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QE has become only the second state school nationally – and the first in the south of England – to be accredited by the Royal College of Organists.

A rare and prestigious accolade, the accreditation represents the establishment of a more formal partnership between the college and the School, following growing links over the past two years.

It comes as the School consolidates its commitment to the instrument with the announcement that Year 9’s Zach Fernandes (pictured top) has been awarded an organ scholarship under the partnership established between QE and Barnet’s St John the Baptist Church last year.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This accreditation is a significant honour for our School. It was awarded only after the RCO’s senior management team carefully considered our application and recognised our commitment to effective teaching and learning in pursuit of high standards in organ-playing and choral directing.

“It places us in some exalted company: only 16 other institutions have been awarded accreditation, and they include specialist music organisations, alongside some of the country’s leading public schools, such as Eton, Rugby and City of London School.

“My congratulations go to Zach on his scholarship. I hope he will enjoy it and get a great deal out of the opportunities it presents to him,” Mr Enright added.

Links between the RCO and QE have been growing since the college supplied the School with a Viscount Chorum 40-S electric organ at the start of last academic year under its Organs in Schools programme for state schools. RCO Chief Executive Sir Andrew Parmley and regional director Simon Williams also came on a visit to Queen’s Road. QE pupils are due to play at an RCO Young Performers concert at St Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall Church in the City of London on 23 September.

Last spring, the School’s organ scholarship scheme with the parish church was launched. It gave the first Organ Scholars, Joel Swedensky and Noah Morley, opportunities to play the organ at church services and to rehearse the church choir, alongside their involvement in extra-curricular music at QE. The scholarships include an honorarium. With Joel now in Year 13 and thus leaving this summer, Zach has been appointed as his replacement.

Noah, who is in Year 11, continues in his role. “It’s been an amazing first year as an Organ Scholar,” he wrote. “Learning new skills each week alongside singing with the choir has been wonderful.”

“The past 12 months have been filled with a wealth of musical experiences, from accompaniment, improvisation, psalmody, choral conducting and even the mechanics of organ, taking a look inside the currently dismantled instrument at St John’s [pictured].”

One specific highlight had been William Mathias’ setting of the traditional carol, Sir Christèmas, on Christmas Eve.

“A huge thank you to Patryk Korczak [St John’s director of music] for his invaluable lessons; and to the QE Music department and the Headmaster for offering this opportunity and their ongoing support.

“My first year opened so many doors, and I can’t wait to see what this year brings.”

Two Old Elizabethans have won Organ Scholarships from Cambridge in the 21st century – Drew Sellis (OE 2013-2020) and Peter Yarde Martin (OE 2002-2007), who is now a peripatetic Music teacher at the School.

The cast of Richard III enjoyed the honour of being the first to put on a drama production in QE’s new Robert Dudley Studio – before attracting a rave review when they repeated their performance at North Finchley’s Artsdepot.

Although the play is one of Shakespeare’s longest, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of the eponymous king, it was performed as an abridged version for the Shakespeare Schools Festival.

And in line with one of its most famous quotations – “’Tis better, sir, to be brief than tedious” – in its 30-minute form it lost none of its impact. According to theatre and opera director Callie Nestleroth, all the actors, including Year 13’s Robin Bickers in the title role, impressed with the “depth and emotional complexity” they brought to the production.

Callie, who wrote following the ensemble’s Artsdepot appearance, described the performance as “brilliant” and “a joy to watch”. Originally from the USA, she is currently working as a director with numerous organisations, including Opera Holland Park, Streetwise Opera and Royal Academy Opera.

Her 350-word appraisal addressed to the School picked out a number of aspects of the production:

• “Your fresh and inventive take on Richard III. The way you streamlined and modernised the play felt both bold and inspired, breathing new life into a classic text.”
• “The creativity you brought to the battle scene…was a standout moment. Instead of relying on props as weapons, the actors’ physicality and movement became the primary means of establishing threat and violence”
• “The truly collaborative atmosphere. It was evident that you all worked together to bring your vision of the play to life.”
• “The layers within your performances were numerous and intricate. Despite the underlying tension, you managed to bring humour and wit to many moments, making it both gripping and surprising at every turn.”

Stating that she was already looking forward to seeing next year’s QE Shakespeare Schools Festival production, she said: “This was an edgy, nuanced, and poignant Richard III from a professional and creative cast.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Robert Dudley Studio is a great addition to our facilities here, and it is great to have been able to inaugurate our own drama productions there with such an impressive performance. My congratulations go to all the cast and to colleagues involved in staging this memorable production.”

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Venture capital investor Jonathan Kruger has led a Series B* funding round that raised around £12m for pet insurance firm Napo.

Jonathan (OE 2000–2007) is an Investment Associate with Mercia Ventures, a £2bn fund that is one of the one of the UK’s most active VC capital investors.

Before joining Mercia two years ago, he spent three years at Google, supporting high-growth seed-stage businesses with go-to-market strategy and execution. And before that, he co-founded and scaled his own VC-backed direct-to-consumer business, The Drop, which uses machine-learning to produce on-demand made-to-measure men’s fashion.

Napo was founded in 2021 by Ludovic Lacay, a Product Lead at global internet giant Meta, and Jean-Philippe Doumeng, an executive at former health service provider Babylon Health.

The funding will enable it to scale further, including making further investment in its AI-driven claims process and other technology.

Jonathan said he was very excited to have led the funding round and was “looking forward to working with Jean-Philippe Doumeng, Ludovic Lacay and their incredible team for the next stage of the journey”.

*Series B funding is the third round of equity financing for start-ups. At this stage, the company has found product-market fit and needs capital to scale. The goal is to expand into new markets, develop new product lines, and prepare for potential exits. Investors provide capital in exchange for preferred shares.
Investopedia.com

Having already blasted through the regional round, a dozen QE scientists and engineers have lit up the national finals of a design competition that challenges competitors to plan for a future in outer space.

The boys were part of the winning inter-school ‘company’ at the weekend-long finals held at Imperial College London.

Competitors now wait to hear whether they will be among the dozen individuals selected for sponsored places representing the UK in the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) in July, which is held at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Headmaster Neil Enright said:  “This is an exciting competition which looks forward to a future in which living in space is common and which tests entrants’ skills in science, engineering and business. Many congratulations to our students. Having won their regional finals, they rose to the occasion magnificently again at Imperial, working together well with boys and girls from other schools to produce some great designs for a future asteroid settlement.”

The UKSDC is part of a global family of Space Design Competitions running events across Africa, America (North and South), Asia, Australia, Canada, and Europe. These competitions culminate in the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC).

As in previous years, the UKSDC set its challenges for the national competition in a fictional version of the solar system where significant infrastructure has been built.

This year, competitors were assigned into ‘companies’ and tasked with designing a theoretical asteroid belt settlement called ‘Astoria’. The other schools working alongside QE were: Sevenoaks School, Kent; North Liverpool Academy; South Hunsley School, Yorkshire; Westminster School, London; and Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire.

Members of each company needed to work collaboratively to create a proposal in 22 hours, summarising all aspects of the settlement: operations, mission systems, structural, business, and human.

The challenges included creating a Human Factors Department, to look after residents’ mental and physical wellbeing – an aspect designed to appeal especially to Biology students. Chemists and physicists were able to thrive with the Operations Department, which took a deep dive into the essential processes required to keep the settlement operational. Jasmaan Sahota praised the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) skills of fellow QE competitor, Snehal Das, who had impressed the judges in the regional finals.

After the teams presented their proposals to a panel of judges from industry, academia and business, the Olympus Mons Trading Company was proclaimed the winner.

Vinujan Sivakumar (Year 12) said: “We came up against some very tough competition and gruelling questions, but after a nail-biting period of deliberation, we won! Most of us barely had any sleep, but the effort definitely paid off!”

Keshav Aggarwal (Year 11) added: “It was truly a great experience to not only attend the UK Space Design Competition’s National Finals at Imperial College but take on a leadership role (VP of Business) and win! Many thanks to the entire UKSDC organisers for their support, my teachers, Mr. Xu and Mr. Brooke, who made this possible, and my fellow teammates. It was great to collaborate with so many new people as part of the extended team. I’m looking forward to attending again next year!”

The QE competitors were:

Year 11
Keshav Aggarwal
Snehal Das
Rithwik Gururaj
Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen
Ishaan Mishra
Jasmaan Sahota

Year 12
Timi Banjo
Karthik Kalaiarasan
Giuseppe Mangiavacchi
Sai Murarishetty
Rayan Pesnani
Vinujan Sivakumar

One of the great highlights of QE’s sporting calendar – the Rugby Sevens tournament – brought a day of spirited, exciting play.

With the weather good, the 49th Annual QE Barnet Rugby Sevens Tournament drew some 56 teams to battle it out for the cup and plate trophies, including many from the country’s leading rugby schools.

The U14 event was held, as usual, on the School’s four pitches at Queen’s Road. However, with Barnet Elizabethans RFC’s pitches unavailable this year, Haberdashers’ Boys’ stepped in to host the U16s.

Ipswich School won the cup and Tonbridge School took the plate at U14 level, while for the older boys, Berkhamsted School secured the cup and Merchant Taylors’ the plate.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our Sevens tournament is always a happy occasion at which visitors, alumni, staff and our own parents come together with the boys to enjoy the games and meet up with friends. With the sun shining brightly, there was a real air of celebration this year, while the players delivered some truly thrilling play.”

“My congratulations go to our winners, and I am, of course, grateful to Habs for hosting the U16 event.”

Staging the tournament at QE was a huge logistical effort involving the hard work and co-operation of the entire PE & Games department, the London Society of Referees, many pupil helpers and volunteers from The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. The event was sponsored once again by school and club sports tour specialists, inspiresport.

QE’s own teams faced tough opponents in their group stages.

Head of Rugby Ollie Di-Lieto said: “Although, sadly, both the U14s and U16s lost their matches in the group stage, they gave us some exciting attacking rugby and provided plenty of highlights to remember the day by.”

Although Junu Park, of Year 9, gained much ground with some outstanding running and his teammates at times moved the ball into space well, the squad found it harder to maintain constant pressure, with the breakdown fiercely contested even with the reduced numbers on the field, Mr Di-Lieto said.

The final U14 game against Robert Clack School, from Dagenham, saw QE come agonisingly close, losing in the end 24–26.

“All our games were played in a good spirit and with great commitment against some of the best rugby schools around,” said Mr Di-Lieto, who thanked all involved.

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