Senior School

Extract from the Principal's Foundation Day Report 2009

The intellectual life of the school is healthy. KEQMS hosted Czech and German students for an international Science Exchange in the Autumn, there was a Psychology Conference in the Spring and Professor David Cook of Oxford and Chicago Universities ran an Ethics Conference for the Lower Sixth in the Summer. There were theatre visits to see performances ranging from Antigone and A Taste of Honey at the Manchester Royal Exchange to Blood Wedding at the Liverpool Playhouse and The Woman in Black in London. Through the Holocaust Memorial Foundation, two students visited Auschwitz. Historians visited the First World War battlefields and our German linguists exchanged with students from our partner school in Baden-Württemberg. The Young Enterprise Company and our Public Speaking teams were successful in local competitions; our best mathematicians excelled in the UK Mathematics Trust Challenges.

The year was equally strong in sport. The senior rugby teams returned undefeated from New Zealand. The 1st XV had one of its best seasons in many years, losing only four games and turning over larger schools. The 2nd XV won all but two games, both by very tight margins. The girls did even better: the 1st X1 Hockey team was full of pace, power and skill and was undefeated outside tournaments. Nine boys were selected for Lancashire development squads or gained representative honours at U15, U16 and U18 level and for the Independent Schools Barbarians. 25 girls represented various Lancashire Hockey squads. There were three centurions in the cricket season and five school athletics records were smashed. The Preparatory School had its best year in sport for a long time, enjoying success at local and regional level in football, netball and athletics. The Duke of Edinburgh Award and the outdoor pursuits programme flourish. A World Challenge team go on expedition to Peru next week; there is a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Expedition to the Scottish Highlands.

In music and drama, there were memorable events: the Edwardian Musical Hall in September, the Carol Service, Pride and Prejudice, the House Music Competition, the Centenary Concert and the Centenary Commemoration: all evidence of the vitality of the artistic life of the school. Six of our students variously performed for the National Youth Choir, Junior Royal Northern College of Music, Lancashire Youth Symphony Orchestra, Lancashire Youth String Quartet and the Lancashire Schools Jazz Orchestra.

Academically, in sport, the performing arts, clubs and societies and outdoor pursuits, King Edward VII and Queen Mary School provides plentiful opportunities for academic excellence and personal development. The school's founders, one hundred years ago, would be delighted by the achievements of the present school and in harmony with its vision and values.