Traditional festivities brought the term to an end for the pupils and staff of Queen Elizabeth’s School – while one member of the Elizabethan family was singled out for the honour of an invitation to The Princess of Wales’ Carol Service at Westminster Abbey.

Highlights of the final days of term included the delivery of this year’s hugely successful charity collections to the local community and the School’s Christmas dinner, served complete with musical accompaniment – and all the other trimmings!

There was more festive music at the QE Service of Nine Lessons and Carols this week at Chipping Barnet parish church and at the Winter Concert at the start of the month.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My best wishes and season’s greetings go to our all families, alumni and friends. It’s been a super end to a tremendous term that included the royal visit last month by HRH The Duke of Gloucester.”

“This year has seen QE, the Sunday Times State School of the Year for 2022: achieve an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted report; open a new Music building, and celebrate the best A-level results of any state school. It’s certainly been a year to savour! I hope pupils and staff will enjoy their well-earned rest and return in January ready to celebrate our 450^th anniversary in 2023.”

Among the guests at Westminster Abbey last night were Diane Mason and her husband, George. The Representative Deputy Lieutenant of the London Borough of Barnet, Martin Russell, nominated her in recognition of decades of work in support of The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s and other causes in the borough. Diane worked at the School as a PE teacher many years ago and was a longstanding Secretary to the Friends’ Executive Committee.

The service was attended by the King and Queen Consort, as well as The Prince and Princess of Wales and George and Charlotte, alongside other members of the Royal Family.

“Diane, and indeed, George, have been stalwart supporters of the School for a very long time, and this rare honour is well deserved indeed,” the Headmaster added.

As it has done every year since 2014, QE ran a charitable food collection for Chipping Barnet Foodbank to benefit the most vulnerable living in the local area. In addition, boys and staff collected clothes for Homeless Action in Barnet.

QE Caretaker Steve Anderson said at the end of term: “I have just got back from delivering the charity donations with four of our prefects and I have to say I have never been more proud to be a QE staff member.

“The generosity of parents, boys and staff was unbelievable; the staff at the two centres were overwhelmed and very grateful.

“I am sure a lot of people will benefit from the kindness from our School.”

Tuesday’s Christmas dinner for boys and staff featured the traditional roast turkey – or a vegetarian option – together with roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips, carrots and brussels sprouts.

To make it even more festive, the Saxophone Quartet – Suraj Cheema and Leo Dane-Liebesny, of Year 13, Arjun Patel, of Year 12, and Leo Sellis, of Year 10 – played for the diners.

The four were also among the many musicians involved in the Winter Concert in the School’s Shearly Hall on the first day of the month.

The programme featured several different genres, with the pieces played ranging from Michael Jackson’s Beat It, performed by the Electric Guitar Ensemble to pieces more traditionally associated with Christmas, such as the excerpts from Handel’s Messiah performed by the Senior Strings and the Chamber Choir.

This week’s carol service in St John the Baptist Church started in darkness, before the church returned to light as the congregation sang the final verses of Once in Royal David’s City.

As well as other favourite carols and Christmas Bible readings by boys and staff, there were lesser-known musical treats, such as the Vocal Group’s rendition of Dormi Jesu – a setting of a short lullaby text collected by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge while he was on a tour of Germany with William Wordsworth in 1798.

Akash Vaghela is continuing to grow and refine his fitness business – now billed as “the only place in the world entirely focused on helping you not only get into shape, but on learning how to stay in shape”.

RNT Fitness has transformed more than 3,000 lives in more than 25 countries, says Akash (OE 2003–2010) – and fellow Elizabethans number among some of his most satisfied customers.

As previously reported in Alumni News, Akash set up the business in 2017. Recently, he has put more emphasis on ‘get in shape, stay in shape’ as its unique selling point. “This is emphasised with a minimum commitment of 12 months, which is very different for the fitness industry.

“RNT has evolved from ‘spreadsheets and emails’ to building its own proprietary technology to better serve its members,” he adds. “All the technology is being built self-funded. Doing it without outside investment and as our first foray into building tech has been a very interesting challenge indeed!

“We have also ‘niched down’ towards working with high performers, which is a natural fit to QE alumni, who are typically high performers in their careers.” In fact, the most-read case study on RNT’s website has been that of Shyam Kotecha [OE 2003–2010], whose story has featured in Men’s Health, The Telegraph and The Guardian.

“Tom Bridges [OE 2005–2011] is a great example of our USP in action, showing the benefits of the long-term journey. Punit Rawal [OE 2002–2009] exemplifies our ethos of ‘using the physical as the vehicle’ very well: he used this as a springboard to open his own vet practice. And Minil Patel [OE 2003–2010] shows just what is possible as a vegan. His story featured in the Evening Standard recently.” Click on the thumbnails below to see what they achieved.

Akash himself turned vegan last year and has used his experience to prove that it is possible as a vegan to make fitness gains. In his own words, his “body transformation journey” took him from “eating a kilo of meat a day to getting shredded on a completely vegan plant-based diet”.

His website offers a free 28-day programme – the Transformation Accelerator – which Akash is inviting his fellow Elizabethans to join.

Raj Bavishi (1995–2002) is a Director with global audit and consulting firm Mazars in New York, a city he has long made his home. But this term he made a visit back to QE with his family – and received a friendly challenge from the Headmaster.

“Raj has a talent for bringing people together,” said Mr Enright “so I have challenged him to help us develop an OE network in the Big Apple.”

Raj, who is pictured above with the Headmaster, Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan and Head of External Relations Matthew Rose, relished many aspects of School life. He was a librarian for three years and remembers at a tender age being tasked with fixing the photocopier! He enjoyed playing rugby, adding:  “In sporting terms, the School is phenomenal, competing with the likes of Eton and Habs.”

One highlight that sticks in his mind is the research & presentation course he took. “I really enjoyed that class the most, partly because it prepared you for public speaking. Also, at that time, you didn’t Google everything: it was all about going to the library and trying to do some research. Teaching that is not something that every school does.

“I used to love the Founder’s Day Fete. As you get older and into your twenties and thirties, you look back and think ‘how lucky we were to have a Founder’s Day Fete.’” He had long regaled his Brooklyn-born wife, Drusty, with his tales of very British institutions such as Founder’s Day and Sports Day, and of taking part in inter-House competitions for Broughton, convincing her that her husband had, in fact, been to a school somewhat akin to Hogwarts! She had the chance to see for herself when she accompanied Raj on his visit, during which the Headmaster presented their three-and-a-half year-old son, Yash, with his own Broughton rugby shirt. Raj is shown below in his Year 7 form photo, second row from the front, third from the left.

“QE has helped me in specific ways a couple of times in my life. In my A-level results, I missed out on one grade and, if it wasn’t for the School making a phone call, I don’t think UCL would have taken me.”

He took up his place at UCL, reading Mathematics and Economics. “I was definitely a numbers guy: I always wanted to be an accountant.”

As he neared the end of his degree, he got a second-round interview with one of the Big Four accountancy firms. “One partner said: ‘My son did not get into QE’: he understood what going to QE meant.” He duly received an offer from the firm, but it lapsed when he received a 2:2 instead of the 2:1 required for the place. Instead, he secured a job with a smaller firm. “Sometimes failures happen for a reason. If I had gone to one of the Big Four, I wouldn’t have had the mentorship and the wider opportunities to see different sorts of transactions that I had with my first firm.”

It was while establishing himself in this job that through a family friend he met Michael Bernstein, a senior figure working in New York’s accountancy scene. “I call him my Jewish father: to survive in New York , you need a Jewish father!” He invited Raj to come and work in the US and so, on September 23rd 2006, he moved across the Atlantic, starting work on 1st October from offices opposite Bloomingdale’s, the famous department store.

Through mergers, that firm is now part of one of the accounting industry giant, Mazars, for which both he and Mr Bernstein, who today leads its private equity and transaction services practices, still work. “It has given me a good platform,” said Raj. Auditing was for a long time his “bread and butter” work: “I really enjoyed understanding a business and systems and processes. Using flow charts was a big skill that I learned at QE!”

Since 2014, he has worked in the financial advisory department; his role as Financial Advisory – Director involves him working closely with private equity providers, banks and the companies involved.

Reflecting on his life and career, Raj is clear about the benefits that QE has brought him. “QE actually did give us a good grounding. At that stage of your life, it’s important to have some discipline and sense of responsibility. There are of course always two ways of looking at things, but I think QE does teach you responsibility and it does give you the skillset to build your career in the way you want to.”

Pictured here with OE friends at a reunion earlier this year, Raj uses social media – originally Facebook, but now largely WhatsApp – to keep in touch with fellow alumni.

• If you would like to be part of the New York Old Elizabethan network, email [email protected] and we’ll put you in touch with Raj.

Until recently, Ali Woods was, as one reviewer put it, PR man by day, comedian by night.

Better known to his QE contemporaries as Alister Heywood (OE 2005–2012), he first made a name on TikTok and then gained a big boost when his debut solo show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe sold out amid five-star reviews.

Now, underpinned by his huge online following, he has given up the day job and become a professional comedian.

The very first time he was involved in performing comedy was at York, where he was reading English & Related Literature. He was part of a university ‘improv’ group called The Shambles. He then first did stand-up in London in 2015 at open mic nights. In 2017, he was runner-up in the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year competition and was short-listed for a BBC New Comedy Award in both 2017 and 2018.

Alister won Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2020 – Evening Standard writer Bruce Dessau’s quotation in the headline is from that time. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4, TalkRadio and TalkSport, alongside hosting his own podcast, All I Do Is Fail.

All of this was achieved while he was simultaneously working in PR: he is working his notice as a New Business and Marketing Executive for the Propeller Group (a global PR, content and events agency) and finishes on 21st December.

Alister was planning to do his debut full stand-up show in 2020, but was thwarted by the pandemic. Instead, during lockdown he started making videos, which soon went viral. Today, he has 153,000 followers on Instagram and 113,000 on TikTok. His online comedy sketches under the tag @aliwoodsgigs have gained millions of views and likes, and featured on LadBible and Buzzfeed UK. It is by using this audience that he has now managed to turn professional.

In his comedy, he presents a mix of the ‘everyman’ and the ‘modern man’, displaying sensitivity and a genuine interest in men’s mental health, which gives him a great perspective on the modern ‘lad’ culture. He speaks on topics such as football, the environment, and many social causes close to his heart.

Typically outspoken, he is keen to encourage those interested in creative work to pursue it and get the career they really want: “You can do it, believe that you can. I’ve done it and I’m not even funny!” It was not, he said, an aspiration that was really valued in the QE of his time. “I was never encouraged to take creative work seriously, it was seen as a facilitator for cover letters and CVs.”

Alister, who was among the guests at this term’s OE Association Dinner, therefore feels a special impetus to encourage today’s pupils if they hold similar interests.

“You can work really hard to end up in a job you hate because you thought it was the safe option,” he says. “I would like to communicate to current QE boys that creative arts are a legitimate pursuit which requires the same work as any difficult degree or discipline or career, and will truly be worth it. If you are passionate about it, and you’re willing to be consistent, put yourself out there, learn from your setbacks and not to give up: it will be the most fulfilling journey you’ll ever make.

“Don’t be afraid to take the risk. Believe that you are able to succeed in a competitive, creative field.”

• You can view Alister’s videos at his website.

As current Year 12 pupil Darren Lee gets ready to take over as School Captain in our 450th anniversary year, we asked the 400th anniversary Captain, Iain Lanyon, for his memories of that momentous year.

He 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. This 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.