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The seven members of the School’s Senior Barbershop ensemble enjoyed entertaining guests at a dinner for The Worshipful Company of Farriers – and the feeling was mutual!

They had been invited to the 666-year-old London Livery Company’s annual dinner by its Master, Martin Russell, who is the Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Barnet, as well as the parent of an Old Elizabethan.

The boys’ performance of a varied repertoire that included songs from the Renaissance through to the present day was very warmly received, with guests pronouncing themselves both impressed and moved by the music.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Barbershop boys were brilliant. I was very proud of them and enjoyed spending time in their lively, fun company.

“Martin is an active supporter of the School and I am very grateful to him for extending this invitation to us: it was an honour, and I know that the boys relished the opportunity to perform in such an illustrious setting.”

Livery companies are prestigious London trade or craft associations that originated as mediaeval guilds and now play a significant part in the life of the City of London, with many involved in charitable fund-raising.

The Worshipful Company of Farriers’ Livery Dinner was held at Founders’ Hall in Cloth Fair, Barbican. This modern building – it was opened by the Lord Mayor of London in 1987 and became Grade II-listed in 2018 – is built on one of the few streets to survive the Great Fire of 1666 and is constructed of traditional materials.

The evening gives Liverymen the chance to meet each other at a dinner which is less formal than Court dinners and lunches.

The Barbershop septet comprised: Year 13 pupils Jao-Yong Tsai, Olly Salter, Suraj Cheema and Atul Kanodia; Arjun Patel, of Year 12; Leo Sellis, of Year 10, and Rishi Watsalya, of Year 9. They are rehearsed by Jao-Yong and by Music teacher David Woodward.

After the event, Mr Russell was among those who wrote to the Headmaster to express his appreciation. The boys performed with “élan and with panache”, he stated. He thanked Director of Music Ruth Partington for her work in preparing the boys.

The boys’ version of Abide with Me was noted as being particularly moving. In addition to this traditional English hymn, which has been sung before every FA Cup final since 1927, the Senior Barbershop ensemble performed:

• Dindir´ın – one of a set of more than 450 Spanish songs probably written for Ferdinand II around the 1490s
• Windham – a 19th-century religious song written by the American composer, Daniel Read
• Tee-idle dum dum – a traditional, romantic song that was popular in the US during the barbershop revival of the 1930s
• My Evaline – another short, traditional barbershop song with a romantic theme
• Matona mia cara – a comic song written by Renaissance composer Orlando di Lassus describing a German solider struggling to speak Italian to woo a lover
• Ye banks and braes – a traditional Scottish folk song set to words by Robert Burns in 1791
• My own sweet valentine – a modern barbershop song written by musician Charlie Bodley in memory of his wife.

The main image shows the boys warming up before their performance.

Sixth-formers made a trip to watch one of the most famous works by the influential 20^th-century Marxist German playwright and poet, Bertolt Brecht.

The group of Year 12 and Year 13 German students took the train to Kingston to watch The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) in the town’s Rose Theatre.

Languages teacher Rebecca Grundy said: “Although not an official member of the Communist party, Brecht was committed to highlighting social injustices and the imbalance of power distribution through his work.

“He was a proponent of ‘epic theatre’ (episches Theater); it was his belief that theatre is a way of showing audiences the world as it is, and of encouraging them to respond.

“Brecht made use of the ‘alienation effect’ (Verfremdungseffekt) to achieve this; theatrical devices aimed to keep the audience critically, rather than emotionally, engaged. The students enjoyed spotting these in the play.”

Set in the Soviet Union around the end of World War II, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a re-writing of a 14th-century Chinese play, The Chalk Circle, by Li Xingdao.

It relates the story of a land dispute between two agricultural communes and of a visit by a singer and his band of musicians. The singer tells a parable as a way of settling the dispute, concluding that the land should go to those who will use it most productively – the fruit growers – and not the goat farmers who owned it previously.

It thus features a play within a play, which is itself an example of an alienation device. Other examples include the:

• Use of song to narrate the action and characters’ thoughts;
• Jarring use of props, including a teddy bear as a baby!
• Sparse set.

The visit reinforced the boys’ Sixth Form German studies. The Sixth Form course covers Berlin and its cultural scene. Brecht lived and worked in East Berlin for a large part of his career, although The Caucasian Chalk Circle was written in the United States, where Brecht was living in exile during the war.

He returned to East Berlin after the war and died there in 1956 at the age of 58. At first supportive of the government’s repressive measures following the East German uprising of 1953, Brecht eventually expressed his disillusionment over the events

The trip was organised by Ms Grundy, who accompanied the group, together with her fellow Languages teacher, Katrin Hood.

Year 12’s Hanan Moyeed said: “This trip was absolutely unforgettable. Seeing the play was a brilliant experience. It also links well to what we have been looking at in lessons.”

Samuel Akpan’s efforts to build a career in sports have received a major boost with his securing of a long internship at the Premier League.

Sam (OE 2011–2018) won an 18-month placement at the world’s most-watched sports league, where he will spend six months each in three departments.

And he is not the only Old Elizabethan at the Premier League: Piers Martin (1987–1994), son of Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin, is currently the league’s Head of Leadership and Academy Workforce Development.

“The Premier League is probably the best possible place to learn about the complete system of élite football – so I am very much excited by the future,” said Sam.

“The first department I was assigned to was within the football development team, which Piers is a senior figure on – focusing primarily on supporting and developing non-coaching staff off the field, such as academy managers and heads of operation. I certainly wasn’t expecting to meet an OE at the Premier League, but it is a very small world!

“I’m really enjoying supporting the operational element of organising events, working with the digital learning systems and helping contribute to the efficiency of all the different programmes being run. Having an input and being able to offer value to help academy staff is an amazing honour, and it has been very surreal even to visit Arsenal’s youth academy in Hale End.”

Samuel, who graduated in Politics & International Studies from Warwick last year, started making his mark while still a student in fields including social enterprise, sport and anti-racism work at the university. He was named among Future Leaders magazine’s 2021–2022 Top 150 of the most outstanding Black university students in Britain.

As to his future career path, Sam is maintaining a flexible position: “I want to take these 18 months to focus on developing my best skills and understand what this looks like within football, and sport generally.”

The photo shows Sam speaking at the Premier League’s recent Mentor Summit at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Sixth-formers headed for south London to investigate the pace of urban change as part of their Geography studies.

All Year 12 AS Geography students made the journey to Wandsworth for the human geography fieldtrip. They will be assessed on the fieldwork completed in their AS examinations next summer.

The day was spent answering the question To what extent has Northcote ward in Wandsworth undergone the process of gentrification?

A study published last year by the Runnymede Trust and the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) showed that Wandsworth, Tower Hamlets and Newham experienced more gentrification than any other London boroughs from 2010–2016.

Head of Geography Emily Parry said the trip was both educationally successful and enjoyable: “We were very fortunate to have beautiful, sunny autumnal weather in which to conduct the fieldwork.”

Accompanied by Miss Parry and James Kane, Geography teacher and Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations), the group spent the day investigating the topic by looking at three sub-questions:

1. Over the last 30 years, what trends have occurred in employment, house tenure and price?
2. Are properties in the area well-kept and is the built environment attractive?
3. Are there a large number of boutique and high-end shops and services?

They used the following methods: questionnaires; environmental quality surveys; residential decay surveys and land-use mapping.

The fieldwork was conducted along a residential transect*, Wakehurst Road, and a commercial transect, Northcote Road.

The same boys will go on a residential trip in February to complete their physical fieldwork.

* transect: a line or narrow area along or within which measurements are taken, and items counted, etc. in scientific studies

Just a few weeks after starting at QE, Year 7 pupils headed off to an adventure centre to learn some new skills, test their nerve and have some fun together.

The visit to Stubbers Adventure Centre involved climbing, canoeing, archery and laser tag, with competition aplenty as the boys took on their friends and classmates.

The trip was open to the entire year group, with the Broughton, Harrisons’ and Leicester forms heading east to Essex on one day, and Pearce, Stapylton and Underne making the trip on another.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), said: “The timing and nature of this trip were quite deliberately chosen: through activities that required teamwork and collaboration, we wanted to give our youngest pupils the chance to cement some of the social bonds they have already formed over their first six weeks here, while also providing them with the opportunity to continue to make new friends.”

The trip was part of the new QE Flourish enrichment programme, which Mr Bonham-Carter oversees.

“We are keen that our boys get out beyond our campus to make the most of our location on the edge of the capital and of the opportunities nearby. Being out of doors and active was another key feature of the day.

“I was pleased that the boys had such a good time – and some of their tutors certainly got stuck in, too!”

The activities were run by the instructors at the centre near Upminster.

Alongside the healthy competition, some of the activities involved an element of trust. In the wall-climbing, for example, participants had to rely on their team-mates who were on the ground holding their ropes.

Siddharth Josyula, a member of Year 7’s Leicester form, said: “First, we went canoeing on the lake. After putting on our life-jackets, we learnt how to balance on the boat and paddle across the lake. My team, which consisted of me, Tahiyan [Khan] and Mr Batchelor [Chemistry teacher Thomas Batchelor], dominated 7L. We even turned around to help others who were struggling. Though my legs got a bit wet, overall, I enjoyed the experience of rowing for the first time.”

After lunch, he headed to the rock-climbing walls and then archery.

“The last activity of the day was laser tag and I was absolutely thrilled as the battlefield looked so cool, like in a movie. Our team lost 3-1, but it was a lot of fun running around and taking cover from shots.

“On the coach journey home, I had my left-over snacks from lunchtime, thinking what fun I had and what memories I made.”

His fellow Leicester form member, Somansh Patro, said afterwards: “That day was unbelievable! Overall, my favourite was rock-climbing – it blew my mind how far I had climbed. I probably stayed up for 10 minutes. Laser tag was fun too and a lot of us scored bull’s eyes in archery  in my team.”

Canoeing was the hardest of all, Somansh felt, because of the “fearsome” demands of paddling successfully. “But I enjoyed it, especially with the good co-ordination between me and Sarang [Venkatasubramaniam], my partner and friend. The amount of fun I had was utterly to the max!”