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Four QE boys have been selected to represent Hertfordshire at a regional tournament. In addition, a boy from Year 9 and a Year 10 pupil are currently undergoing national water polo trials.

Sam Carling, of Year 10, along with Kavi Pau, Dinos Caryotis and Marcus Rodin from the year above all made it through the Hertfordshire County Water Polo trials, which took place over three weeks. They joined the squad of 13 players competing at the East Region Inter-Counties Tournament at the Luton Sports Village Pool during the half-term holiday.

Meanwhile, Louis Waloshek, of Year 9, who is undergoing trials for the England squad, spent half-term in Rome at a training camp. Alex Northcliffe, of Year 10, is also taking part in national trials.

All the boys met with the Headmaster, Neil Enright, to receive his congratulations. “I am very pleased with the individual achievements of the boys,” said Mr Enright. “They have all worked hard to progress in their sport, balancing their achievements against their academic studies. The School’s Martin Swimming Pool is an impressive facility and I have no doubt that it has played a part in enabling our water polo players to attain such a high standard.”

QE boys enjoyed the opportunity to inflate lungs with a rubber tube and to focus a lens from an animal’s eye on newsprint during the Society of Biology’s first-ever national Biology Week.

Lung and eye dissections were among the activities laid on at the School for the week. Other activities at QE included the cultivation of ‘grassy heads’, where grass seed was grown on round head shapes, and the construction of paper skeletons.

“Boys from all years were invited to sign up for a range of events, some of which were targeted at specific year groups,” said Biology teacher Martin Bassett-Jones. “The grassy heads and skeletons have been displayed around the School and have provoked a substantial amount of interest. But I think it’s fair to say the dissection sessions were the most popular.”

The activities were designed to be stimulating and to go beyond the curriculum for those boys who were keen to learn more.

“Overall the week was a great success and it’s possible that it may become a regular event for us,” said Mr Bassett-Jones.

QE’s cast and crew have been lauded for their performance in the Shakespeare Schools Festival. The event involved four local schools, who took part together in workshops before each staging an abridged version of a Shakespeare play in front of a public audience at the Arts Depot in Finchley.

Lydia Lewison, the Regional Co-ordinator for Shakespeare Schools Festival, said: “Our team really enjoyed working with the QE cast, who performed a powerful, gripping and mature production of Julius Caesar. The boys had a brilliant grasp of the language and delivered their lines with conviction and honesty.”

She also commented on the boys’ commitment to the project: “They were a pleasure to have in the theatre – so supportive of the other casts and really in tune with the festival ethos of celebration and inclusivity.”

QE was one of 700 schools that took part in the national event, which was supported by 90 professional theatres. The boys received expert help at a drama workshop at Finchley from an actor/director from the Central School of Speech and Drama. “It was a joy to see their confidence and performance levels rise,” said QE’s Drama Co-ordinator Elaine White. “They clearly relished and benefited from the professional theatre experience.”

The Shakespeare Schools Festival charity is the largest youth drama festival in the country. Its patrons include Dame Judi Dench, Kevin Spacey and Sir Tom Stoppard.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has retained its place as the country’s top boys’ state school in the Sunday Times Top 200 State Secondary Schools league table.

QE has twice been the Sunday Times’ State School of the Year. This year, as in 2011, it took second place nationally behind a girls’ school – The Henrietta Barnett School – although its 2012 A-level results were, in fact, slightly better than those of HBS.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very satisfying to be the top boys’ state school once again.“I am also pleased to note that, in terms of the A-level statistics published in the Sunday Times’ table for independent schools, QE is matching the top-placed boys’ school, St Paul’s, and narrowly outstripping the next, namely Westminster. QE can thus lay claim to being the joint top boys’ school – whether from the state or independent sector – in 2012.”

Earlier this term, QE was also named the best boys’ state school in the Financial Times’ Top 1,000 Schools table.

Year 11 pupil Joseph Levene has won the trophy for best U16 player at the Millfield International Schools’ Chess Team Championship. Joseph was competing as lead player for QE on board 1 and finished his matches undefeated, securing 6.5 points from a possible 7. “This was an outstanding achievement in a high-calibre field,” said Geoff Roberts, teacher in charge of chess.

Three other boys won prizes for the best performances on their boards in the competition held at Millfield School in Somerset. They were Kieran Chan on board 5, Sivashayndhan Sivanathan on board 11 and Caleb Sheng, who was undefeated on board 12.

“Overall the QE A team acquitted itself well amongst 13 of the élite chess-playing schools from across the UK and Ireland,” added Mr Roberts. “I was very pleased to see the strong performance of so many of the B team players who won board prizes; this shows the strength in depth of chess at the School and reflects the sterling work of Tony Corfe and his team in developing players at the Improvers’ Chess Club.”

In the tournament as a whole, Queen Elizabeth’s was placed in seventh position after the first two qualifying rounds, narrowly missing out on qualification for the championship as one of the top six teams by just half a point.  After five further rounds of intense competition, Queen Elizabeth’s finished two points behind the winning school in the Major Section.

The B team recorded their best performance to date in the tournament, with many boys winning games against other schools’ A teams.