Queen Elizabeth’s School’s Service of Nine Lessons and Carols embraced the best of Christmas tradition, while several fresh touches added still further to the festive atmosphere.
This year, before the service began, Year 13’s Drew Sellis, who has won a Cambridge organ scholarship, took his place in the organ loft in Chipping Barnet Parish Church to perform pieces by Bach, Brahms and his own fantasia on Once in Royal David’s City.
After the organ voluntaries, there was a further innovation as the church was plunged into darkness for two minutes of silent reflection, with the lights remaining off as the Chamber Choir sang the antiphon and then a soloist performed the initial verse of the carol that Drew had already prefigured.
The carols and choral pieces throughout the service were interspersed with Christmas Bible readings from boys and staff, culminating in Headmaster Neil Enright’s reading of the prologue to St John’s gospel, with its themes of Jesus Christ as both the Word and Light of God.
Before the service, Old Elizabethans and VIP guests were invited to a reception at nearby Church House, at which they were entertained by the String Quartet.
Mr Enright said afterwards: “This was an excellent carol service and a fitting way to herald the start of the holidays. It is always a special occasion in a QE Christmas, and this year it was enhanced by the dramatic and symbolic shared experience of waiting in darkness for the light to appear.
“I was pleased to see so many governors, Old Elizabethans, former staff and other friends of the School. Our Year 7 boys always come to the carol service to round off their first term and it was good to welcome a good number of their parents, too. I commend our choristers, instrumental musicians and readers on their contributions to the evening.”
Mr Enright also thanked the Reverend Chris Ferris, officiating at his final service for the School. Mr Ferris, who has served as a governor while in post as Rector, moves on from the parish at the end of the calendar year.
The church was absolutely full, with some even having to stand at the back. The congregation joined in with the familiar carols, while the Chamber Choir sang Arvo Pärt’s version of Bŏgŏroditsye Dyevo and then the Chamber Choir soloists sang Rachmaninov’s version. The School Choir’s pieces included O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.
In one of his final duties, 2019 School Captain Bhiramah Rammanohar read the story of the birth of Jesus from Saint Luke’s gospel. He was joined at the service by three of the last four School Captains, Norbert Sobolak (2015), Varun Vassanth (2016) and Aashish Khimasia (2018).
The Mayor of Barnet was represented by ward councillor (and former Mayor) David Longstaff. The Representative Deputy Lieutenant of the London Borough of Barnet, Martin Russell, was also in attendance.
At the conclusion of the service, Drew played again, first performing Widor’s Movement 5 (Toccata) from Symphony for Organ No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No.1, and then improvising again on one of the carols, this time Hark the Herald Angels Sing, which the congregation had just sung. Drew has an Organ Scholarship at Jesus College, Cambridge, for next year and is believed to be the first Elizabethan in living memory to have secured such a scholarship.
The House Competition is, however, very broad, and involves many House challenges and special events: it was victory in the recent QIQE quiz competition that put Broughton in first place on 111 points, ahead of Harrisons’ on 110.
Among the biggest sources of points is Sports Day, which comes in the Summer Term, shortly before the overall winner of the House Competition is announced at a special assembly. In 2019, a strong performance at Sports Day helped Broughton overtake Pearce to claim their victory as the 2018–2019 top House.
The 18-page launch issue, which has been published both as hard copies and digitally on the School’s internal eQE web portal, features prose and poetry, as well as art, contributed by boys from Year 7 to Year 13. The artwork shown here, right, is by Sai Sivakumar, of Year 9.
Editor-in-chief Josh Osman, of Year 13, wrote in his foreword of the “abundance of creativity flooding the halls of QE” and said the magazine would provide an additional platform for boys who wished their work to be seen. “For the first issue, we received an overwhelming number of fantastic submissions, with impressive themes ranging from memory to social equality,” he said.
The magazine is named after Arabella Stuart, a noblewoman with connections to the School’s early history, who died a tragic death in the Tower of London.
Congratulating the finalists, ICE London Director Jonathan Baggs said: “The #ICanEngineer Competition has shown that our schools are full of budding engineers and innovators.
Now in its fourth year, the #ICanEngineer competition, organised by the ICE London Graduates and Students committee, has continued to grow. This year, more than 50 pupils competed from schools across the London boroughs.
“Personally, I was very impressed with their submissions,” said Karan. “I would like to pass on my congratulations to everyone involved, especially as QE won both the sustainability prize as well as the overall competition. I look forward to seeing the trophy in the School the next time I’m around.”
One QE team took joint first place with a team from The Henrietta Barnett School in the regional tournament’s teamwork finals – and thus secured early qualification for the national finals – while another two were joint second out of the 28 teams from eight north London schools taking part.
wo years, QE teams have not only achieved national success, but have also progressed to the world VEX IQ finals in the US.
After that, it was time for the teamwork competition, in which two teams are required to work together, often, but not always, with teams from other schools. Teamwork qualification matches took place either side of lunch. The final hour was devoted to the teamwork finals and the announcement of the day’s awards.
“This gave the all-QE combination of Gyrofusion and Gearsquad (already ranked as the second overall alliance) the tall task of breaking the national record in order to advance as the overall first ranked alliance. High drama followed, as a packed crowd of over 200 seated in the ‘bleachers’ voiced healthy support for the home finalist. As the robots came to rest, it was clear that a new high score may have been achieved – and a huge roar erupted from the stand. Judges, referees and volunteers checked scores carefully, and when the new UK record of 111 flashed up on the screen, the home crowd was delirious!
en Elizabeth’s and HBS had combined to equal the national record and thus tie the overall competition!
“This made their tiebreaker opponents’ task a simple procession to victory: accordingly, they played it safe and simply did what was required to score 100 points, and in doing so won the tie-breaker and the overall tournament.”
“Another award winner on the day was the newly-formed Year 8 team of Cyber Storm, for the innovative way they programmed their robot.