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The Association was shocked to learn of the sudden and unexpected passing of Ken Cooper on 2^nd July.

As a pupil in the latter years of the second World War, Ken went up to Oxford where he gained an MA in Modern History, after completing his national service and a commission in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.  Serving his country with great distinction in many senior Civil Service positions, Ken was honoured as a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his work in increasing accessibility to employment offices.

His service continued long after retirement in a number of voluntary roles, on a whole host of committees, whilst he applied the same dedication to the school as a Governor, to the Endowment Fund as Chairman and to the Association as President.  His passing is a great loss to the whole Elizabethan community.

As A-level grading returns to pre-pandemic standards this year, QE is celebrating “brilliant” results that cement the School’s place in the very top echelons of the country’s academic schools – a proud pinnacle in its 450-year history.

At the highest possible grade, the School improved significantly on its 2019 figures, with 58.2% of A-levels being awarded A* – easily beating the pre-pandemic record of 46.9% set in 2018. It was a similar record-breaking performance for combined A–A*: 89.1% of A-levels had these grades, well above the equivalent figure in the pre-Covid years.

And at the benchmark A*–B, QE continues to shine, achieving 96.9% in 2023, the 18^th consecutive year in which QE has exceeded 95%.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are very pleased indeed with this brilliant performance. Like the record-breaking 47 Oxbridge offers made to QE boys in the spring, these A-level results demonstrate that, in our 450^th anniversary year, the School is thriving and continues to go from strength to strength.

“We recognise that this Year 13 cohort has not always had an easy journey: they were unable to sit their GCSEs because of Covid, so, like their peers across the country, this was the first time they had faced high-stakes testing.

“Ofqual, the examinations regulator, told examination boards to aim for the proportion of top grades to be in line with the levels recorded in 2019, so for our boys to have comfortably exceeded that level is really quite an achievement – one which demonstrates that the highest standards were maintained at QE throughout the pandemic. They should be very proud of what they have achieved.

“The pandemic has in fact helped us accelerate the technological development of the School; we have taken great strides in our digital strategy, whilst continuing to invest in our campus, its facilities and the further opportunities that this generates for our boys.”

Among many successes across the subjects this year, French stands out for its 100% performance – all five candidates achieved A*.

In purely numerical terms, Mathematics had the most A* grades, with 106, followed by Chemistry (44) and Further Maths (43).

“While examination performance certainly matters, what goes on beyond the classroom here, including all the many opportunities available through our QE Flourish enrichment programme, is of equal performance,” added Mr Enright.

“This cohort at QE have taken full advantage, making an impact on a national and international stage, not least in providing members of the team that won the VEX Robotics World Championships in 2018. We have many stars – one of their number, Rahul Doshi, won Channel 4’s Child Genius programme some years ago, for example – but he and his peers wear their intelligence, talent and ambitious aspirations lightly.

“They should be proud of the wider contribution they have made. Known for their kindness and empathy, they have supported each other as friends, and those lower in the School as peer mentors. They have also helped to establish and develop connections with the local Barnet community, such as our QE Together partnership with Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School.”

“We hope that these students take away from QE not only great results, but a broad range of experiences that will have shaped them into well-rounded young men of good character, ready to step into the world and make a positive difference to the lives of others, living up to, and perhaps even exceeding, the example set by many illustrious Elizabethans over the past 450 years.

“Congratulations to the boys and their families on their fantastic achievements.”

Figures in this article were updated following the outcome of re-marks in early October 2023.

The year 2022 ended with the sad passing on December 30^th of Peter Allen BDS (Lond), LDS, RCS (Eng) (OE 1946-1954) who achieved sporting distinction at the school, representing the 1^st XV at the age of 16.

Barnet born and bred, Peter then qualified as a Dental Surgeon at University College London, before being called up for national service, after which he acquired a dental practice in Newbury.  Sadly he succumbed to a recurring illness just before last Christmas and passed away shortly after.  A fuller tribute will appear in the Elizabethan.

Peter’s funeral will be held at The West Berkshire Crematorium, Bath Road, Thatcham RG19 4LD on Monday 13^th February at 1.00pm.

The Association has recently learnt of the sad passing of Doctor Peter Olney, on October 27^th.  Peter was a pupil at Queen Elizabeth’s from 1931 to 1938.

With 85.6% of GCSEs at QE awarded level 8 or 9 grades – equivalent to the old A* – the first pupils to sit public examinations since 2019 have put in a “terrific” record-breaking performance.*

In fact, the results at the highest grades are not only stronger than for the last pre-pandemic GCSEs in 2019, but also surpass last year, when the Government brought in a system of Teacher Assessed Grades.

Behind the statistics lie many individual successes, such as the 28 boys recording straight 9s across all their full GCSEs, and Vigaashan Asokan, whose performance in Economics was the best in the country, according to examination board OCR.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is a super performance from our Year 11 boys, who faced significant disruption because of the pandemic in the first year of their GCSE courses. The results for the top grades are simply terrific!

“These pupils had to cope with home-learning, close-contact isolation, stringent health & safety measures and frequently changing routines. Yet their results indicate that while the methods used by them and their teachers were somewhat different from normal years, they have delivered on their potential. They worked diligently and with dedication, were always mature about the challenges, and were enthusiastic about embracing all the opportunities available to them, both within and beyond the classroom.

“Congratulations must also go to our staff, especially in view of the great flexibility they showed during those difficult months. Using our eQE platform and other technologies, they maintained the breadth and rigour of the normal QE experience as much as possible, ensuring that no one fell behind, that we maintained pace with course content, and even that we delivered opportunities outside of lessons for enrichment and collaboration.”

Among the key highlights of today’s GCSE results at QE are:

• Almost two-thirds of examinations taken (64.1%) are awarded the highest possible grade, level 9 *
• 85.6% of GCSEs are awarded grades 9 and 8 *
• More than 19 out of every 20 GCSEs are given grades 9–7, representing a 0.4% drop on 2021’s Teacher Assessed Grades, but a sharp increase of 4.6% on figures for 2019, when public examinations were last sat
• A near-perfect grade performance in Latin, with the 18 candidates achieving an average grade of 8.90
• Similarly strong performances for the individual science GCSEs – Chemistry (8.88), Biology (8.82) and Physics (8.82), with no pupil awarded a grade below 7
• In Mathematics, taken by all 191 boys in the year group, the average grade was 8.80: again, no pupil was awarded a grade below 7.

Mr Enright added: “Looking back, necessary though the lockdowns and pandemic restrictions were, we can now see that they gave staff, pupils and parents alike a fresh appreciation of the benefits of on-site learning. Happily, things here have since rebounded as strongly as ever, with these pupils, and the School as a whole, able to look forward with optimism to what comes next.”

* October 18th 2022. Following appeals and re-marks, the proportion of GCSEs awarded level 8-9 has risen to 85.9% and the figure for grade 9 increased to 64.8%.