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A specialist group brought the traditional stories and stirring sounds of African culture to the boys of Year 7.

The IROKO Theatre Company first delivered a talk to the boys, recounting a traditional Nigerian moral tale to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Every member of Year 7 then participated in two workshops.

For the first, the Shearly Hall reverberated to the sound of drumming, with each boy allocated an instrument.

“The boys quickly created a symphony of drums, with bongos, tambos, jambos and other percussion instruments all combining to create a rhythmic and very exciting atmosphere,” said Head of Religion & Society Jack Robertson. “Our pupils developed an understanding of the necessity of team work and experienced the communal pursuit of a shared goal to produce a harmonious beat.”

The second workshop focused on story-telling. Various techniques, such as utilising dramatic gestures and ‘call-back’, were used to bring stories to life in an interactive way.

Founded in 1996 by actor and director Alex Oma-Pius, IROKO uses the arts – especially, but not exclusively, African arts – to advance the education, health and wellbeing of people from all backgrounds and nationalities, with a particular emphasis on working with children and young people. Its website states: “IROKO's fundamental principle is that its work should have a meaningful effect on the lives of the young people involved: it should educate, empower, motivate and inspire them and at the same time, it should be fun.”

Mr Robertson concluded: “Overall, there were plenty of interactive elements and the boys greatly enjoyed IROKO’s visit, finding it both engaging and informative.”

Award-winning vlogger, filmmaker, online personality and former monk Jay Shetty (OE 1999–2006) has now been named in the 2017 Forbes European 30 Under 30.

The influential magazine’s 30 under 30 lists recognise people aged under 30 who are seen as the brightest, most innovative game-changers in their industry, and Jay certainly fits the bill in the media category: since launching his Facebook channel in 2016, his wisdom videos have garnered over 150 million views and gained more than half a million followers globally.

Jay has a daily show on HuffPost Live #FollowTheReader, where he has interviewed the likes of entrepreneurs Russell Simmons and Tim Ferris, and Deepak Chopra, author and prominent figure in the New Age movement. The show has a daily audience of 1 million. He says his aim is to “share wisdom at the pace we want entertainment and make wisdom go viral”.

Jay has, to say the least, had an interesting journey since leaving QE and going on to Cass Business School in London, from which he graduated with a first-class degree in Management Science.

Yet he retains great fondness for his School. “I have great memories of my time at QE: I think QE has some interesting memories of me!  I want to personally give a huge thanks to two teachers who had a big impact on my growth.

“The first is Mr Buckeridge [Stephen Buckeridge, Head of Art]. A phenomenal teacher and life mentor – without even knowing it. He was always making me think more deeply about my art work and what it meant and stood for, and he really helped me express myself and articulate creatively. His ability to challenge me and get the best out of me has really helped me mentally since that time.

“The second is Mr Ryan [David Ryan, Assistant Head]. He tolerated all my immature tendencies, helped me grow without judging me, and supported me through some of the most formative years of my life. He was always a champion, supporter and advisor.

“I also loved playing rugby for our School A team and, of course, the public-speaking classes changed my life,” he added.

Inspired to make a difference in the world, at 22 Jay went to live as a monk in India. Then for three years, he travelled the world, during which time he helped build a sustainable village and create food programmes.

Wanting to ‘pay forward’ what he had learnt, Jay began sharing his experiences as a monk in universities and the world’s largest corporations, including EY and Nasdaq.

At the same time, he noticed that the world was rapidly going digital, so Jay went on to become professional services company Accenture’s social media coach for executives, working in online branding and digital strategy.

His talent was spotted by Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who made him the Host of HuffPost Lifestyle in New York.

He has been invited to give keynote speeches at leading companies, including Google, Facebook and HSBC, about finding purpose, harnessing collaboration and driving change. Jay won the ITV Asian Media Award for Best Blog 2016 and came third in the Guardian Rising Star Award in 2015.

Jay advises several well-known brands on spotting and nurturing new talent, with the emphasis on helping people find a purpose and use for their passions in the workplace.

QE’s new robotics club has scooped prizes and set records at two separate competitive events.

Two QE teams – HYBRID and Gearsquad – successfully took on 29 other teams at the North London VEX IQ Challenge regional round at The Henrietta Barnett School and then just a few days later achieved similar success at the Central London round hosted by the City of London School for Girls.

VEX IQ is a snap-together robotics system which young people can use without tools. Designed to help pupils with STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), VEX IQ is a worldwide phenomenon, with more than 10,000 teams from 32 countries competing in over 750 tournaments. The School’s VEX club draws boys from Years 8 & 9.

At Henrietta Barnett, HYBRID not only took the Judges’ Award but also set a new UK record in the Teamwork Challenge, working collaboratively with a team from the host school. The two QE teams also made excellent presentations to Imperial College’s Jess Wade on their STEM research project and robotic design booklets, which involved investigating the potential uses of robotic technology in society. Dr Wade, whose Physics PhD looked at microstructure control and the characterisation of organic semiconductors, won the 2016 Jocelyn Burnell Award for her outstanding research and the work she does in encouraging others to study Physics. She commended both QE teams on their excellent presentations, lauding the boys for their very passionate delivery.

And there was no resting on their laurels for the School’s roboteers: just days later at the Central London VEX IQ regional round, hosted by City of London School for Girls, Gearsquad set a new record Robot Skills Challenge of 90 points. They then saw this record broken again by HYBRID, who amassed 100 points, thus making the two QE teams the top-ranked teams in this element of the competition in the UK. A few hours later, Gearsquad and HYBRID worked together in the Teamwork Challenge and matched the score set previously by HYBRID and their Henrietta Barnett partners. HYBRID and Gearsquad are therefore ranked joint-first in the country with their score of 65.

The QE boys are now looking forward to competing in the National Championships at Birmingham’s NEC in March and hope to qualify for the world championships.

Scheme leader and Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “These are quite remarkable achievements considering this is the first year that VEX robotics of any kind have been attempted at the School.  I am very proud of these boys’ performance; they have committed to countless lunchtime and after-school sessions to building, practising and perfecting their robots, and have reaped the rewards of that. They are now determined to bring that level of excellence to the national stage.”

The current VEX IQ Challenge tournaments are entitled Crossover, which is played on a 4ft x 8ft rectangular area and requires robots to achieve various tasks, such as placing balls in a scoring zone and parking robots on a bridge. The tournament comprise a number of elements:

• Standard matches: two alliances, each consisting of two teams, play against each other.
• Robot Skills Challenge: one robot and one driver playing alone against the clock
• Programming Skills Challenge: one robot using sensors to run autonomously.

Gearsquad members are: Sunay Challa (Year 9), Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy (Year 9), Romansh Gupta (Year 8), Siddh Patel (Year 8), Dillan Shah (Year 8) and Ukendar Vadivel (Year 9). HYBRID, which is the second QE team, has: Rohan Battula (Year 8), Piraveen Ithayarasa (Year 9), Nirmay Jadhav (Year 8), Lucas Lu (Year 8), Daniel Radzik-Rahman (Year 9) and James Tan (Year 9).

Mr Noonan and Chemistry teacher Katie Paske worked with the boys, assisted by Biology teacher Emma Pearl.

Four of the school’s top Year 12 debaters took part in a competition run by the Oxford Union – one of the most famous debating organisations in the world.

The Oxford Schools’ Debating Competition brings together pupils from some of the country’s most famous independent schools, including St Paul’s School, St Paul’s Girls’, Dulwich College and Wycombe Abbey.

Academic Enrichment Tutor and Geography teacher Helen Davies said: “Dhruv Kanabar, Ravi Karia, Dillon Shah and Jathieesan Umaasuthan (all Year 12) did an excellent job representing QE. Although they did not progress beyond the initial stages on this occasion, they were up against some stiff competition: our boys put up an admirable fight and made some very interesting contributions to all the debates.”

The competition involves the British Parliamentary style of debating. In the event at Northolt High School, the motion for the first round was This house believes that the Olympic Games should always be held in London, for which Jathieesan and Ravi made the ‘opening proposition’ (as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister).  “They made some excellent points about the high level of safety in London, about the re-use of the London stadium making it a more economically and environmentally sustainable solution, and about convenience for all involved,” said Miss Davies.

The second-round motion was This house would ban workers in essential state services (e.g. the NHS and public transport) from striking. “Dillon and Dhruv (‘opening opposition’) again presented some excellent counter-arguments to the motion, including the idea that actions speak louder than words and that striking is often necessary to start change.”

The competition judges included a European Debating Championships finalist and a World Debating Championship semi-finalist; all gave very high-level and valuable feedback to all members of the competition, Miss Davies added.

Reflecting on his participation afterwards, Dhruv said “It was an excellent opportunity to practise our debating skills against students from other schools.  I learnt a lot from the experience and thought that the motions we were presented with were very relevant and thought-provoking.”

Miss Davies concluded: “It was exciting to see our boys holding their own against debaters from some other very prestigious schools.  They all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as well as learning a great deal from it.  Debates such as these help the boys to develop skills which are widely applicable to a range of future careers.”

Five ensembles performed at QE’s annual Jazz Evening – with most of the musicians involved taking part in the event for the first time.

Held in the Shearly Hall, the popular concert featured pieces by composers as varied as Charlie Mingus and Lennon & McCartney, while the music ranged from familiar jazz standards – Take the A Train – to songs from other genres, such as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Music teacher Tom Jack said: “The evening was a great success, with all the students playing and singing at a really high level. It is particularly pleasing to see many pupils involved for the first time – only ten were also involved last year: the future for jazz and a cappella singing at the School looks bright.”

The Big Band began and finished both halves of the concert. The B-Minors, a new ensemble this year, performed three Beatles songs and Hallelujah, while the Friday Jazz group played Gershwin’s Summertime and Autumn Leaves by Kosma.

In the second half, the Barbershop group sang Moon River and the traditional My Evaline, before the Saxophone ensemble took on Mingus’s Boogie Stop Shuffle. Then Year 13 vocal soloist Varun Vassanth, the former School Captain, performed Don MacLean’s ode to van Gogh, Vincent (Starry, Starry Night), before handing back to the Big Band, who brought the Jazz Evening to a conclusion with Basie’s Blues in C and I Want You Back, made famous by The Jackson 5.