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QE Headmaster Neil Enright has announced the prefect team for 2018, including the new School Captain and the other Senior Officials.

Aashish Khimasia will take over at the head of the team of Senior Vice-Captains, Vice-Captains, House Captains, Deputy House Captains and Prefects, all drawn from Year 12.

The Headmaster said: “My thanks go to the outgoing School Captain, Oliver Robinson, for the excellent way in which he has conducted himself and handled his responsibilities. I congratulate Aashish and his team on their appointment: these are positions of significant responsibility, critical to the smooth running of the School, to the success of major events and to the culture of QE.

“Being awarded one of these roles is rightly seen as a great honour and reward, and it reflects the sustained commitment the successful candidates have already shown to the School and to their peers. I am convinced that the new team will do a sterling job in upholding our fine traditions.”

In addition to the duties he will undertake as School Captain, Aashish will continue to play a significant role in the extra-curricular life of the School. “I play rugby for the School and am currently in training for water polo,” he said. “I’m also part of the Concert Band, Symphony Orchestra, Barbershop Group and Flute Ensemble, I’m a member of the QE Model United Nations debating team and am involved in leading the Medical Society, as well as assisting at Friday Biology Booster sessions. I am a peer mentor and I plan to take part in voluntary work to help the homeless in the Christmas holidays.

“I try to keep an open mind to different ways of life, and to ways of personal mental and emotional development outside of an academic context,” added Aaashish, who is described by this tutor as an “excellent all-rounder” who is “calm and methodical”.

His Senior Vice-Captains are Binu Perera – “driven, passionate and creative” according to his tutor – and Aditya Ravindrakumar, who is “organised, methodical, precise and charming”.

Both are musicians, while Binu’s extra-curricular interests include membership of the Combined Cadet Force and Aditya enjoys judo and rugby, as well as helping to mentor the élite mathematicians in Years 10 and 11.

“I think I am quite an approachable person that people can trust to listen to them…Also, I am quite passionate about the things that I do, and if I do something, I like to do it properly,” said Binu.

For his part, Aditya said: ““I think that one of my core values is honesty; I try to be considerate and respectful to everyone, regardless of who they are and where they come from.”

Under this trio is a ten-strong team of Vice-Captains, together with a Captain and Deputy Captain for each of the six Houses. A slight expansion of the prefects team to 90 reflects the fact that the Sixth Form is the largest in the School’s 444-year history.

Alex Gilbert combines his work in international finance with a busy family life – and still finds time to keep up with his old QE friends.

Alex (OE 1990–1995), who has a background in “cleantech” venture capital and low-carbon development, is an Investment Manager at Amber Green, the sustainable investment brand of the global Amber Infrastructure Group.

With a first-class degree in Economics and a Masters in Advanced Energy and Environmental Studies (Distinction) from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Powys, mid-Wales, Alex has worked in the arenas of energy and low-carbon for 16 years across investment, sales and consultancy. He joined Amber in 2011, where he was given responsibility for sourcing new investment opportunities.

He has primarily focused on Amber’s successfully deployed JESSICA Funds (funds for Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas, an initiative of the European Commission developed with the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank), which include the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF) and the Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres (SPRUCE). “Amber is the Fund Manager for £200m of capital across three of these sustainable investment vehicles, which match government money with private-sector capital to deliver public infrastructure, regeneration and green energy projects across the UK.”

His work involves investment opportunity origination, transaction execution and compliance reporting. Alex is responsible for project management, pipeline development and asset management. He is also in regular communication with London’s developers and sponsors of district heating, energy efficiency and renewables schemes.

Married with a daughter aged seven and a four-year-old son, Alex enjoys sport and travel. He has run and captained two football club and twice represented Great Britain in the European Maccabi Games – the largest Jewish sports event in the continent. He is also a regular and competitive cyclist and triathlete, as well as being a fully qualified nutritionist, with an Advanced Diploma in Nutrition.

He regularly speaks at national and international industry seminars on energy and has given his time and expertise to assess opportunities for the Social Enterprise Investment Fund of Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm connected to The Big Issue street newspaper.

“I am still very much in contact with my school-mates,” says Alex. In fact, he has met fellow OEs several times during the autumn, adding: “We have our next ‘QE Exiles’ quarterly drinks on December 22nd.”

Alex has recently re-established contact with the School, visiting Headmaster Neil Enright and coming to this term’s Year 11 Careers Convention as one of the OEs giving careers advice to boys and their parents.

A first-year pupil’s focus on the Grenfell Tower fire took him to victory in the new Lower School History Essay competition.

Sasha Temple impressed History teacher Simon Walker with his rationale for choosing the housing block conflagration as a source that would be useful to historians of the future studying 21st-century London. Entrants not only had to name two such sources, but also to explain what historians would be able to learn from their content or provenance.

Year 7’s Sasha beat off competition both from his peers and from Year 8 to take the prize. His success was announced in assembly by Mr Walker.

“Sasha’s choice of source, and his justification for that choice, were impressive mainly for two reasons. First, it was very specific to London, revealing much about the city rather than just the early 21st century more generally.

“And second, Sasha showed great perceptiveness in considering the provenance of the source – the story that lies behind it, and what we can learn from this. As a Year 7 student, Sasha has not received much, if any, instruction in this skill yet, but nonetheless he was able to think of his source not just as an inanimate object that simply exists, but as something whose existence reveals much about human affairs.”

Mr Walker added that Sasha was therefore able to explore how the tragic events of June 2017 and their aftermath reflect on society and on social attitudes within contemporary London. “For example, Sasha considered how, if we compare the remains of Grenfell Tower to other blocks of flats in the city, we can establish from the absence of safety measures such as sprinklers and fire extinguishers that there is great inequality in today’s London. Alongside this, Sasha highlighted that the cheap material from which the tower was constructed reflects on the lack of concern within the society of London towards the safety, and more generally the wellbeing, of the city’s poorer inhabitants.”

Sasha’s other source was Barnet Amenity Site, the Borough’s recycling and tip facility.

The rules of the new competition specified that submissions had to be typed and handed in to the History department by the first day back after half-term.

QE sixth-formers heard from leading cross-party politicians at a day conference that touched upon topics ranging from Brexit to humanitarian issues in conflict zones.

Yet despite all this, there was a single appeal that rang out loud and clear, according to Year 12’s Eshan Patel: “Over the course of the event, one key message was expressed; that young people were vital in politics and were needed for the future of the country.”

Parliamentarians including Commons Speaker John Bercow, Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan and Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Jess Phillips made the call, making clear that young people were needed “to help increase the work that has already been done towards equality for women and minorities”.

The 2017 A-Level Politics Conference featured talks from currently serving politicians, who also answered the sixth-formers’ questions.

Brexit was a repeated point of focus. Speakers including Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer discussed a ‘soft Brexit’, the importance of access to the single market and matters of economic policy. Tory Remainer Anna Soubry discussed the approach of Theresa May in the negotiation process, standing strongly behind her.

High-profile Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured with three QE students) spoke on traditional values within politics, while the Liberal Democrats’ former leader, Nick Clegg, answered questions on the future of his party. Labour’s Chuka Umunna delivered a strong speech on the future of the country in relation to global events, such as humanitarian issues in Syria and Libya.

Overall, reported Eshan, the trip was interesting and provided many fresh insights for the QE boys. “It helped us understand how fragile the Brexit negotiations are, as well as the desired outcomes of the two main parties.” he said.

QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon, said: ““This was a rare opportunity for students to come face-to-face with national leaders and to address their concerns directly to decision-makers. QE students derive great benefit from this occasion.”

Thirty-six QE sixth-formers qualified for the next stages of a national Mathematics competition – twice as many as in 2016 – while the School comfortably out-performed the national average.

Eleven pupils taking part in the Senior Mathematical Challenge qualified for the élite British Mathematical Olympiad – up from eight last year – and 25 reached the other follow-on round, the Senior Kangaroo, representing a 150% increase on 2016’s total of ten.

The Best-in-School title went to Year 12 boy Robert Sarkar (right in photograph), who scored 121 out of a possible 125 marks. Andrew Shamis (left in photograph), top scorer in Year 13, was just behind, on 120.

Of the 123 pupils who entered the competition, 33 were awarded gold certificates (22 in 2016), 53 received silver (39) and 30 (42) won bronze. The certificates are given only to the top 60% of entrants nationally, but at QE the proportion gaining them was 94%. They are awarded gold, silver and bronze in the ratio of 1:2 :3.

Congratulating the successful entrants, Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “Many of the boys who have qualified through to the follow-on rounds have been members of our Élite Maths mentoring scheme for a number of years and are now passing on their experience and wisdom through mentoring students in Years 9 to 11.”

The competition, run by the UK Mathematics Trust, involves answering 25 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes. To qualify for the Olympiad, candidates must score at least 104 points and for the Kangaroo, they must score at least 85.