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In a series of special events for British Science Week, QE’s younger boys learned about topics ranging from centuries-old tales of vampires to a new cancer treatment centre in London that is at the cutting edge of medical technology.

The Lower School Science Department celebrated the week with a diverse range of special lessons and extra-curricular activities, including visits by external speakers.

Science communicator Dr Kathryn Harkup explained to Year 8 pupils how to use the scientific method to evaluate folk stories of vampirism, using current medical knowledge of diseases such as rabies and porphyria to understand how such stories could have arisen.

Head of Lower School Science Sarah Westcott said: “It was a fascinating whistlestop tour, which explained how to identify and assess evidence.

“The take-home message was to question all information and to make evidence-based decisions – a principle that doesn’t just apply to Science!” Dr Westcott added.

Dr Simon Jolly from University College London gave a presentation on one of the most exciting developments in medical Science, proton beam therapy. One of the two first-generation proton beam therapy centres in the UK is currently under construction at UCL and is due to open in 2020.

The technology will bring greatly improved treatment possibilities for certain types of cancer, many of which are childhood cancers, explained Dr Jolly, who visited with his PhD student, Laurent Kelleter. The proton beam can target a tumour with great accuracy, avoiding the irradiation and damage of healthy tissue, which is a problem associated with radiotherapy.

Their presentation on the technique ranged in scale from descriptions of sub-structures within cells, such as the haem within haemoglobin, to the huge gantry which surrounds the patient during proton beam therapy, three storeys high and weighing hundreds of tonnes. Dr Jolly spoke about the engineering challenges involved, as well as the medical Science.

Thanking them for their visit, Chemistry teacher Susanna Butterworth said: “We were amazed by the huge scale of the technology required in contrast to the pin-point precision with which the treatment can be delivered.”

The audience included older boys up to Year 12, together with the Lower School pupils. “The audience were highly attentive and asked many insightful questions, including how funding priorities should be decided between this and other cancer treatment avenues such as recombinant DNA techniques,” said Dr Butterworth.

During lunchtimes in British Science Week, boys could sign up for: The Science and Mathematics of Magic and Illusion, which saw sixth-formers performing a range of card and magic tricks for the younger boys, and a molecular modelling workshop, in which Year 7 & 8 pupils explored the structure of a range of compounds from ibuprofen to caffeine, making models to compare their 3D shape and discuss their bonding.

And in their lessons, Year 7 pupils investigated the vitamin C content of fruits and vegetables to identify the best ones for preventing scurvy. “The experiment culminated in them preparing a conference-style Science poster which explained their results,” Dr Westcott said.

Year 11 boys gained fresh insights into J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls when a theatre company came into School.

Say Two Productions not only performed the classic drama to the whole of Year 11 with the participation of some of the pupils, but also conducted a ‘hot-seat’ question-and-answer session, with the professional actors answering the boys’ questions while still in character.

English teacher Lucy Riseborough said: “This was a fun and engaging delivery, which refreshed Year 11s’ minds about the plot and the key issues of the play. It was also a good opportunity for some of the boys to immerse themselves in the play by participating in the action.”

Set in 1912, the play exposes a wealthy family’s guilty secrets following the death of a poor, young woman. Priestley, a socialist playwright, used the story to critique Edwardian English society and to suggest that people of all classes bear responsibility for each other.

The play, which was first performed in 1945, is one of the texts that the boys have been studying for this summer’s English GCSE examinations; the theatre company’s visit thus served as a revision aid.

Towards the end of the session, one group of boys was invited to change into costume and recreate the opening scene of the play. They therefore had to consider how to go about staging a scene, looking, for example, at what can be communicated by where the actors are on stage.

Say Two Productions design a bespoke experience based on the School’s requirements. “In this case they were asked to help students understand the context of the play and the characters’ thoughts and motivations. This was certainly brought out in the Q&A after the performance,” said Miss Riseborough.

The English department is now considering commissioning another visit from the company, possibly for a performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Software developer Josh Benson is working to inspire the next generation to follow in his footsteps through his passionate support for a national schools technology competition run by his employer.

Now in its fifth year, PA Consulting’s Raspberry Pi competition is aimed at pupils from Year 4 to Year 13.

“It's a fantastic competition, giving schools the chance to create something amazing and submit it.” said Josh. “Finals day involves meeting some big names in technology. I think it's vital to help kids get into technology and coding, inspiring them to change the world one brilliant invention at a time.”

Josh has been working for PA Consulting since September 2015. “I am a software and innovation consultant, and work in many different projects, from large IT transformations to quick and impressive prototypes. I have a huge passion for technology, and I'm interested in projects that can make people's lives better.”

He helps to run the Raspberry Pi competition by giving up time to serve as a coding mentor, assisting schools with any technical issues through offering advice and guidance. “I have also run a learn-to-code session with a selection of kids from different schools at my office, which has encouraged more teams to apply,” he said.

This year’s competition theme is Innovation for All: entrants are asked to develop innovations that will improve the lives of people who have conditions that limit their ability to do things that most take for granted. Raspberry Pi is the name of a series of small, single-board computers developed in the UK to promote the teaching of computer science in UK schools and in developing countries.

Josh’s career has gone from strength to strength, based on the foundations laid when he was at School. “I found QE tough at the time, but it has helped me become more disciplined in work, curious about new opportunities, and keen to expand my horizons.”

Josh went to Manchester University from 2005–2010, taking a first in his Master’s degree in Computer Science. While a student, he was involved in various university societies and activities, including the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Jewish Society, squash, football and Tae Kwon Do.

During a period in which he worked as a software developer for the betting company, OpenBet, from 2010–2012, he served as a volunteer with the educational charity, Limmud, organising and marketing large Jewish festival-style events.

From OpenBet, he went to Capco, a global business and technology consultancy, where he was an innovation developer, taking a leading role in creating apps for use as part of the company’s internal digital strategy. He left Capco in August 2015 to join PA Consulting.

OE Ife Adepegba was one of 14 black male Cambridge University students pictured in a photo that quickly ‘went viral’.

The image, posted on Facebook by the university’s African-Caribbean Society, illustrated the fact that in the 2015-2016 academic year, only 15 black, male undergraduates were accepted into Cambridge.  But, says Ife, it also conveyed a positive message, aiming to inspire the black youth of today to apply. “A quote from one of my friends, Dami Adebayo, of Robinson College, sums it up perfectly: ‘Black men don't grow up thinking they'll make it here. They should.'”

Ife adds: “Although we do not look like the 'typical Cambridge student', our presence is as important and valid as the next person’s, and we need to encourage more and more people to break boundaries and transcend stereotypes.”

The photo was spotted by famous rapper Stormzy, winner of multiple MOBO awards and a Brit Awards nominee, who posted it on twitter – “And you can only imagine how many potential young applicants that platform has the capability of reaching,” says Ife. The story was subsequently picked up by innumerable news organisations, including the BBC.

Ife (OE 2007–2014), who appears fourth from right standing in the first photo (above right) and in the centre of the second (below right), is in the third year of his Architecture degree at King’s College.

“My main activities at university are quite compromised due to the intense workload of my degree, but I still have managed to continue doing athletics (sprinting), representing the university, and have also been involved in the university's charity fashion show for the last three years.”

Upon graduating, he plans either to undertake a year’s work experience in an architectural firm or to pursue a master’s degree.

“I would like to thank QE for all the opportunities, both academic and extra-curricular, and to stress the importance of current students taking full advantage and reaching their full potential.”

QE is the only state school to feature in a list of the top ten schools generating the highest level of applications to prestigious graduate training schemes.

New research reveals that former QE boys are among the most likely nationally to apply for jobs at the most sought-after banks, law firms, management consultancies and FTSE 100 companies, alongside former pupils from leading independent schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, Westminster, Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Boys and North London Collegiate School.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very pleasing to see our high position in this list. We certainly encourage our boys to be ambitious and have detailed programmes in place to assist them with university applications and with their future career.

“Employers value applications from QE boys for a number of reasons. Firstly, our strictly meritocratic admissions policy means they can be sure that our leavers are genuinely able, regardless of their family background. And, of course, employers also take note of our exceptional examination results and of our consistently high progression rates for Russell Group, Oxbridge and Ivy League universities.”

QE’s 2016 A-level results were its best ever recorded, with 98.9% of the 518 examinations taken awarded grades A*-B.

Reported in the Daily Telegraph, the research carried out by Rare, a recruitment company specialising in encouraging diversity in the workplace, found that 30 per cent of sixth-formers at the top ten schools had applied for the most prestigious graduate schemes. This compares to just 0.3 per cent of students at the bottom ten per cent of schools, meaning students educated at the ten schools were 100 times more likely to apply than those at the lowest-placed.

The ten schools represent 0.3 per cent of the national school population, yet produce three per cent of all applications to the top firms.

The data has become available for the first time after applications to 28 leading City graduate schemes – including Boston Consultancy Group, Baker McKenzie, Barclays, Deloitte and Clifford Chance – were analysed using a Contextual Recruitment System (CRS).