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Four QE delegates won awards for their public speaking and debating skills at a Model United Nations conference.

The three-day weekend ‘HabsMUN’ event, hosted by Haberdashers’ Boys’ School, saw a ten-strong QE team take on more than 500 delegates from other leading schools.

MUN gatherings are designed to simulate real UN conferences, with teams representing countries’ interests. Half of the QE group represented Nigeria, while the remaining five delegates had the difficult task – given current political circumstances – of speaking for Russia.

One of the latter, Zaki Mustafa, positively relished the opportunity: “Spending a weekend in the mind of Vladimir Putin was both a thought-provoking and exhilarating experience. I got the chance to defend Russia’s actions in front of hundreds of people without them all walking out on me!”

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter said: “Our students made eloquent and persuasive contributions and were duly rewarded: with four out of ten of them earning awards, QE was among the most successful schools there.

“It was an outstanding result, achieved in spite of the strong competition our boys faced, their relative lack of experience (with so many events cancelled during the pandemic, this was the first in-person conference for all of them), and the lack of time for preparation, since the event came directly after our Year 11 mock exams. Part of the academic challenge of the Model United Nations is that participants are called on to argue from the viewpoint of their assigned country and thus often face the task of promoting causes and outcomes they would not personally agree with.”

The awards went to:

• Saim Khan (Best Delegate in the Security Council – the top award for an individual delegate)
• Zaki Mustafa (Distinguished Delegate in Disarmament and International Security)
• Ady Tiwari and Uday Dash (Highly Commendable Delegates in Special Political 2 and Disarmament and International Security respectively)

In addition to Zaki, the Russia delegation comprised Saim Khan, Koustuv Bhowmick, Keshav Aggarwal and Hari Rathakrishnan. Representing Nigeria were: Chanakya Seetharam, Uday Dash, Kanusan Naveendran, Hari Kumarappan and Ady Tiwari. All are in Year 11, except Keshav Aggarwal and Hari Rathakrishnan (both Year 9).

They fended off challenges from several powerful country delegations, including Habs (representing the USA), Royal Masonic School for Girls (UK) and North London Collegiate School (China).

Saim spoke of his surprise at winning his award, presented in front of all the other delegates – “truly an unforgettable and powerful moment”.

His favourite part of the conference was, however,   “the opportunity to meet some fantastic people with whom I have made some great memories, whether it was clashing horns with the US over the future of Afghanistan, participating in icebreaker challenges where the delegate of Ecuador confidently stated she could defeat a black bear, or just working together with other delegates to achieve some fruitful debate”.

Similarly Uday said: “I have formed connections and met some fantastic people through this conference, which has undoubtedly been the best part of this process. Having debated strongly with and against them (with a little bit of karaoke sprinkled in between!), I have no doubt that I will continue to form stronger bonds with these people throughout my life.”

Uday’s fellow Nigeria delegate, Chanakya, added: “As someone with a keen eye for detail, I found that HabsMUN proved the ultimate opportunity to ‘geek out’ about what were, superficially, the trivialities of international law. Whether it was considering territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the International Court of Justice’s precedent, or the moral responsibilities of corporations towards society, the conference provided a challenging, yet rewarding, forum in which to debate geopolitical issues.”

This year’s Rugby Sevens – the first to feature the U14s as well as the U16s since before the pandemic – saw Tonbridge and Harrow schools claim the honour of being named champions in QE’s 450^th anniversary year.

A total of 64 teams took part, confirming the event’s place as the country’s second-biggest schools rugby sevens tournament.

Many leading rugby schools joined the fray, with Tonbridge and Harrow both unbeaten on the way to their U16 and U14 Cup victories, while Framlingham College and Ipswich School respectively took the U16 and U14 Plate titles. Tonbridge’s results included two victories by a margin of more than 50 points, while Harrow saw off Berkhamsted School convincingly in their final.

QE’s own players also put in impressive performances, with emphatic wins achieved in both age categories.

Head of Rugby, James Clarke, said: “It was a great day with some excellent rugby on show, including from our own two teams.”

The tournament usually uses nine pitches, with games played at Barnet Elizabethans RFC, as well as at the School.

“It stays on track and is such a success every year due to the immense efforts from the PE staff, with my colleagues taking on the planning, organising, coaching and refereeing. Added to that are efforts of the prefects, who take charge of a lot of the logistics on the day including directing 62 visiting teams and their minibuses at both sites. And then there are our Year 7 and Year 8 helpers, who run all of the fixture cards to the two control centres when a game is finished, so that results can be updated live across our tournament site on TV screens, website and app.

“My huge thanks go to everyone who made the day possible.”

“Our U16 team, captained by Rohan Kumar, put in some impressive attacking play, scoring high- quality tries throughout the day,” said Mr Clarke. Having performed strongly against Gowerton School from Wales, they then lost to Woodlands School, Essex. “They regrouped, though, and won their final group game convincingly over Robert Clack School, Essex to finish third in the group, but unfortunately missed out on the knockout stages.”

“As for the U14s, they acquitted themselves brilliantly. Led by Victor Varbanov, they got off to a great start with a hard-fought 19-14 victory over Reigate Grammar School, Surrey. Caterham School, Surrey, proved too strong in game two, and it all came down to the final group game to decide whether QE would progress to the knockouts. An emphatic 40-0 win over Norwich School, Norfolk saw QE duly progress in second place and move into the Plate competition quarter-finals against local rivals St Albans School.

“It was a fiercely contested game that could have gone either way. In fact, had it not been for a last-ditch tap tackle on captain Victor, just as he appeared to have successfully burst through the St Albans defensive line, the boys may well have made the plate semi-finals. As it was, St Albans scored at the other end to seal a 24-12 win shortly after.

“Overall, some really competitive performances, though, among many of the best rugby schools in the country.”

The winning Cup finalists in both age groups will receive tickets to a Premiership Rugby match (as will members of QE’s soon-to-be-announced Rugby Team of the Year, in what is fast becoming an annual School tradition).  “My thanks to our tournament sponsors, inspiresport, for making this possible,” said Mr Clarke.

The QE teams:

• U16 (all Year 11, except for Year 10 boys who are ‘playing up’): Rohan Kumar (captain), James Conway, John Chum, Akaash Gill, Zeyuan Wu, Theo Moses, Shreyaas Sandeep, Karan Chauhan, Aadam Aslam (Year 10), Timi Banjo (Year 10), Ubaidah Rahman (Year 10).
• U14s (all except Lakshmi are Year 9): Victor Varbanov (captain), Akira Norimura, Thomas Young, Aashir Irfan, Yashinth Sivananthan, Yashwant Reddy Sunkara, Oscar Kaltenbronn, Aarav Paul, Peter Atanasov, Faaiz Adil, Olic Fan, Lakshmi Chirumamilla (Year 8; playing up).

Tournament finals results

U16s Cup – Tonbridge School 21-14 Dulwich College

U16s Plate – Framlingham College 15-14 Berkhamsted School

U14s Cup – Harrow School 43-7 Berkhamsted School

U14s Plate – Ipswich School 21-7 St Albans School

• Full tournament results are available here from the dedicated microsite here.

Old Elizabethan academic and marine biologist Nick Jones has completed his PhD in Florida, awarded for his research into coral reefs.

His work on understanding the future prospects of the reefs has been presented at international conferences and published in international journals.

Nick (OE 1997–2004) now lectures at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University and mentors Master’s students, having made the USA his home.

“As a field-based researcher, much of my time is spent underwater and over the last few years I’ve been lucky to study coral reefs throughout Florida, in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Mexico,” he says.

After QE, Nick spent a gap year in Australia before returning to read Marine Biology at Southampton.

When he graduated, he was offered a scholarship to study coral reefs at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. This led to his working abroad for several years, studying coral reefs and sharks, before he returned to the UK to work for the Environment Agency.

In 2015, Nick decided to get back into academia and pursue his interest in coral reef ecosystems. “I enrolled in a Master’s at Nova Southeastern University, where my research focused on the impact of temperature on the coral reef communities. After completion, I decided to continue my research in Florida and undertake a PhD.

“I assessed how community dynamics and coral demographics (e.g., growth, recruitment, mortality rates) are influenced by global stressors (e.g., ocean warming, hurricane activity) and local anthropogenic pressures (e.g., nutrient pollution, increased sedimentation from coastal construction) to understand their recovery potential and viability under climate change.”

It is the results of this work that have been presented at conferences and published, including being featured in the National Climate Change Assessment produced by the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

“In addition to research, I give lectures in marine biology, community ecology and biostatistics, as well as mentoring multiple Master’s students, helping them with experimental design, technical writing and data analysis. I live in Hollywood, Florida, situated between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.”

He remains grateful to his teachers at QE who helped prepare him for his career.

• The main picture, top, shows Nick conducting an underwater survey in Florida. The laboratory shot shows him preparing a coral sample for an experiment, while the bottom photograph is Nick assessing a reef in Mexico.

Queen Elizabeth’s School was the most successful organisation in the world in this year’s VEX robotics Online Challenges.

Having already achieved significant successes in recent years at in-person regional, national and international Vex championships – including a world title in 2018 – QE’s robotics teams have recently added online competitions to their repertoire.

And now that the results are in for the 2022–2023 Online Challenges, it is clear just how strong their performances have been: QE has been informed that its teams were either winners or runners-up in nine separate challenges, with seven first places.

Not only do the winning teams receive cash prizes, they also gain automatic qualification for this season’s VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, USA.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “By any standards, these are fantastic results, and that is reflected in the fact that QE is the highest-achieving school or other organisation globally this year.

“My warm congratulations go to all the boys who took part and to our Head of Technology, Michael Noonan, and his team for the work they did in preparing them.”

Nine QE teams were named among the top places in 13 competitions, six of them at junior (VIQC) level and seven at senior (VRC) level.

One VRC squad – team number 20785X – was named winner of both the Theme It Up! Challenge and the Community Challenge, as well as being a runner-up in the Career Readiness Challenge. Another, 20785C, took two runner-up spots.

At junior level, 21549A was a double winner, taking the top spot in both the VIQC Career Readiness Challenge and the STEM Research Project.

Here are some examples of what the challenges involved:

• VRC and VIQC Career Readiness Challenge: entrants had to explore the way in which professionals in a specific career or company use and document the steps of the engineering design process. The challenge information stated: “We want you to explore a possible future career, and discover the similarities and differences in how that prospective career and VEX Robotics teams use and learn from the process of engineering design.”
• VIQC STEM Research Project: this involved exploring nature’s patterns and using that knowledge to engineer a new solution to a current problem.
• VRC Promote Video Challenge: participants were asked to make a video promoting their experience with Vex Robotics. They were invited to “show us who you are, who you aspire to be, and what makes your team special and successful”.

Pictured here are some of the QE robotics teams on their travels during the regional rounds of this year’s domestic VEX competitions.

Boys of all ages chosen as last season’s top rugby players for QE enjoyed a special treat with a visit to watch Premiership side Saracens battle it out with Newcastle Falcons.

Most of the 15 boys selected by their PE teachers for the 2021–2022 Rugby Team of the Year headed to Saracens’ StoneX Stadium, where they saw the host side beat Newcastle 29-23.

Head of Rugby James Clarke said: “For all but three of the boys, this was the first live rugby match they’d seen in person, and they thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and experience, despite having to brave the cold.”

Adding to the boys’ enjoyment was the exciting nature of this top-flight game, with the visitors staging a strong comeback in the second half.

Hosts Saracens were 29-13 up at half-time, while Newcastle were already down to 14 men, since Falcons lock Greg Peterson was sent off after just 16 minutes for a dangerously high tackle.

But in the second half, it was the Falcons who scored the only try. And tensions rose still further when fly-half Brett Connon scored a penalty for Newcastle two minutes into stoppage time (which also earned the visitors a bonus league point for losing by no more than seven points – the value of a converted try). In the end, however, Saracens were able to hold on for the win.

After the game, the QE visitors were able to meet some of the players, including England international Billy Vunipola, the Saracens No. 8.

The QE 2021–2022 Rugby Team of the Year, with their age categories at the time the team was announced, were:

• Backs – Taro Niimura, U16; Thomas Young, U13; Esa Aslam, U12; Isa Sheikh, U12; Ubayd Uddin, U15; Andrew Mbogol, U16; Ubaidah Rahman. U14.
• Forwards – Simardeep Sahota, U14; Aashir Irfan, U13; Soham Bhatnagar, U12; David Hirtopanu, U15; Nnanna Okore, U18; Edward Muscat, U14; Aaron Rodrigo, U15; Theo Moses, U15.

Earlier in the season, Year 8’s leading rugby players had enjoyed their own day out, which included a training session by the coaches at Premiership side London Irish RFC and a visit to Twickenham – the world’s biggest rugby union stadium – where they were able to look around the World Rugby Museum.

PE & Games teacher Ollie Di-Lieto said: “Having had a training session led by the London Irish coaches, we had the opportunity to watch the first team train and meet a few of the players. We met Ollie Hassell-Collins (in the England squad) and Henry Arundell (now also in the England squad: he scored on his England debut last year).”