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Five Year 9 boys who devoted their summer holidays to preparing for a new season of robotics have been rewarded with early success in a competition – a victory which takes them straight through to national championship level.

The five, comprising team 21549E, put their holiday planning to good effect and duly won the local VEX Robotics event hosted by Greig City Academy in Hornsey.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “By the time they reached this competition, the boys definitely had the right mindset and the right strategy, having drawn on their past experience of robotics to develop a robot capable of taking on this season’s challenge. They handled the pressure on the day well and rightfully enjoyed the celebrations after their victory.”

The five team members are: Neel Bhatt; Adokshaj Magge; Ishaan Bhandhari; Anik Singh and Mukunth Natarajan.

Anik, whose role included design, explained that the task for the 2021-22 season involves shooting balls into a box to win points. It is, he says, quite different to the challenges set in previous years as it involves the “technical aspect of finding out ways of getting the scoring game object into a high goal, alongside new rules and limits”.

Teammate Neel, a designer, builder and driver of the robot, reflected on the benefits of good preparation: “Putting in hours and hours of accurate design work is necessary; it makes our robot work to the best of its abilities during competitions.”

With 21549E now set to compete against some of the best robotics teams in the country in the national championships, the boys will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of other QE teams in recent years who have gone on to take part in the international finals in the spring.

They are, however, taking nothing for granted. Mr Noonan added: “One of the main things they have learnt from this competition is that there is always something to improve on, whether that be building, driving, programming, or simply the strategy used to score the points around the pitch.”

Boys studying Geography headed off to both city and country as field trips returned to their pre-pandemic ‘normal’ for the first time.

On their Human Geography trip, A-level students investigated gentrification in Wandsworth, where they met residents only too willing to share their views on how their area had changed.

On their more rural trip, pictured, Year 11 geographers encountered some locals, too ­– deer in Epping Forest ­­– while also having to face the challenge of understanding why the results of their practical investigation did not line up with classroom theory.

Head of Geography Emily Parry said: “We took 159 boys on field trips ­– 131 Year 11 pupils to Epping Forest over two days and 28 from Year 12 and Year 13 to Northcote ward in Wandsworth.

“It was great to be able to get out again, as so many trips had to be cancelled last year. Fieldwork is a very valuable part of Geography, as it gives the students real-world experience of what they have been studying in the classroom – helping both to consolidate and extend their learning. It also helps them develop skills which are difficult to develop in the classroom alone, such as teamwork and dynamic problem-solving in a changing environment.”

The Year 11 Physical Geography fieldwork in Epping Forest involved answering the question: How do river characteristics change with distance downstream along Loughton Brook? The boys went to three sites along the river and investigated its width, depth, velocity and sediment size & roundness. The fieldwork was led by staff from Epping Forest Field Studies Centre and was part of the AQA GCSE Geography course.

The field trip helped to consolidate boys’ understanding of rivers, which they had previously studied in a unit titled Physical Landscapes of the UK.

“We were lucky to have dry weather on both days and fortunate to see the deer,” Miss Parry added.

“We found that the width, depth and velocity did change downstream as predicted by the Bradshaw model, but there wasn’t a clear trend in terms of sediment size and roundness. This was in part due to human error during data collection, and in part due to the fact that this is a seasonal river and that, because of the lack of rainfall recently, water levels were low.”

“This was a valuable learning opportunity, as it enabled pupils to better understand the ‘messiness’ of ‘geographical reality’,” said Miss Parry.

For their Human Geography studies, boys made a short visit in the summer to investigate the question: To what extent is Barnet High Street a successful high street?

More recently, this month’s visit by Year 12 and 13 pupils to south London had as its goal exploration of the question: To what extent has Northcote ward undergone the process of gentrification? The visit was for part of a unit of study for the Edexcel A-level course entitled Regenerating Places, under which the sixth-formers are looking at the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Newham.

The fieldwork study allowed them to gain first-hand experience of how the borough of Wandsworth has changed. They completed a range of fieldwork techniques, including environmental quality surveys, land-use mapping and questionnaires.

“It was concluded that the Northcote ward area has been gentrified. This was evidenced through the range of boutique and high-end shops found along Northcote Road, the quality of the housing and built environment, plus the changing demographics of the area.

“The boys met some local residents who had lived in the area a long time and were keen to share their views on how the area has changed dramatically in recent decades – some sharing a view that people were being priced out of the area.”

The trip also included one further discovery of note, Miss Parry added: “The Year 12 & 13 boys were very happy to find out there was a Nando’s on Northcote Road where they could have their lunch!”

Twice postponed because of Covid-19, the 2021 School Play, an adaptation of the best-selling book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has finally been performed.

A cast drawn from Year 9 performed the play to their year group classmates in the morning and then again to parents, staff and visitors after school.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), said: “After all the disappointments surrounding the previous postponements, this was a good day, even though a couple of cast members still had to miss it because they were isolating: it was just fantastic to have live theatre taking place in the School once again, and for boys to have the opportunity to perform to an external audience.

“I pay credit to our resident Theatre Director, Gavin Malloy, for helping the boys construct such an impactful presentation of the story. Hopefully, the success of this production will inspire other pupils to get involved in drama opportunities, such as the free workshops that Mr Malloy runs.”

Based on Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel, the moving, darkly comic, and ultimately inspiring story centres on the challenges a boy with autism faces in navigating the world. It also explores themes of family breakdown and the mystery of who killed Wellington, the eponymous dog.

The performance captured the full dynamic range of the story, from the chaotic, disorientating noise and bustle of public spaces (with which the protagonist, Christopher Boon, struggles), and the outbursts of anger as the nature of the family breakdown is laid bare, to the intimate and emotional moments as Christopher’s parents try to explain what has been happening.

“All the acting performances were strong, but William Joanes, in the lead role, did a superb job, being on stage for the vast majority of the production. Appropriately for QE, his character gets an A* in A-level Maths before the play is out!” said Mr Bonham-Carter.

“The cast, technical crew and director were also brilliant, with the performance ‘in the round’ really drawing the audience into the heart of the action. The staging was particularly effective and was aided by the great work on the sound and lighting by Old Elizabethan Chris Newton, of School Stage.

“Well done all – it was worth the wait!” Mr Bonham-Carter added.

Today, on the 100th anniversary of the dedication of QE’s World War I memorial, the 2021 School Captain laid a poppy wreath on behalf of current pupils to remember the sacrifice of their forebears more than a century ago.

Commissioned at a time when the horrors of the ‘war to end all wars’ were still fresh in the memory, the tablet records the names of 48 Elizabethans who died in the conflict. The memorial may be seen in the ‘crush hall’ of the Main Building, close to the main entrance and Reception.

Attached to the wreath laid by School Captain Siddhant Kansal was a note on Royal British Legion-headed paper on which he wrote: “On the centenary of this memorial, we remember those who gave their lives so that we may enjoy the opportunities we have today.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is right for us to remember the sacrifices that Elizabethans in previous generations have made to enable us to experience the freedoms and opportunities we do.

“That tradition of serving the greater good remains an essential element of the School’s mission today and it is, therefore, appropriate that a memorial to service takes pride of place at the heart of the Main Building, alongside our founding charter.”

The bronze tablet was originally installed at the School’s historic buildings in Wood Street and formally unveiled at 4pm on Saturday 8th October 1921. It was transported to the current site when the School moved to Queen Street in 1932, with a rededication service held on 21st September of that year. (The rededication service was also a commemoration of the life of Rev John Bond Lee, Headmaster 1875–1906.)

World War I hostilities ceased with the Armistice on 11th November 1918, but, in common with many war memorials, QE’s memorial bears the dates 1914–1919, reflecting the fact that the Treaty of Versailles which formally brought to an end the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers was not signed until June 1919.

The list of names is surmounted by the traditional legend, ‘In Memoriam’, while underneath is written simply ‘Faithful unto Death’ – a Biblical quotation from the Revelation to St John.

According to the order of service published for the service of dedication, a copy of which may be viewed online in QE Collections, the ceremony was conducted by the Rev Dr H W P Stephens, Vicar of Tadlow in Cambridgeshire, an Old Elizabethan known to have been at the School in 1876. He returned again in 1932 to lead the rededication service.

The roll of honour was read by the Headmaster of the day, William Lattimer (1906–1929). The service featured a hymn still sung today on Founder’s Day – For all the saints, who from their labours rest – and included other hymns, as well as prayers and readings.

The memorial itself was unveiled by Lieutenant-Colonel C H Pank CMG DSO TD, of the Middlesex Regiment, who also gave the address. Buglers from the same regiment sounded the Last Post and Reveille.

The dedication written for the occasion was: “In the Faith of Jesus Christ we dedicate this Memorial to the Glory of God and in proud and loving memory of those Elizabethans who gave their lives in the Great War in the cause of Right and Liberty. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

• The photo, above left, which is from QE Collections, is believed to have been taken on the day of the dedication in 1921.

Academic Makoto Takahashi, who has earned an international reputation for his research into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan, has curated an exhibition on the disaster, which is being shown at the Royal Geographical Society.

The exhibition, which runs until 23rd December, marks the tenth anniversary of the meltdown, and of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered it. Visitors have included a party of A-level Geography and Art students from QE: Makoto treated them to a lecture on the exhibition and also gave them a guided tour.

Makoto (OE 2003–2010) is the youngest-ever lecturer at the Munich Centre for Technology in Society (MCTS), part of the Technical University of Munich, a position he gained in 2019. A previous holder of a Science and Technology Studies Fellowship at Harvard, he will be returning to the Harvard Kennedy School of Governance as a Fulbright-Lloyd’s Fellow in early 2022.

For the past eight years, his work has focused on examining how expert authority is claimed in conditions of low public trust. Considered somewhat niche when Makoto first proposed it as his field of study in 2013, its relevance became apparent in 2016 with the election of President Donald Trump.

“In fact, I was at an OECD Nuclear Energy Agency event in Fukushima prefecture on the day that Trump was elected,” he says. “The shock was palpable. And the parallels between the crisis of confidence that Japanese experts faced following ‘3.11’ [the earthquake and tsunami took place on 11th March 2011] and the ‘post-truth’ political moment were clear.”

The exhibition, entitled Picturing the Invisible, sees his research interests coming together with his longstanding involvement with the London art scene: while in the Sixth Form at QE, he took part in in the Royal Academy’s attRAct programme and in the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Program; he has also been an Event Manager at the OPEN Ealing community art gallery.

It features the work of six photographers complemented by a series of short essays from policymakers, experts, and activists. The contributors include some “wonderful artists and essayists”, says Makoto, such as: Lieko Shiga, a photographer based in Kitakama, a village hit hard by the tsunami; Yoi Kawakubo, who buries silver halide film in the contaminated soils of Fukushima’s exclusion zone to produce a powerful series of abstract images, and Sir David Warren, British Ambassador to Japan, 2008–12.

A collaboration between the RGS and the Munich Centre for Technology in Society, the exhibition has secured coverage in publications including The New Statesman and The British Journal of Photography.

In preparing for it, Makoto says he has been committed to pedagogic innovation to benefit students disadvantaged by the impact of Covid-19 on higher education. “The pandemic has robbed students of so much of the normal university experience, so it’s even more important than ever to innovate new modes of engagement. In this spirit, I integrated preparations for Picturing the Invisible into my teaching at MCTS. Seven students from the Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology course have been involved in every step of the planning and [have shared] their perspectives on the works in the exhibition programme, alongside seasoned policymakers, activists, and experts.”

After leaving QE, Makoto took a First in Geography at Cambridge, winning the M T Dodds and Rowley Mainhood Awards for academic excellence during the course of his degree. He went on to gain his MPhil and PhD from Cambridge, where his doctoral studies were funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

While there, in addition to lecturing, co-ordinating undergraduate groups and working with the university’s Communications Office to produce podcasts for a non-specialist audience, Makoto also served as the secretary of the Mixed Martial Arts Society (CUMMA).

In 2017, he spent three months as a Visiting Research Fellow at Tokyo’s Waseda University, where the proximity to Fukushima proved valuable. “I had the opportunity to interview notable public figures in the Fukushima debate, making regular trips to Fukushima prefecture itself.”

His thesis, The Improvised Expert: Performing Authority after Fukushima (2011–2018), drew upon his own extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Japan; it won the American Association of Geographers’ Jacques May Thesis Prize.

He has presented his work at the Maison Francais d’Oxford (at the invitation of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs), at the British Embassy in Paris, CEPN (Le Centre d’étude sur l’Evaluation de la Protection dans le domaine Nucléaire – a non-profit radiological protection organisation) and gave a paper at a conference organised by the International Commission on Radiological Protection to examine the lessons of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

During his schooldays, Makoto threw himself into all that QE had to offer. He was involved in debating, was the leader of the second violins in the Chamber Orchestra and was in the waterpolo team.

Today, he is still in contact with School friends Eigo Takeda, who read Mathematics at Cambridge before taking up consultancy work in Japan, and Evgeny Slavin, who works in venture capital in Cambridgeshire.

Having previously worked towards a commission with the British Army Reserve, he has had to pause his involvement with the reserves while working outside the UK.