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QE Year 11 pupils Priyesh Patel and Sam Catchpole-Smith have both secured places on the prestigious Arkwright Scholarship scheme for young engineers.

The Arkwright Scholarship is recognised as the flagship engineering accomplishment that pupils can achieve at Key Stage 4. Arkwright Scholars pass a rigorous selection process and are expected to act as ambassadors of the Design & Technology and Mathematics Departments in their schools.

Priyesh and Sam will personally receive £250 per year towards educational equipment in both years of the Sixth Form, while the Design & Technology Department receives £200 for each of them. Importantly, the Scholarship also provides them with close working connections to cutting-edge engineering firms.

QE’s Head of Design & Technology, Simon Vincent, said: “This is excellent news and a notable achievement on the part of Sam and Priyesh. It’s by no means easy to win places on this scheme, which is a nationally respected organisation that effectively provides students with a scholarship for both of their A Level years as well as offering help in their later careers.

“The links with engineering firms help build confidence in the Scholars, giving them a greater understanding of real-life working practices, which can be applied in their studies. These foundations are seen as being a major factor in ensuring that students continue their studies to a professional level.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School came seventh out of 70 schools competing in the national finals of the prestigious Team Maths Challenge. It was the first time that a QE team had reached the national round of the competition, which is organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust.

Captain Nigethan Sathiyalingam and his fellow team members, Shane Mahen, Gabriel Gendler and Madhi Elango, had previously seen off 35 other teams to win outright at the regional final held at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School earlier in the Summer Term.

Congratulating the Year 8/9 team on their success, Mathematics teacher Wendy Fung said: “This competition provides an in-depth test of students’ mathematical knowledge and ability, so it is a tremendous achievement to have achieved a top-ten place from among schools across the whole country.”

The national finals took place at the Camden Centre in London and involved top-scoring teams from all the regional finals. Among the exercises that the entrants had to tackle during the competition were:

• Crossnumber – similar to a crossword, but with numerical answers 
• Head-to-head – participants paired against an opponent and competed to be the first to answer questions 
• Group competition – teams worked on ten questions, working in pairs, individually or together as they prefer 
• Poster competition (national final only) – teams were sent information in advance about a topic for research and investigation.

At the final, they made a poster incorporating materials that they had prepared while addressing related questions given out on the day.

All participants in the national final received a certificate and ‘goody bag’.

QE’s GCSE students have been highly commended by the moderators from examination board OCR for the impeccable standard of their coursework folders and their attention to detail on their practical work.

The Resistant Materials Chief Examiner said: “It’s a pleasure to save the best to last and QE’s [students] always provide me with a benchmark standard as to what other schools should aspire to.”

QE pupils Priyesh Patel and Sam Catchpole-Smith have both been offered final interviews to secure a place on the prestigious Arkwright Scholarship scheme. This entitles students to a financial subsidy to help towards their academic studies and, more importantly, close working connections with cutting-edge engineering firms. The Arkwright Scholarship is recognised as the flagship accomplishment pupils can achieve at Key Stage 4.

• Four pupils in Year 12 selected to be involved in the Engineering Education Scheme have received the British Science Association’s CREST award and have made good progress in their work with local company Lovell. Jack Evans, Andrew Kettenis, Ibiyemi Ogunyemi and Rikesh Poonja had to design an energy system based on a hydrogen fuel cell that could be incorporated into new property developments to power heating and lighting in a more sustainable way. After a three-day workshop at the University of Hertfordshire, the team was praised for its presentation and the clarity of its final proposal.

Two QE teams emerged as runners-up in the National Team Championships, while two boys won recognition for outstanding individual performances.

Both the U14 team, captained by Year 8 pupil Madhi Elango, and the U12 team, headed by Joseph Levene of Year 7, took second place after six closely contested rounds at the championships held over two days at Pontin’s Holiday Centre in Somerset.

Teacher Geoffrey Roberts said: “There were some outstanding individual performances, with two boys winning prizes for the leading performance on their board; Reyvanth Varathan, of Year 9, and Joseph Levene, of Year 7, who won all of his games.”

The U16 team, captained by Kushal Shah, finished in fifth position. In addition to the successes of the A teams, Mr Roberts reported that QE’s B teams competed at U16 and U14 levels and gained valuable tournament experience.

QE’s Bollywood Orchestra won a place in the Music for Youth National Festival in July.

Eighteen boys from Years 9-12 prepared a version of A R Rahman’s Raga’s Dance, including elements of improvisation, at the Bollywood workshop at the start of March, working with Bollywood expert Sam Suriakumar. They first entered a recording of this in one of the regional festivals run by Music for Youth, a long-established educational charity.

The boys played at the National Festival at the Adrian Boult Hall, part of the Birmingham Conservatoire. The performance also included pupils from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School dancing to the QE boys’ music.