With more than 100 prizes presented, the Junior Awards Ceremony in the final week of the academic year gave public recognition to the high achievement and outstanding commitment of QE’s youngest pupils.
The formal ceremony in the School Hall took its traditional form, with the audience of prize-winners, their parents, VIP guests and staff treated to classical music interludes during the prize-giving.
Yet in his speech, Headmaster Neil Enright reminded the young high-fliers that theirs is a changing world: “If rapid progress is a feature of our School, it most certainly is in aspects of the wider world. Whilst much focus this month is on the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, it is also the 100th anniversary of the first two-way crossing of the Atlantic by airship. That only fifty years should separate those landmark events, itself would seem to emphasise the point. The rate of technological and human progress has never been so great.”
This, said Mr Enright, provided the boys both with wonderful opportunities and new challenges. 
“Try new things and broaden your base of skills and knowledge, as your generation will need to adapt in an economy and a society disrupted by technology and associated structural change.”
Technological change was also making the globe “smaller, more connected and more accessible,” he added. “In the last year boys here have been variously to Canada (for rugby and skiing), Beijing (for astrophysics), Russia (for History and Politics), France and Germany (on language exchange programmes), Sicily (for Geography), Kentucky (for robotics) and New York (for an international mock trial competition), among other destinations.
“But” the Headmaster said, “we may have reached a moment when progress is not all about faster, further and bigger – at least in the non-digital world. Climate change, for example, means grappling with new imperatives, of doing things smarter, cleaner and more sustainably.”
The implications of this for QE’s pupils were clear: “It is through a rounded combination of academic, technical, creative and social skills that progress on the biggest issues facing us in the future will rely. This is a roundedness we try to prepare you for…You are in a privileged position to be well set to face that future with confidence and optimism, building on your prior success to progress further and further, to thrive in a changing world, and to change it.”
Among the VIP guests at the afternoon ceremony were Councillor Lachhya Gurung, Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Barnet, as well as governors and representatives of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. In his welcome to the Deputy Mayor, the Headmaster pointed to his 18 years of service with the Brigade of Gurkhas and his longstanding chairmanship of the Burnt Oak Nepalese Community.
The Headmaster also welcomed the Guest of Honour, Old Elizabethan Akash Gandhi (2005–2012), who, he told the audience, had himself picked up no fewer than five Junior Awards when he was in Year 7, for Geography, Mathematics, Science, Stapylton House and the overall Charles Fitch Memorial Award for Outstanding Commitment.
In his speech, Akash, who is currently working as a Junior Doctor, urged current boys not to forget the values and ethos of QE.
Akash threw himself into life as a pupil, playing cricket (he was described by the Headmaster as an “excellent all-rounder”), getting involved in debating, helping younger boys through peer mentoring, supporting the Sai School Appeal and serving as a Senior Lieutenant, then one of the leading positions within the prefect team.
On leaving, he went up to Queens’ College, Cambridge, to read Medicine, taking a first-class degree with prize & honours. From there, he went to University College London, for his clinical training, again excelling in his studies. Akash is now a Junior Doctor in Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, but carves out time every year to support QE’s aspiring Sixth Form medics with their UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) preparations.
Akash recalled the message instilled in him by his father: “It is not about what you do, but who you become by what you do.” It is, he said, more important to be concerned about what will be said in your eulogy than what is written in your CV.
And Akash had three specific areas of advice. The first was to find and follow your passions. “During my time at QE, my passions were my culture, cricket, charity work and football. And so, at university I found myself as the Vice-President of Cambridge University’s India Society. I also captained my college’s cricket team all the way to the final of the cup tournament – despite only ever representing QE’s C team.”
The second area was to find your mentors and to remember to thank them. “You are not alone, and you’d be a fool not to seek advice from those around you, especially in an establishment like this one.
“Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, embrace the power of true friendships – trust me on this one,” Akash told the boys. “From my experience, boys of this School look out for each other long after they have stopped sporting its badge. Joining Stapylton House with Mr [Mark] Peplow at the helm, little did I realise the everlasting friendships that I would go on to make. With some of them, I have travelled across central America, Asia and Australia. With others, I have worked together to help provide treatment for patients attending emergency departments across London.
“I can safely say that I am still surrounded by the values, ethos and ethic that I felt whilst studying at QE. I suppose that’s easy to say when I got to work last Friday to find that four out of the five doctors on my team were also QE boys. And as for the fifth? She’s a proud mother of a son who currently goes to QE!
“Congratulations on your achievements, keep working hard, and the best of luck for the future,” Akash concluded.
During the afternoon, the School’s young musicians performed works by Handel, Bach, Chopin 
and the Bohemia-born Josef Fiala, who died in 1816. A Recessional piece was composed by Year 12’s Ifeatu Obiora and Federico Rocco.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Saim Khan, winner of the Year 7 award for public speaking.
The awards presented covered a full range of academic subjects and extra-curricular activities, with some also recognising service to the School.
After the ceremony, boys and their parents enjoyed refreshments with staff and other guests.
Akash (2005-2012) threw himself into life as a pupil, playing cricket, getting involved in debating, helping younger boys through peer mentoring, supporting the Sai School Appeal and serving as a Senior Lieutenant, then one of the leading positions within the prefect team. 
And Akash had three specific areas of advice. The first was to find and follow your passions. “During my time at QE, my passions were my culture, cricket, charity work and football. And so, at university I found myself as the Vice-President of Cambridge University’s India Society. I also captained my college’s cricket team all the way to the final of the cup tournament – despite only ever representing QE’s C team.”
Karan (OE 2006–2013) first began working in the rail industry on internships while taking a Civil and Structural Engineering Master’s degree at Sheffield, which he completed in 2017. He works for the American civil engineering giant, Jacobs.
Other volunteering activities include his work as a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] Ambassador through the national, Government-backed scheme. “I take part in some events encouraging younger students to take up STEM activities and careers – most recently, at this month’s open day at the London Transport Museum aimed at primary school children, taking questions about jobs and careers in transportation and engineering.”
Had was in the cast for the drama production, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, along with several of the classmates pictured in his class photo. A member of Pearce House, he recalls spending a great deal of time enjoying Drama and Music, as well as in the computer lab and in the library. “I attempted Latin. I received detention a few times in my day and was called into our Headmaster’s [Eamonn Harris] office once, but generally was a well-behaved pupil.”
In April, I received a letter from Schools Minister Nick Gibb congratulating QE on being in the top 1 per cent of state schools in two separate areas. One was Progress 8 – a Government measure which tracks academic progress between the end of primary school and GCSEs – for which we ranked higher than any other selective school and in the top 15 of all schools nationwide. Our score of 1.22 means that QE boys achieve more than a whole GCSE grade higher in each subject than their primary school attainment would have suggested. The other area was for the proportion of pupils – in our case, 100 percent – entering the English Baccalaureate (not a qualification, but a combination of core GCSE subjects recommended by the Department for Education).
lizabethans turned out in numbers for Founder’s Day, alongside current boys, their families and many other guests. Several of the visiting alumni participated in the afternoon’s cricket fixture, the Stanley Busby Memorial Match, taking on an OE XI. Changeable conditions made for a tricky wicket for the batsmen on both sides. After the old boys were bowled out relatively quickly, a straightforward win for the School seemed to be on the cards, but as the OE attack began toppling the School’s middle and lower order, the game suddenly looked in the balance. In the end, the School was, though, able to surpass the OEs’ total. As ever, a fun and friendly atmosphere pervaded this fixture. Indeed, the same may be said for the afternoon as a whole – the weather held and the atmosphere at the fete was tremendous.
Earlier in the day, we were pleased to welcome Tommy Peto (OE 2003–2010) as our guest speaker at the thanksgiving service. Tommy has recently begun a new role in management and strategy consulting after enjoying a stellar academic career at Oxford. After graduating in the top ten in Philosophy, Politics and Economics out of more than 230 in his year, he went on to take an MPhil in Politics and then his DPhil, which he completed last year. He has won accolades including Clarendon Scholarships, an Open Scholarship at Brasenose College, a Principal’s Commendation for his finals performance, together with Collection Prizes for his performance in college examinations in Statistics, Economics, Logic, Philosophy and Politics. In addition, he has wide experience as a 
debater and debating coach, having taught the subject to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to the Oxford Union’s élite debating squad and, as a volunteer, to schoolchildren.
Harry (‘Curly’) Mayes, who served the School for a remarkable 60 years as porter, steward and caretaker. Having been appointed in 1902 under our last Victorian-era headmaster, John Bond Lee, Mr Mayes continued working until a few weeks before his death on Remembrance Sunday, 1962. He is pictured here, standing on the left mulling over a problem with others, probably in the 1930s. Other recent work on-site here has included the creation of an airy atrium linking both sides of the Fern Building, as well as structural work in the Art department and Science corridor.