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The Universal Music Group, led by OE Lucian Grainge, has won approval from the EU to acquire EMI Recording Ltd, bringing a number of artists into the music giant’s fold – including the Beatles.

As part of the deal, Universal will have to divest a number of other top artists including the likes of Coldplay, David Bowie and Blur. EMI Recording Ltd not only encompasses the EMI label, but also several other famous brands.

Asked in an interview with the UK website, This is Money, whether the deal was worth it, the answer from Universal CEO Lucian was brief and to the point: “You bet!” He added: “This deal has now been cleared in the three biggest music markets in the world – America, Japan and Germany. I am leading a business that now owns Capitol Music and the Abbey Road Studio as well as the EMI and Virgin labels.”

The Virgin back catalogue includes The Human League and the Spice Girls, with current artists Emeli Sande and Professor Green amongst others. With the acquisition of Capitol Records, Universal also becomes home to the recordings of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and the Beach Boys.

Lucian, who was at the School in the 1970s, has acknowledged that savings of £100 million will need to be made, saying: “I can only grow this business by making savings and investing in the product – the artists and the music."

A group of QE Sixth-Formers who successfully undertook a gruelling Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition to Morocco have been praised for their initiative by their assessor.

Altogether 21 boys took part in the trip to Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains; 14 completed their DofE Gold award expedition, while a further seven took part in the trip purely for personal development.

The boys were accompanied by Christina Wu, Economics teacher and the School’s DofE co-ordinator, along with History teacher Laura Tobia and Biology teacher Martin Bassett-Jones. The bespoke QE expedition was a reward for the boys who were the first QE cohort to complete the Bronze and Silver awards in 2009 and 2010.

“The trip built on the trekking, navigation and campcraft skills the boys had learnt from their previous walking expeditions around the UK,” said Ms Wu. “With temperatures in the Atlas Mountains rising to 48°C at mid-day, Morocco provided a valuable and challenging experience for all of the Sixth-Formers. The strenuous trekking required a great deal of fortitude.”

Each of the four days of the expedition required eight hours of activity, with self-sufficiency a pre-requisite. In order to achieve the eight hours before temperatures became too high, the boys had to rise at 4am. They then shouldered their 20kg backpacks and walked to their next destination, contending with rugged terrain, high altitude and occasionally inaccurate maps.

The boys were trailed at a distance by a DofE assessor, an expedition leader from Outlook Expeditions (a company which organises tailor-made Gold award expeditions) and two of the QE staff members. With no campsites and no toilets, the boys had to wash in rivers, identify clean water sources for drinking and generally manage personal hygiene.

“Many of the boys displayed a maturity beyond that usually seen in a classroom context. Most strikingly, they showed that they had the ability to encourage each other and to look out for each other’s welfare,” said Ms Wu. “The DofE students passed their assessment with flying colours; the assessor especially praised their initiative, good humour and resilience in the face of the daunting weather conditions, notably the excessive heat.”

The second group of boys enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and experience new cultures. They did not have to carry their own equipment, making use of mules for transporting it. They covered much of the same ground as the DofE group with an additional six-hour day of walking.

On their return to Marrakech, all the boys and staff enjoyed exploring the city and took a day for relaxation at a water park.

To see a Youtube video of expedition highlights, please follow this link: http://youtu.be/HoA3cSJX30I

Nine Year 13 boys started the School year with an opportunity to sample life at Exeter College, Oxford.

Accompanied by Economics teacher Sonia Strnad, the group attended a conference specifically aimed at Sixth-Formers, which was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

“The boys enjoyed the intellectual rigour and challenge of the day,” said Mrs Strnad. “They attended four lectures, all focusing on different aspects of Economics. A question-and-answer session also provided an opportunity to inquire about Oxford and what it means to study there.” 

The first lecture was delivered by Dr Andrew Sentance, CBE, a Senior Economic Adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers and former external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. In his talk, he raised questions about monetary and supply policies and discussed where to look for solutions to re-balance the economy and kick-start growth.

Nicholas Wapshott, a prominent British journalist and founding editor of The Times Magazine, spoke of whether the business cycle of boom & bust is inevitable. Possibly best known for his 2011 book, Keynes & Hayek: The clash that defined modern economics, he brought to life the academic debates between the two highly influential economists.

This was followed by an intellectual ‘drilling’ from Professor Alan Morrison, Professor of Finance at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Merton College. His areas of expertise include bank regulation, investment banking and corporate governance. The final lecture of the day from Dr Steve Davies, the IEA’s Education Director, introduced an historical perspective. He highlighted key milestones in economic history and looked at the patterns of growth and decline over the centuries.

The boys enjoyed lunch in the college dining hall and coffee in the college grounds. They left with a generous selection of publications for further reading, courtesy of the IEA. “They all agreed that it was a really informative and stimulating day,” said Mrs Strnad. “The day gave the boys a flavour of what it would be like to study at Oxford and has fired them with enthusiasm to succeed in the selection process. We agreed that it is important not to limit their ambition, but to always believe that targets are within their reach.”

The School is adopting Guy’s Trust as one of its charities for this year. The Trust has been set up by the family of Guy Joseph (OE 1997-2002) who was killed in a paragliding accident in the Pyrenees on 14 October 2011, aged 25. The School’s announcement has been timed to coincide both with the first anniversary of the accident and with Guy’s birthday, 4 October.

Guy graduated from Newcastle University with a first-class degree in Marine Biology. He spent two years as a scuba-diving instructor, first in East Timor and then on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. He then travelled to Nepal, spending the winter there and learning to paraglide.

Guy was intelligent, warm, compassionate and non-judgmental and despite his youth and legendary sense of fun and zest for life, had a reputation as a responsible and gifted teacher. He also had a talent for developing friendships with anyone, whatever their background, nationality or age. His family has established the Trust to support the causes that he was particularly passionate about – children and marine conservation.

The Trust supports disadvantaged children in Nepal through the provision of pre-school education and is funding internships at MantaWatch – a conservation organisation that Guy helped to establish, dedicated to protecting the endangered manta ray. “We want to honour Guy’s memory by supporting the projects that were close to his heart” said his mother Vicky.

“The School supports a number of charities each year,” said Headmaster Neil Enright. “We were greatly saddened to hear of Guy’s death; his adventurous spirit and commitment to the causes he espoused were very much in keeping with the ethos of the School.”

On the anniversary of Guy’s death, the Trust is hoping to spread the word about Guy’s Trust and to increase traffic to its Facebook page www.facebook.com/GuysTrust through which donations can also be made. “If we can reach 5,000 ‘likes’ this will greatly increase the opportunity for corporate sponsorship,” said Mrs. Joseph.

The Guy’s Trust website may be reached through the Facebook page, or at www.guystrust.org Guy’s Trust is also on Twitter: @GuysTrust

QE boys are looking forward to another year of intense inter-House competition.

The School’s new House Co-ordinator, Martin Bassett-Jones, said: “House events are an excellent way to promote a spirit of healthy competition in areas as diverse as music and sport.”

Among the highlights last term was an inter-house challenge that required boys grouped in their Houses to transfer as much water as possible across tracks on the School field, using only plastic cups, string and bamboo.

“A total of 360 boys from Years 8 and 9 worked together well to plan and execute methods of getting water across a gap without simply carrying it themselves,” said Mr Bassett-Jones. “Many different and innovative methods were in evidence.  The boys clearly had a very enjoyable time, with good co-operation between the year groups.”

“The event proved to be an excellent means of encouraging team-building between boys in different year groups within the same House.”

Leicester House won the challenge, because they were the first to transfer five litres within the 15-minute timeframe.