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Just a few weeks after starting at the School, QE’s youngest pupils had the chance to bond with others in their year-group during a day out at an adventure park.

The trip to Stubbers in Upminster, Essex, was designed to stretch the newest Elizabethans, but also to teach them teamwork and provide plenty of fun.

A now-annual fixture within the calendar of QE Flourish – the School’s extra-curricular and co-curricular programme – the trip was split over two days, with Broughton, Harrisons’ and Leicester Houses going on the first occasion, and Pearce, Stapylton and Underne on the second.

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter said: “The Year 7s seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their day, which is designed to give them an opportunity to make new connections with their QE contemporaries in a different setting.

“A range of outdoor activities challenged them physically (at times), while also developing teamwork, collaboration and communication. The boys really threw themselves into the different exercises.”

This half-term has also seen Year 10 head to Aberdovey in Wales for an Outward Bound Trust weekend. “That is another trip during which boys benefit from getting out – both out into the fresh air and out of their comfort zone!” said Mr Bonham-Carter.

Among the Year 7 boys who headed to Stubbers was Mohammed Fahad, from Stapylton House.

He enjoyed the short coach ride there, “with everyone buzzing about the activities ahead”. On arrival, it was straight into boats for a kayaking session on the river. “The water was calm in some places, making it easy to paddle, but some sections had stronger currents that added a bit of excitement. It was the perfect way to take in the beautiful surroundings while enjoying fresh air.”

Their energy restored by lunch, the boys headed to the artificial climbing wall. “It was a challenge, but I still managed to reach the top both times, thanks to my light weight and agility.  That felt like a great achievement.”

Next his half year-group explored a man-made cave, led by a tour guide. That was followed by a testing ball game – “a fun way to unwind,” said Mohammed.

“We wrapped up the day with an outdoor game of laser tag. Things got funny when we realised some players seemed ‘immortal’ – their headsets were not registering any hits. Confusing at first – but we soon turned it into a joke, and laughed as we tried to outsmart the invincible players.

“By the time we got back on the coach at 5:30pm, I was very tired but happy, having experienced kayaking, climbing, cave exploration and a dramatic game of laser tag all in one activity-packed day.”

• Click on the thumbnails to view images.

2024 School Captain Chanakya Seetharam relished learning about German culture, benefitted greatly from his deep dive into the language, and met many  “incredible people” – including an Old Elizabethan – during a three-week trip as a Dresden Scholar.

An A-level German student, Chanakya was nominated by the School for one of the prestigious scholarships offered by the Dresden Trust, a British charity that fosters relations with the eastern German city of Dresden. One of the greatest centres of European culture, Dresden, which is in Saxony, was destroyed by Allied bombing in February 1945.

His visit was hosted by a German family and included lessons at the St Benno-Gymnasium (a ‘Gymnasium’ is roughly equivalent to a grammar school), as well as plenty of time to explore.

In his report on his visit, Chanakya said: “My time in Dresden was simply unforgettable. I have learned so much about German culture, the German language, and have met such incredible people. Most of all, however, my experience is a testament to the profound benefits of language-learning.”

Like QE, the St Benno-Gymnasium, has a long and proud history, having been established in 1709 to educate boy choristers (‘Kapellknaben’).

“Each school year begins with a church service in the Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross) at which new students receive a model fish representing the school logo (the ichthys) to symbolise their acceptance into the school community. This year, the Year 6s were kind enough to make extra ‘Benno fish’ to be presented to the school’s exchange students. I certainly felt incredibly welcome being presented my fish at the end of a service that had otherwise been full of lovely German choral music,” he wrote.

“I also took great pleasure in noticing smaller differences between QE and school in Germany. The lack of uniform was perhaps the most immediately noticeable, but equally surprising was the discovery that chalk boards remain a common feature of classrooms across the country.

“Far from the stereotype that Germans are cold, all the students and teachers I met were incredibly lovely.”

Similarly, he greatly appreciated his host family’s “incredible warmness and openness to conversation”. He was able to talk to them about “the legacy of the GDR [German Democratic Republic – the communist east German state], life in modern Germany, and – much to my delight – German politics in the weeks leading up to Saxony’s state elections”.

Chanakya also enjoyed the reminder of home brought by 2024 QE leaver Arjun Patel. Arjun was in Dresden on his swansong tour with the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain. Chanakya attended one of his concerts at the ‘Auferstehungskirche’ (‘Church of the Resurrection’) and spoke to him afterwards.

During his free hours, he enjoyed exploring the city, especially its “gorgeous baroque church – the ‘Frauenkirche’ (‘Church of Our Lady’)”. This was rebuilt following its destruction in World War II, with the support of benefactors including the Dresden Trust

“A beautiful artistic rendering of the Old City is to be found in a painting by the Venetian artist Bernardo Bellotto often called the Canaletto-Blick,” he wrote. “I was lucky enough to see the painting up close when visiting the city’s Alte Meister (Old Masters) gallery.”

He concluded: “Without my German lessons at QE, I simply would not have been able to engage with another culture and build relationships in the way that I have. The lesson? Keep at it with the adjective endings!”

• To read Chanakya’s report in full, click here.

Old Elizabethan Sir Demis Hassabis has been awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry, jointly with a colleague at the AI company he founded and with an American scientist.

Demis (OE 1988–1990), who is the co-founder and CEO of AI company Google DeepMind, receives half of the prize with his DeepMind colleague, Dr John Jumper, for their work on predicting complex protein structures. The other half of the prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences goes to Professor David Baker, from the University of Washington, for his work on protein design.

In their statement, the prize committee wrote: “Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.

“Since the 1970s, researchers had tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult. However, four years ago, there was a stunning breakthrough.

“In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified.”

The Nobel Committee emphasised the global impact of AlphaFold2. It has been accessed by more than two million researchers from 190 countries. Examples of its many applications include: helping scientists to understand better antibiotic resistance; and creating images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Reacting to the news, Demis, 48, said: “It’s totally surreal to be honest, quite overwhelming.”

He explained the “funny sequence” through which he actually heard the news that he was a Nobel laureate. Since the committee did not apparently have a telephone number for him, they had reached him through a Teams call to his wife, who was working on her laptop at the time. After at first ignoring it, she answered it at around the third or fourth call. The caller then requested to be put in touch with Demis, whom they asked for Dr Jumper’s number.

Demis thanked his colleagues, including Dr Jumper, adding: “David Baker we’ve got to know in the last few years, and he’s done some absolutely seminal work in protein design. So it’s really, really exciting to receive the prize with both of them.”

The Nobel prize committee praised the work of Professor Baker, which he began in 2003, saying that he had “succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins.”

The committee’s statement concluded: “Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind.”

The illustration above shows a selection of protein structures determined using AlfaFold2 (©Terezia Kovalova/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences).

• The scientific background to the 2024 Nobel prize for chemistry can be read here. A popular-level introduction is available here.

The 2024 School Play delved deep into the tumultuous events that marked the decades-long run-up to Indian independence in 1947.

Lions and Tigers explored not only the conflict between the eponymous British lions and Bengal tigers, but also between factions of the independence movement, including those, led by Gandhi, who espoused civil disobedience, and those favouring violent insurrection.

Written by British playwright Tanika Gupta, the play combines the story of her great-uncle, Dinesh Gupta, a 19-year-old Indian freedom-fighter hanged by the British in 1931 after shooting dead the Inspector-General of Prisons, with the broader history of the fight for Indian independence.

Congratulating all involved, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The production did not shy away from the pain, violence and brutality of the period, but dealt with the complex issues sensitively and conveyed the emotional depth of the characters. It was impactful and, at times, shocking, yet done with a gravitas and maturity that belied the age of some of the young performers.”

Lions and Tigers was first performed in 2017 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in Southwark, coinciding with the 70^th anniversary of Indian independence.

QE’s production involved 15 boys in the principal roles, supported by an acting ensemble playing other parts.

Two very well attended performances were held after school on consecutive days in the Main School Hall, while Year 9 attended a final dress rehearsal.

“The play was notable for a host of powerful and impassioned performances,” said Mr Enright. “The whole cast, including the ensemble, did a brilliant job, with Akshay Shah setting the tone with an amazing performance as the central character, Dinesh Gupta.”

Other notable mentions should go to Daniel Kollo as Charles Tegart, Nittant Moudgil as Mahatma Gandhi, Soham Sapra as Subhash Bose, and Aahan Shah as Jyotish Gupta, he added.

“It was nice to see a good number of other pupils attending, whether aspiring actors, older students who have been part of the QE drama community, or those who were just there to support friends.”

The play was directed by RM Drama’s Gavin Molloy. Musical support was provided by QE’s Indian Music Ensemble.

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter lauded the “immersive and visually interesting staging”, which was done ‘in the round’, as well as “the clever and effective use of newsreel footage and recorded voice-overs”. One example of the latter was that the actors had voiced in advance the words to the letters their characters had sent (as set out in the script): these were then played through the sound system while the boys acted out what had been written.

• Click on the thumbnails below to view the images.

Both QE teams have qualified for the final, global round of the World Economics Cup – with ‘Team 2’ coming first and  ‘Team 1’ second in Europe.

Their success in the continental round and, before that, at the national round, comes in the first year that QE boys have entered the competition.

The boys, now in Year 13, found the opportunity themselves and entered on their own initiative, with the School then supporting them by negotiating down the cost of entry, given QE’s status as a state school.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The results, announced recently, reveal the quite remarkable success of our young economists: this is a huge achievement. I offer my congratulations to both teams. They should be especially commended on their dedication: with their continental round taking place during the summer holidays, the boys had to collaborate digitally, and that involved lots of Zoom calls, one reportedly going on until 2am!”

“We wish them all the best for the final round, which takes place in a few days’ time.”

The boys’ successful ‘cup run’ began last term when the two teams both won gold awards in the UK round. In fact all 12 boys achieved ‘highest distinction’ individual awards, while four team members, Avi Juneja, Saim Khan, Rohan Varia and Uday Dash, were also national ‘top 10 scorers’.

In each round of the competition, entrants have to tackle three modules, entitled Fundamentals, Deep Comprehension and Thinking & Innovation. Teams from 47 countries competed in this year’s World Economics Cup. There were five continental rounds, including the European one.

Modules 1 and 2 each have around 100 questions that every person on the team has to answer. The team score was the aggregated average – which meant there could be no ‘weak links’ among the six-strong teams.

The deep comprehension round also introduces case studies, alongside data and university-style lectures, to test how participants understand, interpret and analyse new information.

Team 2’s Saim Khan said: “The deep-thinking segment gave me a new appreciation for the depth of consideration that must be given from all angles when it comes to economic policy-making and implementing.”

Module 3 is fully collaborative and involves delivering a 15-minute video presentation, identifying problems and solutions based upon a brief. The brief is the same for all teams, but only released the day before the submission deadline – so competitors have no more than 24 hours to respond. In the continental round, the module revolved around a healthcare company that planned to introduce AI and robots into the workforce.

For Andreas Angelopoulos, of Team 2, this was a highlight: “I particularly enjoyed collaborating with my teammates on our solution to the Thinking & Innovation portion of the European round, in which we proposed a framework that ‘MediTech Innovations’ could use to implement AI into the workforce ecosystem.”

For his part, Team 1 member Ishtarth Katageri relished the sheer challenge of this module: “Collaborating with my team mates when we had a day to respond was difficult, especially with some team members in different countries at the time.”

Team 2’s Uday Dash reflected on the event so far: “Being able to refine my problem-solving skills in the context of an international economics competition is a unique thrill that I am incredibly appreciative of!”

And Uday’s teammate, Zaki Mustafa, expressed a similar view: “The competition has been a great opportunity to apply our economics knowledge practically, in areas such as ‘fintech’ and cryptocurrency mining. I’m really proud to have reached the finals with a great team.”

Tejas Bansal added: “Participating in the World Economics Cup has been an amazing experience for us – coming first in the European round was a huge achievement, and I found the presentation part especially rewarding. We look forward to the final round!”

Team 1
Kush Mandan
Avi Juneja
Shrey Tater
Hari Kumarappan
Shreyaas Sandeep
Ishtarth Katageri

Team 2
Saim Khan
Rohan Varia
Uday Dash
Zaki Mustafa
Andreas Angelopoulos
Tejas Bansal

• Most of the QE competitors are pictured above, with members of both teams at the top, then Team 2, then Team 1.