Viewing archives for

Eleven Year 12 pupils headed for Imperial College London for the Environmental Design Challenge – a competition that encourages young people to work collaboratively to design eco-friendly human settlements.

Joining the international challenge for the first time, the QE sixth-formers worked with some 70 pupils from other schools to produce ideas for “a sustainable transformation of Milton Keynes” on a trip organised by QE’s Physics and Geography departments.

One member of the group, Tanush Madadi, won an individual award for Best Leadership in a non-leadership position.

The Environmental Design Challenge (EDC) is organised by the Space Science and Engineering Foundation, organisers of a series of competitions connected with outer space, including the UK Space Design Competition (SDC), in which QE has a long and successful record.

Head of Physics Jonathan Brooke said: “The EDC takes the structure of the UK SDC and broadens its appeal to include Year 12 students with a breadth of interests linked to sustainability and public policy. It coincides with several of the priorities of our Boundless School Plan – especially nurturing pupils so that they become ‘sustainability literate’.”

“Working to a tight deadline, the boys had to cope with the stress of working under pressure,” said Mr Brooke, “It was a great opportunity for them to develop project work skills they will need at university and in employment, to get them out of their comfort zone, and to collaborate with people they were meeting for the first time.”

All three ‘companies’ formed on the day comprised pupils from several schools, with the QE contingent split between two of them. These two companies called themselves Milton Greens and Keen for Keynes.

The three companies worked on a presentation to find solutions to three tasks related to MK’s “sustainable transformation”:

• Reimagining Milton Keynes’ transportation
• Developing a strategy for sustainable growth
• Designing a climate-resilient development.

Keen for Keynes (pictured here on stage celebrating their win) won the competition on the day.

Geography teacher Elin Hopley said the boys drew on their knowledge from the GCSE and A-level courses, as well as from research done on the day: “I was hugely impressed by the significant amount of work all the participants had put into their presentations. The room was buzzing with excitement as groups prepared to present and answer the judging panel’s questions.”

Tanush, who won his award for his contribution to Milton Greens, said: “Pitching our socio-economic strategy to industry judges at Imperial College London was a fantastic, rewarding learning experience.”

Other QE participants equally reflected on a rewarding trip. Aarnav Mahajan enjoyed applying his interest in mathematics and science to some real-world challenges. Adithya Ananthakrishnan found it inspiring to work with “so many other like-minded young people”, while acknowledging that presenting to a large audience forced him out of his “comfort zone, which was extremely valuable”. And Danyal Rahim, who aspires to work in sustainability-related fields, said: “One of the highlights was collaborating with other schools in large teams, with never-ending pizzas sustaining us throughout the day!”

Year 13’s Noah Morley has become the third QE pupil this century to be offered an organ scholarship from Oxford or Cambridge.

His scholarship counts as a major success for QE’s three-year-old musical partnership with Barnet’s St John the Baptist Church, in which Noah played a pioneering role.

He follows in the footsteps of Cambridge organ scholars Peter Yarde Martin (OE 2002–2007) and Drew Sellis (OE 2013–2020).

Noah’s scholarship offer from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, comes after he played a leading part in two recent landmark musical events for QE – the Chamber Choir singing evensong at Christ Church, Oxford, and a Royal College of Organists (RCO) concert at St Lawrence Jewry Church in the City of London.

Assistant Director of Music Jas Hutchinson-Bazely, who helped Noah obtain the Cambridge scholarship, said: “This is a wonderful achievement and is richly deserved following his enthusiastic involvement in our organ scholarship at the parish church for the past three years.

“He has fulfilled his duties both there and in School with distinction, and is a brilliant role model to our increasing number of young organists. Hopefully, he will inspire many more to follow his lead, and we wish him every success.”

Noah began learning the organ at QE in Year 9. Under the partnership with St John’s, Noah, who was then in Year 10, was named as an inaugural QE organ scholar, together with sixth-former Joel Swedensky (now singing as a choral scholar with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge).

Noah is currently the Senior Organ Scholar in the scheme, with Year 9’s Arthur Wang as Junior Scholar.

If he secures the A-level results he needs to secure his place at Cambridge, Noah will have the privilege of playing the organ three times a week in the college chapel. He said: “Being awarded the scholarship is very important to me. My organ teacher is very proud.”

Noah is taught at QE by organ and voice teacher Adam Hope, who rehearses the School’s Chamber Choir. In the Summer Term, Noah played voluntaries at Christ Church’s Rieger organ before and after evensong at Christ Church, as well as accompanying the choir during the service [pictured top].

This term, he was among the star performers in the concert in the City church beside the Guildhall – the second time that QE, which became an RCO-Accredited Institution in 2025, has been invited to take part in the RCO Young Performers concert series. Also performing were 11 other pupil organists and singers from Years 8–13.

The historic venue, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is the official church of the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of London. The church is home to a Klais organ, built in 2001 as a Millennium Project

QE’s concert was introduced by Madeline Smith, Director of Relationships at the RCO. The organists performed works by composers including Elgar, Bach and Vivaldi, while the singers presented pieces by Purcell, Torelli and Ireland.

The performers were supported by Year 9 pupil Hoting Tan [pictured in the blue shirt], who acted as the organists’ console assistant for the day. Having recently started learning the organ himself, Hoting was able to observe and learn from more experienced musicians.

Year 8 organist Hercules Li said: “I enjoyed playing on a new organ and I liked the large variety of sounds. I also enjoyed being able to walk through the organ and see all the pipes inside it.”

Robin Peng, of Year 9, added: “I really liked the immersive sound and atmosphere the organ produced, and how I could feel the mechanisms working behind the keys and creating the sound almost magically.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School tops a new national league table from The Telegraph based on a range of performance data.

In its coverage comparing the country’s 163 grammar schools, the newspaper places QE firmly at the head of its rankings: “Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet is the best grammar school in England based on key academic data for both GCSE and A-level students,” writes Data Editor Ben Butcher.

The Telegraph assessed the selective schools according to eight separate criteria. While exam performance was the most heavily weighted factor, the league table awarded points in areas including Progress 8 (a Government measure that looks at pupils’ academic progress from primary school to GCSE), attendance, the proportion of pupils going on to university, and breadth of curriculum.

Publication of the league table comes less than a month after the latest Ofsted report on the School. This gave QE the highest ‘exceptional’ rating across all of the seven areas that the inspectors looked at when they visited last term – a rare accolade given to only a handful of schools nationwide.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very gratifying to read this data-driven recognition of the excellence of a QE education. This success is, of course, the fruit of a host of factors identified by the Ofsted team, such as my colleagues’ ‘extremely high expectations for behaviour, conduct and attitudes to learning’, our ‘remarkably ambitious’ curriculum, and our focus on equipping pupils with ‘knowledge, resilience and flexibility of thought’.”

While The Telegraph’s league table looked at QE’s very strong 2024–2025 A-level and GCSE results, this summer’s outcomes were even better. The top A* grade went to 63% of all A-levels taken at QE, with the proportion at A*–B reaching 98%. At GCSE, the results were the School’s best-ever, with more than two-thirds of exams awarded a level 9.

Thirty-four GCSE and A-level musicians enjoyed a memorable evening in the Victorian splendour of the Royal Albert Hall at the 80th Anniversary Celebration Concert of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

For many, it was their first experience of hearing a professional orchestra play live.

The RPO served up an 80th birthday treat for their ears, opening the concert with the world premiere of a piece by Errollyn Wallen, Master of the King’s Music, before delivering consummate performances of works by Beethoven and Richard Strauss.

Assistant Director of Music Caroline Grint, who led the trip, said: “Such first-hand experiences are deeply enriching for those studying at GCSE and A-level, helping to deepen their understanding of the context of the music they study, while also providing a valuable cultural experience.

“We’re very fortunate that QE is within easy reach of world-famous venues like the Royal Albert Hall – and, as our Boundless School Plan sets out, we seek to take full advantage of that proximity.”

The performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto was “technically dazzling”, Miss Grint said, while the concert’s concluding piece, Richard Strauss’s epic tone poem Ein Heldenleben, featured “an impressive nine French horns”.

Errollyn Wallen’s piece, entitled FLARE, had been specially commissioned by the RPO for the concert. The Belize-born British composer was appointed by King Charles in 2024.  She was awarded an MBE in 2007 and CBE in 2020, both for services to music.

Founded in 1946 by conductor and impresario Sir Thomas Beecham, the RPO has grown from its first concert in Croydon to become an internationally acclaimed orchestra, performing across London, the UK and around the world, as well as reaching audiences through digital and media platforms.

“Our students were particularly struck by the extraordinary technical skill of the internationally acclaimed soloists, pianist Julia Fischer, cellist Pablo Ferrández, and pianist Jan Lisiecki in the Beethoven concerto,” Miss Grint added.

After securing $8 million in the summer to expand their education platform, Medly AI, OEs Paul Jung and Kavi Samra have now tested its value by commissioning an independent trial.

The randomised controlled trial run by research organisation WhatWorked Education looked at 644 GCSE Science candidates.

In their blog, the Medly AI team wrote: “Every revision app says it works. Very few let someone else check.”

The results provided evidence of the positive effects of using Medly AI. “Attainment rose consistently with use. The more students engaged with Medly, the greater the effect… The effect size did not differ by disadvantage status. Pupil Premium students gained in line with their peers, which is encouraging on equity, and the part of the result we’ll be watching most closely as the work continues.”

Kavi and Paul, who both attended QE from 2008 to 2015, secured the seed investment in a round led by Felix Capital, supported by existing investors Eka Ventures and Ada Ventures.

The pair, who have been friends since Year 7, grew up in low-income households where private tutoring was unaffordable. Paul and Kavi went on to study Medicine at UCL, from which Paul holds a PhD in Psychiatric Neuroscience, while Kavi has worked as a doctor in anaesthetics.

Their childhood experience, combined with their professional expertise acquired at UCL, inspired them to develop an alternative – an affordable, subscription-based AI-native platform offering exam-focused, personalised tutoring. Both left their careers in the NHS to build Medly.

Announcing the successful fundraising in August, Paul said: “Millions of students are using AI to skip thinking. We’re two doctors who left medicine to solve that. AI will reshape what it means to learn, to work, to matter. We’re here to make sure people come out of education stronger.

“With this round, we’ll be building our own education-specific models and scaling globally over the next year.”

In nine months through to this summer, more than 400,000 UK students signed up to Medly AI, with three-quarters of them still using the app three months after they started.

The pair have also been awarded a Department for Education grant for working on the AI Pioneer Programme, which aims to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils across England.