Viewing archives for

QE student investors narrowly missed out on a place in the national final of a hugely popular competition after coming fifth among the top 80 teams across the country.

Team Batrachomyomachy (the word comes from Ancient Greek and means a petty quarrel) first shone in the initial round of the ifs Student Investor Challenge. This involved investment of a fictional £100,000 over a three-and-a-half month period up to the end of January.  The team increased the value of their portfolio to £178,236; they ranked eighth nationally at this point out of 8,720 teams, and fifth out of 3,225 teams in the South East, the most competitive region. 

Even within QE, there was significant competition, with some 56 teams, involving 224 boys from Years 10-13, registering to take part. The top 20 teams in each region progress to the semi-finals stage, but there is a maximum of one team per school.

Team Batrachomyomachy therefore duly took their place at the semi-finals. There the contest involved teams predicting the closing value of four different stocks per week for four weeks. The earlier in the week the prediction was made and the closer to the closing price, the higher the points gained.

A strong performance saw the QE boys gain fifth place out of all 80 teams in this stage of the competition, but they were third in the South East region. Since only the top two teams in each region were eligible to progress, the QE team failed to reach the national finals by the narrowest of margins, with its score of 2331.91 being fewer than three points behind the South East’s Glenthorne High School, which was immediately above it in the league tables.

“The team performed extremely well in what was a very closely fought contest,” said QE’s Head of Economics, Liane Ryan.

Team Batrachomyomachy comprised four Year 12 students: Yash Patel, Kamil Zajac, David Hao and Charran Santhalingam.
 

A Year 8 pupil is celebrating after reaching the semi-finals of a national table tennis competition.

Zaiim Premji took part in the English Schools Table Tennis Association (ESTTA) event in the U13 category, representing London North schools. He lost to the eventual winner, Ethan Walsh, by 3 games to 1 in the semi-final.

Ethan Walsh then went on to win the boys’ title in straight sets. After picking up his prize, Ethan paid tribute to Zaiim’s performance in their match: “In the semi-final, I had Zaiim Premji and he took a set off me and played really well. But that helped me be warmed up and ready for the final.”

Zaiim has been playing table tennis since he was eight years old. In his first year of playing, he qualified for the U11 Individual Nationals, aged nine. Since then he has qualified every year for the ESTTA and English Table Tennis Association individual national finals. He was spotted as a potential England player and was asked to be part of the London Regional Squad to have additional specialist coaching, also attending a camp at Lilleshall, the national sports centre in Shropshire.

Since starting at QE, Zaiim has been training locally with Urban Progress Table Tennis Club and also helps with coaching table tennis at School during PE lessons.

Year 13 biologists gained some invaluable hands-on experience of genetically modifying bacteria under the guidance of a visiting guest lecturer from Kings College London.

Dr Elizabeth Glennon, from the KCL Department of Neuroscience, spent the day at QE. Sixth-Formers used their lesson times in the morning and early afternoon to carry out a number of different tasks, before Dr Glennon pulled together some overall conclusions at the end of the day.

The boys used a technique known as ‘Mutagenesis PCR’ to transform bacteria. They learned how to mutate circular pieces of DNA, known as plasmids, before heat-shocking live bacteria into accepting the modified genetic material into their cells. They then used ‘aseptic technique’ (a procedure used by medical staff to prevent the spread of infection) to spread colonies on to plates containing an antibiotic. The boys therefore knew that if any bacteria had grown, those plates had to contain the mutated plasmids which confer antibiotic resistance.

Dr Glennon went on to explain how proteins associated with dementia could be studied using such techniques and said she was impressed by the questions she received afterwards.

“All the boys were scheduled to have Biology lessons on the day,” said Biology teacher Martin Bassett-Jones. “It enabled all of them to have the opportunity to participate in the experiments. It was a rewarding experience, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. We are grateful to Dr Glennon for visiting us again to share cutting-edge DNA research techniques with our Sixth-Formers.”

Four Year 11 boys have won arts awards for drama from an international examinations board.

Moderator Simon Smith praised Shiv Bakrania, Prashan Balendran, Rohan Devani and Roshan Shah for being “well-organised, articulate, coherent and engaging”. The four all gained a Silver Arts Award from Trinity College, London. The Arts Award scheme is managed by Trinity College in association with Arts Council England.

“It is refreshing to see young people reflecting on the leadership skills and qualities they have developed, in addition to concerning themselves with the practicalities of the challenge they have undertaken. Excellent! Well done everybody!” Mr Smith wrote.

In order to receive a silver award, participants have to complete an arts challenge, review arts events, research artists and arts organisations, and deliver an arts leadership project with other people.

Advised by the School’s Drama Co-ordinator, Elaine White, the boys put together a portfolio of their work for evaluation. As part of their challenge, Shiv, Prashan, Rohan and Roshan led the Harrisons’ House team, which won the House Drama competition. The starting point for the competition was H G Wells’ gothic tale, The Red Room (pictured). “The play delivered by Harrisons’ was exceptional,” said Mrs White. “The boys offered up a chilling tale of evil which captivated their audience.” They also ran the marketing campaign for Richard III, in the Shakespeare for Schools Festival.

“This is the first cohort from QE to achieve the Silver level Arts Award,” added Mrs White. “The boys have worked hard and are to be congratulated on their achievement.”

Its mission is to support young people who wish to deepen their engagement with the arts, to build creative and leadership skills and to achieve a national qualification. Since its launch in 2005, it has become increasingly recognised by employers, universities as a qualification that shows young people’s level of commitment and progress in the arts, and in developing new skills. The silver award is equivalent to a GCSE.

The award is open to young people aged between 14 and 25 and the chosen challenge takes in the region of 60 hours of extra-curricular time to complete.

A trip to Kew Gardens gave Year 9 boys the opportunity to explore both biological and mathematical patterns.

The visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens was organised jointly by the Mathematics and Biology departments and involved 40 boys. It gave pupils a chance to plan and execute scientific and mathematical investigations of the world around them.  A video is being produced so that other boys can also benefit from the results of the day.

“From plotting the heights of trees against their circumference to testing the frequency of Fibonacci* numbers in nature, the boys made the most of the visit,” said Gillian Ridge, Head of Biology. “They used principles of Biology to explain patterns they saw as well as trigonometry in a real-life setting to find the heights of trees. It was a thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable day.”

They were able to apply prior knowledge to new situations and also to understand how the two subjects, Biology and Mathematics, relate to one another. The cross-curricular nature of the trip enabled boys to explore trigonometry, frequency analysis, correlation and Fibonacci sequences – as seen in spirals in pine cones and sunflowers The boys also learned about the uses and adaptations of plants, including carnivorous plants such as the Venus fly trap. 

They have since built upon their experiences at Kew, investigating the golden ratio** and making posters to explain their findings. “We are sharing footage from the day with other students as an education resource for this summer’s examinations, making a video including pineapples, trigonometry and hand-made clinometers,” said Head of Mathematics, Jessica Steer.

*The Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers that starts with a one or a zero, followed by a one, and proceeds based on the rule that each number (called a Fibonacci number) is equal to the sum of the preceding two numbers.

** The golden ratio (the symbol is the Greek letter "phi") is a special number approximately equal to 1.618 which appears many times in nature, geometry, art, architecture and other areas.