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Ben Pugh (OE 2002-2009) played a significant role as his team “stormed” to the final of the BBC quiz show, University Challenge. Pembroke College, Cambridge, made an unusually slow start in their semi-final against UCL and trailed in the early stages, before pulling level and finally winning 185 points to 125.

The show’s host, Jeremy Paxman, praised Pembroke as the only semi-final team who had not lost a match in the competition so far, describing their win as “another storming performance”.

Ben’s speed on the buzzer was crucial as he answered a number of starter questions to help his team to victory. His range of knowledge enabled him to answer questions on Shakespeare, chess, classical music, geography and Home Secretaries among other topics.

Ben, who is reading German and Russian at Cambridge, played a full part in School life during his time at QE and achieved top grades in his A-levels.

Sixth-Formers, staff and visitors were treated to an exposition of the effects of music on the brain by leading neuropsychologist and musician Dr Catherine Loveday.

During the open lecture, Lost in Music, in QE’s Shearly Hall, Dr Loveday, of the University of Westminster, endeavoured to unravel the mystery of music’s power, accompanied by professional pianist Anna Tilbrook, soprano Joanne McGahon and guitarist Darren Loveday.

Dr Loveday described music as “fundamental, universal and ubiquitous”. She referred to a 2004 study which documented more than 100 different feelings evoked in people by music. She outlined how physical changes to the body and brain underlie these emotional responses to music. Dr Loveday also referred to evidence that music can lower blood pressure, ease stress and reduce pain.

“Laughter, screaming and crying – they’re all basically a form of music and we’re innately primed by it,” said Dr Loveday. “We have these primal, direct responses, but then, as we learn the language of music more, our appreciation deepens. We become able to use sounds in more complex ways…matched by the complexity of our emotional responses.”

A lecture by Dr Loveday on the same theme, at the University of Westminster, was described in The Psychologist magazine as “a delightful neuroscience and music mash-up”.

Year 9 students listened to the dignified account of one woman’s experiences in Auschwitz, at a talk organised through the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Mrs Freda Wineman, who grew up a French Jew, gave a harrowing account of how her family was rounded-up and deported to the concentration camp. On arrival, her mother and younger brother, Marcel, were sent straight to the gas chambers, whilst she was allotted to a forced labour gang. Her head was shaved and her arm tattooed and she was set to digging ditches. 

She spoke of the touches of humanity and defiance that kept her spirit from being broken. She remembered, too, the Hungarian women who gave her their bread and tried to smuggle clothes to those prisoners working outside the camp in freezing conditions.

The talk was organised by History teacher Helen MacGregor, who said: “Mrs Wineman told the boys that she continues to relive her distressing experiences due to her unwavering sense of determination to bear witness to injustice and to prevent such evil ever happening again.

“It was a special day for Year 9 as they gained a valuable insight into one of the most horrific episodes in history and an understanding of human nature. The boys appreciated that they are the last generation to be able to hear the first-hand accounts of survivors of the Holocaust.”

This year’s Year 7 Music Scholars have been named after succeeding in a highly competitive short-listing process and then performing strongly in a special concert.

The five scholars – Alfie Clarke, Haran Jeyendran, Showgo Kimura, Andy Lau and Karnan Sembian – were among 12 boys who were short-listed for the concert. Each performed before an independent, external adjudicator, Simon Walton, Acting Director of Music at University College School, Hampstead. Mr Williams commended the boys on their high level of preparation and skill.

The concert programme included music from a wide range of genres, including Indian classical music, unaccompanied Bach on the cello and jazz by Oscar Peterson on the piano.

Headmaster Neil Enright presented certificates to the scholarship winners. “It is very pleasing to see the depth and breadth of musical talent at QE, and to know that we provide an environment in which such talent is nurtured,” he said. “Although, we encourage all our boys to excel at, and to enjoy, a broad range of disciplines, Music has always had a special place in the life of the School.”

A brief résumé of the five new scholars follows:

• Alfie Clarke has been learning the classical guitar since Year 2 and at his last school performed both as soloist and as part of various ensembles
• Haran Jeyendran has been learning the miruthangam (a percussion instrument) since the age of four. He also learns Carnatic singing, the electronic keyboard and the alto saxophone. Haran is a member of the QE Junior Indian Music Ensemble
• Showgo Kimura started playing the violin at the age of seven. He passed Grade 5 Music Theory with Merit last autumn and is currently preparing for Grade 6 practical. He is a member of the Junior String Orchestra and Choir
• Andy Lau also started violin lessons when he was seven years old. He is a member of the Finchley String Orchestra and took part in the Barnet One Voice concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. Andy is a member of the QE Junior String Orchestra
• Karnan Sembian has been learning the miruthangam since 2007 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Karnan has performed in a large number of concerts organised by QE.

Music Scholars receive financial support which can be used to reduce the cost of music tuition or to upgrade an instrument.

The other finalists were: Abbas Adejonwo; Abbeykeith Kugasenan Chettiar; Ricky Eatough; Shiran Gnanraj; Ghavin Kuganesan; Dillon Shah and Joshua Wong.

Having taken up Eton Fives again a couple of years after leaving the School, Sunil Tailor (1999-2006) has now become the first QE old boy ever to reach the quarter-finals of the sport’s national championships. He hopes one day it might be possible to set up a Fives club for Queen Elizabeth’s School alumni.

Sunil learned the game at QE and then, four years ago while in his second year studying Economics at UCL, he got in touch with QE Fives coach Ian Hutchinson to ask for advice on playing the game as an adult. Since Mr Hutchinson is a teacher at Mill Hill School, he urged Sunil to join the Old Millhillians Fives Club.  “We currently have teams in the first and second division and have competitive matches once a fortnight on average, running from about October to April,” explains Sunil.

Together with an Old Millhillian, Joe Coakley, Sunil entered the Kinnaird Cup, which is the national tournament. Thirty-three pairs entered this year’s cup, which was held at Eton College.

“We were given a slightly difficult first round draw, which we won three sets to one,” says Sunil. “Then we were drawn against the seventh seeds and, in a very close match, we lost the first two sets but were able to bring the match back to two sets all. In the fifth and deciding set, the game was getting very tight. In the end, the scores went to ‘sudden death’ and we won 13-12 to move into the quarter-finals.”

In its report, the sport’s official website, praised this game as “a real dogfight” and saluted “a miraculous shot that had no right to go up”, by which Sunil saved a match point.

The following day, Sunil and his partner faced the second seeds, who had been Kinnaird Cup winners or finalists several times in previous years. They were comprehensively beaten in straight sets but Sunil adds:  “It was a great experience and playing against the better or more experienced players can only make us better. It is a great sport to continue playing after school and I do recommend it fully to QE leavers – hopefully one day, we could also create a QE old boys’ Fives club!”

Sunil is currently training to be a chartered accountant and is a part-qualified ACA trainee with accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson LLP. He is due to sit his advanced stage examinations in July this year.

• The first Fives courts at Queen Elizabeth’s School opened at the old Wood Street premises in 1880, following a £10 grant from the Governors and a special fund-raising concert. The sport languished for some years after the move to Queen’s Road in 1932 and it was not until the post-war rebuilding programme in 1951-52 that plans for a new court were considered. By 1954, the court was complete and the following year the School was affiliated to the Eton Fives Association and entered the Public Schools Championships.