Special pre- and post-A level programme

Queen’s Seniors’ Transition & Enrichment Programme

Since A-levels were cancelled, Queen’s students in their final year have embarked on some challenging courses, taught by Queen’s sta¡, to prepare them for their next steps a¢er school. Students have also been working on life skills such as coding, cooking and learning to drive. Here are some student comments, as well as some exciting news from one student.

“I have been taking the Critical Thinking course and it is greatly beneficial. I am now more confident to go from A-levels to university study as I can approach essay writing and research critically.” Tara

“Art in the World has been a very stimulating course. We have looked at how people value and put a price on works of art, art scandals and race and art. We will be speaking to professionals in the art industry and can ask them questions first hand.” Alex

“In Sports and Exercise Science we have covered a range of pertinent topics from the skeletal and respiratory system to why women are more likely to injure their ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) than men. A debate ensued about gender equality in sport.” Ariella

“I have had a wonderful experience with ‘The USA, 1945- 2000’ course. We have delved into the culture of America during the 1950s-70s, discussing how art, music and other creative outlets like literature were heavily influenced by the contemporary political state of the USA.” Sophia

“After co-running Feminist Society, I jumped at the idea of the Feminism and Gender course. We’ve studied a wide range of significant feminist literature, each week focussing on a new wave.” Jemima

“After signing up to the ‘How to Succeed at Interviews’ Course’, I can approach interviews with confidence by doing effective preparation beforehand and making a good first impression.” Isabelle

“In Covid Watch – the virus and international politics, I have really enjoyed addressing conspiracy theories surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19 as well learning about comparative data which makes it a challenging task to understand how each country is coping.” Jewel

“Personal Finance has been extremely interesting and informative. Throughout the weeks we have learnt what the importance of money is and some top tips on how to benefit yourself for the future.” Katie “I applied for the Bank of England Degree Apprenticeship course and after an online application, psychometric tests and a video interview, I was invited to their virtual assessment centre. This consisted of two group exercises and an interview. A week later, I received the amazing news that I had landed a position at the UK Deposit Takers division at the Bank.” Beatrice

Mrs Lucy Penny, Co-Head of Classics: “I was so pleased to hear of Bea’s success. I joined the Bank of England in the 1970s, after university, as a coder and then went into banking supervision. Our job was to ensure that people who put money in the high street banks could get it back and to issue banking licences. I felt I was doing something really worthwhile. My last job was in payment systems, managing the risk of money being transferred from one account to another – we think ‘ping’, it’s gone – but there’s the risk of incompetence, fraud or technical problems. Technology changes but the challenges go on!”

Queen’s pre A-level programme

Students whose GCSEs were cancelled have been taking the opportunity to get ahead on their A-level studies, as well as to expand their knowledge by taking a fourth subject. All academic subjects have o¡ered these courses and we have chosen a selection of comments below to give a flavour of how students have been getting on.

“In Maths, Dr Smith has made our lessons extremely fun by challenging us with his bespoke mathematical worksheets such as, ‘Death by’ Probability, factorising and indices. We’ve gone from ‘help!’ to ‘oh...I see!’. In Biology, we’ve had fun debating ‘What is Life?’ with our classmates and Dr Davies, on Microsoft Teams. We have also been studying concepts like endosymbiosis and skills such as recognising different scales e.g. microscale, macroscale and nanoscale. In Chemistry, we’ve been looking at the everyday things. This has really got the class engaged with what we are learning as we can now understand what is happening exactly when we use objects such as paper towels and irons. Finally, in Physics, we’ve been researching breakthroughs such as the Higgs Boson and matter & antimatter.” Bianca and Olivia

“I have taken the Economics pre A-level course, which has been fascinating. I am positive that the skills I am currently acquiring, such as data analysis and numeracy concepts are transferrable to whichever field I wish to pursue, possibly Medicine.” Sofia JB

“During the pre-A-level Geography course, we’ve developed our ability to judge how reliable sources of information are, which is particularly useful preparation for A-level. We have also learned about medical geography, mapping of the cholera outbreak in 1854 and linking this to the spread of Covid-19 today.” Zana

Mrs Sperling comments: “There is a great deal of Geography that never makes it on to a school syllabus. As well as studying Covid-19, we have looked at meteorology and tried to establish the cause of bushfires in Australia and the series of high intensity and destructive winter storms we suffered in the UK earlier in the year. This leads into Geography A-level and, I hope, university Geography afterwards for more Queen’s College students.”

“At GCSE level, English, History and Philosophy have been some of my favourite subjects, which is why I had been looking forward to diving into them at a higher level. What I have really enjoyed about these pre A-level lessons so far is that we are encouraged to go beyond the classroom in order to stretch our interest. History of Art, so far, has been a fascinating subject. Although I haven’t studied it at GCSE, what attracted me was the fact that it contains so many elements of other subjects.” Sofia M

Meanwhile, the rest of the College have been working hard on their normal lessons, remotely via Microsoft Teams and Firefly. The beautiful photograph of Battersea Park is by Maria Claudia in I Seniors and was submitted to our Easter competitions.