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Old Elizabethan Kam Taj returned to the School to lead a workshop on Oxbridge preparation for 32 sixth-formers.

Kam, a performance coach and motivational speaker, who himself studied at Churchill College, Cambridge, covered topics ranging from university interviews to procrastination in the all-day session.

The course was part of the extensive programme QE provides to support senior boys as they make university applications and consider career choices that best match their talents and aptitudes. Applications to Oxford and Cambridge must be made by 15 October for places starting the following autumn. QE boys secured 144 places at the two universities in the five years from 2013 to 2017.

Afterwards, Kam (Kamran Tajbaksh, OE 2004–2011) praised his Year 12 audience who had “stayed engaged and receptive for the duration of the course”, even though, as he pointed out, they had just completed their examinations and were looking forward to the start of the summer holidays in just a few days’ time.

While at QE, Kam achieved 13 A* grades at GCSE and four A*s with one A at A-level. On graduating with a first in Manufacturing Engineering, Kam initially took up a post as a management consultant with a global company. However, he had begun doing performance coaching work while still at university: “It was far more fulfilling than academics (even more so than my sports!) – and my clients were achieving great results.”

So, in 2016, he “left the strategy consulting world and began living my dream for myself”.
He recently published his first book 8 Principles of Exam Domination, which aims to help pupils achieve their desired grades with minimal stress.

His talk covered topics entitled:

• Acing uni interviews
• Overcoming procrastination
• Planning & prioritisation
• Mindset management

Kam also introduced a new topic, with the QE boys the first to hear about his Motivational Fire Formula.

Afterwards, Kam thanked the School from his Instagram account and wished all the boys a “great summer” and hoped they would “come back refreshed and ready to smash Year 13!”

Five of the nine boys on QE’s debating team for the national session of the European Youth Parliament have qualified for the international round of the competition.

The five were chosen after strong performances at the national session held over a long weekend at Liverpool Hope University.

Academic Enrichment Tutor Helen Davies said: “This was an excellent event at which our boys shone during formal debates that looked in some depth at the very diverse challenges facing Europe.”

They had reached the national event after previous success at the EYP South East forum, where they were chosen to go through, together with teams from two independent schools, St Paul’s and Guildford High.

The national session programme began with team-building activities on the first day, followed by the various committees forming resolutions on the Friday. At the General Assembly, held all day Saturday and on Sunday morning, the committees debated the resolutions.

The QE boys, all from the 2017-18 Year 12, were representing Italy, with the team even asked to bring along Italian food for themselves and their fellow competitors in the ‘Eurovillage’.

The team comprised Ibrahim Al-Hariri, Parth Gosalia, Shivam Masrani, Laurie Mathias, Aditya Ravindrakumar, Mipham Samten, Akshat Sharma, Anake Singh and Mudit Tulsianey. Ibrahim, Aditya, Mipham, Akshat and Anake all qualified for the international stages, which start next month.

The QE contributions included Mipham playing a key role in steering the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, which was debating distributed ledger technology – databases that can securely record financial, physical or electronic assets for sharing across a network through entirely transparent updates of information. (The first incarnation of this was ‘Blockchain’, which underpinned digital cash systems such as Bitcoin, but it has now evolved.) In his final summation, which Miss Davies described as “very persuasive and engaging”, Mipham called on the committee to embrace, rather than fear, progress – we no longer ride horses to school, he pointed out! Such technologies should be regulated in a pragmatic, open-ended way that allows the technology to develop, he suggested.

For his part, Ibrahim gave an opening speech to the Committee on Security and Defence, which was debating the measures European nations should take to prevent the recruitment and radicalisation of terrorists. Among the points he raised were the importance of a lack of social inclusion as one of the biggest causes of radicalisation: people in prison are particularly vulnerable, he stated. Another group vulnerable to radicalisation is young people, since they are especially open to new ideas. It was, said Miss Davies, a “clear, well-structured speech which opened up the floor for an interesting debate”.

Other topics covered in the General Assembly session were European–Russian relations. Anake said European nations should recognise in their dealings with Russia that President Putin is becoming a dictator, showing similarities with Lenin and Stalin, and that consequently stronger sanctions on Russia were necessary.

The Year 7 team got their QE cricketing careers off to a great start by winning the Middlesex Schools Final – while Year 8 were also finalists in their county cup and Years 9 and 10 reached their respective semi-finals.

Assistant Head of PE & Games Rhys Davies-Horne, who coached the U12s, charted the Year 7s’ “road to glory”, which began with a “memorable first win” against New Hall School just three days after the Easter holiday. “An excellent performance from Bilal Hassan with both bat and ball saw him claim the captaincy for the season, with Ranvir Sinha helping out with duties as vice-captain.”

Wins then came thick and fast, most notably against St Albans School, Mr Davies-Horne reported. “Prayag Gandhi started his formidable batting stats with 104 off 70 balls, whilst Sinha and Hassan continued to build on their strong partnership.

“Further records were broken as the side notched up a score of 207 for 1 against The John Lyon School, this time Rishab Banerjee demonstrating his skill with a bat, reaching 83 not out, whilst Ugan Pretheshan and Vishnu Anil looked dangerous bowling.

“The Middlesex cup run started with a narrowly contested game against Whitmore High School. With a change to the batting order, new faces such as Thivyan Arunendran and Kush Tailor held off the opposition, with the final runs coming in the last over from Haran Sritharan. The next round saw the U12 team show true character in the performance of the season, as they saw off a strong Swaminarayan School. Significant contributions with the bat came from Gandhi and Sinha, with a partnership of 152, whilst Sritharan and Arunendran looked promising with the ball.”

“A destructive bowling spell from Rohan Belavadi in the semi-final against Highgate put QE in a strong position.” Then, reprising their performances in previous games, Sinha, Gandhi and Hassan reached the total with ease.

The final, held at the neutral ground of Harrow St Mary, saw QE take on Newlands House. “Opting to bowl first on a hard wicket, Aaryan Patel and Krish Agarwal set to work on the batting order,” said Mr Davies-Horne. “Excellent spin-bowling and fielding” restricted Newlands to a score of 108. “An aggressive run chase led by the impressive Sinha, Gandhi and Hassan saw QE over the line with 5 overs to spare.

“This victory brought to an end a season that has not only been a fantastic one for the U12s, but has also shown strength across the board at QE, with four teams reaching their county cup finals or semi-finals – a well-deserved achievement of which all boys should be proud.”

Year 8 player Dilan Patel penned his own report on the U13s’ cup run, which began with “good batting from Bavan Gunaseelan and Karvith Ramesh” against Pinner High. Against The Swaminarayan School, Dilan himself played a key role in the “excellent bowling attack”, emerging with figures of 14/4, allowing QE’s batsmen to “knock off the total with ease.

“We then moved through to the semi-final, where we faced Belmont School, a side that had beaten us comfortably just weeks earlier in our regular season. This time, though, our batsmen knew how to face their fantastic opening bowlers and posted a total of 108-7, with Karvith Ramesh hitting a classy 45. We were put into pressurised situations, and that made us perform and focus even more intensely than we had ever done before. Our bowlers managed to get them all out for 95: we were in the final!”

Their opposition in the final was a “very talented” Merchant Taylors’ side, Dilan wrote, against whom they “came so close. Having batted the whole 25 overs in the searing heat – with Bavan Gunaseelan anchoring the innings from start to finish – we were just unable to put enough runs on the board and the opposition won the game with 3 overs to spare.”

He and his teammates had “put everything on the line” to reach the final and were “proud of their achievements”, Dilan concluded. “Coming so close to winning the trophy has only left us more determined to go one step further next year.”

QE confirmed its place among the country’s élite chess-playing schools with a strong performance at the game’s U19 national finals at Uppingham.

The Queen Elizabeth’s team reached the two-day event at the Rutland boarding school as one of 14 zonal winners from across the country, with two other places awarded after a repechage held at Eton College. Each of the 16 teams played four games at the championship, where QE took joint-sixth place.

Teacher in charge of chess, Geoff Roberts, said: “After an excellent victory against our local rivals, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, in the zonal final, QE’s team acquitted themselves extremely well at Uppingham, with only a narrow loss in our final match preventing us from achieving a top-three finish.”

Congratulating all the boys, Mr Roberts added: “This competition is the one which every school has aspirations to win so for Queen Elizabeth’s to come through a very strong regional group to qualify for the finals and then perform so creditably at the Uppingham finals is highly pleasing.”

With a total score of 201, Federico Rocco, of 2017-2018’s Year 11, was one of only seven players at the Uppingham finals to top 200.

Federico is one of eight boys who represented QE in the course of this year’s competition. The others, with their 2017-2018 year groups, are: Aneesh Chopada (Year 13), Yuri Evdokimov (Year 13), George Ivanov (Year 11), Senthuran Jeevan (Year 10), Devin Karia (Year 10), Rishul Karia (Year 13) and Shai Kuganesan (Year 11).

Mr Roberts paid a special tribute to Aneesh, Rishul and Yuri, who left QE this summer, for their “commitment to, and excellence in, chess throughout their seven years at Queen Elizabeth’s”.

An award-winning mental health campaigner gave senior boys some serious food for thought when she visited the School.

Natasha Devon looked at topics ranging from the need to deal with stress and the perils of stoicism, to the limitations of the English language, during a lecture assembly given to Years 10 and 12.

She made sure her answers were truly relevant by inviting boys to submit their questions anonymously in advance – and received questions on body image, the pressures on men to not cause offence, social media, examination stress, gender and even the TV programme, Love Island.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We want all our pupils to be both happy and resilient; we therefore arrange events such as this lecture in order to nurture boys’ wellbeing. I am grateful to Natasha for her engaging examination of some of the key issues relating to mental health.”

Natasha, who won an MBE for services to young people in 2015 and a Fellowship from the University of Wales in the following year, used the boys’ pre-submitted questions to structure her talk.

She emphasised that stoicism should not be equated with strength, telling the boys that they could, in fact, demonstrate strength by talking about problems, confiding in others and seeking help. Yet she acknowledged that this could be tougher for boys than for girls because gendered language equates masculinity with strength. She suggested gender is a spectrum and that generalisations such as ‘men are like this’ and ‘women are like that’ only deal with an average and, even then, one that most people would not fully identify with.

She recounted her experience of trying to deal with difficult family matters when she was about ten years old – and the eldest child among her siblings and cousins – by being ‘strong’, reasoning that because things were not happening to her directly they were not really affecting her. But this, she felt, probably contributed to the anxiety, panic attacks and eating disorder she suffered from subsequently.

Natasha, who has authored and contributed to books on mental health, urged that, just as physical health is considered relevant to everyone – not just those who are ill – so everyone should be aware of mental health: it should not be considered to be an issue only for those who experience a mental health problem.

While encouraging the boys to discuss things with each other, she pointed out that they could not expect to be able to fix other people’s mental health issues, just as people who are not doctors would not expect to be able to cure a physical ailment. There were measures that laypeople could take to help, however: she is promoting having trained mental-health first-aiders in all workplaces. (QE’s pastoral staff have already been trained.) Importantly, she said, such training helps people know what to say and what not to say: although English had the greatest variety in its vocabulary overall, it was far more limited than many other languages in expressing feelings and emotions – something, she opined, which doesn’t help!

Natasha also listed factors which contribute to good mental health, stating that it helps to:
• Be loved
• Have a sense of belonging
• Have a purpose
• Achieve things
• Feel that your voice is heard.

She advised the boys that they needed to deal with stress so that it does not “overflow”. Mindfulness techniques, endorphin-releasing physical activity and taking breaks from revision could all help and might even prevent one’s mind going blank in an examination.