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Two visiting artists helped QE pupils take a fresh look at familiar spaces through a project that embraced a variety of materials and techniques and got them out and about in the School grounds.

This story has been published to coincide with World Art Day – celebrated annually on 15th April. #WorldArtDay

The Year 8 project, entitled Traces, Places & Possible Futures — A Multispecies City, asked pupils to consider who and what lives alongside them, including plants, insects and other animals, and microbes.

Professional artists Abigail Hunt and Sum-Sum (Ngan-Sum) Tse-Cappi led three workshops, before the project culminated in a public exhibition of the boys’ work – and of pupils from Barnet’s Northway School and Chalgrove Primary School – at the Apthorp Gallery in North Finchley’s ArtsDepot.

Head of Art Craig Wheatley said: “This was an interactive and imaginative series of workshops, which celebrated students’ creativity and collaborative learning, while the exhibition amplified young people’s voices in conversations about future environments.”

Organised by the Art Department in collaboration with ArtsDepot, the project involved photography, construction and the use of clay and plaster during the workshops. The boys were encouraged to explore the spaces they live, learn and play in – and then reimagine them through sculpture, mapping, and collaborative making.

Through creative exploration the boys were encouraged to reflect on responsibility, care and respect for other species, and to imagine future environments that support coexistence. As well as living creatures, the project considered weather systems.

Across the linked workshops, pupils engaged with a process of observation, interpretation and construction, working with drawing, photography, casting and collage.

In Workshop 1, pupils explored their immediate environment through a multispecies lens. By exploring the area around the School, pupils were encouraged to record traces made by fauna and flora. They documented their findings through drawings, photographs, rubbings and clay moulds, which are developed into plaster tiles. Discussions introduce multispecies mapping, highlighting human routes alongside animal paths, insect highways and plant borders.

Workshop 2 focused on interpretation and design. Pupils collaborated on large-scale maps of the School and outdoor spaces, identifying how both humans and non-humans use these areas. They imagined themselves as other species, asking what those beings might need to thrive. Photographs from the first workshop were transformed into collage habitats, and pupils exchanged ‘creature postcards’ with the other participating schools, sharing design ideas.

In Workshop 3, pupils started to create ideas for building sculptural ecosystems and prototype habitats using found materials. Through these imaginative structures, they explored shelter, movement and connection for different species. Conversations around sustainability, impermanence and life cycles encouraged the boys to think critically about different environments, and to create environments to support real multispecies life. Pupils documented their work through photography and recorded stories, contributing to the final exhibition.

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QE’s robotics competitors start the Summer Term fighting fit, with six teams qualifying for the Vex World Championships in the US later this month.

After battling it out at the national championships in Telford, three senior V5 teams won places at the ‘Worlds’ in St Louis, Missouri, with a further three making the grade in the junior IQ competition.

In a busy Spring Term for robotics, a Year 12 team also took their own trip across the Atlantic, travelling to Calgary, Canada, where they were the only team from outside North America among 81 teams competing at the Mecha Mayhem event.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Qualification for the World Championships requires huge levels of preparation, skill, design flair and teamwork, so our teams deserve hearty congratulations: we wish them all the best in St Louis.”

The three qualifying senior teams all acquitted themselves well at Telford, with Team Nova taking an Innovate award and Rogue winning a Think award, while Zenith were fourth in the Skills competition and came fifth in their division.

Six VEX IQ teams from Years 8 and 9 travelled to the national championships, joining two days of competition with teams from all over the UK. Each team competed in 12 qualification matches, with the hope of gaining a spot in their division’s finals.

The competition involved frequent working in alliances with other teams. The QE competitors’ collaborative skills, resilience and problem-solving duly won them a clutch of awards.

Team Omega won the coveted overall Design Award and claimed their slot in Missouri.

The other Worlds places went to GearSquad and CircuitBreakers, whose clever solutions to the competition game devised for this year’s national championships won them both an Innovation Award.

In addition, there was a Think Award for Torque Titans – an independent team of QE pupils who had decided to compete in VEX outside of School – and an Amaze Award, with a place at the Worlds, for a mixed team comprising students from various schools, including QE.

Darsh Singh, of Year 8, said: “I found the Nationals an extremely joyful and unforgettable competition. We all made loads of friends and it was an experience like no other.”

This was a sentiment shared by Yaer 9’s Akshaj Mittal, who added: “VEX isn’t about just winning. It’s about teamwork, friendship, resilience and courage, and our team embodied just that…”

The Canada competition was attended by team HYBRID. In recent years, QE Year 12 teams, who are unable to go to the Worlds because of examination commitments in the Summer Term, have joined a series of special robotics events in North America.

At Mecha Mayhem, with HYBRID the only non-American team, its pit area rapidly became a favourite place for others to visit.

The team finished day 1 with a win in their practice match and one win and loss in their first two qualification matches. On day two, they ranked 42nd in a competitive field. Competing in the Skills competition on the final day, they came in 19th place out of 74, thus hitting their target of a top-20 finish.

They also found time to relax and explore a little. They enjoyed a thrilling game of NHL Ice Hockey, the final match for many players before the winter Olympic break, where the Calgary Flames upset the odds by beating the Edmonton Oilers 4-3. At Calgary Zoo, they saw native species including Canadian mountain goats, bison, musk oxen and wolves. They took a trip to the Calgary Tower, followed by a visit to an escape room where they not only beat the time limit but escaped only just short of the record time. They also enjoyed the Downtown Calgary district, with its picturesque Jack & Jean Leslie Riverwalk.

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Two visiting Old Elizabethans narrowly defeated the Sixth Form pair who proposed the motion, This House would rejoin the European Single Market, at The 59th Annual Elizabethan Union Dinner Debate.

The OE debating duo, Anish Kumar and Shubh Rathod (both 2017–2024), argued that the point was not to relitigate the 2016 referendum, but to recognise that the world has moved on, with Europe left behind, and that, therefore, there could be no going back.

In an evening packed with tradition, Year 13’s Sejal Bobba and Shreyas Chandrasekar proposed the motion. The 2025 School Captain, Simardeep Sahota, toasted the visitors, while Shubh gave the toast to the Elizabethan Union – QE’s debating society. There were also the customary toasts to His Majesty, The King and to The Pious Memory of Queen Elizabeth I.

The Dinner Debates began in the early 1950s. After not being held for around ten years, they were revived in 1985. Further cancellations were occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sejal began this year’s debate by noting that the Single Market is not the same as the European Union, since a participating country is not required to be in the customs union. Rejoining the single market would benefit the economy to the tune of £80–£90bn.

Anish, however, stated that having another referendum would reopen old problems, not least in Northern Ireland. The world is not moving towards Europe, but away from it, with other European countries and their economies struggling.

Shreyas urged looking to the future, not the past. Free movement would deal with labour shortages in the UK, and would help Europe, too. Since allies beyond Europe have become less reliable, we should stand with the European countries, he said.

Shubh, however, countered that leaving was difficult enough, so rejoining would be on unfavourable terms. He cited the significant amount the UK had to pay to rejoin the Erasmus scheme as a cautionary example. Our independence is helpful in giving the UK a measure of freedom in geopolitics and defence, and he noted the downsides of free movement in the context of refugee crises and instability.

A lively floor debate followed, during the course of which the proposers noted that net migration increased substantially after Brexit.

With an AI revolution looming, some of the sixth-formers present pointed to the way in which Britain leveraged its independence during the Industrial Revolution to its huge advantage, warning that making an economic commitment to Europe would compromise its ability to work effectively with economic giants including the US, China and India.

Others, however, stated that it is not possible to negotiate in good faith with the current leadership of the USA, or pointed to the ineluctable fact of continental Europe’s geographic proximity, with well over 40% of the UK’s import and exports still taking place with Europe.

The vote came down to a wafer-thin margin, with the motion defeated.

The pupils and OEs enjoyed a three-course dinner with a vegetarian option for the main course and sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel for dessert.

Year 12 pupil Yash Mehta took first place in a national speaking competition, winning a £10,000 prize and a handcrafted spear inlaid with 24-carat gold.

Yash was named Laureate after his speech on Education for all impressed judges at the inaugural Sovereign Minds SPEAR Oratory Prize Grand Final held at Church House in Westminster.

He was one of three QE sixth-formers to enter the competition – and all three achieved considerable success. Yash’s fellow Elizabethans, Year 13’s Laksh Aggarwal and Vyom Srivastava, of Year 12, were among just 25 young people to reach the semi-finals out of more than 2,000 entrants.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My hearty congratulations go to Yash on this very notable success. At QE, we are committed to promoting oracy and to nurturing deep thinkers and compelling communicators. Public-speaking competitions provide an excellent opportunity to develop such qualities, and Yash, Laksh and Vyom are to be commended on taking full advantage of this one.”

The competition, open to anyone aged 16–18, was run by Sovereign Minds, a UK-based educational initiative. Entrants were required to deliver a speech from memory on one Sovereign Minds’ ten SPEAR target subjects.

The five finalists’ speeches were judged by: Colonel (Retired) Lucy Giles, the first female commander at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; Charlotte Horobin, CEO of the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, who sits on several business and academic advisory boards; and Dr Harshinder Malhi, who has over 40 years’ experience in education.

In the final, Yash delivered a ten-minute speech to an audience of 400 people. “I have seen how access to education can quietly shape confidence, ambition, and trust in what is possible. To me, education is the hidden engine behind innovation, economic growth, and human progress,” he said. He also spoke of his core belief that when everyone rises, the world accelerates and flourishes.

Yash plans to use the money to invest in a company that is making education more accessible.

Laksh, also speaking on Education for All, considered how education can tackle issues such as health and climate change. Laksh explained why he entered the competition: “Firstly to improve my own confidence in writing and giving a speech – and it’s an opportunity to learn more about the topic.”

Vyom’s speech was on the Peace & justice target subject. It focused on the importance of free speech in society, stressing people’s rights to voice their opinions free from government control.

The other SPEAR targets are:

• End poverty
• Improve health
• Eliminate hunger
• Future of work
• Protect our planet
• Equality everywhere
• Global cooperation
• Responsible consumption

One feature of the competition was that the latter stages were held in prestigious central London venues. The quarter-finals were in the Naval and Military Club, while the semi-finals took place in the House of Commons. Church House, the location of the final, not only houses offices for various parts of the Church of England, but it also provided a meeting place for Parliament during the Second World War, and in 1946 was the venue for the first meeting of the UN Security Council.

Help was on hand when QE’s Music students had to perform their own GCSE and A-level compositions.

Not only did their fellow pupils turn out in numbers to play alongside them at the special concert, but two Old Elizabethans returned to the School to support them, too.

As well as the new works, the Chamber, Choral and Composition Concert featured Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert, together with pieces by lesser-known 20th-century luminaries, such as the Polish-Lithuanian Grażyna Bacewicz and Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů.

Adding to the entertaining mood in The Friends’ Recital Hall, there was a Barbershop rendition of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, not to mention sixth-former Leo Sellis’ quirkily titled piece, 7W Microwave (purportedly inspired by some of the random titles given to jazz tracks).

Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “It was a splendid evening, with a spectacular quality of composition and performance. The criteria for the GCSE and A-level compositions were that they should make full use of the instrument for which they were composed, so we had lots of virtuoso performances.

“It was lovely to see boys investing so much in playing the work of their friends and peers, and doing those works great justice.”

Miss Partington especially thanked Old Elizabethans Conor Parker-Delves (2015-2022) and Tristan Boldy (2013-2020) for returning to play the saxophone and trumpet respectively. Conor had travelled down from Manchester, where he is in his final year at the Royal Northern College of Music.

The final performance filled the floor of The Friends’ Recital Hall as the Chamber Choir and Orchestra combined for sections of Mozart’s Requiem. It was, said Miss Partington, “stirring, powerful, and a demonstration of the massed strength of QE’s singers and musicians”.  Those involved had attended a workshop with the Barnet Choral Society on this work back in January, and Miss Partington duly thanked the society’s Musical Director, Rory McCleery.

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Having spent the day with Her Majesty the Queen, the Chancellor of Birmingham University headed to QE, where she gave an inspiring speech during a memorable Senior Awards Ceremony.

Dr Sandie Okoro was guest of honour at the School’s showpiece annual celebration of excellence for Years 10–12.

She came to Barnet from St James’s Palace, after being invited there in her role as Chair of the Women of the World Foundation for an event linked to International Women’s Day.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This year’s Senior Awards was a wonderful night: we were thrilled to welcome Dr Okoro, who was a hugely engaging and inspiring speaker, bringing real energy to the role.

“Emphasising the central importance of the arts and of remembering human values and human judgment in the context of technological change, she encouraged our senior pupils to be part of hopeful change and to take pride in being the first – having broken numerous glass ceilings herself.

“She was very generous with her time, too, staying to speak with many families and other guests at the reception after the ceremony in our Main Hall.

“My congratulations go to all this year’s award-winners, whose recognition was very well deserved.”

Dr Okoro was installed as the eighth Chancellor of the University of Birmingham in 2024. A high-profile equality rights champion, she is the first female Chancellor of Birmingham since the university was established in 1900.

She has had a distinguished career as a highly respected lawyer, holding senior positions with the World Bank Group, HSBC Global Asset Management, Barings and Schroder. Most recently, she served for almost three years as Group General Counsel of Standard Chartered Bank.

Reflecting afterwards on a “wonderfully joyful evening”, Dr Okoro had a final message for the prize-winners: “Remember, your education is the one thing no one can ever take away from you.”

During the ceremony, around 80 prizes were presented to the boys, watched by their parents, teachers and other guests including Councillor Edith David (Deputy Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet) and Martin Russell MBE (Representative Deputy Lieutenant). They were given for their academic studies, for their contributions to School life, and for co-curricular activities, such as music, chess and QE’s Combined Cadet Force.

The evening was punctuated by musical performances, including those in the interludes after the prize-giving for each of the three year-groups.  These were given by three music prize-winners: Year 10 violinist Jeremy Shi (playing Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances), Year 11 pupil Jamie Lam (also a violinist, playing Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre) and Year 12 vocalist Rishi Watsalaya (Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Vagabond).

“All the music was outstanding, but particularly the three interludes,” said Mr Enright.

In his speech, the Headmaster pointed out to the boys that the School’s first Speech Day took place in 1876: “So tonight, in addition to honouring your achievements, we mark a 150‑year tradition of recognising hard work, talent, and boundless potential.”

He went on to highlight the importance of, and connections between, empathy and reading: “Empathy is rarely built by scrolling, but it is often built by reading. Reading widely allows us to inhabit the perspectives, experiences, and inner lives of others… To be clear: digital media, visual storytelling, podcasts, and AI all have their place and their value. Concision is an art. Technology is a tool. But the ability to read deeply, think critically, and empathise with others is a human skill. A timeless skill. A leadership skill.

“And we aspire for you to be the leaders of your generation in your chosen fields.”

After the ceremony, refreshments were served by volunteers from The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (“I must say the food was excellent, too,” said Dr Okoro).

There was also an opportunity for prize-winners to have their photograph taken in the Shearly Hall in front of a newly purchased QE backdrop.

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