From All Quarters 2019

From All Quarters is a yearly publication with updates from Alumni across the world. We have split up each of the updates in the ‘News’ section of the website, and this article has the Headmaster’s foreword and the Editor’s introduction.

All the articles and intros are in this PDF, should that be a preferred way to view: download here

Foreword from the Headmaster

It has been a very busy, but rewarding first 18 months as Headmaster. Anyone who has driven past the school over the past year can be forgiven for thinking it looks more like a building site! We are nearing the end of a major project, which has added a third floor to the Science block, providing six new classrooms/labs. As part of this project we have also enlarged eight classrooms into Moss Close as part of continued improvements to the campus. Another scheme began in January of this year, to extend and re-fit the DT and Art departments. The mobile classroom (or ‘red bus’) is no more and we hope this project will be completed by the end of the academic year.

In December 2018 we found out that we had been awarded just under £2 million as part of the Government’s Selective Schools Expansion Fund (SSEF). This will see the intake rise to 180 from September 2020, with the new students coming mainly from disadvantaged families in Walsall. We have undertaken a lot of outreach work over the last 6 months, working with Year 5 pupils in primary schools across the town, particularly in deprived areas from where we receive few applicants.

With regard to exam performance, a Progress 8 score of +0.55 at GCSE placed us in the top quintile of schools for achievement nationally. At A-level, 70% of grades were at A*- B, with 29 candidates achieving A*/A grades in all of their subjects and 4 being successful in attaining Oxbridge places.

As I mentioned last year, the School’s website (including the newsletters page) and twitter give a full flavour of the busy extra-curricular life of the school over the past 12 months. Students have taken part in trips to Mexico, Canada and the USA, whilst an expedition heads to the Indian Himalaya this summer. The CCF goes from strength to strength and recently paraded formally under the inspection of Marian Commander Matthew Punch MBE. Record numbers of students have taken part in music concerts (in conjunction with QMHS) and it was announced just before Christmas that the school was recognised as being in the top 100 English schools for cricket by the magazine.

Professor Lloyd Peck (from the British Antarctic Survey) joined us for a very engaging Speech Day in October 2018. I have very much enjoyed meeting a range of Marians over the past year and look forward to continuing to do so. I do hope that you can make it for the Wreath Laying and QMC Dinner in 2019.

Floreat Reginae Schola Mariae

Richard Langton

Editor’s Introduction

When I meet Old Marians I am often asked the question: “How much has the School changed since I left?” The answer, of course, is that in the last few years it has changed a great deal. The School is increasing in size; there have been developments in the curriculum and there are inevitable changes in staff.

The QMC maintains a close interest in life at the School and your Management Committee is greatly encouraged by the determination of the Headmaster and the Governors to preserve the ethos of QM.

I am sure that Old Marians will be very pleased to hear of the progress which has been made to raise the profile of the School in the town. In recent years the School has recruited fewer boys at the age of 11 from within the Borough of Walsall. Those of you who were at the School in the 1970s may remember Brian Edwards’s Ordance Survey Maps in the Geography Room with coloured pins showing the homes of all the Fusties. In those days the vast majority of the intake came from within the town. In recent years the number of boys joining the school from Willenhall, Darlaston and Bloxwich has declined. Strenuous efforts are now being made by the Headmaster, Staff and Pupils to inform families in those areas of the opportunities offered by the QM Schools.

If you have not been in touch with the School or the Club in recent years, please send us an email. We continue to look for ways of expanding activities of the Club to ensure that we meet the needs of all generations. Your ideas are very welcome.

With best wishes

Tim Lawrence
May 2019