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Queen Elizabeth’s School’s new Eric Shearly Memorial Hall has been formally opened by Diane Mason, Secretary of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s.

Mrs Mason, an FQE stalwart and steadfast supporter of the School over many years, unveiled a commemorative plaque at an official opening ceremony preceding QE’s annual Christmas Concert.

The hall is named after Eric Shearly (1920-2005), a former pupil and master who dedicated 76 years to QE and in doing so became a great figure in the life of the School.

Its completion marks a significant milestone in the development of Queen Elizabeth’s School: a majority of the pupils – some 850 boys – can now be assembled; the hall has allowed the introduction of table tennis and badminton to the curriculum; it houses the School Shop and 250 boys can take examinations there. Importantly, with good acoustics integral to the design, the hall is an impressive venue for concerts and recording sessions, further strengthening QE’s reputation as a specialist Music College.

However, it is significant for another reason too: the tremendous generosity that made it a reality. The £6.5m total cost of building the Shearly Hall and the Martin Swimming Pool was met entirely through the fund-raising of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (FQE), the donations of Old Elizabethans and, most of all, the regular giving of parents through the Covenant Scheme, overseen by the FQE Trustees.

In his welcome, the Headmaster, John Marincowitz, compared this achievement with President Kennedy’s announcement in 1961 that the United States were going to put a man the on moon, “not because it was an easy thing to do but because it was a hard thing to do, and doing hard things makes you better”.

“Fittingly this Hall is dedicated to the memory of Eric Shearly and of the many other Old Elizabethans who have given selflessly to their country and to this school. This splendid facility will have a truly beneficial impact on the education of our boys,” said Dr Marincowitz.

In addition to Dr Marincowitz and Mrs Mason, the audience were addressed by Ken Cooper, Chairman of the Old Elizabethans, who attended the School from 1942-50, and the Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Hugh Raynor.

The Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin added: “Our new multi-purpose hall is a wonderful addition to the facilities that have been made possible over the past few years by the covenants and fundraising activities of our parents to the Friends. It is a joy to show it to visitors.”

Guests at the ceremony included Jodi Sweeney from Boston, Massachusetts, who is Vice President for Market Solutions of Avid, the company whose sponsorship gave the School Music Technology equipment worth more than £10,000. QE is Avid’s Beacon School for Europe, it has been announced.

• Immediately after the opening, the Christmas Concert took place. The concert is by tradition a fund-raising event for the Rotary Club of Barnet. The School’s musicians were joined by Barnet Choral Society for the traditional singing of the Old Hundredth. Ensembles performing included the Concert Band, Senior String Orchestra, Camerata, Senior Indian Music Ensemble and Bollywood Orchestra. It finished with carol-singing with the Symphony Orchestra and Massed Choirs.

To view these photographs, click on one of the thumbnails to start a slideshow.

Sixth-former Ariel Weiss has been awarded a certificate of distinction in a competition for the country’s top young mathematicians.

The certificates are given to the top 25% of entries in the first round of the Senior UK Maths Olympiad, which is organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT). There were 1,309 entrants this year. Most participants in this round are selected to take part having first achieved success in the UK Senior Mathematics Challenge, also organised by the UKMT.

QE’s Head of Mathematics, Gee Scarisbrick, said: “This is a considerable achievement by Ariel, who has been offered a place to read Mathematics at Queens’ College, Cambridge.”

Three QE pupils have won a national competition which aimed to find the country’s brightest young businesspeople and entrepreneurs.

Step into Business is a new competition launched last June by the b-live Foundation and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). It was designed to build key employability skills.

Jaymin Thakrar, Akash Gandhi and Kapish Dave from Queen Elizabeth’s School have been named winners in the Years 10-11 category. A total of 159 schools nationwide entered the competition at this age group and in the Years 12-13 category, with 3,250 individual pupils taking part in the Step into Business lesson plan.

Step into Business was delivered as part of the Business Studies curriculum. It placed participants in the position of would-be investor – much like the ‘dragons’ in the successful BBC series Dragons’ Den. Teams were shown three new product ideas and given an imaginary £50,000 to invest in the one they considered most likely to succeed at market.

Through analysing each of the products’ financial viability and marketability, students were able to exercise key Business Studies skills including numeracy, literacy, teamwork, reflective learning, decision-making and leadership.

Tanja Kuveljic, Managing Director of the b-live Foundation, added: “The Step into Business initiative is an example of how we join up relevant organisations who are committed to supporting young people, education and schools to provide a curriculum-based exercise which helps schools to reach their attainment targets but also develops the employability of young people.”

Old Elizabethan Lucian Grange, a leading music industry executive, received his CBE at Buckingham Palace and was then feted at the Brit music awards on the same day.

Mr Grainge, aged 49, is chairman of Universal Music Group International and is soon to become Chief Executive Officer, based in New York. He has artists including Amy Winehouse, U2, Duffy, Girls Aloud and Eminem on his roster of talent.

He remains largely unknown to the outside world, yet within the music industry he is considered both influential and highly successful. Simon Cowell said of him: “He’s the one person I consider to be real competition… He is the most talented music-industry executive in the British pop industry.”

His eye for retail reportedly stems from his childhood, when he would carefully observe which records customers chose in his fathers TV, radio and record shop.

Mr Grainge has advised both the Labour Government and the Conservatives on the best way to tackle CD piracy, and he was closely involved with the Government’s recent Digital Britain report.

He received his CBE for services to the creative industries.

Queen Elizabeth’s School features prominently in a Financial Times article focusing on gifted children.

The feature highlights the fact that 800,000 children nationwide are labelled ‘gifted and talented’. Yet it points out that there is no empirical national standard in this area. Instead, the Government defines ‘gifted’ children as ‘students who achieve, or have the ability to achieve, significantly above average (compared with other students in their year group at their school) in one of the National Curriculum subjects’.

QE Headmaster Dr John Marincowitz says: “Gifted children are one of the country’s most valuable assets and they’ve been treated appallingly.”

He states that demand for the academic education that such children need heavily outstrips its availability. The article was published as parents nationally are informed of the secondary school at which their child has been allocated a place this September. QE could take an additional 500 or 600 highly able boys each year and still achieve excellent academic results, Dr Marincowitz says. The School matches leading independent schools in examination league tables, even though 40 per cent of its pupils have English as a second language.

The article outlines a ‘mish-mash’ of policies for gifted children produced under Labour, while acknowledging that the Government has at least moved the needs of bright pupils up the education agenda. The writer adds that the Conservatives have no plans to increase the number of grammar schools.

The feature includes a number of tips for parents seeking a school able to provide the best opportunities for their bright children. These include: examining a school’s list of university places for leavers (last year QE sent 25 of its 150-strong Year 13 to Oxbridge); looking for ‘very good’ or ‘outstanding’ ratings in the teaching quality and standards sections of inspection reports; and asking teachers ‘awkward, specific’ questions about how they cater for the brightest pupils.

Teachers may be unwilling to give such children the assistance they need to excel. The writer, education consultant Lisa Freedman, cites the comments of Lee Elliot Major, research director at the Sutton Trust, that among teachers there exists “a confusion between excellence and elitism, and often a confusion between an academic elite and a social elite. There’s also a real reluctance to differentiate between children.”

Pupils sometimes resist being labelled ‘gifted and talented’, the article claims, partly as it could lead to bullying but also because much of the ‘enrichment’ on offer at many schools is in after-school hours. “If you’re a bright kid, you get punished with more work on Saturdays and in the summer holidays,” says Dr Marincowitz.

Read the full article in The Financial Times here.