It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself as the new Captain of School. My name is Nayan Bhagvaker and I’m currently studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Economics, with the ambition of reading Economics at university.
Within the school I play hockey and cricket, and take part in numerous clubs and societies. My standout extra-curricular event this year will be captaining the school in the prestigious Target 2.0 competition.
The school hall accommodated almost 1000 people for the first assembly of the year. Along with 150 new Year 7s, there are now well over 150 Year 12s. Both sets of new students have settled in well, with the new-look induction programme for the year 12s run successfully by the new head of sixth form, Mr Mately, who has succeeded the long serving Mr Donnan.
To add to the already formidable list, new opportunities are still being created within the school. Notably, this half term saw the successful introduction of the girls’ house futsal competition – yet another example of diversity within the school community. The new Music Suite has also been a huge hit, especially with the younger members of the school. It is great to see students being given excellent facilities to develop and express their musical talents, alongside their academic studies.
Despite it seeming like much has been changing around me, my role and activities have stayed very similar to those previously reported by my worthy predecessors. These involve assemblies, duties, events and of course, the Old Boys Dinner – without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest address any Captain of School has to give. Fortunately, my speech went extremely well; and I was able to relax and enjoy the evening, which itself was a wonderful and unique experience, in terms of hearing stories and learning about the tradition of the school, and speaking to Old Boys who had been at Queen Mary’s as far back as 1935!
Following on from the traditional date of the Old Boys’ Dinner was of course the closing event of the first half term – Speech Day – the most prestigious event in the School’s calendar. This year, each member of the pupil senior leadership team addressed one aspect of the school’s four pillars, pastoral charter or motto. This allowed the wide range of successes within the school over the past year, from the School’s Mandarin excellence programme to the individual successes of Zak Elliott and Greg Cornes, to be publicly recognised and celebrated.
I look forward to reporting in a future blog on an equally busy, yet equally successful, second half term.