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Year 10 geographers have been out and about in town and country as they work towards their GCSE next summer.

Their AQA GCSE course requires two fieldwork trips in contrasting environments, so the boys headed to Epping Forest in Essex to study physical Geography and to East Village in the Olympic Park for their studies in human Geography.

Head of Geography Emily Parry, who was among teachers accompanying pupils for the trips, said: “The days were very successful in allowing the boys to become familiar with a wide range of fieldwork methods and they gave them the opportunity to consolidate and extend their geographical understanding by relating their class room learning to real-life experiences. “

During the visit to the Field Studies Centre (FSC) in Epping Forest, the boys conducted river fieldwork on Debden Brook and investigated how river channel characteristics change with distance downstream. In three locations, they measured the brook’s width, depth, ‘wetted perimeter’ (the part of the channel in contact with water), velocity and the size and roundness of the sediment.

The human Geography fieldwork was led by FSC London. The boys investigated the sustainability of the East Village development, which was formerly Athletes’ Village during the 2012 Olympics. Built on contaminated wasteland and industrial buildings, the development boasts London’s newest postcode, E20. Various investigation methods were deployed by the year 10 boys, including environmental quality surveys, questionnaires, service tallies and pedestrian counts. Their visit followed in the footsteps of QE’s Year 12 geographers, who visited East Village recently as part of a day trip to various areas of east London.

The boys are now writing up their fieldwork in class. Their understanding of fieldwork will be assessed in their 2018 GCSE examinations.

Old Elizabethan Stefan Rajendra is helping some of the world’s leading financial institutions manage the risks of doing global business.

Stefan (OE 2001–2008) is a manager at international management consultancy Accenture, where he specialises in risk management within investment banks.

“This has been a particularly interesting area since the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent trading scandals,” he says. “Aside from this, it has also given me the opportunity to work abroad, from Bangalore to Chicago.”

Stefan enjoyed academic success at QE – he achieved straight As in his A-levels in Economics, Mathematics, Biology and Geography – but it was a turbulent time for him, too. “I had quite a troubled childhood and certainly didn't have the foundation most kids my age would have had.

“However, throughout my time at QE I always received support, both financial and overall mentoring, and even when I was suspended in the Upper Sixth, Mr [David] Ryan, the Head of Sixth Form at the time, continued to give me his time and advice. It's not lost on me for a moment that much of the opportunity I have had is because of the education I had at QE.”

After School, Stefan went to UCL to read Economics. He was not alone: “I left QE with about 20 other people in our year that ended up at UCL, with half of them also reading Economics.”

While still a student, for four months in 2010, he worked as a summer analyst in Nomura’s Change Management Team. He returned to the Japanese financial giant after graduating the following year to work as a Regulatory Control Analyst.

In January 2013, he moved on to Accenture, where he remains today, based in London. His work there has included being project lead for a programme at a Tier 1 European investment bank, managing a team responsible for the global delivery of accurate risk reporting.

Eleven of the 12 QE boys taking part in the 2017 Cambridge Chemistry Challenge were awarded gold or silver certificates, placing them all among the top 23% of the 7,056 entrants nationwide. The remaining QE entrant took copper, which was the next category of certificate.

The competition is designed to stretch Year 12 pupils, taking them significantly beyond the A-level syllabus.

Five of the boys who entered the competition won gold certificates after scoring at least 33 marks out of a possible 68 – a feat achieved by just 7.7 % of entrants. This performance was described as “very impressive indeed” by the organisers at Cambridge University, who added: “These students demonstrated their ability to tackle a range of chemical topics under time pressure.”

Six entrants took silver in the Lower Sixth competition, which is also known as C3L6. This was awarded for marks of 25 or above and was achieved by 14.8% of entrants – “We felt [this] represented a very good achievement on this paper and showed the students were able to think their way successfully through unfamiliar material,” stated the report from the C3L6 organising committee, drawn from representatives of the university’s Chemistry department and from St Catharine’s and Corpus Christi colleges. Copper certificates went to 36.4% of entrants, while 40.2% gained no award at all.

The gold certificate winners were:

• Abhishek Balkrishna
• Aneesh Chopada
• Aditya Gupta
• Showgo Kimura
• Michael Takla.

Silver certificates went to:

• Milan Hirji
• Abbeykeith Kugasenanchettiar
• Milun Nair
• Simon Rey
• Karthigan Sriranganathan
• Abhinav Vudathu.

The remaining QE competitor, Dillon Shah, was awarded copper.

Old Elizabethan Kam Taj, who is a performance coach and motivational speaker, gave some life lessons to boys at both ends of the School.

Kam (OE 2004–2011) spoke first to Years 7–10 as part of the Lower School lecture programme, delivering an address entitled Ten things they didn’t teach you at School. He then returned to lead a workshop on similar themes to Year 12 boys seeking places at Oxbridge.

After leaving QE, Kamran Tajbaksh, who is known professionally by the shorter versions of his names, took a first in Manufacturing Engineering at Churchill Colllege, Cambridge, and gained a Master’s degree with Merit in the same discipline. On graduating, he initially took up a post as a management consultant with a global company, but then decided in June 2016 to become a performance coach and motivational speaker.

In his talk, he drew frequently on his own story, including the challenges he faced firstly in the Sixth Form to achieve the grades he needed for Cambridge and then in his first couple of years at the university, when he under-achieved. His talk was packed with memorable maxims, such as: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I am grateful to Kam for helping our pupils. His use of personal stories engaged the boys, helping them to relate to him and thus making his advice all the more powerful.”

Kam’s ten lessons were:

1. Let go of pressure

• “Our intrinsic pressure should drive us, not paralyse us”
• Strive for excellence, not perfection (which is impossible anyway)
• Don’t think that the ‘highlights reel’ others display on social media is a true reflection of their whole life

2. Just do your best

• “It is better to try, and to be disappointed, than not try, and forever wonder.”
• Be honest with yourself as to what your best is – but know t hat it can get better each day

3. Redefine failure

• “It’s not failure if you learn from it and get back up again”

4. “Find your why; find your way”

• Work out why you are doing something and what the end goal is, then draw a line between that future and now to see what you need to do to get there.

5. Build firm foundations

• Invest your time and effort in your academic studies, but also become a well-rounded person through activities such as sport and Music.

6. There is a difference between examinations and learning

• Learning is life-long and should be for the love of it.

7. The importance of planning

• You will always do better if you have a good plan.

8. “It&rsqu o;s ok to slow down…but don’t stop entirely – keep going, in a sustainable way”

• Fatigue is our greatest enemy
• It is important to look after yourself – eat well, exercise, rest, write things down if you are stressed.

9. Strength is managing your feelings

• Don’t buy societal mistruths about it being wrong to express feelings or bad to fail. It is not weak to ask for help.

10. Be grateful – put things into perspective.

• “Stop focusing on how stressed you are and remember how blessed you are.”

Four QE mathematicians took second place in the final of a national competition – out of 313 teams entering from across the country.

The Year 9 boys reached the top 20 teams that were invited to the final of the Edge Hill University Mathematics Challenge by successfully progressing through two earlier rounds.

In the final at the university’s Ormskirk campus in Lancashire, they were praised by the judges for their precise use of mathematical language and awarded the competition’s Newton prize, only to be pipped for the top spot by another school making the trip from north London, the Jewish Free School (JFS).

QE Mathematics teacher, Phillip Brady, said: “This was a fine performance by these boys and it certainly made the journey worthwhile.”

The QE team was: Sunay Challa, Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy, Anshul Sajip and James Tan. Each of them won a £30 gift voucher.

Organised by the university’s Faculty of Education, the long-running competition provides pupils with the opportunity to tackle engaging mathematical activities, while developing teamwork and communication skills. It also aims to encourage children and schools to think about ways of integrating ICT within Mathematics and of developing problem-solving skills.

In the first two rounds, teams had to produce posters showing solutions to a given problem, while in the final, teams presented their solution to a panel of three judges.

“After an early start, the long train journey to Preston was spent putting the final touches to the presentation,” said Mr Brady. “Some slides were taken out; others were corrected. On arrival, the team had a further 40 minutes to prepare. Once they had finished their presentation, they relaxed during the lunch break by following a maths puzzle trail which took them around the site.”

Sunay said: “I enjoyed presenting the programme to the judges. It was a wonderful day.” And James added that he had also greatly enjoyed the puzzle trail.