QE’s new Samba Band brought some hot Latin rhythms to a bleak winter’s night in Barnet at the School’s Christmas Concert.
The annual charity fund-raising event held in association with the Rotary Club of Barnet featured works by Mozart, Dvořák, Rachmaninov and Offenbach, as well as film themes, classical Indian music and some well-known carols, for which audience participation was definitely encouraged!
With 14 different ensembles taking centre-stage in the Shearly Hall during the course of the evening, the concert involved contributions from hundreds of boys and many staff.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was an excellent concert, with great variety in terms of genres and styles, and a high standard of performance throughout. My congratulations go to all those involved in putting on a very good evening’s festive entertainment.”
VIP guests included the Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Cllr Caroline Stock, and her husband, Old Elizabethan Dr Richard Stock, and Colin Luke, President of the Rotary Club of Barnet, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.
After the String Quartet entertained the audience as they took their seats, the programme proper began with three pieces by the Symphonic Winds, who were directed by QE’s new Director of Music, Ruth Partington.
The Celli played an arrangement of English composer and organist Herbert Howell’s carol, A Spotless Rose.
The audience were then transported to two different continents, first with the Samba Band’s début appearance and then with the Senior Indian Ensemble performing Valachi Vachi.
The Chamber Choir sang both Arvo Pärt’s and Rachmaninov’s versions of Bŏgŏroditsye Dyevo, before the Jazz Band brought the first half romping to an end with the Hawaii Five-o Theme and I wan’na be like you, from Disney’s Jungle Book.
After the interval, the Barbershop group performed three songs, finishing with Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
The highly varied nature of the repertoire continued, with the Camerata playing two works by Mozart, followed by pieces by the Sax Ensemble which included Destiny’s Child’s Eight Days of Christmas, and then by a Lennon and McCartney medley from the School Choir’s tenors and basses.
As the concert drew towards a close, the whole School Choir sang the popular Carol of the Bells, composed in 1919. The Symphony Orchestra then took on Offenbach’s Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8 and Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival.
Bringing the evening to a rousing end, the massed ranks of the Symphony Orchestra and School Choir led the audience in singing Once in Royal David’s City and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Following discussions, the Green Party – which came in third place, with 10 seats, behind the Conservatives, on 13 – entered a formal coalition, allowing Labour to form a minority administration, with further support from the Liberal Democrats agreed on a ‘confidence and supply’ basis.
There was particular excitement in three forms where the results were tied. The winners of these seats were decided by the toss of a coin between the two tied parties. The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each won one seat in this way.
A lunchtime hustings was held earlier this month in the Main School Hall at which boys had the opportunity to question the five candidates, who were (pictured left-right): Year 9’s Ugan Pretheshan (Brexit); Year 11’s Ethan John (Conservative); Year 13’s Haider Jabir (Green); Year 12’s Eeshan Banerjee (Labour) and Year 11’s Sultan Khokhar (Lib Dem). The debate was chaired by Politics teacher Liam Hargadon – billed as QE’s answer to Andrew Neil – although since all the candidates turned up for the event, no ice sculptures were used!
The five all successfully negotiated a gruelling selection process almost a year long to win the scholarships, which will provide them with financial and mentoring support throughout their A-level studies.
Scholars were selected for their potential as future engineering leaders by an assessment of their academic, practical and leadership skills in engineering disciplines.
The School receives £400, which it must spend on equipment, materials or teacher training to enhance the delivery of STEM subjects.
“These have undoubtedly helped them to build a profile of engineering experience requisite for winning an Arkwright Scholarship.”
In fact, Parent Power revealed that not only were we the top state school, but were among a mere handful of top-performing schools of any stripe, selective or comprehensive, state or fee-paying. Nationwide, just four independent schools matched QE’s 95.7% figure for the proportion of A-levels passed at A*-B. Remarkable as our boys’ performance this summer certainly was, there is a further aspect that is not apparent from the league tables, and that is the extraordinary long-term consistency in our A-level results: 2019 was the 14th consecutive year in which the A*-B figure has remained above the 95% threshold.
This has been a busy term for Music, and for the arts in general, with a full programme of concerts and performances. Sergio Ronchetti (OE 2004-2011), who is a freelance composer and sound designer enjoying success in the gaming sector, visited to deliver a careers lecture to senior boys. After leaving school, Sergio first worked for four years as a professional musician, only then going to Goldsmiths, where he took a First in Music.
QE recently took on St Albans in a special match marking 100 years since the first encounter between the two schools. The game in 1919, which QE won, was St Albans’ very first fixture, while QE had itself only been playing the sport for a few years. At the centenary match, which St Albans won 36-19, I presented St Albans with this photo (right) of the Elizabethan team from the following season, 1920-21, the earliest rugby team photo that either school possesses.
We are now in the last year of the current School plan, covering 2016–2020. It is still proving highly relevant; we continue to actively pursue its aims. For example, it was with Enhancing future prospects in mind – one of the plan’s four priority areas – that we launched our inaugural university mock interview evening, which was supported by a considerable number of alumni.
He led a team of filmmakers, historians and programmers involved in the project, which reached thousands of users via the internet, radio, television, and mobile phones, as well as through analogue media such as postcards, lectures, and print. In addition, it was the first digital exhibition on the website of the new Austrian Museum of History in Vienna.
Following the success of the project during the 80th anniversary period last year, it was announced this year that it had won the European Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award in the Education, Training and Awareness-Raising category. The project was one of only seven to be named as one of the awards’ Grand Prix.
“This project has used innovative media to cast new light on pivotal historical moments in which crucial political decisions were taken. Curiosity was the driving force that provoked this historical storytelling, evoking the collective memory of eyewitnesses. The project’s pioneering technology allows for the constructive mediation of historical events.”