most common ways children explore their creativity.

Now in my teens, the blanket has become a source of comfort, alleviating anxiety and stress, which is at a high during GCSEs. I can never be seen without my weighted blanket keeping me company. e pressure of weighted blankets puts your autonomic nervous system into ‘rest’ mode, reducing some

so focused on the future.

One survey conducted in the UK by Manchester University and published by Professor Jane Richmond in 2018, states that 86% of children between the ages of six and eleven say that they want to be older. e same study states that 46% of teenagers between the ages of fteen and eighteen say that they wish they could go back to their childhoods again. Why is this? Richmond states: ‘when we are young, we want to be independent and free, but as we grow older and become more aware of the responsibilities and challenges that come with being independent, we yearn for the years when we could rely on someone else. In a way, ignorance is bliss.’ When we were ve years old, most of us didn’t worry about what job we would have, or how to pay our taxes, or whether we would pass our GCSEs, we instead would glamourise the idea of being an adult with free will.

I turn sixteen in less than six months now. According to my ve-year-old self I’m supposed to wake up a changed woman the day I turn sixteen. I will magically be the version of myself that I always wanted to be. But as the date gets closer and closer, I wonder to myself – why did I want to be older so badly? My childhood was full of wonder and fun and creativity, and now that I am older, and teenagehood has been demysti ed, all I want is to be ve years old climbing a tree again. Today, at almost sixteen, I wish I could tell ve-year-old Camilla to enjoy being ve.

Camilla Tuman, Year 10

of the symptoms of anxiety, such as a quickened heart rate or breathing. is can provide an overall sense of calm. In one study of 32 volunteers, 63% reported lower anxiety after lying under a 30-pound blanket for ve minutes.

Dr Oscar Robbins, psychology professor, said in a recent interview, ‘A warm blanket can easily be the di erence in your mood at the end of the day. 52% of people nd comfort in ending their evening with personal time snuggled in a blanket on the sofa, or in bed, rather than going straight to sleep with no calmness or re ection to end their day.’ Maybe if more people ended their day by cuddling up with a blanket and a book instead of sitting watching TV, they could feel more restful and their mental wellbeing could improve.

During lockdown, the blanket seemed to go back in time with me, as I started to make forts with my family again. We were feeling isolated, and in need of the joy of imagination, as well as the comfort of a blanket surrounding you. I remember thinking, when did this piece of warm, u y fabric turn into this emotive part of my life? I realised that, just like us, the use of the blanket grows. As you grow older, as the cold starts to creep in on you, you’re feeling a bit more isolated and in need of warmth, the blanket’s use completes its life cycle, going back to a source of comfort, a source of warmth. Just like it did when I was a baby. Jemima Tilbury, Year 10

DYSTOPIAN HAVEN

Buildings. Cars. An expansive arrangement of an embodiment of industrial ruin. The complexity of the corruption swept through the extensive landscape of destruction.Yet, I felt blanketed by the sky; ambivalent towards its indecision of a dark blue, with pangs of piercing red or the occasional unilluminated black. The streets were not streets but sites of scattered pollution; the buildings were cracked and distorted, accompanied by shards of glassy despair and several copies lathered in the transpiring of a thick, vermillion red that unveiled their marks of death. Apprehension relinquished my mind and body in a harmonious unison as I miraculously found refuge in an alcove of aluminium from the beasts of mutated barbarism, to whom I was a prey of deliciousness yet unfathomable normality. Simultaneously, in my attempt to evade my intended confinement, I heard a gargantuan uproar of vexation and supernatural continuity. Instantaneously, I shoved my protruding extremities back into the alcove and indulged in a gnarly bite into my fragmented top to mask my screams of petrification. Through the hole I sighted an incredible

figure. It was large and beaten and had a gaping mouth in which dripped thick, hot blood from stained red, animalistic teeth. As my final tear streamed down the canvas of my face, the creature lurched into the distance and on its way it picked up a corpse, gnawing its bones and flesh as if it was the norm. The cracking of bones made a reminiscence in my mind.

Emergent. Premonition. These were emotions that struck me as if they were a bolt of warning. My alcove of entrusted aluminium began to rattle as if the vibrations of a roaring mutant had sent it into wavering fright. The sound of the scraping metal was introduced to my ears in a rampant fashion as I scrambled to escape my enclosement. Suddenly, a colossal fragment of a building tumbled onto me, scraping my leg. A gushing continuity of blood erupted from my scrape with brutality and as I fought to endure the pain I rapidly freed my emaciated leg from the area and limped gradually in piercing pain with an aspiration of assured immunity from this plane of existence.

Rebekah Wray, Year 8

A Foot in Both Worlds

This is an extract from a chapter of a novel by Issy Naylor (Year 10). To read more, scan the QR code.

It’s tough to recall it all now, looking back at the past year.

He asked me to summarise it. Who he is, you will soon discover. But when I was asked, to put every experience and emotion into a single sentence, the first word that came to mind was simple: Regret.

And looking back at it now, at the pain, laughter and tears, I would only half agree. Because what really happened, the events that followed and the people I met, are so much more complex. Near impossible to put into words. Writing it down now, on this sheet of paper, is the first time I’m ever recounting it. The first time I’m truly living through it, word for word. Because sure, I’ve lived it. I’ve been there when every word was said and every choice was made, but I wasn’t there. Not really. I wasn’t in the moment. I was holding my breath and praying it would blow over, trying not to give it too much thought. Because thinking causes you to break. And when you’re in the situation I was in, if you happen to be so unfortunate, one of the unlucky few, breaking is the last thing you’ll want to do. Making it through, one day at a time, stumbling through the half life, gift, you were given, is the only choice you’re left with. Making the most of it, not knowing when your last second may be before you’re called back. Because while everyone’s lives are time bombs, ticking… waiting to explode, no one expects their time to run out until it does. So when yours ends, when your life slips through your fingertips like grains of sand, as if it was never there in the first

place, and by some miracle, you’re back, you’re an awful lot more conscious of your heart beating in your chest. The blood pumping through your fingers. Every minor sound and sight.

•

So let’s go back. Back a full year to where it all started. To the good times, when the only things on my mind were my hair, homework, and what was for dinner. Easy stuff. Things that seemed so important. World-ending.

Back to that day. The day everything changed.

Yes, that’s where we’ll begin.

Because no matter how much it hurts, this story has to start somewhere, right?

Yes. You need context. I don’t know much about writing, but I know a good book starts with a background. You need to understand me. My story. And in order for you to understand, I need to open up to you. Trust you with this piece of myself. Because isn’t that what writing’s all about? Opening yourself up to an audience, allowing yourself to be praised, criticised, adored and hated? Opening yourself up to the judgement of society and your readers?

And so this is that story. That piece of me I’m giving you. Trusting with you. Treasure it, hold it close to your heart among pieces similar.

Judge me, hate me, love me. But by all means, listen to my story first.

The oLd Japanese TV

It was really late at night when I decided to watch a movie in bed. With joyful energy, I pulled my iPad from my bedside table, only to find out that it was out of battery. I felt my energy evacuate my body like you would on a Monday morning. But as I closed my eyes to go back to sleep, the sudden memory of my mum’s old Japanese TV filled my mind. Next thing I knew, I was in the attic searching for the old TV.

There weren’t many movies to watch on that ancient TV, only one movie that didn’t even have a title, but was very captivating to me. What could it possibly be about? My finger moved quickly to click on the big, blue, button on the TV. The screen went pitch black as I clicked play.

I watched my tired and droopy reflection on the small screen. Was someone behind me? I quickly turned around but no one was to be seen. I moved my head back to the TV, so slowly that my neck bones cracked. The blank TV screen started to make me very uninterested, but I could not turn the TV off. I had the urge to watch it with my eyeballs wide open, without blinking. How dare it make me, force me, watch its dull movie?

The TV screen almost exploded, as a loud, ear piercing noise sprang out of it. I could feel my heart pumping blood throughout my body. I crawled closer to it, staring at the screen, which showed a woman dancing in her beautiful wedding dress. Slowly, slowly the woman’s dance moves got more violent, her delightful dress smeared, her glowing skin paler. She moved her skeleton hands towards the screen, making me jump back.

I blinked, hoping my vision would clear. Her body walked out of the screen which made me scream as loud as I could.

VenGEAnce

“Who are you? What do you want?” Silence. Only silence.

I felt uneasy and uncomfortable like I wasn’t alone in this nightmare I was having. I felt the icy, bitter chill biting and pinching my skin as it swept by. I wanted to scream, yell, cry out for help but I was speechless from the sheer shock and horror that was towering above me. Electric volts of lightning struck through the blackness of the night revealing the monster’s long spider-like limbs and decaying, rotting smile plastered onto its face.

What was I meant to do? I kicked and punched the air like a baby who is forced to eat, when suddenly she jumped on me with her alien-like body. That vile creature left me no choice but to kick her back and fight her.

She growled and hissed. I pierced my nails into the palm of her hand, exposing her purple flesh, shoved her towards the TV and smashed her into the screen.

She disappeared into the screen and I quickly turned the TV off and put it back in its box.

I went back to bed shakily trying to work out what had just happened. It didn’t make sense. I closed my eyes and pretended that all of this was just a nightmare.

Sana Tadayon, Year 9

I remember the screams of terror and fright I heard echoing through the October midnight air from the distance. There were inky tree trunks curving with their overhanging limbs across the pathway. The pathway was scoured with bright, vibrant leaves with colours of pumpkin orange, crimson red and burnished yellow, giving some light from the jet black gloominess of the night. I took another big step through the pathway and struggled my way through squelchy mud like quicksand. I could hear its eerie whispers through the leaves and an unpleasant, chilling aura surrounding me.

As I drifted deeper into the depths of the forest, around me the surrounding ancient craggy oak trees observing my every move, the gaps between the canopy were filled with gleaming icy shards of moonlight. Ahead of me, a small clearing came into view. It was only as I crept closer that I could see a figure, moving on top of a small wood log. Vaguely human, the figure merely skeleton, had tight translucent skin pulled tight across a bony and sharply craggy body.

Even though I felt fear flooding every part of my body, infusing it with terror, something pulled me closer to this eerie spectacle. Yet something in the figure’s movement felt familiar. And then I realised, it was the ravenous dance of a victim of starvation at last being able to feed. But that realisation was quickly followed by a terrifying sight.

As a sudden gust of wind parted the craggy canopy above, the icy shards of moonlight combined into a solid bolt of icy spotlight hitting the figure below. Only then I realised that the figure was not on a log, but a bloody human carcass. Ruby hot blood was dripping from its mouth.

Shocked, I stumbled back stepping on a dry branch. The resulting crack seemed to ring out across the forest. Startled, the terrifying figure’s head shot round, its dark cold eyes locking onto mine. With a ghastly smile and sure pleasure it began to move slowly towards me.

I was next.

Bru Burrows, Year 9

NiGhtmAre

I buried deep under my floral covers, hoping somehow it would protect me. I shook with fear, trying to focus on my breathing. All the hairs on my arms stood on end, as if I was about to get struck by lightning. No one was supposed to be home. I felt like I was in a sauna. Sweat dripped down my spine as I lay still as possible. My hands felt clammy and stiff, as I clamped my eyes shut.

The door opened.

Nothing.

All of a sudden, a hand grabbed my ankle. I screamed and shrieked, clawing my nails onto my bed. I was dragged onto the cold concrete floor. The hand was pale white, dotted with blotches of blood red. A dark shadowy figure stood over me. Its eyes were bulgy and white. Within the white of the creature’s eyes, there were deep red Xs. Its skin was chalky. Its arms were tangled as if it was a spider underneath its ragged clothes.

It hit me.

They were my sister’s clothes. Tormenting memories came racing back into my mind. Two years ago my sister was murdered and was only found with an X mark hacked into her skin. My eyes flowed with tears as my brain clouded with anger. My ears were deafened by the sound of a high pitched ringing. I tried to stand up but my legs wouldn’t budge. It was as if my feet had been buried deep into the floor. I kept screaming for help until my lungs felt like they would collapse.

No one heard. The creature smiled. Velvet red lips stretching out to the ends of its face, showing a mouth with no teeth.

The creature raised its nails, slashing it through my skin. Pain ripped through my skin, as blood poured out of my arm. I shrieked. The pale white concrete floor turned into a pool of blood. I wanted to faint so that I wouldn’t have to endure the torturing agony.

I opened my eyes, jumping onto my feet. Confusion clouded my mind as my eyes widely searched around the room. My eyes darted straight to the concrete floor. It was as clean and boring as always.

Relief soothed my mind as I chuckled to myself. It was just a nightmare. However, the lingering thought of my sister cut deep into my heart.

I looked at my arm.

A fresh scar was there. Carved into the shape of an X.

Slade, Year 9

Holly

Eight finalists – two representatives from each House – came together for the final of the Inter-House Debating Competition on Friday 9 February. The motion was ‘This House believes that social media makes you more sociable’.

The proposition – Isabella Ward and Soffia Coppellotti (Waller) and Zahra Kekere-Ekun and Delight Ogunlade (Clapham South) – argued that during the coronavirus pandemic, many people depended on social media to keep in contact; that 28% of young people surveyed stated that social media improved their confidence; that students use social media to collaborate on homework assignments; and that university freshers use it to interact with strangers and make new friends. They agreed that too much social media can be harmful, but in moderation it is a force for good.

The opposition – Rachel Fain and Mahi Kularamanan (Hartley) and Rebekah Wray and Angelina O’Neill (Clapham North) – pointed out that social media may have been responsible for many children’s anxiety about returning to school after the pandemic; that a majority of people surveyed would now prefer to send a text message than to pick up the phone and speak to a friend or family member; that social media often contributes to young people’s negative body image; and that it can cause loneliness, depression and aggressive behaviour – particularly among boys.

Clapham South were the overall winners. The standard of debate was very high, and our judges – Mrs New, Dr Enright and Mr Lovell – were full of praise for the participants.

We rounded off the first half of the Summer Term with an exciting Inter-House Big Word Game, with competitors from Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 vying to create the longest Boggle words and spell the most complex vocabulary in front of a live audience.

The standard was particularly high this year, with several maximum-length words unearthed, and some highly impressive spelling under intense pressure.

Congratulations to the four House Wordsmiths –Issy Naylor (Waller), Calypso Malialis (Clapham South), Talya Robinson (Clapham North) and Sahi Kularamanan (Hartley), and to the overall winners of the competition, Hartley. Thanks to Mr Butler-Huggins for organising the competition, and to Mrs New and Mrs Folan from the English Department in dictionary corner.

One of the largest casts ever assembled for a Queenswood production staged the Queen musical We Will Rock You over three nights in the Clarissa Farr Theatre at the end of November.

Over 120 performers told the story of the Bohemians’ quest to reclaim the spirit of rock ’n’ roll in a future dystopia ruled by the Killer Queen and her GlobalSoft drones, all brought together by the timeless songs of Queen, delivered in glorious harmony by a very talented group of performers.

The ingenious stage and lighting design incorporated multiple multimedia screens, laser beams, a mezzanine gallery, the gates of Graceland and an eerily life-like statue of Freddie Mercury.

“What an amazing performance last night. We were blown away with all the talent.”

“I truly forgot we were watching a school production – it could well have been a professional one! In fact, I think I enjoyed it more than the West End version!”

“The lead vocals were literally out of this world and the production, staging and lighting was so on point. Congratulations to everyone.”

“What struck me was that everyone on the stage, from the smallest Ga Ga kid up, was totally focused and in-role, right to the very last moment.”

“So professional, and the sheer talent on stage was astounding.”

“Rock and roll lives on!! ”

“I just wanted to say what an incredible show!! We came to watch last night and we were blown away by the production and the talent!”

“Everyone involved should be so proud of themselves – we all agreed that we could have been watching a professional performance!”

Scan the QR code to watch highlights from Drama and Dance productions for this academic year

DR KORCZAK’S EXAMPLE

Year 13 Drama students staged a hauntingly poignant performance of extracts from Dr Korczak’s Example on 4 March.

Set in the final days of an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942, David Greig’s play tells the heart-breaking story of Adzio and Stephanie, two spirited Jewish teenagers, and Dr Korczak, the compassionate idealist who, in the face of Nazi oppression,

refused to abandon the children in his care.

The production was presented in an intimate thrust setting, with heart-breakingly sincere performances from the three actors – Sofia Dobrynina, Isabel Simpson and Freia Trinder – and a superbly detailed set design by Isabella Perrozzi-Vural, which also incorporated thought-provoking multimedia projections.

GCSE DRAMA SHOWCASE

Our largest ever cohort of GCSE Drama students staged a brilliantly entertaining showcase of their talents across two evenings on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 February.

Gosforth’s Fête, a hilarious farce by Alan Ayckbourn, was paired with a macabre adaptation of Henry James’ timeless ghost story, The Turn of the Screw.

Meanwhile, three groups of students performed each of the three acts of Blithe Spirit, Noël Coward’s classic comedy set

at a 1930s séance, and a fourth group presented extracts from Daisy Pulls It Off, Denise Deegan’s joyful pastiche of girls’ schools adventure stories.

In addition to the 27 students who performed, others were responsible for the set and costume design for Blithe Spirit, the lighting and sound design for Daisy and the lighting for The Turn of the Screw.

Many congratulations to everyone involved.

ABIGAIL’S PARTY

The Senior Drama Scholars and Principal’s Award Holders gave two hilarious performances of Mike Leigh’s classic 1970s comedy, Abigail’s Party, on Thursday 2 May.

It was a masterclass in creating comedy from excruciating awkwardness, as two couples and their divorced neighbour bicker, flirt and over-indulge at a suburban drinks party.

There were separate casts for each of the two acts, and it was fascinating to observe the nuances in characterisation that each actor brought to their role.

With a superbly detailed set design, and a soundtrack of Donna Summer and Demis Roussos, this was a hugely entertaining evening of theatre. Congratulations to everyone involved.

“Clearly everyone was having lots of fun performing and it was a real pleasure to watch.”

“What an amazing show last night! The energy and talent of the performers was extraordinary...”

A SHOwSTOPPING TRIUmPH

The Clarissa Farr Theatre was packed to the rafters over three consecutive nights in March for a truly spectacular Dance Show.

Over 130 pupils – more than a quarter of the school – were involved in the production, which showcased an immense range of choreography, from ballet to Britney, and from tap dance to tango. There were gravity-defying stunts on the aerial hoops, and astonishing feats of gymnastics, as the dancers told the story of dance through the twentieth century and beyond.

Dancing ThRougH TImE

“Wow! The show last night was captivating and awe-inspiring...Congratulations to all who took part.”

MUSICAL THEATRE SHOWCASE ’24

School LIFE SPECIAL

Drama Scholars and Principal’s Award Holders in Years 7–10, along with members of The Quire, staged a gloriously entertaining evening of sketches, speeches and songs from musical theatre classics on Wednesday 8 May.

The theme was School Life, and the performers treated us to excerpts from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Matilda, Dear Evan Hansen, High School Musical and many more. The energy and enthusiasm radiating from the stage was infectious, and everyone who attended was thoroughly entertained.

Year 12 Drama students performed their devised docudrama about the ‘Wagatha Christie’ phenomenon in the Clarissa Farr Theatre on Monday 20 May.

By turns hilarious and thought-provoking, the drama explored the ludicrous details of the case, and took a sombre look at some of the more serious stories that were crowded out of the news agenda by the exploits of Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy.

The piece was devised and performed by Lily Garton, Zoe Neophytou, Gracie Robson and Addy Thorpe, with set and multimedia design by Isabella Ward. The students were heavily influenced by the theatrical practices of Bertolt Brecht. With pastiches of West Side Story and true crime podcasts, and a soundtrack of Taylor Swift, The Beatles, The Clash and The Flying Lizards, this was an irreverent and highly entertaining piece of theatre.

A new look for the Audrey Butler Centre

The first phases of the renovation of the Audrey Butler Centre, commonly referred to as the ABC, took place this year and in this radically transformative project, the classrooms on the ground and first floors have been completely reimagined. The new furniture provides more flexible seating arrangements, enabling students to work independently or collaboratively, and the comfortable sofa areas are a useful space for breakout sessions. We look forward to the next phase of renovations planned to take place over the summer holidays.

Peter Tatchell, Human Rights Activist

Becoming a changemaker

On Wednesday 13 December, Sixth Form students were fortunate to attend a thought-provoking lecture by human rights activist Peter Tatchell. During the session, he emphasised the significance of ‘active citizenship’ and provided a concise overview of his 50-plus-year advocacy journey across various causes. Notably, he delved into a detailed account of the oneman protest he staged at last year’s football World Cup in Qatar. Following the lecture, Peter engaged with questions from the audience, covering current events such as the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar.

Year 11 Geography Field Trip to Norfolk

Year 11 Geographers spent a fruitful three days in Norfolk in September completing their GCSE eldwork.

e Geography focused on coastal processes and students collected data such as beach pro les and sediment shape and size in order to compare the characteristics of Salthouse and Weybourne beaches.

ey also visited Sheringham, where after a bit of free time for an ice cream, they brie y looked at the coastal defences in place there.

Human eldwork took place in Norwich and compared two areas; Riverside, which has been regenerated using a leisure-led approach, and King Street, which is a mixed regeneration project.

Evenings were spent having fun and trying new activities such as climbing, bouldering and archery. Leadership skills and trust were also put to the test on a blindfolded obstacle course.

Victoria Looker, Head of Geography

Q at Kew

Year 8 Explore London’s Tropical Paradise

Year 8 Geographers braved the wet weather on Thursday 12 October as they paid a visit to the world-famous Kew Gardens in London.

Fortunately, many of the main attractions are to be found in the shelter of the beautiful palm house, so they escaped the worst of the rain. They learned about the thousands of plant species preserved and the many conservation efforts that take place at Kew, and also found time to explore the stunning treetop walkway, gaining a unique perspective on the flora below.

Flags designed by some Year 7 and 8 Geographers have made it all the way to Antarctica!

The flags, created by Larissa Kennedy, Jeannie Jim, Caitlin Flannery and Kate Rostokina (amongst others) travelled with Dr Liz Thomas, a palaeoclimatologist who is in Antarctica drilling ice cores. The photograph of her with some of the Queenswood flags was taken at Wolf’s Fang Runway in January, as Liz made her way to Halley VI Research Station.

Year 12 Geographers in North Yorkshire

On Tuesday 30 April all of the Year 12 Geographers headed to Yorkshire for a week of field work, to give us the starting point to aid us in our NEAs, which make up 20% of our A-Level grade.

Day one started with a dive into the water and carbon cycles, where we measured soil moisture, vegetation and the height of trees, using a range of equipment such as soil moisture metres and clinometers.

Day two began with a full English breakfast from the Cranedale Centre and a short drive to Scarborough, where we studied Human Geography, using our geography knowledge to assess a sense of place with lots of data collection techniques, such as word pictures, photographs and questionnaires. By the end of the day, we had come to an overall conclusion on a positive or negative perspective of Scarborough. The day didn’t end there, with us working hard in the evening, trying to get our head around statistics, such as Spearman’s Rank.

On day three we quickly moved onto coasts, where we visited the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. We saw houses nine metres away from the cliff and roads that have fallen off of the cliff due to the powerful force of erosion. We spent the second half of the day in Hornsea, measuring sediment size on the north and south sides of the groyne, using techniques beneficial to our NEA.

On day four, the sun came out for a scenic visit to Flamborough Head. Here we saw coastal landforms such as arches, stacks, cracks and caves. We ended the trip on a high with a final visit to Mr Moo’s ice cream parlour.

Despite the unusually cold April weather, we had an enjoyable experience up north and have learnt critical skills in data collection methods, justifications and presentation, all of which will be a fundamental part of our NEA coursework.

Olivia Newbury-Beirne, Tilly MacSweeney and Daisy Ryder, Year 12

THE JOHN FRY PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 2024

The final of this year’s John Fry Public Speaking Competition was an extremely closely-contested affair, with some of the finest oratorical displays ever seen at Queenswood.

Our guest adjudicator was former Queenswood Head Girl, and previous winner of the competition, Lucy Pickworth. Lucy is now working as Strategic Finance Lead at Uber.

Each of the finalists was tasked with delivering a five-minute speech based on a Beatles lyric, and answering an unprepared question from the floor.

• Hannah Phipps (Year 11): ‘Imagine there’s no countries...nothing to kill or die for.’

• Lucie Bennett (Year 12): ‘Money, that’s what I want.’

• Willow Hayes (Year 13): ‘Help! I need somebody.’

• Lisa Okrah (Year 12): ‘Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?’

• Andie Burrow (Year 12): ‘You say you want a revolution...’

During the deliberation, the three Junior John Fry finalists delivered speeches. Olivia Chambou (Year 7) spoke about online beauty products, Isla Phillips (Year 8) paid tribute to the NHS, and Alice Berry (Year 9) gave her thoughts on prejudice against redheads.

The overall winner of the competition was Lisa Okrah. Many congratulations to everyone who took part – not just in the final, but in the preliminary rounds also.

Hannah Phipps: Imagine there’s no countries...nothing to kill or die for

‘...Why would Lennon be asking us to consider a world where everything isn’t perfect? It’s so that we can realise what is actually important to us: our traditions, our beliefs and our relationships with each other. It’s similar to the reason why we enjoy watching and reading about dystopian societies – it makes us realise the fundamental factors of our lives. It’s only possible if we imagine a world different to ours, so we can realise what is left at the core – what makes us human, even – which is love.’

Lucie Bennett: Money, that’s what I want

‘...In essence, the dream of becoming rich is not inherently wrong or right, it is a personal choice. What matters is the ethical foundation on which we build this dream, and how we navigate the balance between personal success and societal wellbeing. We should strive for a future where the pursuit of wealth is guided by a sense of individual and collective responsibility, compassion, and a commitment to leaving the world in a better place than where we found it.’

Willow Hayes: Help! I need somebody...

‘...When we rely on each other, rather than just ourselves, a stronger, more sustainable dynamic is born. And in the 58 years since these lyrics were released, we have seen momentous progress in removing the stigma around mental health. But we still have so much further to go, and we must all agree that we need to get to a place where reaching out to someone should never be uncomfortable – it should be the standard.’

Lisa Okrah: Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?

‘...Loneliness can affect anyone, regardless of their fame or achievements, reiterating that meaningful connections and support are key in life. These lyrics remind us that age is just a number, and that true connections can stand the test of time. The beauty of these lyrics lies in their ability to transcend time and resonate with people of all generations. Whether 14, 64 or 104, we all want to feel needed, cared for and loved. So let’s cherish those relationships that make us feel that way, and continue to support and nourish each other, no matter what age we are.’

Andie Burrow: You say you want a revolution?

‘...The world started to see a difference with this song. They started, but they didn’t continue. It’s as though every few years we as a society realise that the world needs fixing. We band together and protest, whether from at home or in person, and suddenly when things start to look brighter people abandon those morals that they magically acquired, because they think that one successful protest means that the world is suddenly perfect. You say you want a revolution – so where is it? There’s so much more to be done, and revolution starts from within. So when are you going to start yours?’

Junior John Fry finalists (left to right: Olivia Chambou, Isla Phillips, Alice Berry

Read All About It! Media Students at the BFI

Media students in Years 12 and 13 visited the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank on Tuesday 14 November for an intensive and immersive study day.

The focus was the newspaper industry. In the morning, we looked at how the press mediate the news agenda, and how journalists and picture editors make explicit and implicit decisions about representation. We examined several front pages from a variety of daily newspapers in depth, applying our knowledge of semiotics and structuralism. We also considered theoretical approaches including Liesbet van Zoonen and Judith Butler’s feminist theories, Stuart Hall’s Reception theory, and Paul Gilroy’s concept of ‘post-colonial melancholia’.

After lunch, there was a Q&A session with Joseph Harker, Diversity and Inclusion Editor at e Guardian, followed by an in-depth discussion of audiences and industry, where we learned

more about print circulation, online news consumption, and the regulation of the press in the wake of the Leveson inquiry.

The event was held in NFT1, with over 400 students from schools across the country. Several of our students made highly perceptive contributions to the discussion, and were praised by the main speaker for their insightful comments and deep understanding of the theoretical framework.

All in all, it was an invaluable experience, and our students left feeling much more enthusiastic about the study of news media.

Nick Kelley, Teacher of Media Studies

MEDIA STUDIES COURSEWORK 2023

Eloise van der Walt: Television

Bella Harlow Rags to Riches

Business, Computing and Media LIVE!

A series of conferences for GCSE and A-Level students at Disneyland Paris

The trip to Disneyland Paris in February was a three-day event that was educational, yet wildly entertaining, filled with both hard work and (of course) tons of rides and rollercoasters!

One of the more interesting events of the trip was the Computing LIVE! conference, which we attended on the Monday morning from 9:15 until 11:45am, hosted by awardwinning radio and television presenter Remel London. Along with many other schools, we were spoken to by three big names in the tech, coding and journalism industry.

Cristina Criddle was the first speaker of the morning, a talented journalist for the Financial Times, who spoke to us about social media, journalism in the tech industry, and some of the dangers of the internet from her own personal experience, as well as introducing us to her cat’s TikTok account!

Afterwards, 22-year-old speaker, activist and social entrepreneur Joana Baptista graced the stage, giving us all an engaging and informative talk on her experience in the industry. Baptista had a great passion for Computer Science at a young age, taking part in many competitions and camps to hone her skill and pique her interest in her early teens.

Finally, Ben Byford, an Artificial Intelligence consultant and game developer with his company Nuclear Candy, gave

the last talk. He told us about the future of AI, gaming and his experiences with coding and making video games whilst adding to other points made by the two previous speakers.

We ended around midday, with a Q&A, before being allowed access to the two parks until around 9pm. One of the most technically astounding of the rides was the Ratatouille experience: a 3D immersive event, putting you in the shoes of one of the rats in Remy’s kitchen. We ended the day with a few of us watching the fireworks and light show at the Disney Castle, a wonderful display of not only the history of Disney, but how far technology has come over the past few years.

Issy Naylor, Year 10

Left to right: Cristina Criddle, Joana Baptista, Ben Byford

Business LIVE! was a great opportunity to travel to Paris and participate at our first business conference in person. Three successful and inspiring business leaders presented business principles using their own first-hand experience to encourage and help us students develop our understanding of Business Studies.

Zakia Moulaoui Guery introduced to us her social enterprise #invisiblecities, training people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city while raising awareness about social justice.

Louis Barnett, one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom, who had already launched his own business at the age of 14, provided us with some useful wisdoms for building up our own start-up.

Kate Hardcastle, the highly respected businesswoman with award-winning successes in delivering commercial partnership and ventures, talked to us about success, failure and resilience in business.

We got an authentic and holistic insight into business leaders’ work and careers. It was interesting seeing their different ways of achieving success. Despite their very different lives and careers, they all had one thing in common: they are brave.

In this regard, I would like to share this short anecdote that occurred during the conference, which really flipped a switch in my brain and surely will guide me in every future decision I will make.

Louis Barnett began his presentation by asking someone to come up to the stage to help him introduce the topic he would be talking about. A torrent of whispers filled the room – nobody dared. Fair enough, there were more than 600 students watching. Suddenly, one participant stood up and walked up to the stage. Louis took out a €20 note and handed it to the student that was brave enough to go up to the stage not knowing what would happen to him. He got the €20 while the rest of us were left empty-handed. I think in this moment most of the students regretted they did not go up to the stage. It is not about the fact that we could have been €20 richer, it’s about the feeling that we all knew we had missed an opportunity, a singular chance.

So, be curious, stand up and take action! (You will be rewarded...)

Some great take-aways – not only for business but also for life, I think!

Maria-Giulia Bruehl, Year 12

FRAN C E

DISNEYLAND PARIS

The Media LIVE! conference consisted of three people within the field of media speaking about their personal experiences and stories of their trials and tribulations within the world of media.

Our first speaker was mathematician and TV personality Bobby Seagull, who spoke to us about the importance of taking opportunities and how this can open so many doors in the world of media. He spoke to us about his passion for mathematics and all things numbers and how it was his unique personality and love for maths that gained him exposure on a variety of reality and quiz shows on TV.

Our second speaker was TV presenter Gemma Hunt, famously known for presenting the CBeebies show Swashbuckle. She spoke all about the journey that took her from university to a major presenting job in children’s TV. She spoke about her struggles with her mental health due to a break-up, and how carrying on no matter what will pay off. She was an inspiration and a great role model for people who may want to take a job in media further.

Our final speaker was Stevie White, a host of the Happy Hour podcast. Stevie spoke about his university course in animation and how his interests changed and he ended up as a podcast host and social media influencer. He explained how, even if you are anxious about doing something, the more you do it, the less anxious you become. He spoke about interviewing various well known celebrities for his podcast, which showed an insight into their lives within the world of media. Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable lecture, from which we learned a lot.

Emily Hunt and Riley Squire, Year 12

NARF C E

Left to right: Zakia Moulaoui Guery, Louis Barnett, Kate Hardcastle, Bobby Seagull, Gemma Hunt, Stevie White

_OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMPUTING CHALLENGE

In January, many of our talented computer scientists took part in the Oxford University Computing Challenge, for students who achieved the top 10% of results in the country in the earlier Bebras Challenge.

We had four Year 7 students, three Year 8 students and two Year 9 students qualifying directly. The Year 7 and 9 students completed the Junior and Intermediate level tasks making use of the Blockly programming language to devise challenging algorithms to solve problems such as maze navigation.

The problems involve a very high level of logical thinking and computation in a fairly short time limit. There are tasks graded A - C in terms of complexity where students can bid for higher marks at the risk of losing some they already won in previous tasks.

They all did impressively well and displayed Queenswood Qualities of courage and resourcefulness in achieving the passage to the competition with a top 10% score in the country.

Alex Laming, Head of Computer Science

_AMAZON

GETIT COMPETITION

DESIGNING APPS FOR THE COMMUNITY

On Wednesday 20 March the Grand Final of the Amazon GetIT competition was held for Queenswood students.

All our Year 8 computer scientists had spent the last 10 weeks working in teams to design a new app for a community group of their choice. Along the way they had used the Amazon Canvas web platform to learn about emerging technologies, cloud computing and Amazon web services as well as important nontechnical content such as teamwork, collaboration and listening skills. In designing their apps students also needed to learn about and show consideration of environmental sustainability and accessibility for a wide range of impairments.

Students worked hard to create wireframe designs for their apps and had them assessed in class by each other and the teacher. Finalists were chosen to then present their design to the whole year group and our guest judges, Reverend Kate and Mrs Khan. The ideas they had come up with were really interesting and showed great creativity.

In third place was a group called Travel E. They had designed an app called Travel Explore which is aimed at teenagers to help them to be able to plan trips and visits. In this group were Flo Brimson, Katriel Ayegbeni, Saphia Ali and Sakura Charalambous. The app contains features such as a recommendation engine to help make suggestions and cloud storage to store user data and profiles.

In second place were a group called Namo kids made up of Nayia Di Candia, Annabelle Shannon, Meg Court and Olivia Cox. Their idea was a school uniform recycling app called School Threads which would allow parents to obtain free school uniforms and recycle their own. Their app makes use of an interactive map, GPS location data and messaging functions.

The winning app was by a group called The Zen Zebra Team. The team is made up of Niyah Naciri-Nikolova, Arianne Naderi and Izzy Page (pictured). They presented their highly detailed plan for an app to combat mental health issues in teens called Zen Zebra. It has impressive features such

as a quiz for users to take which then maps the app settings to responses given, bullet journals, online stories, diet and sleep trackers. In terms of technology it makes use of AI to produce recommendations and cloud data storage to store user preferences.

All participating finalists received an Easter egg and a certificate. Mr Laming and Mr Doherty would like to congratulate Year 8 for excellent participation in the Amazon GetIT program and for their superb collaboration in their teams to devise such inspiring ideas.

_SPOTLIGHT ON _COMPUTER SCIENCE

In 2023, two A-Level Students achieve A* grades in Computer Science whilst developing highly technical software solutions for their Non Exam Assessment coursework.

Abby Stevenson and Sophia Mikou developed highly sophisticated programs for their A-Level Computer Science projects. Both students demonstrated substantial technical skill with a range of technologies whilst following a system life cycle project plan through analysis, design, implementation, testing and evaluation.

With her love of theme parks and roller coasters she set about creating a software tool that would allow a user to enter their preferences for theme park rides and then see recommendations for the best parks to visit and most suitable rides to try out. She then even found a way to get the program to work out your route around a given theme park to a specific ride location.

Abby built her program using the Python programming language but had to master the use of GUI programming with Tkinter to create an interactive user interface. Abby also had to deploy and connect to a MySQL database system to store large quantities of data about theme park rides. In addition to this she showed excellent knowledge of Object Oriented programming techniques, SQL queries and graph traversal algorithms to complete the solution. Abby made Vimeo videos of her tests to prove the solution worked as expected.

Like Abby, Sophia wrote a very technical piece of software using the Python programming language and this involved a complex object oriented design approach to programming and the acquisition of a huge body of research about how a range of historical data encryption techniques operate.

The program that she wrote can read in and analyse a large block of ciphertext (normal text that has been encrypted) and then perform complex decryption techniques – she produced algorithms for several different ones – to decrypt it back to its original form. Sophia developed a very successful tool for the Caesar cipher, substitution cipher and the Vignere cipher. The interface was built by programming with Tkinter and the algorithms developed were extremely mathematical and used complicated programming techniques such as recursion.

Alex Laming, Head of Computing

_Abby’s Theme Park Planner

_Sophia’s Decryption Tool to Aid Learning

On Monday 3 June, seven Year 9 pupils visited Northaw Primary School as part of the Northaw Mentor Programme. The aim of this partnership is to give our pupils the opportunity to have a positive educational impact on others.

The students planned and delivered an engaging and informative session on ‘Being an Upstander’ to the Year 6 class at Northaw. They ran it to perfection with their enthusiasm, organisation and creativity. This experience has not only taught our pupils to be confident and efficient, but has shown them the benefits of mentoring and working with others.

The Year 6 pupils thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, and were looking forward to visiting Queenswood later in the term for the next session on ‘The Transition to Secondary School’.

Anna

NORTHAW MENTOR – PROGRAMME –DROP

Sutton, Teacher of Spanish

EVERYTHING – AND READ! –

Queenswood pupils continue to ‘Drop Everything and Read’ in tutorials. At least once a fortnight, time is set aside in tutorial for silent reading, and the transformative effect on the mood and wellbeing of pupils and staff is remarkable.

Pupils are reminded that they should carry a book with them at all times – you never know when you will next be instructed to ‘Drop Everything and Read’!

Here are some pictures of pupils in Year 7 absorbed in their reading.

Pictured: Kayley Ngabo, Beyza Cetin, Chloe Clements, Annabella Curtis, Emmy Court, Beatrice Abbot and Delight Ogunlade

Queenswood Welcomes

Reverend Kate Douglas

Having bid farewell to Reverend Vindra in July 2023, as she left to take up her new post as minister at Surbiton Hill Methodist Church, our new Chaplain, Reverend Kate Douglas, joined Queenswood in September 2023.

Reverend Kate, as she is known by the students, is an Anglican Priest and joined Queenswood from London School of Theology where for the previous five years she has provided strategic leadership and oversight as a member of the Executive Team. During this time, she trained for ordained ministry and served as an Assistant Curate in the Parish of Chells (Stevenage).

At a very special licensing service in September, Revd Kate was officially welcomed to the School by Revd Dr David M. Chapman, Queenswood Governor and Methodist District Chair, Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, Bishop of Bedford and Mrs Cameron, Principal.

‘We are delighted to welcome and license Reverend Kate Douglas as Queenswood School Chaplain. The appointment of an Anglican priest as chaplain to a Methodist foundation school demonstrates the developing covenant partnership between the Methodist Church and the Church of England.’

Revd Dr David M. Chapman Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, Bishop of Bedford

For our Harvest Appeal in September 2023, the Queenswood community once again supported The Trussell Trust, donating much-needed groceries and toiletries to The Hatfield Food Bank. Reverend Kate and Charities Prefect Grace Yong received the most generous donations and delivered thirty-two bags of supplies to the food bank.

It was most heartwarming to see the beautifully wrapped collection of shoeboxes piled high in the Chapel on Monday 20 November, as Reverend Kate and Charities Prefect Grace Yong received the students’ donations for our Operation Christmas Child appeal. The 57 boxes were filled with an array of thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts including cuddly toys, fluffy socks, toothbrushes, bars of soap, toy cars and much more.

Having been carefully loaded into one of our vehicles, this very precious cargo was delivered by Reverend Kate and Mr Cork, one of our Queenswood drivers, to the Welcome Break Service Station in South Mimms. Here the boxes joined other donations from our local area before being sent on to the appeal’s organisers, Samaritans’ Purse, for distribution to children around the world.

Operation Christmas Child

CHARITY BOBBLE HATS

CAKE & DOODLES

Mrs Stokes, Deputy Head (Pastoral), and Charities Prefect Grace Yong led the Queenswood community in a practical and stylish fundraiser in October, when they encouraged us to keep warm and wear a special edition Queenswood OddBalls bobble hat! The hats were bought by parents, pupils and staff — raising hundreds of pounds. All profits from the sale were donated to various charities including Prostate Cancer UK.

On Friday 8 March, the Newsletter Club ran a creative lunch time drop-in for all students and staff in the Conference Room. The purpose of this event was to give everyone an opportunity to chat informally together, whilst doodling and enjoying some delicious cakes. It was a wonderfully relaxed get-together and we all remembered how much we like the simple pleasure of colouring in! Ophelia Phillips Bhan (Year 7) had the original idea to host Cake & Doodles, and Sienna Mahoney (Year 13) provided excellent support with co-ordinating.

SWITCHED ON! Solar panels for Queenswood Hall

In 2023, Queenswood Hall became our first building to be adorned with solar panels as the school strives to use cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy.

Solar electricity panels, also known as photovoltaics (PV), capture the sun’s energy and convert it into electricity. Each panel consists of many cells made from layers of semi-conducting material, most commonly silicon. When light shines on this material, a flow of electricity is created. The cells don’t need direct sunlight to work and can even work on cloudy days.

It is estimated that the panels will create enough renewable energy to provide around 9% of the electricity currently needed at Queenswood.

Following the installation of the panels, Mr Ian Williams, Queenswood’s Bursar, spoke to the Academic Scholars about the project and how it will benefit the School going forward.

The amount of sunlight that hits the earth’s surface in just 90 minutes is enough to power energy consumption around the world for an entire year!

With emissions and clean energy becoming such a global issue, it is important we understand what we can do to help. Queenswood has installed solar panels to try and reduce our carbon footprint, and that’s what the Academic Scholars’ seminar was on. It was very interesting to go into greater depth on solar panels, not just looking at the moral and environmental side of purchasing them, but also their economic viability, such as how much they cost, where you can put them, whether you’ll get planning permission and so on.

It showed me that solar panels are a lot more complicated (and expensive) than I first thought. It also brought into sharp perspective how much the energy bill really is to run a large school such as Q. This seminar demonstrated that there are many ways to generate clean energy, but for Q, solar panels are the way to go.

Izzy Page, Year 8

Opening of THE WELLBEING CENTRE

In September 2023, we were delighted to announce the opening of the new Wellbeing Centre at Queenswood. The Centre is a space for students to have a quiet and reflective moment during their busy school day.

Throughout the year, the Wellbeing Centre Coordinator, Miss Hill, welcomed students and offered guidance, support and strategies where needed. In the Centre there are designated areas for students to be able to do mindfulness activities and take a time-out in a calm environment.

The Wellbeing Centre is linked to Queenswood’s Personalised Learning Centre, which is situated at the heart of the school, and is available for all students to support their learning needs.

Dr Aya Yuasa

Christmas at St Albans Abbey

The Queenswood community of pupils, parents, staff, governors, OQs and VIPs came together for a very special service of lessons and carols in the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban on Friday 8 December.

It was our first visit to the Abbey in four years, and the choirs, instrumentalists and readers certainly rose to the occasion. The service featured a wide range of religious and secular music, including Rutter’s ‘Nativity Carol’ and a string quartet performance of ‘Silent Night’, alongside an orchestral ‘Christmas Bonanza’ and the modern classic ‘Walking in the Air’. As well as the familiar readings from the Scriptures, we heard poems by Christina Rossetti and Stephen J Maunder.

A Spectacular Charity Concert for St Cecilia’s Day

Around 100 performers from all year groups came together in Queenswood’s Chapel on Wednesday 22 November for a wonderfully rousing and eclectic concert.

The concert honoured St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and tickets were sold in aid of Crisis, the homelessness charity, raising over £550.

Alongside solo and chamber pieces, the event showcased the school’s largest ensembles – our orchestra, wind band, Queenswood Singers and The Quire – as well as some spirited vocal performances by the entirety of Year 7 and the debut appearance of the staff choir.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Lower School Singing Competition 2023-24

17 finalists performed to a packed Ernest Read Hall audience on Thursday 23 May as they competed for the 2024 Lower School Singing trophy.

There were many superb performances, and Director of Music Mrs Jackson – who stepped into the role of adjudicator at the last minute – had the unenviable task of selecting a winner and several highly commended and commended prizes.

After much deliberation, the results were as follows:

LOWER SCHOOL SINGING COMPETITION

Winner Aanya Sangha (Year 8)

Highly Commended Willa Collier (Year 8)

Maya Levitt (Year 7)

Commended Aria Phillips Bhan (Year 8)

Eleanor Liu (Year 9)

Raising the Roof at the Gold Singing Award Concert

We were treated to some wonderfully spirited performances at the Gold Singing Award concert on ursday 9 November.

Each of the eight nalists performed two songs from the popular, classical or musical theatre repertoire, expertly accompanied by Mr Newport on piano. e programme included numbers by Elton John, Queen, John Rutter and Frank Wildhorn.

Our guest judge, David Temple MBE, was extremely encouraging and insightful in his adjudication. e winners were as follows:

GOLD SINGING AWARD

Winner Isabella Perrozzi-Vural (Year 13)

Highly Commended Amy Heath (Year 11)

Commended Anna Birkin (Year 10)

e annual Gold Singing Award is a highly prestigious event at Queenswood, and several past winners have gone on to enjoy ful lling careers in the music profession.

Musician

of the Year 2023-24

We enjoyed a fantastic night of music-making in the Ernest Read Hall on ursday 7 March as over 20 nalists competed for the title of Queenswood Musician of the Year 2024.

e competition was split into two categories, with prizes for singers and instrumentalists. More than 40 pupils had entered the preliminary rounds, and 21 were selected to perform in the Finalists Concert.

Our adjudicator was Daniel Ephgrave, a highly sought-after freelance musician who specialises in ute and reed instruments. ere were winners in each category for both the Lower School (Years 7 – 9) and Upper School (Years 10 – 13), along with overall winners and runners-up.

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: SINGING

Upper School Winner Adrienne Storey (Year 10)

Lower School Winner Ophelia Phillips Bhan (Year 7)

Upper School Runner-up Isabella Perrozzi-Vural (Year 13)

Lower School Runner-up Eleanor Liu (Year 9)

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: INSTRUMENTAL

Upper School Winner Kalli Ziegler (Year 10)

Lower School Winner Annabelle Ryder (Year 9)

Upper School Runner-up Nanako Quirk (Year 13)

Lower School Runner-up Alice Berry (Year 9)

We would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the Finals, and especially our prize-winners. ank you to Mr Newport for his supremely versatile and sensitive piano accompaniment, and to Mr Ephgrave for his thoughtful adjudication.

We’ve gathered together video recordings from many of the concerts and competitions featured in these articles. You can enjoy them by scanning the QR code, or searching for ‘Queenswood Music’ on YouTube.

Trio Sonoro

A Sublime Performance at the South East Schools Chamber Music Competition

Queenswood’s Trio Sonoro – violinist Nana Wong (Year 11), cellist Kalli Ziegler (Year 10) and pianist Sylvia Li (Year 13) – acquitted themselves superbly at the nal of the South East Schools Chamber Music Competition on Tuesday 12 March. e nal was held in the exquisite church of St George in London’s Hanover Square (below). ey performed a sublime rendition of the second movement of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor.

Trio Sonoro were one of just 14 ensembles selected to compete in the nal, from over 70 entries. Although they narrowly missed out on a prize on this occasion, they were praised for their musicality and professionalism.

Kalli Joins the National Youth Orchestra

In October, cellist and Queenswood Music Scholar Kalli Ziegler (Year 10) learned that she had won a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

is is a superlative achievement. e NYO, known in the music industry as ‘the world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers’, comprises just 160 players, and competition for places is erce.

Kalli was surprised and delighted by her success; she only auditioned for the experience, hoping to win a place when she is older, so to be accepted at her rst attempt really is a testament to her remarkable musicianship.

Spring Concert 2024: A Glorious Celebration of Music-Making

e Music Department presented a fabulously rich, varied and entertaining Spring Concert in the Chapel on Wednesday 20 March.

It was an extremely diverse programme, with classical chamber music, jazz standards, musical theatre, lm and TV

soundtracks, Britpop and Eurovision classics, a capella Bon Jovi and even a live DJ set!

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and thanks to the sta whose teaching, accompanying and organisation made the evening possible.

Hertfordshire Festival of Music

An Enthralling Piano Masterclass with Katya Apekisheva

We hosted a fascinating piano masterclass in the Chapel on ursday 13 June, as part of this year’s Hertfordshire Festival of Music programme.

e session was led by the festival’s Principal Artist, Katya Apekisheva. Described as a ‘profoundly gifted artist’ by Gramophone magazine, Katya has earned her place as one of Europe’s most renowned and gifted pianists, and she certainly demonstrated her exquisite musicality in the demonstrations of technique and expression she o ered.

But the real stars of the evening were the visiting students, who had the opportunity to perform in public the solo and duet pieces they have been working on in the practice room. Each highly skilful performer showed immense bravery, and they all bene ted enormously from Katya’s incisive comments.

rough our association with the Hertfordshire Festival over the last four years, we have welcomed such luminaries as violinists Tasmin Little and Chloe Hanslip, clarinettist Emma Johnson, french horn player Ben Goldscheider, Judith Weir (Master of the King’s Music) and distinguished composer James Francis Brown (co-founder of the Festival).

OQ Tehya’s screen debut

Another string to her bow!

Former Music Scholar Tehya Dawson (OQ 2022) features prominently in a stunning launch video for the new JD Sports partnership with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

e track, titled ‘Green Light Grove’, is a collaboration between Reepa and Mutual. You can watch it by scanning the QR code opposite.

Tehya is currently studying violin at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and has been awarded a scholarship by Julian Lloyd Webber.

A Queenswood musical education can certainly open the doors to an exciting career!

Inter-House Pi Day

Competition: Infinite Fun!

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π, observed on March 14 (since 3.14 are the rst three digits of pi). is year the Maths Department were very excited to hold the rst ever Queenswood Inter-House Maths Competition to mark the occasion.

Each competition was a shuttle, which involved two pairs of students from each House answering questions in turn. e rst pair completed the rst question and then passed their answer to the second pair. is answer formed the starting point of the question the second pair were attempting, and this continued until two questions were completed by each pair. Only when they had nished four endishly di cult questions were they allowed to check their answers. ey had eight minutes to complete as much as they could, and the process was repeated for four rounds.

How quickly can you answer this question without a calculator? 92 – 82 + 72 – 62 + 52 – 42 + 32 – 22 + 12 9 – 8 + 7 – 6 + 5 – 4 + 3 – 2 + 1

We started our week of competitions with the Year 7 and 8 students, and after a lot of hard work and pages of furiously written calculations the winners were Hartley. On ursday it was the turWΩn of Years 9 and 10, and the crown was taken by Waller this time. Finally on Friday, Years 11, 12 and 13 came to compete for their House and after four very close-run and ercely competed rounds, the winners were Hartley.

Many congratulations to Hartley for becoming our rst ever winners of the Inter-House Maths Competition. We are already looking forward to doing it again next year!

If you would like to have a go at answering the questions from the Inter-House Maths Competition, you can scan this QR code.

Georgina Brown, Teacher of Mathematics

Queenswood Success in UKMT Challenge and Olympiad

In October, Queenswood pupils in Years 12 and 13 took part in the UK Mathematics Trust Senior Maths Challenge. is most prestigious competition is designed to promote mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills and attracts the UK’s top young mathematicians.

We are delighted to announce the following results for this year’s Senior Maths Challenge:

• Lizzie Jarrold (Year 13) – Gold

• Cici Chen (Year 13) – Silver

• Fiona Feng (Year 12) – Silver

In addition, both Lizzie and Cici received Merit certi cates for their participation in the UKMT Maths Olympiad, which serves as a platform to identify and nurture exceptional mathematical talent. We send our warmest congratulations to Lizzie, Cici and Fiona on their tremendous achievement.

Stephen Paine, Head of Mathematics

is question requires full written explanations.

ABCD is a quadrilateral, with vertices labelled in anticlockwise order, such that: AB is parallel to DC, AB = DC, and angle ADC is equal to angle ACB.

(a) Draw a diagram to show this information. Your diagram need not be to scale, but you should mark clearly equal lengths and angles. (2 marks)

(b) (i) Prove that AD = BC and that AD is parallel to BC. (ii) What type of quadrilateral is ABCD? (8 marks)

Maths Week England: Year 7 and 8 Tackle Perplexing Puzzles

In November, Year 7 and 8 pupils took part in some of the activities and puzzles set by the Maths Week England team. is year’s theme was ‘3 is a magic number’ and so we started by looking at the Triangular rees puzzle (scan the QR code for an explanation).

is started o easy, but adding numbers past 8 started to get very challenging. Here are some of our answers, created in about 15 minutes. Can you do any better?

Congratulations to all students who took part in the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust’s Intermediate Maths Challenge in February.

As ever the challenge was tough but our students showed their resilience and resourcefulness to achieve exceptional results.

Particular congratulations to the following students who achieved special awards:

BRONZE

Kaya Ahmed, Beyza Cetin, Sahi Kularamanan, Lucienne Mercier, Valentina Tinnirello (Year 9); Alexa Davies, Siena Field, Calypso Malialis, Issy Naylor, Shenel Okrah, Gabby Read, Christina Wong (Year 10); Susannah Adams, Simi Atewologun, Jasmine Chu, Kate De La Mare, Kirat Grewal, Lily Mikan, Nadiya Mohammed-Koko, Hannah Phipps, Amelie Roman, Sophie Taylor, Zoe Xenophontos (Year 11).

SILVER

Emily Zhou (Year 9); Emma Xu (Year 10); Helena Burr, Tina Chen, Sophie Clements, Mahi Kularamanan, Ore Olubajo, Sa a Rajpal, Olivia Sartori (Year 11).

GOLD

Beverley Yao (Year 10); Charlotte Aulsebrook, Eleanor Jarrold, Elly Kwok, Arabella Loftus (Year 11).

We then went on to complete an online escape room which tested a range of mathematical skills. ankfully we were all successful and managed to rescue the trapped children!

e Year 8 pupils attempted the date challenge (scan the QR code for details), which proved to be very challenging. We managed to nd a solution with one of the pieces ipped over but I still wonder if you can do it with them all the correct way up. What do you think?

Georgina Brown, Teacher of Mathematics

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge

e students achieving Gold awards also quali ed for the next round of the competition. Eleanor and Elly progressed to the Grey Kangaroo, while Beverley, Charlotte and Arabella competed in the Pink Kangaroo.

Stephen Paine, Head of Mathematics

Mid-Autumn Extravaganza

On Friday 29 September the EAL Department celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. is festival holds the second highest signi cance in the Chinese lunar calendar, following the Spring Festival which ushers in the New Year.

e girls enthusiastically crafted lanterns and mooncake boxes, immersing themselves in rich cultural tradition. e event was adorned with an array of Chinese teas served in authentic teacups and exquisite traditional teapots creating a wonderful experience. ey also meticulously fashioned traditional lanterns to showcase the mooncakes, paying homage to the legend of Hou Yi and his beloved wife Chang E. Jeannie Jim (Year 7) elegantly served tea, adding a special touch to this Friday morning gathering.

e day was complemented with the beautiful ‘Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake’ traditional music, accompanied by the delightful avours of mooncakes and Chinese tea.

Andrea George, Head of International Admissions

Queenswood Celebrates Lunar New Year 新年快乐

On Saturday 10 February, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide celebrated Lunar New Year, as we entered the Year of the Dragon.

We joined in the festivities at Queenswood with a delicious Chinese banquet, with dishes including sweet chilli pork ribs, Sichuan-style prawns, lemon chicken, beef in black bean sauce, red bean paste dosa, kung pao tofu and crispy shredded beef pancakes.

In EAL lessons, pupils made beautiful calligraphy decorations and savoury dumplings.

Global Lunch Feast for the International Class of 2023

On Friday 13 October we held an international luncheon to extend a heartfelt welcome to our new international students of 2023. is gathering provided a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the girls since joining us in September and engage in discussions about their transition into Queenswood life. ey candidly shared their experiences as global boarders and shared stories about the new friendships made across continents.

It was a lovely event, featuring a spread prepared by the catering team including hot chocolate, cakes, strawberries and lots of wonderful treats, all complemented by enjoyable games and music, carefully selected to ensure that they felt embraced by our community at Q. Mrs Cameron and many sta members made an appearance, making it a delightful afternoon for all.

Andrea George, Head of International Admissions

QUEENSWOOD CONQUERS the Capital

e 44th TCS London Marathon took place on Sunday 21 April, and Dr Vincini, Head of Biology at Queenswood, along with Year 13 student Mia Michau, were triumphant participants, conquering the capital in this iconic race.

In a personal best, Dr Vincini completed the course in a stunning 4 hours 24 minutes and raised over £1,100 for Bowel Cancer UK. Mia took on the huge challenge on behalf of Headway Hertfordshire, a charity supporting those a ected by brain injury, and raised a whopping £2,300, nishing the course in a most impressive 5 hours 18 minutes.

Congratulations to Dr Vincini and Mia!

SILVER Stories

Our Silver Readers in Years 8 and 9, Gabriella Antoniou, Ruby Berry, Maddie Bladon, Emmy Court, Meg Court, Alexandra Hughes and Arabella MacSweeney, were each awarded a special edition badge by the charity in March for having taken part in the scheme for at least a year. Emmy and Meg’s sister Rosa has also joined the group and is working towards completing her rst year of service, whilst Year 12 students, Addy orpe and Sophia Ziardis, are reading as part of their DofE voluntary service element.

Under the direction of Miss Tyler, Teaching Assistant in the Personalised Learning Centre, the students read aloud to senior citizens over the phone every week and even stay in touch during the school holidays with letters and postcards. e scheme provides tremendous bene ts for our students, and their ‘Silver Listeners’, who may otherwise experience isolation and loneliness, enjoy these cross-generational connections immensely.

In recognition of Miss Tyler’s longstanding committment to the charity and the exemplary care she provides to both her students and ‘Silver Listeners’, she was honoured in March with a most prestigious award from the High Sheri of Hertfordshire. Congratulations, Miss Tyler!

SORRENTO

JUNIOR CLASSICS TRIP TO SORRENTO

In the rst week of the October half-term, the Classics Department took 40 students from Years 8, 9 and 10 to Sorrento, Italy.

Students had the opportunity to experience walking in the footsteps of Ancient Romans on the streets of Pompeii and Herculaneum, admired the beautiful frescos of Villa Oplontis and were amazed at the scale of the Greek Temples at Paestum. is was an incredibly enriching experience for the students, and the Year 10s in particular said that they felt so much more engaged with the content studied at GCSE now that they had seen the sites in real life. One student commented that it was amazing how something that had originally just looked like a rock in the street, now had so much more meaning.

We also had a lot of fun shopping in Sorrento, and learning about the process of producing organic ingredients for making pizza and then having a go at making (and eating) our own! It was a wonderful week and we can’t wait for the Senior Trip to Greece next year!

Dr Natalie Enright, Head of Classics

AILATI ITALIA

THE BATTLEFIELDS

During Enrichment Week in June, Year 9 students experienced a moving and powerful two-day journey across Ypres and the Somme, which illustrated the realities of the scale of loss and bravery in World War One.

One day one, Amelie Mason and Emmy Court were able to visit the graves of relatives and lay a wreath in remembrance of their families sacri ce. Eva Grossart was also able to see the battle ground where her great great uncle fell. We also visited both an allied cemetery,

Lijssenthoek, and were able to spend time reading the individual inscriptions for some of the 10,500 buried there. Pupils were particularly interested in Nellie Spindler, a nurse who is the only woman in a military grave in Belgium. In Langemark, the German cemetery, we were struck by the scale of the mass grave containing at least 25,000 soldiers.

e Passchendaele museum provided an excellent interactive experience with an underground bunker trench system. e nal part of day one involved seeing the wreaths laid and the Last Post played at the Menin Gate. is act of remembrance has happened every evening at 8:30pm since 1928.

OF WORLD WAR ONE

On day two, we awoke to a grey and rainy day, which provided a more realistic sense of the muddy, wet conditions that troops faced for weeks on end.

We headed to France and the Somme. Our rst stop was at the Sunken Lane. Students learnt about the Battle of the Somme, Kitchener’s army and the Pals battalions. ey were given the opportunity to try on uniform and handle weapons from the war.

We then had the unique opportunity to attend the funeral of a WW1 British soldier who had been found recently by a farmer whilst ploughing. Although he was identi ed as British, unfortunately his name could not be traced. e ceremony was

very moving; he was given a military funeral with the Last Post played and he was nally laid to rest with his fallen comrades.

Next was Lochnagar crater to help understand the use of mine warfare in the Great War. Finally, our last stop was the iepval memorial to the missing. We observed a short act of remembrance and laid a wreath on behalf of Queenswood School.

Students and sta had a wonderful experience, which we will re ect upon for some time to come.

Julia Curtin, Head of History

In the rst week of the October half-term holiday, GCSE and A-Level students studying Art and English visited New York for a thrilling cross-curricular trip. Year 13 English student Freia brings us her report about this exciting visit and we also share a collage of captivating photographs taken in New York from the Queenswood Art School Instagram account.

As an English A-Level student, the New York trip was incredibly interesting as one of our set texts takes place within the city. One of the popular destinations for the characters in e Great Gatsby is the Plaza Hotel, and to see it in real life made the novel spring o the page for us.

We also got a chance to visit the Metropolitan Museum, which had one of the Free Standing Sculptures that I study in my Greek Art Module (for A-Level Classical Civilisation); this helped to enhance my understanding of the sculpture as well as nding it a phenomenal sight.

Another highlight was the terri c Broadway showing of Hamilton: we were all fascinated by the immense amount of skill that each performer possessed. Other engaging aspects included: the MOMA Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Friends apartment, walking through Central Park with delightful weather and the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.

Many of the Art students found the trip useful, as they gathered inspiration for future projects.

Freia Trinder, Year 13

Practical Cookery

Our Favourite Dishes

23/24

Indulgent Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

400ml of milk

2 tbsp cocoa

3 tbsp soft light brown sugar

50g dark or milk chocolate, nely chopped

Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Squirty cream and a selection of your favourite toppings

Method

Step 1. Heat the milk, cocoa, sugar and chocolate in a small pan over a medium heat until steaming and the chocolate has melted. Whisk to dissolve the cocoa. If you want to add a pinch of cinnamon, now is the time!

Step 2. Pour into a mug. Shake the can of squirty cream really well and add it to oat on the top of your hot chocolate.

Step 3. Add a ake and a few of your favourite toppings.

Valentines Cupcakes

Ingredients

55g soft butter

55g golden caster sugar

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla extract

55g self-raising our 1 tbsp milk

Method

Step 1. Heat the oven to 180oC & line a 6-hole tin with cupcake cases (not mu n cases).

Step 2. Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and u y.

Step 3. Beat the egg and vanilla in a small bowl, then beat into the butter mixture a little at a time.

Step 4. Fold the our into the mixture along with a little milk – the mixture should fall easily o a spoon. Divide the mixture between the cases using 2 tsps, lling each one no more than half full.

Step 5. Cook the cakes for 12-15 mins – they should be rm to the touch and slightly golden brown. Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then lift them out gently.

Step 6. When cool, decorate with ready-made icing (if you have time, make your own) and add a Haribo heart for a Valentine’s Day theme.

Cheat’s Chicken Ramen

Ingredients

600ml chicken or vegetable stock

Few coriander stalks and leaves

½ red chilli

100ml water

1 tbsp light soy sauce

50g pak choi

50g cooked chicken strips

20g bamboo shoots

50g egg noodles

Method

Step 1. Put a large saucepan over a medium heat and pour in the stock.

Step 2. Chop the coriander stalks and add to the stock (save leaves for later).

Step 3. Chop up the chilli and add most of it but save a little to garnish at the end.

Step 4. Bring to the boil and add 100ml water. Once boiled, reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins to infuse the coriander and chilli.

Step 5. Add the soy sauce, a little black pepper, pak choi, chicken and the noodles.

Step 6. Simmer for 2 mins until the noodles are soft and the chicken is hot.

Step 7. Now add the bamboo shoots.

Step 8. Serve in deep bowls, sprinkle the remaining chilli & coriander leaves.

Tenderstem Broccoli Noodles

Ingredients

2 nests of plant-based noodles

A few pieces of tenderstem broccoli

3 tbsp olive oil

A good pinch of dried chilli akes

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp soy sauce

¼ lime

Method

Step 1. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.

Step 2. Trim the broccoli stalks to make them a bit shorter and neater.

Step 3. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a frying pan and turn on to a medium heat.

Step 4. Fry the broccoli for a couple of minutes.

Step 5. Add a pinch of chilli akes, cook for 1 more minute.

Step 6. Add the golden syrup, 1 more tbsp of olive oil, a squeeze of lime juice, the soy sauce and some black pepper.

Step 7. Add the ready-prepared noodles to the frying pan and stir until very hot.

Step 8. Serve!

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

My D of E Sahi Kularamanan

Year 9 Bronze

In May, Year 9s went on their Bronze DofE Quali er Expedition to Ilam Hall, in Ashbourne. It was an incredible experience, where we all learnt many new skills and put our previously learnt skills from the training days into practice. From cooking, to putting up tents, we found our way around some challenging obstacles!

On Saturday we headed o in the right direction, but it soon became a steepening hill, and not too soon after, we met our rst hurdle. After climbing all the way up the hill, we realised that the ‘pathway’ marked on the map was actually a private gate, which one of our training weekend instructors warned us could happen. Working together, we found another gate through the eld and said hello to some lovely sheep who were grazing there! We reached Big Hillsdale Farm and set up our tents before making a delicious dinner of noodles and heading o to bed. Surprisingly, it was quite comfortable!

On the second day we cooked sausages for breakfast, packed up our things and took a route along the river, which was easy to follow and took us to the end point of Hulme End,quite quickly. We sat in the sun, had some ice cream, and waited for the other groups to arrive before heading back home. It was a fun and exciting experience, which we all enjoyed!

Expedition Itinerary

Lucienne Mercier

Year 9 Bronze

Friday

Left Queenswood at 4.30pm for the Peak District. Kept ourselves entertained on the long journey before arriving at Ilam Hall Youth Hostel. Ate Domino’s pizza and o to bed!

Saturday

Woke at 7.00am and had breakfast at the hostel. Packed up all our equipment and set o for our rst walk. Arrived at campsite at 4.30pm. Made dinner and relaxed in our tents.

Sunday

Woke early, cooked breakfast and packed up. Walked through Wetton and up Ecton Hill. Reached our end point at 1.30pm.

Expedition Challenges Annabelle Ryder Year 9

ere is a huge amount to carry It is very hard work No tech for three days!

Silver Practice Weekend

Our Silver DofE students embraced the stunning Chiltern Hills over the long May bank holiday weekend. ey had a brilliant time with their instructors from e Adventure Elements and worked as a team to navigate around Tring and Ivinghoe Beacon.

Students used the weekend as a practice expedition for the Silver Quali er in the Peak District, which takes place in late June, just as the Queenswoodian goes to print!

Miss Rachel Ya e, DofE Co-ordinator

Gold Award Winners Visit Buckingham Palace

In May, around 9,000 DofE Gold Award holders were invited to one of four celebratory garden parties at Buckingham Palace to mark their achievements. It was Prince Edward’s rst Award celebrations as the charity’s patron, and he met Award holders, hearing about the positive impact their DofE experience has had on them.

We are most proud to report that among the guests receiving this highly-prestigious award, were former Queenswood students Anya Mehta, Sophia Mikou, Maeve Goldman, So a Martin, Izzy Engestrom and Farida Mohammed-Koko. We send our warmest congratulations to these inspiring young women and wish them all the very best for the future. You can watch highlights from the celebrations by scanning the QR code.

My D of E Anna Birkin Year 10 Silver

We set o walking 10km on our rst day. It was a pleasant walk through scenic woods and rolling hills and with a lot of motivational singing and sweets. We all sat on a sunny eld and ate sandwiches. When we got back to camp we set up tents, ate dinner and played ball games under the orange sky of the setting sun. Exhausted, we all returned to our tents ready for a nice night’s sleep. However, none of us realised that the night would be as cold as it was!

e next morning after a nice warm breakfast we were ready to go again. It was another warm day and our route took us back through the Chiltern Hills again. Shortly through the day we joined the canal, which – as long and monotonous as it was – was mostly shaded, which we were all glad for. We had lunch watching the ducks pass us by on the water. After returning to Town Farm campsite after 19km of walking, we were all exhausted and after dinner had an early night, wrapped in about ve layers of jumpers! We all awoke having had a much better night’s sleep than the previous night.

Glad it was the last day and with the excitement of having a warm shower and a proper bed, we set o early to get home. After a couple of hours the weather took a turn for the worse and having got soaked through, we were glad to see the bus ready to take us home. After a fun weekend of long walks and enjoying spending time with friends, I was very glad to get home.

We would like to thank Miss Ya e for her exceptional leadership as Queenswood’s DofE Co-ordinator for the last ve years. Her dedication, enthusiasm and encouragement have inspired our students and enabled them to achieve their DofE goals.

Gold Award Celebrations at Buckingham Palace.

SCIENCE NEWS

Laboratory Renovations

In the Science Department, two laboratories were entirely recon gured this academic year, creating versatile, collaborative working spaces for practical scienti c experimentation. With modern seating and benches, e cient storage areas, and ceiling drop-down pods for gas and electric, the new laboratories are maximising student engagement and hands-on participation. is exciting development marks the beginning of a programme of extensive refurbishment, which will see every laboratory in the department upgraded in due course.

Eggs-hausting Work for Year 7!

In December, our Year 7 scientists were learning about reproduction, and were given a hollow egg to look after. eir task was to take good care of their new ‘baby egg’ for an entire week, as if it was their own child. House points were awarded to students who had looked after their eggs appropriately. It was an eggs-hausting week!

SCIENCE NEWS

Year 13 Biologists at Juniper Hall

Year 13 Biologists spent an enjoyable and productive few days on a eld trip to Juniper Hall in Surrey in September. ey took samples of grassland, and humanely captured voles before studying them and releasing them back into the wild. ey also engaged in mark release recapture of pond snails. It was a fascinating way to study biodiversity in beautiful surroundings.

MedSoc: Drug Absorption and Metabolism

Miss Smith (Head of Science) gave a lecture on drug absorption and metabolism to the Medical Society in October.

In the lecture we considered the e ect of polar bonds on drug absorption and administration and we discussed the rst pass e ect and how this must be considered by medics when calculating drug doses.

e Medical Society meets weekly in the Science Department, and is open to all Sixth Form students interested in pursuing a career in Medicine or Veterinary Science.

British Physics Olympiad

Year 12 Physicists Receive Gold Award

Year 12 students Maria-Giulia Bruehl, Ivanna Volkova and Emily Zhang were awarded a gold award for their work in a group project within the BPhO (British Physics Olympiad) Experimental Project, investigating the motion of the slinky under gravity.

eir research spanned from October to February, where the girls planned their experiment, in which they recorded the fall of the slinky, collected and processed the data, produced graphs describing the slinky’s motion and drew conclusions.

All three participants note the useful hands-on experience and research skills obtained during working on the project.

Ivanna Volkova,

Year 12

MedSoc: Diabetes Talk

On Wednesday 31 January, Medical Society welcomed two guest speakers from the Hertfordshire Community NHS trust.

Claire Mearing and Lindsey Ochiltree have both been running the DAFNE (dose adjustment for normal eating) course for people with diabetes for nearly 20 years.

ey gave up their time to give a talk on diabetes, what it is and how we treat it. ere was an array of examples of technology used to assist people with diabetes and they answered any queries and questions.

Afterwards both Claire and Lindsey commented on the high standard of questions asked and remarked that Queenswood was a lovely environment to be in.

Chris Young, Chemistry Technician

year 10 artists

Year 10 enjoyed a day of gallery visits and walking tours in London’s West End on Tuesday 5 March, taking in the Mall Galleries, the Royal Academy, Green Park and St James’s Park. We asked some of the students to put together a review of their experiences.

When we went to the Royal Academy I instantly fell in love with how they laid everything out. e rst room brought a lot of dramatic tension as you were based in the centre of the room surrounded by portraits. en you move on to see boats cascading throughout the middle of the room, surrounded by paintings of sailors, pirates, and people. I thought was how the layout really made you focus on every single piece of art. Every room brought me di erent emotions.

I enjoyed the RA more than the Mall, not only because I enjoyed the history behind some of the paintings but also because of the fact that it wasn’t all modern artwork. I liked the atmosphere of the RA because the dim lighting and the big rooms with minimal artwork really gave it a sense of importance and made people understand and enjoy it more.

Reya Anklesaria, Year 10

I enjoyed the Mall Galleries. I was interested in the range of styles and the di erent mediums used in the pieces of art on display. It was fascinating how di erent paints, newspaper, pencils, ne lined pens and sculpture were used by the artists to create their pieces. ere was a large range of themes of artwork to see, from the city streets, to nature, to everyday objects, plants, owers as well as animals and sea creatures. I also enjoyed the mix of realism and fun animated and simpli ed work as there was always something new to see and a di erent take on something in the world.

Tabby Wells, Year 10

Lola Smith, Year 10

vincent van gogh

Year 8 artists immersed themselves in the Vincent Van Gogh exhibition on ursday 25 January. e 90-minute experience included information about the artist, his subject matter and his life.

With projections cataloguing his love of still life through owers, to his ‘starry, starry night’ paintings, as well as his sun owers, landscapes and self-portraits, his work was brought to life in dazzling colour and movement.

On Monday 11 September, our Sixth Form Textiles, Fine Art, Photography and 3D Design students went on a trip to Tate Britain and Tate Modern galleries by boat.

We started out at Tate Britain, which showcased Pre-Raphaelite artwork primarily by the Rossetti family, and we were lucky enough to see artwork by Dante Rossetti and read and hear poetry by Christina Rossetti. e exhibition explored their creative journeys and made connections to other members of their family and the friends who in uenced them.

We took the Tate Boat up the ames to Tate Modern. We were given time to explore the gallery independently. ere was a wide range of art on display exploring all manner of themes. Collections include ‘Media Networks’, ‘Materials and Objects’ and ‘Performer and Participant’. We saw a variety of artwork, from large installation pieces, such as giant towers made of radios, to free motion embroidery pieces, photography, drawing and painting. Our focus was the ‘Capturing e Moment’ exhibition, which featured well known artists such as Pablo Picasso, photographers including Andreas Gursky, as well as work by David Hockney, who is known for both his paintings and his photography. e purpose of the day was to give us inspiration to create our own artwork for our A-Level projects. It was also possible, in the Rossetti exhibition, to see how an artist chooses a theme for their artwork, how they develop ideas by drawing quick sketches and then how those ideas are re ned into nal ambitious compositions. It was a fascinating and informative day.

Scarlett Easey, Year 13 and Mrs Helen Platt-Hawkins, Head of Art

tate galleries

e Queenswood Sports Awards Dinner 2024, held in the Dining Room on the evening of Friday 26 April, was a truly special event, as we honoured the amazing achievements and commitment of our sportswomen.

Our guest of honour was Emily Defroand, retired England and GB hockey player. She paid tribute to the tremendous hard

work and dedication shown by our pupils, and presented awards and trophies to teams and individuals – including the Sports Personality of the Year, which was voted for on the night.

Many thanks to Emily for giving up her time, and to the Catering Department for the delicious meal!

Queenswood’s U18 Tennis Team made history in the last week of June 2023 as they won the Aberdare Cup in Nottingham for the 28th time. is victory, coming just six months after our teams won the National Schools Championships at U13 and U15, meant that Queenswood held the National title at all ages for the 2022-23 season.

Despite playing for the U18 team, the girls were signi cantly young for their age group. ey excelled themselves all week, dropping just two matches throughout the nals, and beating teams from Repton, Eastbourne College, Culford and Surbiton to claim the title.

As a result of this victory, Queenswood has been invited by the Lawn Tennis Association to represent England at the World Schools Championships in Bahrain in October 2024 – an extremely exciting opportunity. We look forward to reporting on their progress in the next issue of the Queenswoodian.

e U15 Tennis Team successfully defended their National title at the Bolton Arena on 1–3 December.

is was the third National title in twelve months for this astonishingly talented group of players. It was also the second year in a row that they had triumphed in this competition, which started back in April 2023 with over 2,000 schools across the country entering.

Our team sailed through the County round, Regional knock-out and Regional nals to reach the Nationals, where they faced the Regional winners from the South East, South West, North and Midlands.

e nal match was played against our old rivals Talbot Heath, and the victory was decisive. e win capped o a fantastic 2023 for Queenswood, which saw us cement our position as the LTA’s #1 ranked school for girls’ tennis, which we have held since 2019.

e winning team (left to right): Edie Gri ths, Alice Haddad, Gabby Read, Ava McMillan, Bella Loftus, Celine Ricaud Cortina

Champions (from third left): So a Amodu, Bella Loftus, Tia Jakupovic-Kljako, Gabby Read, Alice Haddad, Ava McMillan

e Queenswood community marked International Women’s Day on 8 March with a very special Hurley Cup run. is annual cross-country event is held in memory of Phil Hurley, a great patron of Q Sport over many years.

ere were face-painting and bracelet-making stalls, raising money for Girls Out Loud, which runs programmes to ‘empower girls to channel their potential and make better life choices’.

Students (and sta !) deejayed on the terrace, while the whole school, dressed in House colours, ran or walked a mile around the campus in beautiful spring sunshine to earn House Points. ere were some fantastic fancy dress costumes on display, and some of our four-legged friends even got in on the act! It was a wonderful celebration of Queenswood’s inclusivity, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day.

BARCELONA

JUNIOR HOCKEY TOUR

SPAIN

BARCELONA

NIAPS

Over 40 hockey players from Years 7 and 8 spent a week of the October half-term holiday perfecting their techniques, playing matches, bonding with teammates and sightseeing in Barcelona. Here are some of the highlights from the @QueenswoodSport Instagram feed.

queenswoodsport Day 1: A busy first day with an early start but we have arrived! A walk to the beach and afternoon at the pool, before heading to @atleticterrassa for fixtures under the lights

queenswoodsport Day 2 included a morning full of hockey with training at @rcpolobarcelona followed by a walk down Las Ramblas for lunch

queenswoodsport Day 3: A beautiful morning down at the beach for some fitness work, followed by our annual sand sculpture contest After a thrilling game of beach football we headed to the marina for lunch and some shopping

queenswoodsport Day 5 was action packed with lots of hockey We first headed to Pau Negre, the home of 1992 Olympic hockey, for another coaching clinic with @rcpolobarcelona

We then headed to Barceloneta beach for lunch, before returning to @rcpolobarcelona for our fixtures in the evening

queenswoodsport Day 4 started with a trip to @clubegara for 4 matches. Some great hockey on display with lots of goals. We then took the short trip across to @futboljuniorfc to watch their top of the table clash with @rcpolobarcelona. A high standard of hockey for our girls to aspire to .

queenswoodsport Our last day in Barca started with the return of the highly contested tour tournament at @rcpolobarcelona We then visited La Sagrada Familia for sightseeing before returning to Pau Negre for our evening fixtures against @fcbhockey_femeni Negre Thank you to @thehockeydepartment and all of our students for an amazing week on tour #hockey #barcelona @thehockeydepartment @sandervanderweide76

WEEKEND ACTIVITIES

From ‘Potato Night’ to a summer festival on Trew Lawn, from rock-climbing to ice-skating, and with trips to London, orpe Park, the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour and many more destinations, every weekend at Queenswood is fun-packed! Here is a small selection of the activities and experiences that boarders have enjoyed this year...

artist

Every month, Mrs Platt-Hawkins, Head of Art, DT and Food Faculty selects a piece of ne art to be displayed in Mrs Cameron’s study. e title of Queenswood Artist of the Month is highly coveted, and we’re pleased to present a selection of this year’s winning artworks.

artist

VALLOIRE

NARF C E

During the Easter holidays, over 40 Queenswood pupils spent a week on the pristine slopes of Valloire, at the foot of the famous Col du Galibier and Col du Télégraphe. Skiers of all abilities made the most of the superb conditions, as well as enjoying the entertainment and hospitality facilities in the village of Valloire and the charming Joie de Vivre hotel.

ULTIMATE ADVENTUR E YEAR 7 BONDING

TRIP TO DEVON

Year 7 pupils enjoyed an action-packed week of bonding activities in Devon in October. They loved climbing high ropes, kayaking, racing scooters, shooting arrows, tackling the Wipeout course...and getting very, very wet!

Dia de los muertos

e Spanish Department started the second half of the Autumn Term with a bang, hosting a party to celebrate el Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with Year 7.

Pupils learnt about the Mexican festival, which takes place at the start of November, through many di erent activities. We decorated calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls), created oral hairbands with cempasúchiles (Mexican marigolds) and made other decorations to adorn our very own altar, or ofrenda. Year 7 pupils enjoyed many snacks such as traditional pan de muerto, a sweet bread baked for this special time of year. Many also transformed into calacas (skeletons) with face paint, before ending as any Mexican party should – with a piñata!

Anna Sutton, Teacher of Spanish

La Fête du MUGUET

In French lessons at the start of the Summer Term, Year 7 learned about la Fête du Muguet, which is celebrated in France on 1 May. ey made cards to give out to their families and friends.

A sprig of lily of the valley (le muguet) is traditionally given to family and loved ones to bring good fortune for the year ahead. Long associated with spring, lily of the valley is given as a gift on 1 May every year. e tradition dates back to 1561, when King Charles IX of France was o ered a sprig of lily of the valley. He was told that it would bring him luck and prosperity for the year ahead so he decided to share his good luck and o ered lilies of the valley to every lady in his court and continued to do so each year.

Bonne Fête du Muguet à tout le monde !

Violaine Ludwick, Teacher of French

MODEL UNITED NATIONS Queenswood represents Bolivia at Haileybury event

On Saturday 16 March, five Year 9 students participated in their inaugural Model United Nations (MUN) conference at Haileybury College, representing Bolivia. The event, boasting 600 delegates, stands as the largest of its kind in the country, and the conference theme this year was ‘Collaboration in a Polarised World’.

Despite being amongst the youngest attendees, our girls overcame their initial nerves and bravely embraced the challenge by representing our delegation in separate committee rooms to debate a wide range of topics including: the treatment and rights of incarcerated people; the question of debt relief for developing countries; civil liberties in the Middle East; the use of child labour; and the question of the distribution of natural resources acquired from outer space.

Their performance was nothing short of commendable, as they actively contributed to the discussions, debates, and negotiations and they themselves have remarked on the significant improvement in their skills of independent research, speech writing, and persuasive delivery as a result of their participation in this initially intimidating experience.

We are immensely proud of their achievements. This experience not only marks a milestone in their academic journey but also serves as a testament to their potential and readiness to engage in global affairs.

Dr Natalie Enright, Head of Classics

Above, left to right: Zara Okigbo, Sahi Kularamanan, Greisi Bekteshi, Delight Ogunlade, Jessica Bryson

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

DESIGN &

 Year 9 textiles DAVID HOCKNEY

DESIGN

Year 10  eames chairs

Year 10 lighting

Year 10 trinket boxes

 YEAR 11 COURSEWORK (2022–23)

art scholars

ese images, by some of our Art Scholars, were commissioned by Mrs Jackson, Director of Music, to be displayed in the practice rooms in the Essame Studios. ey are inspired by pieces of music, including O Magnum Mysterium (Morten Lauridsen), ‘Chicken ’n’ Dumplings’ (Ray Bryant), e Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams), Partita for solo violin (J S Bach), e Greatest Showman (Pasek & Paul), ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ ( e Beatles), ‘Mars’ from e Planets Suite (Holst) and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (Queen).

ENRICHMENT WEEK 2024

The week of June 17–21 was extraordinarily busy for Queenswood students and staff, with timetables suspended for a programme of enrichment activities both in and out of school.

Year 7 enjoyed taking part in STEM activities involving eggs and cardboard towers, building and racing their own Roman chariots, a trip to the Tate Modern gallery, getting hands-on experience of medieval warfare, a ‘Meet the Author’ session with science author Isabel Thomas, and world music and songwriting workshops.

Many Year 8 pupils spent most of the week in Madrid, where they toured the Bernabeu stadium, visited the Almudena Cathedral and the ancient Egyptian Temple of Debod, experienced a flamenco show, spent a day at Parque Warner theme park, and of course sampled lots of delicious tapas and churros. They even found themselves caught up in King Felipe’s 10th anniversary celebrations! For those that remained in the UK, there were culinary, artistic and sporting activities to celebrate the cultures of France, Japan and Spain, and a trip to Hamerton Zoo.

Year 9 spent two unforgettable days on the WW1 battlefields of Belgium and northern France; you can read about this very special trip on page 62. Meanwhile, students at Queenswood explored the Hindu faith, took part in an Apprentice-based activity, and joined Year 10 on the paddle boards. Later in the week, the whole year group enjoyed a workshop and performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Globe Players, took part in dance workshops with a West End professional, had an illuminating talk on water safety courtesy of Herts Police, and spent a gloriously sunny day at Thorpe Park.

For Year 10, the week began with a Sixth Form experience day, during which they spent time in the Bellman Sixth Form Centre, and took part in an afternoon of taster lessons in the 27 subjects available at A-Level. Later in the week, they spent a morning paddle-boarding and rock-climbing, took part in team-building exercises on Trew Lawn, watched a performance by the Globe Players, learned a stunning dance routine from Moulin Rouge with a West End star and tackled the high ropes of Alexandra Palace Go Ape.

ENRICHMENT WEEK 2024

For Year 12, the focus was very much on futures and careers, with time spent exploring university courses, getting to grips with the UCAS process, and taking part in an exciting Festival Challenge enterprise activity. They had a talk from a LinkedIn representative about CVs and employability, and enjoyed a day out to the Freud museum in Hampstead.

Thank you to every member of staff who helped to make these memorable experiences possible, and special thanks to Mrs Bullock, our External Visits Co-ordinator, who masterminded the entire operation – no mean feat!

Celebrating the Class of ’24

As their time at Queenswood drew to a close, Year 13 enjoyed a week of gloriously sunny events.

They spent the afternoon of Tuesday 7 May at West Lodge Park Hotel, where they had a celebratory tea and explored the stunning grounds. During lunch on Wednesday 8 May they took over Trew Lawn, with a bouncy castle and ice cream van.

The week of events culminated on Friday evening with a moving Leavers’ Service in Chapel, followed by a formal dinner for pupils, parents and staff. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house!

valete 2024

Rachel Abratt

Sophie Alden

Echo Aulsebrook

Nina Avdeeva

Aleyna Ayyildiz

Melisa Ayyildiz

Ela Behr

Tamsin Bisseker

Jessie Chau

Phoebe Bai

Katelyn Bolton

Renee Chen

Abby Dench

Mimi-Joan Hall

Sofia Dobrynina

Cici Chen

Katie Chiu

Emma De La Mare

Scarlett Easey

Gemma Edwards

Amelia Evans

Sophia Evans

Vivie Flatt

Willow Hayes

Jodi Hunt

Isabelle Iskandar

Lizzie Jarrold

Janice Lui

Sylvia Li

Sienna Mahoney

Zara Madueke

Tia Nieberg

Morife Olubajo

Mia Michau

Marie Papachristou

Ava Penny

Isabella Perrozzi-Vural

Nanako Quirk

Ella Robinson

Hannah Read

Sofia Sartori

Isabel Simpson

Mia Sofoluwe

Ona-Kecia Thomas Forbes 30 Under 30

Freia Trinder

Abby Yang

Grace Yong

Guitar Club at Queenswood brings together students who are learning the instrument, for practice and chilled jam sessions! Mr Hartley runs the club, and this year the pupils learned contemporary songs including ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol. Everyone is welcome to join in!

CO-CURRICULAR GUITAR CLUB

It was wonderful to see the Polo Club back in the saddle and horsing around again this year in Queenswood’s fields on the opposite side of Shepherd’s Way. Due to the incredible amount of rain, the polo ponies were unloaded in the ‘ mane’ car park, which was quite a sight to behold at the end of the school day!

POLO

NEWSLETTER CLUB

The newsletter at Queenswood is a whole school effort and we are always keen to include contributions from our students. As well as sharing key information about the upcoming term and reporting on school events, the newsletter is a platform for all pupils to express themselves responsibly, to proffer or challenge ideas and to connect with their peers. This year our team of reporters, Eva Momcilovic, Maddy Stevens, Leah Gold and Ophelia Phillips Bhan, provided invaluable content for the newsletter and this edition of the Queenswoodian, including suggestions for fun weekend activities, recipes and book reviews. They also shot video footage of other co-curricular activites, photographed our stunning campus and interviewed teachers and students. Well done, team!

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

Unsolved Mysteries Club was not for the faint-hearted this year! The Year 10 students developed an incident desk in order to solve the most heinous of crimes – a murder... They filtered through all the evidence including text messages, photographs, police statements, maps and forensic reports, and worked together to bring the perpetrator to justice. Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 worked on a different crime – was it Colonel Mustard in the library with the revolver? They developed their methods of deduction and are now true Cluedo experts!

KRAV MAGA

Krav Maga Club had a strong turnout of students eager to learn and improve their skills this year. The first few sessions focused on basic techniques such as strikes, blocks, and escapes, and moved on to cover more advanced techniques such as defending from chokes and holds. As well as teaching students to stay safe, the club was great fun and everyone enjoyed the camaraderie.

CHESS CLUB

Chess Club was a great activity this year for students looking to develop their strategic thinking and enjoy some friendly competition along the way! In addition to Chess, pupils also went along to play general strategy games and to socialise with their friends with similar interests. Some pupils attending the club are more experienced than others at the game, and total beginners are also welcome to join and will be taught how to play. Your next move awaits!

HORSERIDING

Yet again, Horseriding Club was one of Queenswood’s most popular co-curricular activities this year and every Wednesday evening, a coach full of students headed off to Trent Park Equestrian Centre for their lessons. In addition to the club, some of our pupils have also enjoyed their own individual equestrian successes and we send them our congratulations!

ROBOTICS

Using a Raspberry Pi kit, members of the Robotics Club built their own thermal nature cams this year, in order to record still photos or video footage of the wildlife at Queenswood. The students wrote the computer code which tells the camera to start recording once the heat sensor is activated by a passing animal - fascinating stuff! The club provides a great opportunity to get hands-on experience in robotics and coding, whilst working on engaging projects outside of the curriculum.

OVER 170 CLUBS every week

AERIAL HOOPS

Aerial Hoops is an activity for students in Years 9 to 13 and offers a unique blend of fitness and artistry. Pupils who attended the club this year quickly mastered this mesmerising skill, which requires graceful athleticism and poise. The club members demonstrated their talent at the Queenswood Dance Show, leaving the audience spellbound!

On Thursday 8 February, Clapham South dazzled us as they brought Met Gala glamour to Queenswood for their House Supper. Students and staff were dressed impeccably, and the Dining Room exuded an atmosphere of high-fashion elegance. This exceptional red carpet event raised a stunning £1,268 for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice.

The theme of Waller’s House Supper this year was Après Ski and it was a lively evening of winter-themed fun! There were some fantastic outfits on display and students and staff enjoyed a delicious dinner including cornichons, pickled onion and chocolate crêpes. There was a game of bingo, which raised £77 for Noah’s Ark and the room looked amazing, covered in fake snow, tea lights and snowballs.

House shield designs by Art Scholar Sophie Clements (Year 11)

Waller House filled the Dining Hall with sunshine, laughter and colour for their annual House Supper on Thursday 24 November.

This year the theme was Hawaii, and as you can see from the photographs taken by Theodora Cornell (Year 13), there were some spectacularly vibrant outfits on display!

Clapham North delighted in the magic of Disney+ at their House Supper on Thursday 29 February and it really was an enchanted evening! Dressed in an array of iconic character costumes, North enjoyed a host of Disney-themed games including ‘Pin the Tail on Simba’ and ‘Frozen Snowball Throw’. The fun and games raised an incredible £698 for Noah’s Ark.

On Tuesday 21 November, Hartley House transformed the Dining Room into a pink wonderland for their Barbie-themed House Supper. Students and staff dressed in Barbie- and Ken-inspired outfits and enjoyed a delicious supper before hitting the floor to ‘dance the night away’ . The evening was a glittering success and raised £321 for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice.

SEVILLA SENIOR SPANISH TRIP: A REPORT FROM STUNNING SEVILLE

Seville. Where do we begin? This delightful trip was just bursting with many different cultural and contrasting experiences to those one would encounter in England. Would we say this trip affected us for the long term, and gave us knowledge and bonds with others that will last a lifetime? Yes, we would. Initially, we were stunned by the many enticing adventures suited to every interest; little did we know this was just the beginning. This wasn’t a regular school trip. No; this was an experience that none of us could ever forget.

Despite the early 1:30am wake-up call for our flight we were all so excited, mostly to see some Spanish sunshine! The relaxing river cruise at Torre del Oro was a great way to start off our trip as many of us admired the views, while others caught up on some much needed rest.

We were lucky enough to enjoy a flamenco show exploring Spain’s rich artistic heritage, creating an unforgettable experience which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We were all captivated by the highly dramatic movements of the dancers, and we even tried to replicate them ourselves afterwards. Needless to say, we didn’t have half as much talent as the dancers, or should we say the artists, that performed for us at the Museum of Flamenco.

On the third day, we readied ourselves to go on a journey through time. We visited the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba and were immediately transported to a world where three major religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – were living in harmony. We saw many incredible historic artefacts, such as the beautiful mihrab dome, which immediately dazzled us.

Our last day was packed with activities, starting with a walking tour through Seville. As we wandered through cobblestone streets, our tour guide explained the significance of Spain’s cultural processions whilst delving into the importance of different landmarks. Plaza de España became a stoppingpoint for photos and a place to sit, as walking for two hours had proven to be quite the challenge. It also left us quite hungry, which was perfect as we were already en route to our next activity – a cooking class, where we were taught how to make an authentic Spanish paella, and got to taste the many flavours of Seville. To end our trip, we took a visit to the Real Maestranza Bullfighting Museum, and we were even allowed into the actual bullfighting ring, where Spanish bullfighting heroes (or matadors) had fought bulls before us! To say we were amazed would be an understatement.

Although we visited many places, we had many hours of free time in which we experienced the amazing food Seville has to offer, and got to practise our Spanish with the locals. We also had the chance to explore the historical background of this splendid city and navigate it on our own, readying us for all of our future travels around the world.

Finally, we must say that Mrs Nuñez and Miss Sutton were lovely and patient with us – we know that it must be frustrating dealing with teenagers for four days! We are very grateful to them for their kindness and helpfulness on the trip, and we definitely couldn’t have done it on our own. Their organisation was astounding, and we couldn’t have asked for better teachers to accompany us.

Overall, Seville was a lovely experience that allowed us to interact and communicate with locals and to develop our learning. The intricately planned day trips kept us entertained as we explored the city. We had a great time and definitely feel more confident speaking Spanish.

Calypso Malialis, Asha Patel, Poppy Floyd and Georgina Cheverall, Year 10

LEAVERS’ DESTINATIONS

Adeitura Andu Computer Science with a Year in Industry Swansea University

Bella Avanzato Politics and International Relations with Year Abroad University of Birmingham

Ela Caglayan Neuroscience Including Professional Training Year Cardiff University

Christina Chan Foundation Certificate for Science and Engineering University of Birmingham

Kylie Chen Business Management and Economics with Foundation Year University of Sussex

Isabelle Cheung Accounting and Finance University of Essex

Theodora Cornell Gap year

Chloë Dean Interior Design Falmouth University

Tetyana Demchak Screen Acting Met Film School

Izzie Engestrom Geography University of Cambridge

Alicia-Rose Gallo Classical Studies University of Reading

Lilly Gilani Ancient History Cardiff University

Maeve Goldman Sport and Exercise Science University of Bath

Amelia Gruselle Fashion Marketing University of the Arts London

Chenaya

Hewapathirana Gap year

Georgie Ibison Gap year

Georgina Knight History University of York

Annie Liu Fine Art (Extension Degree) Foundation Year Goldsmiths, University of London

Silvana Alvarez Albores Music Production

Berklee College of Music, Boston (USA)

2023

Samantha Meyer Criminology with Social Policy

Sophia Mikou Computer Science

University of Liverpool

University of St Andrews

Farida Mohammed-Koko Law University of Reading

Elizabeth Nefedov Sport and Exercise Science

Leeds Beckett University

Moni Olubajo Gap year

Grace Pavett Interior Architecture with Foundation

University of Westminster

Sara Pinzon Martinez Spanish University of Chester

Abigail Rush Marketing and Management with Industrial Experience University of Exeter

Carmel Sabapathy Human Biology with Foundation Year

Konyinsola Salako English Literature and Film

Abby Stevenson Computer Science

Canterbury Christ Church University

University of Birmingham

Northeastern University, Boston (USA)

Lola Stubbs Gap year

Kelly Sun Illustration

School of Visual Arts, New York (USA)

Stephanie Sun Economics University of Bath

Olivia eodorou Social Science Cardi University

Ella russell Ancient History

Royal Holloway, University of London

Chloe Tsang Business and Management (Marketing) University of Reading

Anne-Marie Ujeyah English and Communications with Study Abroad University of Exeter

Eloise van der Walt Film and Moving Image Production

Lily Wang Gap year

Shelly Yang King’s College London

Norwich University of the Arts (2024) Mathematics

JuniorFrench trip to

LA CÔTE D'OPALE

C E

16 pupils from Years 8 and 9 travelled to the delightful Opal Coast region of Normandy at the end of the Spring Term. ey sampled the local culinary and cultural delights, and had plenty of opportunities to practise their spoken French.

Highlights included: a walking tour of St Omer; a visit to a boulangerie, where they learned to make dough for baguettes, pains au chocolat and croissants; a morning spent at

La Halte d’Autrefois goat farm, learning about cheese-making and feeding the animals; an afternoon in a chocolaterie; and a memorable visit to Nausicaá, Europe’s largest aquarium. ey also enjoyed a scavenger hunt at the market in Étaples, and some welcome retail therapy at an Auchan hypermarché. All in all, it was a jam-packed three days of activities, fun and gastronomie.

On day two we went to a boulangerie. e baker showed us each step of making bread, and all in French! We learned many new French words and vocabulary used for cooking. After this we went to a goat farm; we got to make our very own goat-shaped bread with chocolate and even tried the fresh apple juice and goat’s cheese produced by the farm. We got to meet the goats and even tried milking them. We later visited a chocolate factory and learnt all about making chocolate – which we got to sample at the end of the tour.

Jessica Bryson and Emma Jackson, Year 9

We visited St Omer, explored the town on foot and ordered ice cream in French. We even interviewed some locals who told us about their routines when we were in a shopping centre. Of course we managed to do some shopping as well. Being in a room with our friends was great and so much fun but so were the activities, such as a silent disco at our accommodation. e food was good. We made crêpes on the rst night with our own choice of toppings and even tried snails with garnishes!

On the last day, we visited an aquarium lled with so many di erent animals and giant tanks. We had such a great time walking around and buying gifts from the gift shop for our family and friends. Très bien!

9

I enjoyed learning about French culture and traditions through food, language and people. Boulogne was a lovely spot in France and I particularly enjoyed the chocolate factory and the aquarium.

8

Greisi Bekteshi, Year

Rebekah Wray, Year

year 13 3D design and textiles

good dog!

Dog (noun)

Best friend. Snuggle. Comforter.

Loyal companion.

Therapist.

Playmate. Conversationalist. Loving. A special creature whose time in your heart will far outnumber its days on earth.

At Queenswood, our four-legged friends enjoyed all sorts of doggy fun this year. In September, Nala was ready to greet families visiting Centre House at our first open morning of the academic year and Bella kept herself busy licking the stamps (and the Postman!) in the General Office. Indy assisted Miss Yaffe with her brilliant DofE endeavours and Zennor hosted all the other Queenswood pups at her 7th Birthday Pawty. It really is a dog’s life at Q!