Viewing archives for

It is with regret that the Association announces the death of Michael Deller (1942-52) in early February 2018.

QE’s annual Jazz Evening featured a new group playing a curiosity from the early years of the genre, as well as music from senior pupils in the established ensembles.

Year 9 Blues performed a composition inspired by Jackass Blues – a 1920s work by Art Kassel and Mel Stitzel which, as its name suggests, sounds in places like the lament of a donkey, albeit a tuneful one. The group comprises four boys who have worked collaboratively on a class composition project in their Music lessons: Raphael Herberg (cello), Aadarsh Khimasia (flute), Shivas Patel (piano) and Dillan Shah (piano).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a well-attended and relaxed event, with plenty of variety among a programme that was played to a high standard – my thanks go to all involved for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.”

Visitors were greeted by the Chairman of Governors, Barrie Martin MBE, and the Headmaster. The bar was run by Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s Secretary Diane Mason and her husband, George.

The Big Band began and ended each half of the Jazz Evening, playing a total of seven pieces, including numbers by Charlie Mingus and by modern American pianist Gordon Goodwin.

In between, Friday Jazz performed standards ranging in style from Louis Jordan’s Is you is or is you ain’t my baby? to Blue in Green, the ballad credited to Miles Davis on his hit record, Kind of Blue, which many have long believed was, in fact, written by pianist Bill Evans.

There were vocal contributions from the junior boys in the B Minors – including Let It Be by Lennon and McCartney – and their more senior counterparts in the Barbershop group, performing Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water, while Year 13’s Alfie Clarke sang solo in his rendition of Valerie, by The Zutons.

Another soloist was Sixth Form saxophonist Sanjeev Menon playing Canadian singer The Weeknd’s song, Earned It. The Saxophone Ensemble not only entertained the audience during the interval, but also played Nigel Wood’s So We Too in the main programme.

Music teacher Tom Jack, who hosted the evening, thanked his colleagues, Director of Music Cheryl Horne and teacher Jen Brown, for helping with the arrangements and looking after the guests. He also paid tribute to the work of the peripatetic teachers who had rehearsed some of the ensembles.

He welcomed a number of boys who were taking part in their first Jazz Evening and honoured the Year 13 students playing in their last, including the two soloists.

QE has added to its comprehensive pastoral support with the launch of an external online counselling service for the boys.

Through carefully structured pastoral provision, great efforts are made at the School to ensure boys are both happy and resilient, as well as successful in their academic endeavours. The latest addition to this provision, Kooth, is a free, safe support service for young people that is anonymous for its users.

Kooth is a platform run under the auspices of XenZone, an organisation set up by members of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) to facilitate easy access to high-quality mental health support and to information on emotional well-being.

The service, which offers online counselling between noon and 10pm daily, was introduced to QE boys in assemblies by Tim Coombe, one of Xenzone’s representatives. He challenged perceptions that it is not manly to ask for help or to talk about your emotions, saying: “It’s ok to admit you’re not ok.”

He added that boys currently are statistically much less likely to look for support than girls. “It is really important that boys engage too. You need to look after your mental health in the way you would your physical health,” he told the pupils.

The service is professionally run and, as it is moderated in real-time, no inappropriate content can be published and nobody be bullied in its forums. Kooth gives secure access to trained counsellors if needed. “Within minutes online, you can get access to support that would take months to access in the community,” said Mr Coombe.

He stressed that just because a boy does not need such support now, it does not mean that he might not in the future. “You never know what will happen; you can be fine, then one day have a problem. Take a look at the website and set up a profile now so that it will be there if you need advice or support in the future.”

Kooth complements the provision already in place at QE in-house through form tutors, the pastoral team and peer mentoring, and through the School’s counselling partnership with the New Barnet charity, Rephael House, whose counsellors come into School.

David Ryan, Assistant Head for the Upper School and Pupil Progression, said: “It is important that boys are open to asking for help in School, or through such services as Kooth when they need reassurance or advice.”

“School is here to support you when you do face difficulties,” he told Year 11 boys in their assembly.

• • The Kooth website, https://kooth.com/, contains articles suitable for young people, looking at issues from self-image to depression.

It is with regret that the Association announces the death of John Anthony (Tony) Butcher in early February 2018.

Five senior boys have won an early place in the global finals of a robotics event in the US, while other QE teams continue their onward march in competition by winning a string of accolades.

It is QE’s very first year of participation in the senior robotics competition, called VEX EDR. Last year, QE took part in the junior category, VEX IQ, for the first time and two teams from the School qualified for a place in the 2017 world championship, also held in the US.

The EDR team, HYBRID ALPHA, won their automatic place in the 2018 Vex Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, in April, by scooping the Excellence Award in the regional EDR event at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. QE’s ALPHA and BETA teams were pitted against teams from Coventry, Buckingham and Kent, as well as other London schools.

Alex Saika, judge for the award at Stowe and a member of the British university robotics team, praised ALPHA on the day: “This team has demonstrated excellence throughout the competition, and although they narrowly lost out in the teamwork final, we felt that they were the most consistent throughout, and have shown an overall excellent approach to solving engineering problems throughout their journey.”

The EDR competition featured a new game, The Zone, played on a 12ft x 12ft pitch, in which two alliances, comprising two teams each, competed in activities including stacking cones on goals and parking their robots.

Congratulating ALPHA, Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “Many of the other schools competing have been a part of this particular competition for a number of years, which makes this feat all the more impressive. The award made for an especially “sweet finish to the day.”

The ALPHA team are: Year 12’s Aadi Desai, together with Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy, Bhargab Ghoshal, James Tan and Ukendar Vadivel, all of Year 10.

“Not to be outdone by ALPHA, BETA achieved an accolade of their own, winning the Design Award,” Mr Noonan said. “This award is usually given to the team which finishes second in the standings for the Excellence award, and, had it not been for some earlier malfunctions, they might have had seats on the plane to the US.”

The BETA boys still have the opportunity to progress further when they compete in the National Championships in Telford in March.

The awards won at Stowe are the fourth and fifth awards accrued by the EDR teams in regional rounds so far this year, with ALPHA also winning the Judges Award at the Welwyn regional event and the Teamwork Champion and Design awards at the event hosted by Greig City Academy in Hornsey.

At IQ junior level, the QE participants, who are drawn from Years 8 and 9, have also performed strongly as they aim to emulate the achievements of last year’s teams. Against a backdrop of stiff competition from a record number of teams – and with more qualifying events still to come – three Year 9 teams, Gear Squad, Snake Byte and ECHO, have now won places in their national finals, which take place in Telford the day before the EDR finals.

“Their most challenging competition to date was undoubtedly The Henrietta Barnett School regional event, where Gear Squad were named Teamwork Champions and narrowly missed out on the automatic World Championship-qualifying Excellence Award,” said Mr Noonan. “On the same day, Gear Squad also picked up the Design Award, Snake Byte won the STEM Research award, and – our surprise package of the day – Year 8 team Technogear won the Judges Award.” Mr Noonan is hopeful that Technogear and fellow Year 8 competitors, Supercharge, will yet qualify.

“Other awards won already this year by teams include the Teamwork Champion and Judges awards won by Gear Squad at the Fortismere regional and the Judges Award won by Snake Byte at the Essex regional.”

IQ’s new game this year is called Ringmaster. It involves two robots working collaboratively in 60-second matches on a 4ft x 8ft rectangular surface to complete tasks including scoring goals with coloured rings.

The VEX robotics competitions are run to promote the use of Mathematics and Physics and to teach the basic principles of robotics through team-based design-and-make challenges. There are almost 3,000 teams worldwide across the IQ and EDR formats, with China and the US particularly prominent.