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Year 13 pupil Valavan Ananthakumaraswamy is the first QE boy to be offered a place at Stanford University in the USA – one of the world’s leading teaching and research institutions. 

Valavan plans to follow a mixed Liberal Arts programme for the first two years of his four-year degree and will then probably major in Economics for the final two years.

He is currently studying A-levels in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Economics with Business. Valalvan’s interests at School have included the Combined Cadet Force and he has been involved in drama productions and in senior rugby.

He has also been heavily engaged in charitable work: he is the trustee, and one of the five QE founders, of a charity called The Youth Project (TYP), which ‘engages young people to make a change’. TYP initiatives range from projects in the slums and orphanages of India to a UK mentoring scheme helping children with disabilities develop computer skills. So successful has TYP been that other QE boys are now involved and links to other schools such as Westminster, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ and St Albans, have been established.

Valavan has been interested in studying in the States for a while and he duly applied to the Sutton Trust’s US Programme. This scheme, which is delivered by the educational charity in partnership with the US-UK Fulbright Commission, gives bright British state school pupils a taste of life at an American University.

After his application was successful, Valavan attended one of the programme’s all-expenses-paid summer camps last year. Although these camps are held at East Coast Ivy League universities, Valavan was attracted by the courses offered by Stanford and by the fact that the Californian university’s courses seem to allow extensive opportunity for extra-curricular activities.

Term starts in mid-September, although Valavan is planning to go out to California in the summer. He is already thinking ahead and believes he may end up staying in the US on a longer-term basis.

Queen Elizabeth’s School is the top state school in the country, according to a new table published by the Sunday Times.

QE came eighth in the table overall, closely following seven leading independent schools, and nine places ahead of the next state school in the table. The table, drawn up by Parent Power, the newspaper’s schools guide, reflects examination success.

The Sunday Times journalist, Stephen Robinson, highlighted the dual trend of rising fees for independent schools and improving standards of state education, particularly among grammar schools. As a result, many parents who might previously have sent their children to independent schools are now seeking out the best state schools, he wrote.

Headmaster Neil Enright welcomed the School’s high place in the table and today announced that this year, 36 boys have been offered places at Cambridge and Oxford. “Over the past three years, we have received more than 100 Oxbridge offers, in addition to other boys gaining places at medical school or in Ivy League universities in the States, for example. That compares very favourably indeed with all the country’s top academic schools, whether in the independent or maintained sector.”

The 28 Cambridge and eight Oxford places are for subjects ranging from Natural Sciences, Law and Economics to Engineering, Experimental Psychology and Geography.

“Because of such successes, we are heavily over-subscribed and it is undoubtedly true that securing a place here is difficult,” said Mr Enright. “However, we are proud of the fact that our admissions system is strictly meritocratic: any very bright boy can become an Elizabethan, regardless of his social, ethnic or religious background. This results in an intake which is, in fact, very diverse.”

The Sunday Times table is based solely on academic performance – the proportion of A*-B grades combined with the proportion of A*/A grades at GCSE, with the A-level figures being double-weighted.

But Mr Enright pointed out that there is more to QE than examination success alone. “We are constant in our determination ‘to produce young men who are confident, able and responsible’, as our mission statement has it. There are very many extra-curricular activities here – from sports and the performing arts to chess, debating and academic clubs – and we expect all boys to contribute to the life of the School by getting involved.”

The Sunday Times table was based on the public examination results of last summer, when 98.4% of A-levels taken at QE were graded A*–B – the School’s second-best performance ever – while the GCSE results set a new QE record, with almost seven out of every ten examinations sat being awarded the top A* grade.

For the article in the Sunday Times magazine, Mr Robinson interviewed Quentin Carruthers, whose eldest son, Frederick, holds one of this year’s 36 Oxbridge offers at QE. Mr Carruthers works in the City as an editor of financial reports, but knew he would not be able to afford to send his sons to Radley College, the public school that both he and his father attended. The journalist pointed out that QE typically sends many more pupils to Oxford or Cambridge than Radley.

State schools top private rivals, The Sunday Times, Sunday 7 February 2016

Cutting the old school ties, The Sunday Times magazine, Sunday 7 February 2016

Two QE Sixth-Formers saw off strong competition to win the latest round of the UK’s oldest and largest debating competition for schools.

The winning team, Ché Applewhaite and Ridwan Uddin, of Year 12 (pictured below), beat teams from schools including Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ and University College (UCS) in the English Speaking Union’s Schools Mace competition. St John’s Senior School and Whitmore High School also took part.

All teams had already had to qualify to reach this round, with QE having competed successfully in Round 1 at ‘Habs’ before Christmas. QE will now go on to the regional final in March – the only team from the latest heat to progress. If they are successful at regional level, they will compete in the national final in the summer held at the ESU's headquarters in Mayfair, Dartmouth House (pictured top).

Hosted by QE, Round 2 was organised by Nisha Mayer, teacher in charge of debating and Head of Academic Enrichment and by History teacher Lottie Coleman.

There were three debates in total. QE’s winning team opposed the motion: ‘This House would prohibit British companies from trading with governments that criminalise homosexuality’. It was proposed by UCS.

Congratulating Ché and Ridwan, Mrs Mayer said: “They very impressively and thoroughly defeated the motion presented by UCS. This is only the third time a team from QE has progressed to this stage in ten years.”

QE also entered a ‘swing’ team (a non-qualifying team entered to strengthen the field), comprising Year 11 boys Ravi Karia and Jathieesan Umaasuthan (pictured right). They opposed St John's, who proposed that: ‘This house would ban all non-essential cosmetic surgery’. They also competed really well in what was their first inter-school debate, added Mrs Mayer, who concluded: “A very good night for QE debating.”

A weather expert combined fascinating insights into the work of the Met Office with some solid career advice when he visited the School to give a talk to senior pupils.

Operational Meteorologist Michael Evans explained how technology is constantly improving the accuracy of weather forecasting, as he delivered the latest in QE’s new series of extra-curricular enrichment lectures for boys from Years 11 to 13. A separate strand of lectures is under way for younger boys.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Mr Evans is an excellent communicator and is passionate about his subject, so we were delighted to welcome him as our guest. I believe our boys will not only have learnt more about meteorology; they will have been inspired by his determination not to let obstacles prevent him from following his chosen career path.”

Mr Evans joined the Met Office in 2013 after graduating in Geography from Exeter University. Although the Met Office headquarters are in Exeter, he is currently based in Northolt, working in the military information division.

He told his audience that Met Office computers analyse trillions of bits of data per hour, taking in readings including temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed from all over the world. Technological improvements – including a recently installed £96m computer system – mean that a three-day forecast today is as accurate as a one-day forecast was only ten years ago.

His talk highlighted both well-known and lesser-known facts about the Met Office:

• Its data is used not only to predict daily weather, but to look at long-term trends such as global warming, with the information generated being used by governments;
• It conducts research into obtaining and analysing the weather in space;
• The weather forecasts it provides for TV and radio broadcast every day are paid for by Government out of taxation, but the Met Office sells other weather information to customers on a commercial basis – to energy companies and the re-insurance market, for example. Any profits are ploughed back into its work;
• The information the Met Office supplies helps with emergency weather situations in the UK and informs Government planning;
• The Met Office also assists British Armed Forces – Met Office employees are even embedded with military units and have recently been in Afghanistan.

Mr Evans told his audience that he became interested in the Met Office when he did an initial two-week work placement there. In his Geography course, he focused on weather, but he said in fact this degree may not have been ideal: studying Mathematics or Physics gives candidates the best opportunity of obtaining a post there because of the mathematics involved in the job.

However, he got the job, notwithstanding this gap in his qualifications, because of his other strengths, such as communications. He has since improved his mathematical skills by completing various courses.

The whole of Year 9 watched a comedy performed entirely in German by a visiting theatre group.

Entitled Zwillinge (Twins), the play, which is new for 2016, centres on the antics of twin brothers Lukas and Dominik, who change places to play a prank on their friend, Anike, when she is revising for a drama examination.

It was performed by two native German actors, one male and one female, from the Onatti theatre company, who specialise in producing plays written especially for foreign language-learners. Zwillinge is intended for pupils in Years 9–11, so the 180-strong QE audience were at the lower end of this age range.

Christopher Kidd, Head of Languages, said: “When the twins switch roles, it led to much laughter. In fact, for boys who have completed only two years of German, they showed an excellent grasp of the language and they were highly commended by the actors involved.”

The 50-minute production included some audience participation, with a number of boys being selected to join the actors on stage.
Onatti also perform plays in French and Spanish.