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While his 20 fellow pupils savoured the culture of the German capital during a four-day trip – and then told their classmates about it afterwards in the local language – Year 13 pupil Amogh Somayaji enjoyed making his escape over the Berlin Wall.

His light-hearted attempt to flee – an action which could once have resulted in him being shot – came part-way through the busy trip, during which the group of senior pupils focused on Berlin’s history over the past 100 years or more.

Languages teacher Katrin Hood said: “Year 12 have a module on Berlin: we learn about the architecture of the city, its cultural and social role, and how immigration plays a part in making modern Germany. So, to experience the city’s atmosphere first-hand is wonderful.”

The group comprised mostly sixth-formers, with a small number of Year 11 boys joining them. They were accompanied by Assistant Head of Languages Burgunde Lukasser-Weitlaner, Ms Hood and Languages Assistant Corinna Illingworth.

Arriving in Berlin from London City Airport after a very early start, the boys wasted no time before setting off on the first of a number of guided walking tours.

Over the four days, their activities also included:

• Visiting the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Jewish Museum
• Enjoying a boat trip, an open-air art gallery and a bowling trip
• Visiting a TV tower, going on an underground tour and seeing a nuclear fallout shelter
• Going to the (East) German Democratic Republic (DDR) museum and to the Berlin Wall
• A trip to the Reichstag (parliament building).

The groups formed from those staying in each room at the hotel had to deliver a presentation in German about a cultural highlight. Pictured is one group delivering theirs on a visit to the Treptower Park, a popular spot with Berliners, which houses the Soviet War Memorial. Each room also prepared a round for the party’s quiz night.

Year 12’s Felix Calder said: “This trip was amazing – so much history to study, some beautiful views of the city at night, and a valuable insight into German culture. So many amazing memories were made, and I hope to visit the city many more times in my life.”

During Year 12, the German A-level students watch a film, Goodbye Lenin, set around the fall of the Berlin Wall, so the trip was useful in helping them understand more about that time, Ms Hood said.

After their return via Heathrow airport, Ms Hood reflected on the four days. “What a pleasure it was to spend a few days with our wonderful students in Berlin. It was great to see them engage so fully in all of the planned activities, and to see lots of what we have already talked about in the classroom come to life.”

Final-year pupil Avi Juneja was invited to the Foreign Office after winning a prestigious essay competition, beating off competition from 600 other entrants.

Avi triumphed in the Next Generation Essay Economics competition – run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – with his submission focusing on debt payments by developing countries.

It was Avi’s second major competition win of the year: in the spring, an essay he wrote on the gig economy took overall first prize in a competition organised by Northeastern University London.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My sincere congratulations go once again to Avi, who researched and wrote his essay in his own time on a topic which intrigued him – he thus embodies very well the spirit of academic curiosity and free-thinking scholarship that we seek to nurture at QE.”

The Next Generation competition was open to any UK school pupils. Entrants had to pick one of four questions, all of which looked at major economic challenges facing their generation.

Avi selected this question: According to the UN, 3.3 billion people now live in countries where debt interest payments are greater than expenditure on health or education. What actions could governments globally take to ensure debt does not prevent investment towards development?

“One reason that I chose this question over the others is that I had read a book called Austerity written in 2013, which mentioned how Greece suffered from the sovereign debt crisis,” he said.

“Having read that Greece had won the Economist’s best performing economy of the year in 2023, I wanted to bridge the gap and see what could be done to transform a nation so significantly.

“Leading on from that, I was keen to understand more about the esoteric topics of bond markets and debt instruments, as they have such tangible effects for citizens in an economy.

Avi, who is currently applying to read Economics at Cambridge, said that his research for the essay was much longer than that for previous competitions. “It took a while to grasp a lot of the complex ideas like bond premiums, payoff structures and cyclicality of demand for bonds: I think it was a week where I researched for the essay in my free time, letting the sources take me down rabbit holes before I eventually felt I understood enough to write it.

“I advocated for the use of State-Contingent Debt Instruments* and more stringent transparency requirements to alleviate the pressures of high debt interest payments faced by many nations.”

The actual writing took a few hours in his local library.

During his visit to the historic building in Whitehall, Avi met both the FCDO’s Chief Economist, Adnan Qadir Khan, and Deputy Chief Economist, Fergus Cumming, and discussed with them what he had written. Also there were the competition’s runners-up and shortlisted entries. Professor Khan said Avi’s success was “a fantastic achievement, considering we had 600 entries this year!”

Avi added: “The Foreign Office is incredibly grand and ornate, so I feel very fortunate to have seen it. There was also a cash prize of £500, which is always nice.”

*State-Contingent Debt Instruments (SCDIs) are instruments that link a sovereign state’s debt service payments to its capacity to pay, with that capacity linked to real-world variables or events.

Attendance at the 2024 Old Elizabethans Annual Reunion Dinner matched the record figure achieved amid 2023’s 450^th anniversary celebrations, with some 120 guests heading to Queen’s Road this year.

There was a particularly strong turnout from the Class of 2014, although other alumni ranged from those who were at QE in the 1950s right through to leavers from 2021, with every decade represented.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This year’s dinner was very enjoyable and pleasantly lively, with a lovely atmosphere, and we have had very positive feedback immediately afterwards, too. The main point of the evening is to socialise and have fun, and there was plenty of that, with Old Elizabethans keen to catch up with old friends and staff. I was also very pleased that so many of our old boys were keen to offer their support to the School.

“To any OEs who missed out this year, may I encourage you to make a note to be there next November, while to those who were there, see you again!”

Among the ten-year leavers (2014’s Year 13) were the current Head of Year 12, Akhil Gohil, and former head of Library Services and Curator of QE Collections Surya Bowyer. Other former staff in attendance included the 1999–2011 Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz; Eric Houston, who currently serves as President of the OE Association, alongside his governance roles; and erstwhile luminaries of the PE & Games department Tim Bennett and David Maughan.

Before dinner, a string quartet drawn from Years 9 and 10 entertained guests during the drinks reception, while A-level musicians were on hand after dinner to showcase The Friends’ Recital Hall. Their post-prandial entertainment ranged from singing to pieces played on instruments including the drums, piano and guitar, as well as on the electric organ acquired during the anniversary year.

Guests enjoyed seeing recent additions to the facilities, such as The Robert Dudley Studio, which opened this year, while also appreciating a trip down memory lane as they visited  parts of the School campus more recognisable to them.

The Eric Shearly Award was presented to the 2024 School Captain Chanakya Seetharam, of Year 13. The citation, which was read by Chairman of the OE Association Martyn Bradish (OE 1962–1969), stated that Chanakya had “always been a role model for others, as a form captain, a peer mentor, a junior prefect and a leading musician”.

Chanakya, who is currently applying to read Law at university, had been “an extremely popular choice among his fellow students, as well as those who teach him” at the time he was chosen for the School Captain’s role last year, the citation added.

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In a year in which political power has changed hands on both sides of the Atlantic, QE Politics students had the chance to find out more about elections on a visit to Westminster.

Twenty sixth-formers headed to London for a tour of the Palace of Westminster, also enjoying an interactive workshop on elections run by the UK Parliament’s education department.

Politics teacher Liam Hargadon said: “QE students were able to impress the staff of the department with their knowledge of the legislation process, as well as the history of the UK constitution.”

For Year 12’s Sejal Bobba, finding out more about elections was a definite highlight: “The informative and eye-opening interactive workshop where, as teams, we learnt and executed different areas contributing to a successful party and campaigning machine was really the cherry on the top of an absorbing day.”

The A-level Politics course requires pupils to understand the workings of the main institutions of UK government, and how these institutions relate together. The visit aimed to bring boys’ classroom work and independent study on this to life.

Prior to the tour of the palace, boys had a walking tour of Whitehall and Westminster, during which they saw some major Government departments and passed the UK Supreme Court. In Parliament Square, they noted all the statues of significant political figures, from UK Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli, and suffragist Millicent Fawcett, to international statesmen Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

The tour took in the chambers of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The party, accompanied by Mr Hargadon and another Politics teacher, Samuel Neagus, walked through the royal robing room and gallery, as well as the Central Lobby.

They paused for a photo in Westminster Hall – the 927-year-old hall sometimes used for joint addresses to both chambers of Parliament and for the lying-in-state of notable political leaders and members of the Royal Family.

Their visit coincided with the Armistice Day ceremonial around the Cenotaph. “Being in Parliament Square for the traditional silence was a particularly moving experience,” said Mr Neagus.

Reflecting on the day, Sejal said: “We comprehensively explored the much-ignored but important layers that contribute to our Government, such as the Whitehall executive, the Lords and the individuals commemorated in Parliament Square.”

Year 13’s Robin Vickers added: “Our visit to Parliament showed us much about the history of the British governmental system, from the Remembrance Day activities in Whitehall to the tour, which took us to the oldest part of Parliament, Westminster Hall.

“Seeing the chambers up close, with the Strangers’ Gallery, along with the workshop following the tour, has encouraged me to participate more in Parliamentary goings-on.”

As delegates from around the world discuss critical environmental matters at COP29 in Azerbaijan, two QE sixth-formers have come seventh out of 37,000 entries in the Climate Science Olympiad.

With the international olympiad open to people aged up to 25, Andreas Angelopolous and Saim Khan fought off competition from undergraduate & postgraduate students and potentially from young climate professional scientists to claim their place.

Scoring in the final was extremely tight, with the 87.0 points awarded for Andreas and Saim’s 3,000-word essay on the Kyrgyz Republic’s food system only 1.4 points behind the fourth-placed entry. (The scores of the top three entries are being revealed in Baku at COP29, the UN’s climate summit).

Deputy Head (Academic) Anne Macdonald said: “For two school-age students to have secured such success against significantly older entrants sets this apart as a truly outstanding achievement. It’s really an unbelievable feat, made believable only because we know how brilliant they both are!”

Both Saim and Andreas were part of the QE team that recorded a top ten finish in the international finals of the World Economics Cup, having previously come first in Europe in the Continental Round.

The qualifier round and quarter-finals for the Climate Science Olympiad comprised a 25-minute online quiz involving multiple-choice questions. The semi-finals involved writing a 1,000-word essay on three key themes, namely energy, development and natural systems.

In the finals, entrants were set the task of writing a longer essay on a complex global problem.

Once it was submitted, they had two online interviews: each involved giving a 15 min presentation and then answering questions from a panel of scientists, innovators and policymakers for five–ten minutes.

The second interview was for the top 20 entrants online.  During this, entrants had to demonstrate they had responded to some of the feedback from the first panel.

In their essay, the pair wrote that they were presenting “a comprehensive approach towards creating a resilient and equitable food system in the Kyrgyz Republic”. Their systems-oriented solution included promoting capital investment; encouraging research and promoting collaboration among farmers; and a focus on water supply. The collaboration included farmers from the neighbouring country of Uzbekistan working with the Kyrgyz counterparts. The Uzbek government even provided feedback on Saim and Andreas’s proposal praising its “incredible detail for the monitoring and regulatory frameworks, which is of course vital for socio-economic change”. The Uzbek government also stated: “Promoting public, private and international financing are all crucial, and it is especially important to tie them into a single coherent system which gives confidence to all through regulation, which this entry clearly recognises.”

Andreas and Saim were awarded gold certificates and prize money of $1,000.