Our annual showcase of A Level and GCSE Fine Art & Technology takes place on 3rd July 2018 from 5pm - 7pm. Please join us to celebrate the achievements of our students this year in what promises to be a highlight of the summer term.
On Thursday the 21st of June, Year 7 were treated to a special assembly from an ex student and teacher from our school. She told us all about our school history and what things were like some years ago. We were also presented with a copy of a book about our school called "A School of Our Own" to celebrate 130 years since Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School was founded. We have read the book from cover to cover and here are some of the things we found interesting when reading the book:
Victorian Times
In the Victorian times the children would do many things that we found absolutely amazing! Firstly pupils will partake in sewing classes as it was seen as an important skill for a women to learn. What’s strange about this is that they had to do it in absolute silence whilst one of the girls would read poetry.
Another thing that shocked us was that they had the opportunity to do roller skating in the hall at lunch and sometimes the Head Teacher would join in. They also had a weekly report card which could be either a red, white or gold coloured report. If you got given a red report [the worst card] you were not allowed to do PE for a week. Maybe the most extraordinary thing was that pupils had to walk to school on their own unless they had a letter from their parents!
World War II
This is when a lot of changes came to our school, it was now a fee paying school pupils had to be 8-18 to attend. During the blitz the school stayed open throughout although not much work was able to take place and, sadly, 3 girls who attended QEGS died.
Many teachers volunteered to be fire watchers; they had to stay overnight at the school and once the aeroplanes had left they went to the top floor to look out for fires. The worst thing late at night would have been the cockroaches and they had to be careful not to step on one or there would be a horrible crunch!
In the war time, the school canteen was in the Languages corridor! To get the food upstairs they used a dumbwaiter that would pass by the head teachers office.This is still there today and is located outside the photocopy room.
1960s/1970s
QE Girls' became a comprehensive school and went from 3 to having 5 classes in a year group. They stopped Greek and Latin lessons and brought in IT,Technology and Music. The uniform also changed a lot and girls stopped wearing hats to school.
We read about how the teachers did not like to disturb the Head Teacher so they used to bend down on their knees to see if there were more than two pairs of feet in her office. On one day the Head Teacher opened the door onto someone and there was an awkward silence. Due to this they added a little wooden panel at the bottom of her door and that’s still there now [this is now Mr Jones' office].
We really liked listening to the old girls who talked in assembly. It was the best assembly this year and we were really glad to read the book. In fact during every break on Thursday we tried to read a little more of our book as there were some really interesting stories.
Anna and Millie 7CBS
We are delighted, once again, to announce that our students have achieved a fantastic set of LAMDA Speech and Drama examination results this year.
Having entered over 50 girls for both the Acting and Verse & Prose examinations from Grades 1 to 5, all of our students achieved the highest grades; Merits and Distinctions. Many students will now be working towards their Medal examinations through which they can obtain UCAS points.
We are immensely proud of everyone's achievements and their confidence and vocal ability continue to improve year upon year. We will be offering more students the opportunity to undertake LAMDA examinations next year.
Since November of last year five of our talented GCSE Art students have been attending Middlesex University for one of fifty National Art and Design Saturday Clubs. Sessions are led by University tutors with students able to take advantage of the techniques, equipment and facilities on site such as photography studios, dark rooms, printing presses and ceramic studios.
The weekly Saturday Clubs are punctuated by other important moments such as the master-class given by British designer Quentin Newark.
At the end of the program Club members and their families attended a private view at Somerset House when each member was presented with a Certificate of Achievement and a Yearbook by Sir John Sorrell founder of the NADSC.
Khouria Bruce, Angelika Kaccouris, Millie Beavis-Adams, Isobel Nethercoat and Amy Jamiesons work is now on display at the Summer Show, a week-long public exhibition held at Somerset House, Embankment Galleries, London until Sunday 17th June
For more information go to: https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/national-saturday-club-summer-show
In May, students from Year 9 and 10 participated in the Barnet Teenage Market. They raised a fantastic £550 which is especially good since this is the first year that QE has participated in this event.
Thank you to all who took part and to those who supported our students. Thank you also to Ms Mujay for mentoring our six teams and for supervising the events during the half term period.
Photographs can be found below:
