QE linguists have won national and regional honours in a literary translation competition run from The Queen’s College, Oxford, that attracted thousands of entries nationwide.
Year 7 pupil Jonas Dawit took second prize nationally for French in his age group, while Year 11’s Arjun Patel was the winner for Greater London for German. Olly Salter, of Year 12, also won a regional commendation, again for German.
All the QE boys who entered the Anthea Bell Competition were given a one-off lesson about literary translation from German or French into English, using resources provided by the competition organisers.
Languages teacher Katrin Hood said: “I congratulate everyone who entered, and of course our winners, who did brilliantly to be recognised amongst such fierce competition!”
It was the second consecutive year that QE has entered the competition, which is named after an acclaimed English literary translator who died in 2018.
“It has once again been a pleasure to discuss literary translations in class, and to hear our students’ fantastic and creative solutions to the particular challenges each text presents,” said Ms Hood.
The competition is run by The Queen’s College Translation Exchange – an initiative which seeks to bring together university students, school pupils, teachers and members of the public – and involves young linguists submitting their own translations of a specified piece of writing.
An internal round at the School is held first: open to all boys, it this year attracted 73 entrants, representing an increase on the 2021 figure.
From these entrants, judges from across the Languages department picked the best French and best German translator for each age group. They also identified the five from each group whom the School was allowed to enter into the national competition.
Nationwide, 14,000 secondary school pupils undertook the translation task, with more than 3,200 then going through to the national competition, which was judged by a team comprising both Queen’s College undergraduates and professional translators.
National runner-up Jonas had to translate the surrealist poet Robert Desnos’s poem, Le Crapaud, (The Toad). Its first stanza is:
Sur les bords de la Marne
Un crapaud il y a
Qui pleure à chaudes larmes
Sous un acacia.
Jonas translated this as :
A toad all warty
On the banks of the Marne
Weeps hot tears
Under a thorn.
“He has chosen to maintain the rhyme scheme of the original, but in doing so has had to change the meaning of some of the original words. These decisions are central to the translator’s craft,” said Ms Hood.
“The competition gave us an opportunity to go beyond what we normally do in the classroom and allowed the boys to be introduced to a wide range of literary texts that they otherwise might not have come across.”
After learning of his commendation, Olly reflected on the experience: “’Entering the Anthea Bell translation competition was immensely rewarding. The need to think outside of the box – to ensure not only the meaning, but also the tone, of the text was preserved – was exciting and something I will carry with me into my future study of languages and translation. I am so glad that I took part.”
The year group winners in the internal QE competition, most of whom are pictured, top, were as follows.
French:
Year 7 – Jonas Dawit
Year 8 – Nimesh Nirojan
Year 9 – Binaga Solangaarachchi
Year 11 – Darren Lee
Sixth Form – Theo Mama-Kahn
German:
Year 7 – Stephan Tinss
Year 8 – Hardik Ingale
Year 9 – Keon Robert
Year 10 – Avkash Lahkar
Year 11 – Arjun Patel
Sixth Form – Alan Yee Kin Yan
The QE Year 12 team spent weeks preparing for the annual MUN event at St Paul’s School in London.
“The students debated and lobbied well, with Aryaman Madan and Nayel Muhammad Huda especially active in forming alliances with other delegations, both during committee meetings and in-between them,” said Mr O’Shea-Nejad. “Nayel was recognised as the best speaker on the Women’s Rights Committee and Abir Mohammed as the best speaker on the Legal Committee.”
The final held at Harrow School ended in exciting fashion, with QE beating St Benedict’s School, Ealing, by two runs, after successfully restricting the opposing batsman to a single run off the last ball of the day.
In the county cup semi-final, the boys took on Hampton School. Hampton were playing at home and, after winning the toss and choosing to bat, they got off to a flying start, scoring almost nine an over. A combination of strong bowling and impressive fielding limited the damage, but they still finished all out for a “respectable 121 runs, which looked a tall order,” said Mr Clarke, who is Head of Rugby.
There is praise for every aspect of the School’s work, from the quality of teaching to the behaviour of pupils, and from the huge variety of extra-curricular opportunities through to the work done to prepare pupils for university.
Lead Inspector Annabel Davies and her team began their report with this summary: “Pupils flourish at Queen Elizabeth’s School. They love to learn. Pupils are happy and safe. They take great pride in their work. Pupils are determined to succeed in all aspects of their school life and are ambitious for their futures. Leaders ensure that pupils study a broad range of academic subjects. They make sure the highly academic environment of the school is also a nurturing one.” Borrowing from the language of the School’s mission (“to produce young men who are confident, able and responsible”), the report’s opening paragraph concludes: “Leaders strive to develop pupils into confident, able and responsible young people.”
The inspectors also rated QE’s arrangements for safeguarding as ‘effective’ – a category for which the only possible outcomes are ‘effective’ or ‘ineffective’. The report states: “Staff are acutely aware of the pressures that pupils in the school may face. They prioritise teaching about mental health, managing stress and online safety…The school teaches them the importance of respecting others.”
The first in-person Founder’s Day since before the pandemic proved a considerable draw, with large numbers coming along to enjoy the fun and family atmosphere at the afternoon fete organised by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. The formal aspects of the day – which this year included a memorial service for former Headmaster Eamonn Harris (1984–1999) – also ran smoothly, as the School marked its rich traditions in style.
Current Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a very happy occasion and a great celebration of the School’s 449th birthday enjoyed by all parts of our community. I was particularly pleased to see so many Old Elizabethans – more than I can remember on similar occasions in the past – returning to their School.
After the morning Thanksgiving Service in Chipping Barnet Parish Church attended by Year 7 boys, their families and staff, pupils and teachers walked to the School for the traditional Roll Call and reading of the School Chronicle (an annually updated account of QE’s history) in front of Main Building.
After a welcome from Mr Enright, Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin MBE read Wordsworth’s A Poet! He hath put his heart to school.
The £32,392.04 total raised includes money collected at the fete, as well as sponsorship funds from the inter-House Music and The Voice concert challenge on Friday and online donations via the main Founder’s Day JustGiving page.
In an entertaining address, he wove together examples from popular culture, social media, the natural world, his career and the School. His theme was that “appearances can be deceiving” – but only for a short time, since the truth comes out eventually. The School may look very similar to how it did in his day as you walk up to the Main Building, he pointed out to the congregation, but it is a place transformed and so much better. He noted the crucial role Eamonn Harris had played in this.
Other VIP guests included: the Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Cllr Alison Moore; the Representative Deputy Lieutenant of the London Borough of Barnet, Martin Russell, and the Headteacher of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Violet Walker.