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With an increased number of talks this year, and standing room only in many of them, the 2019 Year 11 Careers Convention has been hailed as a great success – thanks largely to the support of Old Elizabethans.

Representatives from 35 different companies and organisations, featuring a good mix of alumni and other visitors, met boys and their parents as Year 11 were starting to consider their future career paths.

Professions represented ranged from medicine to app development, and from chemical engineering to the law.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was another tremendous evening and we are always very grateful to all those OEs who give up their time to come back and help out our current students. The boys benefit immeasurably from the advice that they receive, not least because seeing alumni thriving in their various careers is in itself a source of inspiration and confidence to them.

“At this stage in their education, it is as important for the boys to develop the soft skills they will need when planning for life after school – in order that they can actually achieve their desired outcomes – as it is to provide insight into the many different options available to them.”

The main Careers Convention was held in the Shearly Hall, while the nine talks – several of which were repeated three times during the course of the evening – were delivered in classrooms. The talks included popular career areas, such as Dr Nirmal Wilwaraarachchi (OE 1996-2002) on dentistry and Joseph Vinson (OE 2007-2013) on Getting a job in Tech.

There were, however, talks giving more general advice about topics such as studying abroad and about choosing and progressing a career, such as the presentation by Kam Taj (OE 2004–2011) on How to find your ideal career.

Alumni had a chance to catch up with each others at a reception hosted by the School before the event.

The evening also benefited from experts attending from organisations with which the School has strong partnerships, such as the National Citizen Service (whose summer programme is always popular with Year 11 boys), the STEM Ambassadors programme and the RAF.

• For more photos from this event, go to QE Connect.

Former pupils from across the generations came to the annual Old Elizabethans Association Dinner – with a strong turn-out from the ‘ten-year leavers’, the class of 2009-2010.

During an evening marked by much convivial chatter and by lively speeches, the diners also observed a silence in memory of former Headmaster Eamonn Harris, one of the great figures in the School’s recent history, who passed away only a few days before the dinner.

Current Headmaster Neil Enright welcomed Elizabethans of all ages – attendees included Brian Gilbert, returning to the School after a gap of 50 years – while reserving a special, if somewhat piquant, greeting for the ten-year leavers, pointing out that Assistant Head David Ryan had described the group “as his most challenging in all his years in the Sixth Form”!

“I’m not, though, surprised to see a good turnout, as they have actually proved to be one of the more actively engaged alumni cohorts and are doing lots of good work in support of the School. They were, and remain (on this evening’s evidence), a very sociable and enthusiastic group, and it is always a great pleasure to have them here at School events.

“We have a former teacher’s son (Adam Kuo), a governor’s son (Prashant Raval), former governor’s son (Josh Wagner), those who have spoken at school events (Matteo Yoon, Kane Evans, Tommy Peto and Prashant); Alex Goring’s brother is now teaching here, while Kunal Mistry is often in School auditing us (so I had better point out to Kunal that the School hasn’t paid for the wine because that wouldn’t be compliant with clause 1.22 on page 140 of the current Academies Accounts Direction).”

The event in the Main Hall was the first dinner to be hosted by the new President of the Old Elizabethans Association, Eric Houston, who taught at the School from 1976 until he retired, as Second Master, in 2010. Mr Houston is both a Governor and a Foundation Trustee of the School.

Another change this year was the reading at the dinner of the Queen Elizabeth’s School Prayer before grace was said.

In his speech, Mr Enright paid fulsome tribute to Mr Harris (HM 1984–1999): “Few can have had such a profound, transformational and lasting impact on Queen Elizabeth’s as Eamonn Harris, without whom we, quite simply, may well not be sitting here this evening.

“His bold decision-making, in making the School independent of the local education authority and then restoring academic selection, and the high expectations he had for all in the School community are the bedrocks of our present pre-eminence.

“We all owe him a debt of great respect and gratitude.”

Mr Enright reported on significant developments during the year, including “the exciting news that we have secured £2.2m of government funding…for our new Music School”.

To prepare the site, the Mayes Building was demolished during the summer. This facility was named in honour of Harry ‘Curly’ Mayes who “spent a full 60 years (from 1902 to 1962) as butler, porter, steward and then caretaker”.

Alluding both to Mr Harris and to Mr Mayes, the Headmaster said: “The present fortunes of the School have been built upon the foundations of the great service given by so many.”

He reported on the start of a project to digitise QE’s archives, beginning with photographs.

And, he said, with the School’s 450th anniversary in 2023 approaching, his predecessor as Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz (1999–2011), was well on the way to completing his book on the School’s history.

“Recording and giving access to the School’s history is important so that the contributions of people such as Eamonn and Curly Mayes are remembered and so that generations of Elizabethans to come are able to learn about their place in the long and fascinating narrative.”

Mr Enright concluded his speech with a report on QE Connect, the School’s recently launched online community for alumni, which has gained more than 450 members in the space of just a few weeks.

“Whilst we want to help OEs connect to the past, we also have QE Connect to help enable connections in the present and the future,” he said.

• For more photos from this event, go to QE Connect.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named the State School of the Year for the second consecutive year in the Sunday Times’ Parent Power survey.

QE leads both the London and national rankings in the influential annual table, which is based on GCSE and A-level results.

And the survey revealed that QE is in fact among the uppermost echelon for schools of any stripe, state or private, since only four independent schools surpassed the School’s 2019 figure of 95.7% for the proportion of A-levels passed at A*-B (namely St Paul’s Girls’ School, Godolphin and Latymer School and King’s College School in London, together with Brighton College).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is very welcome news and I feel tremendously proud to have the privilege of leading this School. Our position as the leading state school reflects both a substantial amount of hard work on the part of my colleagues and the boys, and our sustained commitment to pursuing the highest levels of achievement across all areas of School life.

“Good examination results, while important for our boys in securing places at the world’s best universities, are by no means our only priority. Through our broad and balanced curriculum, together with our extra-curricular academic enrichment programme, we seek to nurture a genuine spirit of scholarship among our boys.

“In addition, consonant with our mission ‘to produce young men who are confident, able and responsible’, we expect pupils to take advantage of the many other worthwhile activities available to them, whether top-quality music and drama, our wide range of sports, or our popular clubs, such as chess and robotics.”

The Parent Power rankings are determined by the percentage of examination entries gaining A* to B grades at A-level this summer (which is given double weighting) and the percentage of entries awarded A* and A grades, or their numerical equivalents, at GCSE. For QE, the GCSE figure was 90.8%.

Parent Power’s editor, Alistair McCall, wrote: “Despite the rapid advance of several relatively new schools in the capital, age is no barrier to success. Once again, Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet – founded in 1573 – tops both the London and the UK state school rankings. Competition for places at this boys’ grammar is not for the faint-hearted: 2,400 sat the entrance exam last year – a pool that is 50% larger than just five years ago.”

Immediately below QE in the state school table was Wilson’s School in Wallington, with local girls’ school, The Henrietta Barnett School, in third place.

The high position of these and other selective state schools in the rankings has not gone unnoticed among commentators. Professor Alan Smithers, a well-known educationalist from the University of Buckingham, highlighted the widespread national problem of bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds doing well at primary school, but then failing to make progress at secondary level. “Could the reintroduction of grammar schools be the answer to enable bright children to fulfil their potential?” he wrote in the Sunday Times.

The School’s first large-scale concert of the academic year gave the junior ensembles the chance to showcase the repertoire they have been rehearsing since September.

In her welcome to the Autumn Concert audience, QE’s new Director of Music, Ruth Partington, set out a powerful argument for the importance of participation in extra-curricular music.

The boys, including many from Year 7, then performed a programme that featured a truly eclectic mix of genres and styles, ranging from the Sinfonia’s playing of Schumann’s Träumerei to the Guitar Ensemble’s rendition of Metallica’s Fade to Black.

Miss Partington said in her address how much she had enjoyed her first few months at QE since joining the School from Canford School in Dorset.

She then pointed to the contribution that Music makes “to the development of soft skills, which are so important at interviews and in life generally.” Music, she said, “helps develop boys at QE into rounded scholars”.

Later in the evening, together with the Headmaster, Neil Enright, she presented Music colours to select boys in Years 8 to 10.

Ensembles performing on the night included the Concert Band, Junior Indian Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, the B Minors barbershop group, Queen Elizabeth’s Jazz Lounge, Friday Jazz, the Sinfonietta and the Trebles & Altos of the School Choir.

The evening began with the Concert Band performing John Williams’ Highlights from Harry Potter. After the interval, during which refreshments were served in the Dining Hall, the Sinfonietta also performed film music – Theme from Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean – before the Trebles & Altos rounded off the night’s entertainment with Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

The audience in the Shearly Hall included a number of guests whom Sixth Formers were hosting from the High Barnet Good Neighbour Scheme, a voluntary service giving practical help to the elderly, sick and anyone finding it difficult to cope.

Next in the School’s musical calendar are the Christmas Concert on 10th December and the traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Chipping Barnet Parish Church on 18th December.

QE’s actors tackled the challenging issues in one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays head-on in their production of The Merchant of Venice.

Shakespeare Schools Festival organisers at Finchley’s Art Depot praised the abridged QE production, which involved actors from across the year groups.

And Assistant Head (Pupil Development), Crispin Bonham-Carter, in turn, lauded Gavin Molloy, from QE’s external drama partners, RM Drama: “Our excellent theatre director-in-residence updated the story with an edgy, modern, Italian urban setting, which made the anti-Semitic storyline all the more shocking and relevant. Our mixed-aged cast really rose to the occasion.”

“Rivu Chowdhury, as Shylock, found real depth and nobility in this complex and tragic role,” added Mr Bonham-Carter, who was himself a well-known professional actor before becoming a teacher.

“He was ably balanced by the cruel exuberance of the young ‘Christians’ – Antonio, played by Sathujan Manmatharajah, and Bassanio, played by Maanav Patel, were both particularly convincing young hoodlums strutting around in their black leather jackets.” All three actors are in Year 13.

“George Raynor, of Year 12, caught Portia’s humanity as well as her steely intelligence, dealing calmly with a minor wig issue in the second half…”

He highlighted “notable performances” by Paul Ofordu and Ethan Solanki (both of Year 11) as “the arrogant losers – the dancing princes of Morocco and Arragon respectively.

“The whole cast of 23 were praised by the organisers for their team-work, their physical focus and the clarity with which they spoke and understood their lines,” said Mr Bonham-Carter.

Before staging the performance, the whole QE cast took part in a workshop at the Arts Depot led by professional Shakespeare Schools Festival staff.

Mr Bonham-Carter, who took up his post at QE in September, added: “The best part of my role as head of pupil involvement is seeing our young men responding creatively under pressure. Whether being interrogated in a debate, lost on a Duke of Edinburgh hike, or performing Shakespeare in a live theatre, our boys are learning through ‘real’ experiences such as these that, with good preparation and a can-do attitude, they can do anything!”

QE were performing alongside productions from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, Swiss Cottage School (a special school in Camden), and La Sainte Union Catholic School.