Pupils from across the first three years of Queen Elizabeth’s School had their achievements recognised and lauded at the 2024 Junior Awards.
At an afternoon ceremony held in the Main School Hall, boys gathered with their families and with staff and dignitaries to celebrate.
There were prizes for all the classroom subjects, as well as House prizes, prizes for commitment, and prizes for extra-curricular activities, such as debating & public speaking, and chess. Music prizewinners from Years 7, 8 and 9 punctuated the programme with a series of musical interludes. A vote of thanks was given by the Year 7 debating & public speaking prizewinner, Aaron Singh.
Headmaster Neil Enright spoke about how the prizewinners are seen by others; guest of honour Asif Ahmed (OE 1997–2004) about how they see themselves; and the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou, about how the whole School is seen in the borough: there is, he said, considerable pride in QE and the achievements of its students.
In his introduction to the ceremony, Mr Enright told the boys: “These awards are a signal that you are doing very well indeed and that we see in you qualities that set a positive example for others in the School – so many of whom are also very talented and hard working.”
He spoke about the butterfly effect, which argues that small things can end up having significant impacts, citing the famous story of a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world and a hurricane developing in another.
He urged the boys to small acts of kindness – “a quiet, unshowy altruism” – to benefit those around them, whether at School or elsewhere.
“With your abilities, many of you may go on to make the discoveries, find the cures, engineer the projects, secure the investments of the future. There should be no ceiling to your aspirations. But, with certainty, everyone here and in our Elizabethan community can do the little things in daily life so that things are better for others, or at least,” he added, quoting from George Eliot’s Middlemarch, “that things are ‘not so ill as they might have otherwise been’.”
Guest of honour Asif leads the accounting and advisory team at major accountancy firm Cooper Parry which focuses on venture capital-backed founders of companies. He is also the author of best-selling book The Finance Playbook for Entrepreneurs. An accomplished sportsman, he is now part of the Board at Middlesex County Cricket Club.
In his speech, he included many biographical elements from his Schooldays, mentioning being made form captain in Year 7, playing cricket for Middlesex and rugby for Hertfordshire, being appointed a Lieutenant, and achieving good grades.
“At all those milestones, including being appointed Lieutenant, I never shook the feeling of looking around me and thinking: ‘When will you get found out, you absolute fraud?’” he said.
After leaving School, while still training for his professional qualifications with large accountancy firm PwC, his father was diagnosed with a terminal illness. “I unexpectedly found myself in a position at 22 years old, looking after his very small accounting firm. There I was, no clue in the world, with nothing and really no-one to rely upon. The imposter syndrome kicked in again.”
Over time, however, Asif succeeded in building up the business, wrote his best-selling book, and was approached by a much larger firm with an offer to buy his company. “Today, I am a Partner of that firm and I lead the largest team and portfolio of high-growth technology businesses in the country, working with the best entrepreneurs in this land.”
He told the boys all this, because, he said: “I’ve come to realise that imposter syndrome is the world’s way of telling you that other people see something in you that you yourself can’t see…yet. When you are rewarded, you absolutely must savour it, hold it tightly and mark it out as one step closer to fulfilling your destiny.”
The afternoon’s music was a varied selection – including Stravinsky, Gershwin and Mozart alongside a piece by the rather less well-known Polish composer, Szymanowski.
Because of the inclement weather, the reception, normally held on Stapylton Field, took place this year in the Mayes Atrium.
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More recently, QE pupils enjoyed a special day at St Paul’s Cathedral, where they were able to play the organs, receive a masterclass from the cathedral’s Organ Education Lead, Jeremiah Stephenson, and enjoy a privileged view of evensong. While St Paul’s sometimes hosts primary schools, QE’s was the first such visit by a secondary school.
“I think it’s made a big difference, and certainly when it arrived, there was this real buzz – ‘Ooh, what is this amazing machine that’s suddenly appeared?’ – and we had quite a few pupils coming to ask to play.”
The day at St Paul’s Cathedral was led by Mr Stephenson, a prize-winning graduate of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music.
Organ Scholar Joel added: “I really enjoyed discovering the variety of organs there, and especially getting access to see some of the inner workings of the Royal Trumpets, high above the West Doors. It was insightful learning about some of the sound physics from Mr Stephenson.”
In the School’s mock election, the Liberal Democrats emerged as easily the biggest party, with 21 of the 46 seats in QE’s parliament.
The run-up to the mock election included a hustings, where parties made their pitches and fielded questions from the audience. All the candidates were drawn from Year 12.
In fact, turnout among Year 7 was easily the highest, at almost 80%. Only small numbers of Year 11 cast votes, having recently completed their GCSEs, while Year 13 have already left (and no postal votes were available). One seat was allocated for each of the 46 forms in the School, excluding forms in Year 13.
They timed their visits to coincide with School Diversity Week, which QE was celebrating in partnership with LGBT+ young people’s charity, Just Like Us.
Also in the presentation a written explanation of the terms represented by the initials LGBTQIA+, while the same slide showed the flags associated with the movement, including, for example, flags for ‘Agender’, ‘Asexual’ and ‘Genderqueer’, as well as the Pride flag itself.
The presentation also featured Akshay Shah’s winning entry in a Pride-themed computer desktop design competition. Akshay, whose colourful design is pictured, said: “Each strand represents a different gender/sexuality. They are made up of organic swirly shapes, which represents the flexible nature of Pride.” Akshay, of Year 9, depicted not only the colours of the Pride flag but also, on the white strands, “lesser-known genders/sexualities” including gynesexual, homoromantic, demiromantic, genderflux and skoliosexual.