Viewing archives for

Aadil Kara (OE 2010–2017), himself a veteran of an international space design competition, was one of the judges when QE hosted its own Galactic Challenge.

His QE contemporaries, Sam Bayney and Harikesan Baskaran, were also among those helping out on the day.

Competing in the challenge were two home teams and two visiting from The Henrietta Barnett School, which each formed a fictional aerospace company. They produced proposals for an Earth–Mars cycler settlement – a proposed future orbiting hotel which would ferry 1,000 people to and from Mars following a ‘cycler’ trajectory that regularly intersects the orbits of the two planets.

Galactic Challenge, which is for students aged 10-14, is the sister competition of the UK Space Design Competition (UKSDC), which is for those aged 15–18. Aadil has for several years supported both competitions and is a member of the UKSDC board. A Senior Analyst with the Cabinet Office, he graduated with a first in Physics from Imperial College London.

Aadil, Sam and Harikesan were all part of a QE Sixth Form team that won the regional heat of the UK’s Space Design Competition and went on to the 2017 national finals, where Aadil was selected to take part in the International Space Settlement Design Competition in Florida.

In addition to Aadil, the competition was judged by staff from the Space Science & Engineering Foundation, as well as QE Head of Physics Jonathan Brooke, and Dr Flore Faille, Head of Physics at HBS.

Mr Brooke said: “The boys presented with great skill and confidence.”

Once all the competition was done, however, final victory went to Columbus Aviation, one of the HBS teams.

Alan Solomon accompanied film producer Ilana Metzger to the School for the first-ever screening to under-18s of her documentary about her father, a Holocaust survivor who once attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

The film, Breathe Deeply My Son, was shown to Year 9, with a question-and-answer session afterwards.

Alan (OE 1951–1957) suggested the screening to the Headmaster after being impressed by the way it told the story of Ilana Metzger’s father, Henry Wermuth, and also looked more widely at the Holocaust and its origins.

In the film, Mr Wermuth, who died in 2020 at the age of 97, explains how in 1942 he broke out of Klaj ammunition camp in Poland when he learned that Hitler was scheduled to pass through the village. He piled the railway track with sticks and rocks, but the attempted derailment was unsuccessful. He told The Jewish Chronicle in 2013: “A train passed with three wagons, and in the window was a man who I recognised by the moustache as Hitler. I stood there mesmerised, waiting for the crash, but it never came. Either a local farmer or someone patrolling must have removed the logs.”

Mr Wermuth survived the war weighing just 5st 3lb (33kg). His father, mother and sister all died in concentration camps.

He was awarded a medal for his attempt by the German city of Frankfurt in 1995. After liberation, he settled in the UK and built a property business in London.

After her visit, Ilana, pictured here with her late father, wrote to the Headmaster, praising the boys’ “interesting and insightful questions”.

In fact, she was so impressed with their maturity that she is donating 30 copies of her father’s autobiography – gifted to her by an anonymous viewer of the film – to the School.

Headmaster Neil Enright has paid tribute to Old Elizabethan and former Vice-Chairman of Governors Ken Cooper, who served QE over several decades in senior roles. Ken died earlier this month, a few days after his 92^nd birthday.

“What an incredible servant of the School community! He distinguished himself first as a pupil, becoming School Captain in 1949, and subsequently in an illustrious professional career. We all have reason to be grateful that he then gave loyal service to our School throughout his long retirement, when he was variously president of the OE Association, a foundation trustee and a Vice-Chair of Governors at a period of rapid development and considerable change at QE.”

“There are few who have made such a broad and sustained contribution to Queen Elizabeth’s School,” said Mr Enright.

Ken arrived at QE in the depths of World War II and quickly made his mark. Excelling in his studies, Ken was equally successful as captain of the First XV. He starred in School plays and the Elizabethan Union owes its identity to him: Ken re-branded the debating society of his day to give it the name by which it is still known.

His Headmaster, the redoubtable Ernest Jenkins, was typically shrewd in his judgment of Ken in his School record card, yet also uncharacteristically fulsome in his praise: “An outstanding fellow…A fine School Captain, class forward, good actor and debater…who may go far.”

After graduating from New College, Oxford, he embarked on a career of public service, with senior posts in the Ministry of Labour, The Treasury and the Department of Employment. Later, he was: chief executive of the Employment Service Agency (1971-1975) and of the Training Services Agency (1975-1979); director general of the Building Employers Confederation (1979-1984) and chief executive of The British Library from 1984 until his retirement in 1991.

Ken, who continued to live in New Barnet, then deployed his talents in the service of QE’s Governing Body, Endowment Fund and the Old Elizabethans’ Association.

“He combined an ability to cut through issues and find a way forward with a warm and encouraging nature that made him an inspiring leader who contributed enormously to the health and strength of the School,” said Mr Enright.

Married to Olga, he had four children. Even in the immediate aftermath of Olga’s passing last year, he continued actively to support the School, keeping an appointment to visit QE so that he could be interviewed by a number of the boys.

Speaking at this week’s funeral for Ken, Mr Enright concluded his address with these words: “Ken was a pillar of our community as a pupil and again in his retirement. He will be fondly remembered and sorely missed. He was truly an Elizabethan for life.”

Medical entrepreneur and orthopaedic surgeon Ash Kalraiya has been in touch with a wonderful story of how the alumni network helped him secure investment from fellow OE Saav Shah’s firm – even though at QE their paths had never crossed.

Ash (OE 1997-2004), the 2003 School Captain, is the founder of MediShout, a London-based company that brings together medical suppliers and help desks. Using just the ‘one stop shop’ app, hospitals can tackle an array of tasks, from reporting broken equipment and requesting IT support, to managing stock levels, resolving estates & facilities problems and contacting equipment suppliers.

Ash takes up the tale: “A couple of years ago, QE did an online article about me which got spotted by Saav Shah. We connected due to the article and stayed in touch, and, a few months ago, his fund was the lead investor in our seed round. This wouldn’t have happened without QE’s article, so thank you so much!”

MediShout’s seed round, which raised £4.3m, was led by Nickleby Capital, where Saav (OE 1999–2006), who was two years below Ash at QE, is Managing Partner.

“As a venture investor I believe I am investing in people over anything else,” he explains. “I had never met Ash prior to seeing the article, but knowing what it takes to be a School Captain at QE, I was keen to find out more about Medishout. I would argue the key attributes needed in building a company are very similar to that of what QE looks for in head boys – leaders, academic, public speakers etc. I believe QE has such a powerful alumni network if utilised correctly!”

Both are keen to maintain links with the School. Saav has two young sons: he has already set his sights on their becoming QE boys in years to come. Ash and his brother, Anish (OE 1990–1997) and friends are all planning to come to this year’s Old Elizabethans’ Dinner.

An aspiring QE playwright’s coming-of-age story set in India was selected as one the best nine entries in a National Theatre writing competition.

As one of the shortlisted plays in the New Views competition, Year 10 pupil Adithya Raghuraman’s Train of Thought was given a rehearsed reading by professional actors at the National Theatre in London.

He had written the play during this School year, supported by a mentor playwright – in his case, Andrew Muir, a critically acclaimed writer for stage and screen – who visited QE to deliver workshops and to give Adithya personalised feedback and guidance.

Head of English Robert Hyland said: “Many congratulations to Adithya for a wonderful achievement. For someone as young as him to produce such a powerful piece of writing is truly astonishing – and for a student to have their work performed at the National Theatre is unprecedented in the School’s history.

“The play itself is an emotional tour de force – Adithya has a wonderful talent of being able to switch tone, moving from the comedic to the poignant to the reflective and finally to the uplifting. There is also great foresight in anticipating the transition from page to stage – when Adithya’s words were given life by a professional adult cast, it really allowed his talent at writing character and tone to be showcased”.

The New Views competition invites pupils aged 14-18 across the UK to submit 30-minute plays.  More than 1,000 young people took part nationally this year, with just under 500 plays finally submitted.

“The competition gives students an opportunity to tell stories that are personal to them. From an English department point of view, it gives our QE students the opportunity to write creatively for a real purpose and a real audience, adding enormous value to their wider English education,” said Mr Hyland.

Before the actors gave their reading in front of an audience at the National Theatre, Adithya spent some time meeting with the director and producer, as well as attending a rehearsal with the actors.

His play was a philosophical and reflective story about a British-Indian teenager taking a train ride across southern India after his mother’s death, and the relationship he developed both with his father and with the country of India.

Adithya said: “Being shortlisted for New Views was an unforgettable experience. From the exhilarating moment Mr Hyland called me into his office to tell me the great news, to being able to watch a plethora of talented actors display awe-inspiring emotion as they completed the rehearsed reading, the entire process never failed to be exciting and rewarding.”

Writing the play had been “a fascinating and inspiring journey”, he said, with the final work and his success in the competition making it all well worth the effort.

“An important lesson I learnt was the importance of perspective – my perspective of the characters I had written about; my teacher’s perspective; the views of my director, and the expression of the actors as they empathised with Ashok [the main character] and stepped in the shoes of the characters they had to play.”

“The latter is a difficult task, but the way the actors embodied everything I had intended when writing the play, as well as adding in their own humour and incredible skill when portraying the characters, was something I will never forget.

Thanking Mr Hyland and the competition team for the opportunity, he added: “I look forward to writing more plays and stepping out of my comfort zone in English again in the future.”

Adithya’s mentor, Andrew Muir, has had plays produced throughout the UK and in recent years his work has been performed at the National Theatre’s Connections festival, at Soho Theatre and on the BBC. His assessment of Adithya’s play described it as “a joyous road trip of a story, in which both father and son are brought back together again following the devastating loss of their wife and mother respectively.

“A wonderful train journey from Mumbai to Chennai gives the boy, our central protagonist, an opportunity to get a better understanding about his homeland – the smells, the chaos, the colours and the language. The writer takes us on this journey with skill and delicacy, and…conveys the atmosphere of India with such depth that at times I felt that I was on that same train as Ashok, experiencing all those wonders of India for the first time also. Strong story-telling, atmospheric, witty and truthful. A young imagination at play here and it’s very good. Well done.”