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Alumnus and former QE teacher Tim Adnitt is now firmly established with a multinational music technology company, while continuing to work very successfully as a record producer and sound engineer.

Tim (OE 1988–1995) is a Product Owner for Native Instruments, leading teams in London and Berlin for the German company, which creates software and hardware for computer-based audio production.

He has also worked on several award-winning albums, including Saluting Sgt. Pepper by British musician Django Bates, in collaboration with Frankfurt Radio Big Band and Eggs Laid By Tigers. This creative re-imagining of the Beatles’ seminal LP was named The Times & The Sunday Times 2017 Jazz Album of the Year. As a composer, Tim has written music for the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe Theatre.

His work centres on Komplete Kontrol, the award-winning keyboards used by many of the world’s leading composers and producers including Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jean-Michel Jarre, Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL, John Powell, Noah Shebib, Jacob Collier and Justin Kauflin.

He played a key role in the creation of Native Instruments’ Native Kontrol Standard (NKS), the de facto industry standard for browsing and hardware control of virtual instruments and effects.

Tim is known as an advocate for accessibility in music technology, working to promote a change in mindset across the industry towards musicians and producers with disabilities. He co-designed Komplete Kontrol’s accessibility features for visually-impaired musicians. Tim has spoken at numerous events and conferences around the world on this topic, including: last year’s Audio Developer Conference in London; Moogfest 2018 in North Carolina, USA (where he co-presented a workshop with Stanford University’s Thinking Matters Fellow, Tiffany Naiman), and Berklee College of Music Accessibility Conference 2018 in Boston, USA.

He is supported at Native Instruments by fellow Old Elizabethan and former Music Technology student Adil Ghanty (2003-2010), who joined the company in summer 2015 – an appointment that is “testament to the strong tradition of Music and Music Technology at QE,” Tim says.

After leaving QE, Tim read Music at City, University of London, before going on to take a Master’s degree in Composition. Tim taught Music Technology at the School between 2005 and 2014.

Six Year 12 pupils came third in the national final of a competition designed to show teenagers what it is like to be a chartered accountant.

The sixth-formers had reached the last 50 at the final in Birmingham after first seeing off competitors in three previous rounds of the BASE contest, which is organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

They won a coveted Highly Commended trophy as well as the prize of spending a day at the London offices of Ernst & Young (EY). Nationwide, the competition attracted entries from 500 schools and more than 4,000 pupils.

In the earlier rounds, the team had to present ideas for a fictional technology company. In the final challenge, however, they were given a fresh business study and required to think like chartered accountants, planning an appropriate strategy to enable the business to move forward.

Economics teacher Kimberley Jackson said: “They had to use knowledge acquired through their Economics lessons to analyse the problems surrounding acquisitions and mergers and to reflect upon important current issues impacting businesses, such as cyber safety and data protection.

“The team delivered a short presentation to a panel of judges and were asked many challenging questions. The judges were very impressed with their informative and well-delivered presentation.

“The boys all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of presenting and the chance to network with major employers such as PwC, EY and KPMG. They now look forward to competing again in 2018-19.”

The team comprised Shakeel Ahmed, Tarun Alexander, Millan George, Parth Gosalia, Manan Shah and Rohan Shah.

With well over 100 musicians performing, this summer’s major concert amply demonstrated the strength of Music at QE.

Entitled Into the Future, the event in the Shearly Hall featured 11 different ensembles, many of which played pieces with a futuristic theme.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was an enjoyable evening which showcased the ability of our musicians across a wide range of genres, from the Sinfonietta’s rendition of the famous Dr Who theme tune and the Junior Indian Ensemble’s performance of work by the 19th-century composer Ghanam Krishna Aiyyar to Friday Jazz’s playing of I wish I knew how it feels to be free, a song made famous by Nina Simone.”

“The theme of the evening was apt: with ever-increasing participation here and plans now in place for a new Music School, the future of Music at QE is bright.”

The Summer Orchestra began the concert with two pieces by the American composer, Leroy Anderson.

The biggest ensemble of the evening was the School Choir, involving some 70 boys, many of whom also performed as instrumentalists during the concert. They sang OneRepublic’s 2013 hit, Counting Stars, composed by Ryan Tedder. Also turning out in force were the Concert Band, who brought the evening to a close with the theme from The Incredibles, the 2004 animated film blockbuster.

The classical western repertoire was also in evidence, with the Celli playing Borodin’s Notturno from his String Quartet no. 2 in D and the String Quartet performing the Adagio from Mozart’s String Quartet no. 1 in G.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named the best boys’ school in the country in a guide which aims to give a more complete picture than league tables based only on examinations.

The Real Schools Guide seeks to give parents a good idea of which schools will help their child prosper, regardless of their background. It uses a wide range of measures including GCSE results, but also: pupil-teacher ratios; the proportion of leavers going into further or higher education and jobs, and the Government’s Progress 8 measure, which quantifies the progress children make between the end of primary school and their GCSE results.

Overall, QE came third in the guide’s 2018 list of top schools, which is headed by Wembley High Technology College, Brent, with Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School in Blackburn, Lancashire, in second place. The rest of the top ten is dominated by grammar schools in the South East, including Wilson’s School in Sutton and The Tiffin Girls’ School, Kingston upon Thames.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “While our School always appears at or near the top of national league tables based purely on examination results, I am very pleased to see QE faring equally well in this guide based on a more holistic look at what schools do. As a selective school, we naturally have a very bright intake of pupils, but, as the Real Schools Guide shows, we then effectively challenge and stretch those boys so that they make the most of their potential.”

“It is interesting to note the prevalence of our fellow grammar schools in the top ten,” Mr Enright added.

Compiled by researchers from the data unit of Reach plc (the newspaper group formerly known as Trinity Mirror), the guide is based on a rating system using some 50 different measures, put together from the latest publicly available data and broken into four categories; attainment, progress, attendance, and outcomes.

Now in its sixth year, the Real Schools Guide has been praised by ministers and education experts alike. Former Schools Minister David Laws called it “public-service journalism in the best tradition”.

Having completed his English degree at Oxford, Surya Bowyer has spent the last year taking a Master’s at University College London and has now been nominated by UCL for a post at the Sorbonne.

Surya (OE 2007–2014) is in close contact with fellow QE alumni – “There’s a group of eight OEs that I have very regular contact with, and we have a tradition of going away together each summer,” – and he retains very fond memories of his School days. “I think one of the most important things QE taught me was to treat people with respect and never forget my manners. It’s a very useful life skill.”

In addition to the OEs he holidays with, Surya meets up with others from his year group “both by chance at university, and on purpose for intermittent catch-ups at the pub. As a year, we have a pretty large group of people who seem to be fond of each other, which I’m thankful for. Even when at a new university or stage of life, when you find yourself having to make new friends, it’s always nice to be able to also catch up with well-known faces every once in a while.”

After completing his BA at Keble College, Oxford, Surya wanted to branch out beyond English into more interdisciplinary work, so he chose UCL’s European Culture and Thought MA. “UCL has been great. There was a shift in teaching style and the shape of the workload, in that Oxford had us writing one of two shorter essays a week, whereas at UCL I had to complete two 6,000-word pieces of coursework each term. I found myself particularly enjoying the freedom to pursue more of my own interests in the MA,” Surya adds, though acknowledging that the critical reading skills he had developed at Oxford also proved indispensable.

He will work at the Sorbonne as a lecteur: UCL sends one person to Paris each year for this role which involves teaching undergraduate English majors at the Faculté des Lettres (also known as UFR). “I’m told they usually send doctoral research students, but somehow I got the nod,” says Surya.

He hopes to take advantage of the opportunity both to improve his French and to gain experience of lecturing at a university. “I’m seriously contemplating applying to do a PhD and trying to go into academia, and I think having the experience of teaching for a year will help me determine whether this is the career path I indeed want to pursue.”

Surya returned to QE last year to talk to Year 11 about the virtues of studying English at university and to conduct mock university interviews. Looking back to his own School days, he recalls with affection certain characteristic sights and sounds: “The noise of the atrium at lunchtime, with people constantly banging on lockers as they play cards or scramble to finish off some work, sticks in my mind.

“I particularly enjoyed my time in the Sixth Form, with the added responsibility and depth of work. The inter-house rugby and tug of war competitions also have a warm place in my memory, probably because Pearce often won.”

In his spare time today, Surya enjoys visiting museums and galleries, as well as going to the cinema and watching football.

“I think that if I do end up going into academia, it would be important to me that the work I do extends a little beyond the walls of the university. So, over the last few years I’ve also been attempting to improve my ability to write critically in a less academic context and tone.” Surya’s own website holds a collection of his published reviews and non-academic essays.