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A new definitive history of Queen Elizabeth’s School researched and written by former Headmaster John Marincowitz has been launched with a special celebration.

The relaxed evening event at the School drew alumni, former staff, governors and trustees, current and former parents, current boys, and other supporters of the School, as well as visitors from the local community. It was held as one of the events marking the School’s 450th anniversary.

There were opportunities for people to have their copies of Queen Elizabeth’s School 1573-2023 signed by Dr Marincowitz and to hear him in conversation with Old Elizabethan Surya Bowyer, QE’s former Curator of QE Collections, while the evening also included literary-themed musical performances, a display of archival materials and a lively audience Q&A session at the end.

The volume charts QE’s story from its earliest days following its founding by Elizabeth I in 1573, through centuries that saw wars, plagues and pandemics, recurring national education reforms and, in 1932, a change of location, through to its present status as one of England’s leading schools.

All profits from the sale of the book will go to The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (FQE) for reinvestment into the School.

Current Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a great evening and it was wonderful to welcome so many guests, including Mike Noronha, Curator at Barnet Museum – the museum was generous in its support for John during his research, supplying both images and information.

“It was fascinating to learn more about what John had uncovered through his research about this remarkable School’s rich history. His work has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the School and the context in which it has evolved over the centuries.

“The event really helped bring stories from QE’s past to life and provided us all with great inspiration to delve fully into the book.

“It was, of course, particularly fitting that we could hold the launch event in March, since our School was founded 450 years ago this month, in 1573.

“Moreover, I was encouraged that when asked, John was fully confident that the School would still be thriving in its current location in 50 years’ time for the 500th anniversary!”

As guests arrived, Year 12 pianist Danylo Gutsulyak played. There was then time to peruse the display of archival material before a piano quartet of Faaiz Adil (Year 9), Jack Tan (Year 9), Neelesh Fotedar (Year 8) and Lewis Wong (Year 8) played Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, arranged for eight hands for the audience in the Friends’ Recital Hall in the new Music building.

The display included:

• The School’s 1573 Royal Charter;
• 20^th-century albums collated by former archivist Rosemary Baldwin,
• Examples of School uniform;
• Boards showing extracts of early Governing Body minutes;
• Access to the School’s online QE Collections archives via laptops;
• The photo that appears upon the cover of the book;
• Silverware presented to Harry ‘Curly’ Mayes to mark his 50 years of service to the School. He in fact served the School for 60 years in the 20th century as, variously, its butler, steward, porter and caretaker. The exhibit was chosen since the archival display was put on in the new building’s Mayes Atrium, named in his memory.

During the evening, assistance was provided by prefects and by a small number of those who have been involved with the School archives, either as part of the QE palaeography group or through Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme volunteering.

Mr Enright added: “It is splendid to see both that our own pupils are helping the digitisation, interpretation and presentation of these materials, and that boys here are now making active use of our archives, with, for example, Years 8 & 9 currently using them extensively in their own research projects.”

As the evening progressed, there were readings from the book and the discussion between Dr Marincowitz (Headmaster, 1999–2011) and Surya (OE 2007–2014).

A musical interlude featured the Senior String Quartet (Jason Tao (Year 11), David Wang (Year 11), Jao-Yong Tsai (Year 13) and Hyunwoo Kim (Year 11) performing Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet.

During the Q&A, several audience members shared their own perspectives as former pupils from different eras. Their questions took in everything from how the master (teacher) had managed in centuries past to keep order and teach in a single space with seven different forms, to how the School might appear on its 500th anniversary in 2073.

The final musical contribution came from a second piano quartet, comprising Zeyuan Wu (Year 11), Joshua John (Year 11), Zehao Wu (Year 8) and Felix Chen (Year 8), playing Saint-Saens’s Danse Macabre, arranged for eight hands. All the musical items were selected because they were based on literary stories or plays.

Abhinav Sandeep and Chinmaya Dave, of Year 9, led the video-recording of the launch: it will in due course be made available online for those unable to attend.

• The book can be purchased from the FQE online shop.

Dozens of Old Elizabethans and other guests turned out to advise Year 11 boys on their future paths in a new-style QE Careers Convention.

The event featured sessions focusing on specific professions, seminars offering guidance on a range of career-related topics, and an afternoon careers fair where the boys could gain one-to-one advice from alumni and other external guests.

In a break with previous years, this year’s event, spearheaded by Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane, was held during the day and was run with a new format.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My thanks go to the many OEs and other friends of the School who visited to support the Careers Convention. It was wonderful to see some new faces alongside veterans from the pre-pandemic years.

“We wanted to give students the opportunity to hear from and talk to people working in a wide range of industries and professions, whether to open up new possibilities for them or to provide insight into areas they were already considering. This kind of support is invaluable as they begin to make decisions about their futures.”

Following a welcome from Mr Kane, motivational speaker and executive coach Kam Taj (OE 2004–2011) delivered a keynote speech to the whole year group on Keeping an Open Mind.

Kam shared with the 180 boys the ups and downs of his own story, including his thwarted ambition to play professional basketball, his success in gaining a place at Cambridge and the personal crisis he went through at the age of 21. “Now, six years later, I have two business – my leadership & coaching services for professionals, and my Exam Success Academy courses for students. I’m doing what I love and what fulfils me most.”

After his talk, and a session on Appropriate Alternatives to University, all Year 11 had a half-hour talk on careers in medicine. They could choose also between sessions looking at careers in law, finance and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

After lunch, the options were for the following talks:

• ‘Swiggly careers’ – ditch the ladder and discover opportunity
• Essential employability skills
• How your career can help to solve the world’s pressing problems.

The careers fair, which took place in the spacious setting of the Shearly Hall, featured more than 50 guests, most of them Old Elizabethans, covering the following areas: accounting, banking & finance; built environment; charities & voluntary sector; creative industries & media; engineering; law; medicine, dentistry & veterinary medicine; professional & business services; public sector, and science & technology.

Mr Kane, who leads on careers provision at QE, said: “There are many different pathways to success, and the day made clear to the boys that career progression may take unexpected turns along the way. We raised awareness about alternative paths to university, including apprenticeships, which is a route a small number of leavers have successfully followed in recent years.

“Part of the day was to encourage our Year 11 boys to think about careers that hadn’t necessarily occurred to them or been top of their agenda. I was pleased with how they responded.”

Some of QE’s youngest pupils met up with their counterparts at a leading girls’ school for a day-long academic symposium on climate change.

Twenty-four Year 7 boys made the trip to independent North London Collegiate School, where they got to grips with climate change data and practised the skills needed to make a persuasive presentation advocating for climate action.

QE extra-curricular enrichment tutor and Science teacher Xiangming Xu said: “This trip was a great opportunity for students from both schools to work collaboratively on tackling environmental issues that we are facing currently within society.

“By the end of the morning session, all of them had managed to sharpen their skills on graph interpretation and data interrogation. The afternoon session was more ‘creativity’-based, with small groups producing a short presentation on the subject of What is the climate crisis and why should you care? Overall, it was a very successful event.

“Such partnership events with top girls’ schools stretch our pupils academically, boost their subject knowledge and enhance their oracy and presentation skills, while also giving them valuable opportunities to work collaboratively alongside girls, thus preparing them for a co-educational university environment and for their later careers.”

The day began with presentations from Science teachers aimed at familiarising the boys and girls with the issues involved and at providing the knowledge and scientific language with which to talk confidently about them. During the presentations, the pupils learned about: the use of data; scientific observation based on objects such as ice cores and fossils; greenhouse gases, and negative & positive feedback loops.

The pupils were arranged into groups of six – three boys and three girls – and encouraged to discuss the science behind the climate crisis. “Students from both schools engaged well with the teachers in this activity,” said Mr Xu.

One of the boys involved, Arin Gupta, said he had enjoyed, firstly, the session led by NLCS teacher Mr Dave, which covered both climate change itself and the vocabulary used to talk about it. “I really liked this session as it challenged some of the assumptions that I had made previously about climate change and persuaded me to change them.”

After that, Mr Xu addressed the pupils on how a picture can be worth a thousand words, with a simple photo, diagram or sketch being a powerful way of conveying emotion. Arin said: “We looked at different graphs, which gave us a lot of insight into what could be done about the climate crisis. For example, I was shocked to learn that eating no beef for a year would save water equivalent to leaving your kitchen tap on full blast for six days straight.”

The main aim of the day was for each group to make a compelling pitch to specific audiences –such as a business, a politician or a group of primary school children – setting out why and how they needed to change. Accordingly, the pupils next studied a range of rhetorical and literary devices which they could deploy as tools for their own presentations. They considered a speech by Greta Thunberg and also looked at poems warning about the peril faced by the planet.

“There was great variety in the final presentations,” said Mr Xu, “with impactful, passionate speeches, poignant poems, stimulating sketches and even catchy advertising jingles.”

The symposium proved popular with the boys, whose comments afterwards included:

• “It was a trip I will never forget.” Eshaan Anil
• “I had a wonderful day at NLCS and I learnt more than I could’ve imagined.” Arun Chopra
• “All of us got along quite well – especially the last part of the day where we all did our plays and poems (this was the best part of the day)! As a team, we all made the speech and this was inspirational. The second-best part was the tour around the school, and it was M-A-S-S-I-V-E.” Dhruva Bejugam
• “It greatly enhanced my critical thinking skills and I learnt, not only how to interpret graphs, but also to critically analyse them and to find their flaws…On the whole, I absolutely loved the NLCS trip and found it a fascinating, fun and insightful educational experience, where I could meet new people and learn new things.” Afraz Khan

With QE’s 450th anniversary year now well under way and thoughts turning to this week’s special service of thanksgiving in Westminster Abbey, Old Elizabethan Iain Lanyon, who was School Captain during the 400th anniversary celebrations in 1973, recalls his experiences during that momentous year.

Iain began by saying that he had, in fact, had other plans for the first half of 1973…

“I stayed on after my A-levels in 1972 to take Cambridge entrance exams in the autumn. I was, I think, the youngest in my year, so I wanted to take a year out,” he said. “In the end, I stayed the whole academic year 1972–73 as School Captain: it was the 400th anniversary and there was so much to do! Prefects were responsible for much of the discipline and organised all school break times and the junior assembly.

“I had to combine school work with part-time paid work (I was from a one-parent family and on free school meals).

“I worked in the doubles bar at the Red Lion pub and remember ‘Tiger’ Timson [Classics teacher Percival Timson] coming in for a drink each evening before catching the bus home – double White Horse whisky with Malvern Water.

“My favourite memory of the 400th anniversary was organising the School fete. I persuaded the school to hold a joint fete with the Girls’ School and for the proceeds to go to the new Marie Foster home for multiple sclerosis about to be opened in Wood Street.

“I worked with the new comprehensive intake of QE junior boys to save enough Green Shield stamps to buy an early type of mobility scooter for the home, and the fete also raised over £1,200 for the home – that’s over £17,000 in today’s value.” He has a copy of a letter from Marie Foster herself thanking him. “She was an amazing woman!”

The colour photo in front of the Main Building shows him collecting a prize on Founder’s Day 1973, while he is in the front row, centre, in the prefect team line-up.

Iain was a keen sportsman. He was captain of the athletics team and played rugby on the left wing in the First XV, also playing for the county in both sports. He was the Borough of Barnet schools 100 metres sprint champion for two years. “My time of 11.2 seconds was a record that stood for several years, I think.”

In 1973, the School was approached by a local college to see if there was a QE pupil who could teach the English Language course. “I was sent along. I remember being the youngest in the room full of people needing an English qualification for their careers. The administrator came in and apologised that the teacher hadn’t arrived, so I had to put up my hand to say I was their teacher!”

Teaching has remained part of his life ever since: “Firstly graphic design and communication, and now as a part-time voluntary mentor for English Literature Oxbridge candidates at Camden School For Girls.”

After Iain finally handed over the School Captain’s mantle to Maxwell Ball, who took over in the Autumn Term of 1973, he went on to his own English Literature degree at Warwick.

After that, he worked in arts marketing at the Royal Opera House. “I then became a graphic designer, working for theatre companies, which has been my career for the past 40 years.” He is creative director of his own company, Kean Lanyon Ltd.

Iain lives in Crouch End. “Several of us still meet up on Founder’s Day each year at the Black Horse, then go on to the School fete. Last year we were given a guided tour and saw the new swimming pool for the first time. ” It is, he reflects, quite a contrast to the days when he and his classmates would stand shivering on the edge of the outdoor pool, with PE teacher Eric Shearly cheerfully pouring scorn on their reluctance to enter the water.

Two Year 9 boys have won an international artificial intelligence competition – the only UK winners across all age groups.

Paarth Aggarwal and Nittant Moudgil took gold in the middle school category of the fifth annual World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY), beating teams from Australia, Greece, India and Indonesia.

They impressed judges with their project to help local councils mitigate the impact of fly-tipping, which combined an AI-powered app and a camera powered by a Raspberry Pi computer.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “AI is likely to transform all our lives in the future and it is good to see QE pupils at the forefront of this revolution. My congratulations go to Nittant and Paarth both for their success and for the combination of intelligence, inventiveness and application that they demonstrated in developing and presenting this project.”

The pair were mentored by Paarth Aggarwal’s father, Saurabh. Mr Aggarwal works for Cognizant, the American multinational IT services and consulting company, as an Associate Director in its UK Artificial Intelligence & Analytics Advisory and Consulting team.

They were among more than 1,000 entrants in the competition, which attracted interest from young people in more than 30 countries around the world: for example, the winners of the high school category were from the USA and those of the elementary school category from the UAE.

Paarth and Nittant won their medals and certificate for “outstanding performance”. Their project was designed to detect objects that are typically the subject of fly-tipping. They aimed to reduce the deleterious impact of fly-tipping on the environment and to help local authorities optimise their resources so that they can plan better and clean up more effectively.

Nittant explained: “This was definitely a unique endeavour for me, as I haven’t taken part in an AI competition before. Paarth and I decided to approach the challenge by seeing problems that we could fix and innovate solutions for, and we had recently started noticing quite a lot of fly-tipping in our local area. We found it to be a widespread issue that affects many communities and has negative environmental and economic impacts, so we decided on making an app that uses an ML model to detect waste and report it to the local council. Winning the gold medal was a pleasant surprise, but we had worked hard on it, so it was a welcome one.”

WAICY is sponsored by a number of international commercial and educational organisations. The competition judges look first for the effective use of AI in entries and expect entrants to demonstrate a thorough understanding of what AI means. Competitors are expected to be able to demonstrate their understanding by answering questions about the technical aspects of their projects, including any coding that these involved.

After learning of his gold award, Paarth said: “This competition encouraged me to develop the critical thinking in me and helped to hone my skills in AI. It was an exhilarating opportunity to experience the competition on such a global platform.”

In fact, he said, taking part had helped him overcome his fear of getting involved in such large-scale competitions. “I would highly encourage everyone to participate, persevere and learn in all competitions, whether it is on a large or small scale.”