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Budding Sherlocks from seven local primary schools enjoyed the opportunity to use QE’s cutting-edge scientific equipment to unravel a murder mystery set up at the School.

More than 30 Year 5 & 6 pupils were invited to try their hand at forensic techniques to help them solve the ‘crime’.

In the scenario, QE Headmaster Neil Enright was the unfortunate victim, with clues pointing to a number of suspects, all members of the Science department.

At the start of the day the visitors were introduced to the crime scene. They were from: Martin Primary School, Livingstone Primary & Nursery School, Foulds, Trent CE Primary School, Church Hill Primary School, Woodridge Primary School and Northside Primary School

To unravel the whodunnit mystery, the children had to conduct a series of experiments, including hair-sample analysis using a microscope, blood-splatter analysis, fingerprint analysis and chromatography, which was employed to identify the pen used to write a threatening note to Mr Enright.

Most of the groups correctly solved the crime and, at the end of the day, were invited to give a presentation of their findings.

Physics teacher Gillian Deakin said: “Our visitors obviously enjoyed using the scientific equipment here, much of which is not readily available in primary schools. We chose Livingstone as overall winners as they gave an excellent presentation which evaluated very well the evidence they had.”

“We organised the day to engage pupils from local schools in different aspects of Science, as well as to encourage the visiting boys to apply to QE, having had a taste of what we offer. The visiting teachers said that they and their charges had all enjoyed the day and that they hoped to attend again next year,” added Miss Deakin.

From spelling and writing poetry to solving number and logic puzzles, more than 50 visiting Year 5 pupils faced a busy schedule when they took part in QE’s Primary Challenge Day.

Now in its fifth year, the event attracted entrants from a record-equalling 14 local schools, who each sent a team of four competitors.

The challenge is organised to offer local pupils the opportunity to compete in an enjoyable and stimulating setting; it involves activities focusing on English and Mathematics. Each round of the competition brought a fresh, often interactive, challenge.

Teachers Philip Brady and Marco Saccardi, of the Mathematics Department, and Sarah Snowdon and Panayiota Menelaou, of the English department, helped throughout the morning by running one of the rounds each and chatting to the participants. In addition, all the teams were allocated a Year 7 QE pupil to help them feel at home and support them.

The overall winners were Woodridge Primary School. Trent CE Primary School won the Limerick round, while the Shuttle round went to Underhill School. Foulds triumphed in the Spelling Bee and the Crossnumber round was won by Colindale Primary School.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “The visiting teams clearly thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I have to thank all the staff and QE boys who worked tirelessly to make the event such a success and make our visitors feel welcome. A number of our Year 7 boys also acted as runners on the day. It’s a less glamorous job but was vital, nonetheless, in ensuring the day ran smoothly and that our guests were well looked after.”

The event was started by Assistant Head Michael Feven, who stressed to the Year 5 pupils that the main aim of the challenge was for them to have fun and enjoy themselves. At the end, Headmaster Neil Enright congratulated all the participants and presented the winners with their certificates.

A QE team came 15th out of 88 national finalists in this year’s Team Maths Challenge, placing them in the top 1% of the many hundreds of schools who originally entered the competition.

The team, drawn from Years 8 and 9, reached the national final at the Royal Horticultural Halls by winning their regional heat in March.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “Over 1,700 teams enter the challenge, so to reach the national final is an incredible achievement in itself. As our boys scored a total of 187 points out of 214, it was very clearly a closely fought competition.

“The team were building on an impressive record of achievement in recent years: last year, QE placed 11th and in 2017 we took 17th place.”

Captain Ansh Jassra, of Year 9, and his team of Maxwell Johnson (Year 8), Arnie Sahi (Year 9) and Nishant Sahoo (Year 8) competed against some of the country’s most famous schools, such as Eton College, who came second behind the winners, Bancroft’s School, from Essex.

Ansh said: “It was a really fun day out with lots of challenge. We loved working as a team and it was a memorable experience.”

The event, which was run by the UK Mathematics Trust, consisted of five rounds.

The poster round had a theme of Straight Edge and Compass Constructions, which allowed the pupils to investigate high-level geometry such as Euclid’s postulates, constructing regular polygons (and determining which ones can be constructed).

The activity rounds were:

• Group circus, which involved working on practical Mathematics problems
• Relay race, demanding a combination of physical speed across the room and mental speed in solving mathematical problems
• Crossnumber, the mathematical equivalent of a crossword
• Shuttle, which was a series of mini relays against the clock.

Formality and fun came together on Founder’s Day to create a fitting 446th anniversary for Queen Elizabeth’s School.

Pupils, old boys, parents, staff and many other supporters of the School turned out in force for the afternoon fete, which followed the traditional church service and the reading of the School roll and of the School Chronicle earlier in the day.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a very happy occasion and a great celebration of the School’s 446th birthday, enjoyed by all parts of our community.

“I was particularly pleased to see so many Old Elizabethans returning to their alma mater: the number of alumni who attend is rising year by year. This year, they ranged in age from 18 to 90, some of them regular visitors and others coming back to QE for the first time since leaving.”

The Founder’s Day service in Chipping Barnet Parish Church began in stirring style with the processional piece, Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Now thank we all our God, performed by organist Drew Sellis, of Year 12, who also led the Chamber Choir’s contributions to the service.

“The music was perhaps particularly strong this year, with another highlight being the Magnificat, sung by the School Choir’s trebles and altos,” said Mr Enright.

The guest speaker was Old Elizabethan Tommy Peto (2003–2010), who has recently embarked on a new role in management and strategy consulting after enjoying a glittering academic career at Oxford. Since going up to Brasenose College to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, he has won several academic prizes and gone on to take an MPhil in Politics, before completing his doctorate last year.

In his speech, Tommy urged the boys who were in the congregation to find out what they enjoy and to be both creative and hard-working in the way they pursue it as a career. “Your friends might all want to become lawyers, perhaps your parents want you to become a doctor. These are good professions, interesting, challenging and worthwhile. But you shouldn’t live someone else’s dream. If you do, neither you nor they will be fulfilled…There’s an old adage here: choose a job you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.

“You should think widely about what it is that you enjoy, to find out what you want to do. This is such an exciting time, with huge changes in technology and society upending how we work. There are so many jobs that didn’t exist for our parents.

He continued: “Think creatively about what you might want to do, and if the role doesn’t exist, create it.

“If I had to boil this down…, it would be into these three things: find what it is you enjoy; be creative about how to do what you enjoy, and do it. Because you can do it. You’re bright. You’re at a top school, and you’re in one of the world’s most dynamic cities. You can do it. But it’s up to you to decide what ‘it’ is. Now go do it,” he concluded.

The Headmaster said later: “I am most grateful to Tommy: his speech was engaging, entertaining and accessible for the boys who were in the congregation. It was lovely to welcome his parents, partner and brothers to the School for the occasion – his younger brother Harry being an OE himself [2005-2012].”

After the service, the boys walked back to the School, accompanied by their teachers, who wore academic gowns for the occasion. The School assembled in front of the Main Building for the reading of the roll and of the School Chronicle. This tradition, established by Headmaster Ernest Jenkins in 1930, involves the Headmaster reading aloud a formal history of the School, which is updated annually.

Then it was time for the fete to begin. Organised by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s, this colourful event takes place on Stapylton Field, with stalls and attractions to cater for all ages and tastes. The fete is FQE’s biggest fund-raising event of the year.

Conditions were a little challenging for the Jazz Band as they performed, requiring them to resort to the tried-and-tested method of securing the pages of their scores with clothes pegs to stop them blowing away entirely! Undeterred, they put the crowd In the Mood with Glen Miller’s classic swing piece, alongside a selection of other popular tunes.

Some of the visiting alumni participated in the afternoon’s cricket match, which pits the School against an OE XI. Changeable conditions made for a tricky wicket for the batsmen on both sides.

After the OEs 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 the cricket fixture,” said the Headmaster. “Indeed, the same may be said for the afternoon as a whole – the weather held and the atmosphere at the fete was tremendous. My thanks go to all – including FQE volunteers, the many participating boys and my colleagues – for their contributions to making the event such a success.”

• The fete raised £21,000 in cash donations on the day, with a further £3,000 donated via a Just Giving page.

This year’s Junior Maths Challenge brought both group and individual success, with the number of pupils taking gold breaking the 200 barrier and one boy winning the Best in School accolade for the second year running.

All boys from Years 7 and 8 took part in the UK Mathematics Trust competition and 202 of them were awarded gold certificates – a sharp increase on the last two years’ figures of 154 and 174.

A further 118 boys took silver and 34 won bronze, which means that in total, 354 boys, or 92% of the QE entrants, received gold, silver or bronze. Across the country, only the top 40% of entrants receive these certificates, which are awarded in the ratio 1:2:3.

Year 8’s Maxwell Johnson’s score of 130 out of a possible 135 won him the Best in School title for the second time, while Kovid Gothi was Best in Year 7, with 128. “I am very happy to have matched my score from last year. The only thing in the way now is the Olympiad!” said Maxwell, while Kovid said simply that he was “overjoyed” at his score.

Twenty high-fliers have qualified for the Junior Maths Olympiad and a further 115 won places in the Challenge’s other follow-on round, the Junior Kangaroo.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “We are delighted with how well the boys have done and look forward to the results of the Olympiad and Kangaroo. Much of the success stems from the excellent guidance and help given to Year 8 at our Élite Maths (Junior) sessions by the Year 10 and 11 mentors: we are very grateful to the mentors for giving up their time and passing on their wisdom.”