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Underne House raised just over £150 for charity with three days of space hopper races.

Boys from Years 7-10 took part in the first two days’ races in the gym, with Tom Selek, of Year 7, winning the Year 7 and 8 races and Stuart Tang, of Year 9, triumphing among the Year 9s and 10s.

The teachers’ competition took place in the Shearly Hall – the first charity event in the new building to be allowed by the Headmaster. Organisers unleashed the hall’s new sound system, with some energetic music adding to the lively atmosphere. House Co-ordinator Will Beaumont won the teachers’ event.

“We chose space hopper races as it was an original, innovative idea which diverged from common events such as volleyball and football,” said Shahil Mehta, House Captain of Underne.

The £152.59 raised goes to Community Link Up, a registered charity which supports and promotes friendships between people with a Learning Disability and others in the Harrow community (www.linkup.org.uk).

All Year 12 geographers spent a day in High Wycombe investigating whether the town has its own urban microclimate.

The fieldwork, which is part of the preparation for an A-level examination in January next year, involved testing the temperature, wind speed and the effect of change in relief (elevation) on the heat island created by the town.

“This is an excellent and challenging fieldwork exercise for the A-level geographers; the concepts, equipment and decisions which need to be addressed, used and justified are highly complex,” said Anne Flook, Head of Geography. “It prepares boys well for the examination in January but also for fieldwork that they might carry out at university.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School’s History Department took a leading rôle in a conference for History teachers on the Cold War.

Organised by the Prince’s Teaching Institute, the event updated GCSE and A-level History teachers on recent research and debates, as well as providing an opportunity to discuss how to use recently released archival material in their teaching.
Twenty-five delegates took part in the conference hosted by QE at the Edgwarebury Hotel in Elstree, including three members of QE staff and two Sixth-Formers. QE gained Training School status last year and this event was one of its Training School opportunities.

It included three talks and a teacher workshop. The workshop was led by QE’s Head of History, Annette Liston, who shared teaching resources from QE with the delegates. She also welcomed delegates and gave an overview at the start of the conference.

The talks were:

Political Violence in Germany since 1968, by Dr Martin Ruehl, Lecturer in German at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, Cambridge University. He linked the left-wing violence of the R.A.F/ ‘Baader Meinhof Komplex’ with developments in the Cold War, arguing that events in West Germany could not be understood in a vacuum but were only explicable by looking at the wider context of the struggles of the Cold War.

The Onset of the Cold War in Europe, by Professor Matthew Jones, a member of the School of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. He set out the various historiographical approaches to the start of the Cold War, providing teachers with the framework for their own teaching of the controversy. He explained the arguments of the different approaches and schools of thought, and encouraged teachers and students to look for the strengths and weaknesses in each.

Crossing the Lines, by former Soviet journalist Andrei Ostalski, who started his career at the TASS News Agency and became special correspondent at Izvestia in 1986. He spoke of his personal recollections of journalism and politics in the era of the Cold War, especially of his time in the Middle East, and of the fall of the USSR. He pointed out the contradictions inherent in the communist state, which eventually led to its downfall, and the rôle of Gorbachev.

All Year 7 pupils learned about Hinduism and the Hare Krishnas on a visit to Bhaktivedanta Manor – the temple donated to the movement by ex-Beatle George Harrison.

During a particularly ‘hands-on’ day, the boys enjoyed bull cart rides, face-painting and dressing up as Hindu warriors at the temple near Watford. The visit, part of the boys’ Religion and Society learning, gave them the opportunity to learn more about a religion with which many were unfamiliar.

Religion & Society teacher Geraldine Booth said: “What an amazing day – the boys get to see first-hand how a temple works and how it educates its visitors; the highlight of the day was the bullock cart rides!”

A Queen Elizabeth’s School team came second out of 80 schools in the national final of the Team Maths Challenge 2010.

Having triumphed in the regional round in April, team captain Madhi Elango, Gabriel Gendler, Bhavik Mehta and Yash Shah, won a place in the national event at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. Their second place behind Magdalen College School, Oxford, and ahead of Clifton College in Bristol, improved on the seventh place achieved by QE last year.

The Team Maths Challenge, which is run by the UK Mathematics Trust, is open to pupils from Years 8 and 9. The competition features four rounds – entitled Group Questions, Cross-Numbers, Head to Head and Relay – with an additional Poster Round held in the national final.

The QE boys were awarded trophies and copies of Ian Stewart’s book, Professor Stewart’s Hoard of Mathematical Treasures.