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Twenty of QE’s youngest boys teamed up with pupils from a leading independent girls’ school to explore the environmental crisis and learn how to persuade others to take action.

The QE contingent headed to North London Collegiate School for the Year 7 academic symposium, starting the day with a critical examination of social media posts representing different viewpoints and highlighting different scientific data on the atmosphere.

Together with the NLCS girls, they then explored the power of persuasion, studying the speeches of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, before enthusiastically taking up the opportunity to write and practise their own speeches.

Enrichment tutor and Chemistry teacher Xiangming Xu said: “It was an amazing display of collaboration and environmental responsibility, in which the aim was to educate young students about the environmental crisis and empower them with knowledge about their role as students.

“Thus, they not only expanded their knowledge on environmental issues, but also developed essential skills such as teamwork, quick thinking, and persuasive communication techniques. Overall, the symposium served as an inspiring platform for students to learn, develop, and take action.”

The start of the day was marked by discussions about the selected social media posts, with the boys and girls supporting or challenging the various arguments being propounded.

Next, they looked at the impact of different techniques employed in speeches, including the influential contributions made by Thunberg, who customarily challenges world leaders to take immediate action over climate change.

Later, in the afternoon session, they had the opportunity to apply these techniques and to deliver their own speeches targeted at specific audiences, including business professionals, politicians, primary school children, and teachers.

Afterwards, three of the QE participants gave their reflections on the day:

• Arnav Ghoshal: “We learnt about the environment – which is a major factor in today’s world – while doing engaging and fun activities, making it a great time. Also, as QE is an all-boys school, it is good to mix with other genders, too.”
• Aaron Khan: “The activity I enjoyed most was when we worked together as a group to create an ‘elevator pitch’ for our chosen audience. This trip helped build confidence and my communication skills with others whom I may not be so familiar with.”
• Thomas Leung said he enjoyed delivering a speech aimed at changing politicians’ minds, since politicians can have a significant impact. “They have enough money and power to change something. I felt more confident at the end as I knew more about the environment and learnt new facts.”

A Year 12 team have been presented with their trophy after seeing off competition from 1,200 teams from Slovenia to Singapore to triumph in the international Ritangle Mathematics competition.

The five-strong team submitted the best answer to the final question, thus winning them the title in the competition run by education charity MEI (Mathematics, Education, Innovation).

Competition organiser Bernard Murphy, a Maths Education Support Specialist for MEI, visited the School to present the trophy and a hamper in a special assembly.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to the five on a splendid victory in a competition that is designed to stretch young people’s Mathematics knowledge to the limit.”

Ritangle is a free competition for teams of students aged 16-18 studying either A-level Mathematics or equivalent qualifications. Fifteen QE teams took part in the competition.

Harik Sodhi, captain of the winning team, said: “My favourite part of Ritangle was collaborating with friends on solving an interesting Maths problem. I definitely enjoyed the final question the most as it was a very open question and required lots of steps and a combination of Python and Maths and Excel programming, which made it very fun.”

His fellow team members were Anshul Nema, Koustuv Bhowmick, Shreyas Mone, Joel Swedensky.

For the first four weeks, one question was released every Monday. For the following five weeks, three questions were released, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Every correct answer revealed a piece of information that helped solve the final task.

Shreyas said he particularly enjoyed the period in which the number of questions started to increase each week.

The final problem, involving the pairings for a ‘jamboree’-format chess tournament, was released on a Tuesday evening, with even those who set it not knowing what the best answer would be.

Mathematics teacher and Head of Academic Administration Wendy Fung said: “It essentially involved finding the smallest possible number that met a set of criteria. The question setters came up with an answer of 56, which they expected to be beaten by someone, but not by a great deal.

“The first correct answers submitted were above 100. On the Thursday afternoon, the winning QE team submitted the figure of 0.16. MEI initially assumed it must be wrong, but it proved to be correct once checked, and was never beaten – though some other teams got quite close. It was a remarkable performance by the boys, who have vowed to try and win again in 2024!”

The winning team, The Flex Angles, worked independently to solve the questions and needed to get to grips with using various forms of technology, from spreadsheets to graphing software.

Joel particularly enjoyed the early stages of Ritangle, when large numbers of boys at QE were taking part. “Racing to complete each question first after it was released was its own mini-competition.”

Anshul added: “Beside the final question, which will always be special to me, I really enjoyed all the prior questions in which I could use my technical expertise in plotting advance or interactive graphs to optimise functions. I’d have to say that my favourite part was at the very end, coming back to my computer after taking a break from the frustration to see my code announcing that a solution had been found, and rushing to tell Harik and the team.”

Of all the teams who entered, only 153 submitted correct answers to the final question. A second Year 12 QE team – The Left Angles, captained by Uday Dash – was among these and was therefore listed among the “commendable” teams by MEI. Uday’s fellow team members were: Saim Khan; Kovid Gothi; Adyan Shahid; Vijay Lehto and Dinuk Dissanayake.

The two Year 8 boys behind QE’s Geopolitics Club staged a successful quiz to share their passion with their peers.

Ibrahim Syed and Azaan Haque promoted the lunchtime quiz to Year 7 and 8, who turned out in numbers to answer the questions, raising money for Greenpeace in the process.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “With geopolitics at the forefront of so much of the news at the moment – from conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, to the Red Sea and the recent election in Taiwan – it is important that our pupils understand how place and space interconnect with politics and international relations.

“Well done to the two organisers! We have many pupil-run clubs, and this is a great example of students taking leadership in offering opportunities to share their interest in a topic with their peers, thus creating additional enrichment activities. It was also lovely to see other boys supporting those efforts through their enthusiastic participation.”

Geopolitics is defined as: political activity as influenced by the physical features of a country or area of the world; the study of the way a country’s size, position, etc. influence its power and its relationships with other countries.

Ibrahim and Azaan were assisted by QE Flourish tutor Eleanor Barrett, who is also a Geography teacher.

“They approached me to help organise payment, booking the Main Hall and supporting in the promotion and running of the event,” she said.

“They worked hard to create a PowerPoint quiz and serve as quiz masters, and they were rewarded with a brilliant turn-out.”

“The material, looking at global relations and geographical influences, was very advanced for Key Stage 3.”

The quiz included individual question rounds, team rounds and a buzzer round. It started with the basics (What do you think geopolitics is? was the first question, for one point), but quickly moved on to more advanced questions (for example, The Strait of Gibraltar separates the Iberian Peninsula from which African country?).

Among the attendees was Priyankan Ampalavanar, of Year 8, who said: “The geopolitics quiz was not only a very riveting experience, but it also broadened my mind to how aspects of geopolitics are intertwined with our daily lives.”

The event raised more than £50 for Greenpeace. It was the second year such a quiz has been run.

Year 10’s Mohith Sigirisetti was picked as QE’s representative at a regional public-speaking challenge.

Mohith won his place in the Barnet final of the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge by delivering a speech at QE about his determination to up his performance with the Rubik’s cube – all the while actually solving a Rubik’s cube as he spoke.

The talk – My Journey with The Cube – won him selection from among 30 of his QE peers, following a workshop for which all 30 boys took a day off timetable.

Geography teacher Eleanor Barrett, who is a QE Flourish tutor, said: “At QE, we recognise the importance of oracy: through this workshop 30 boys were able to learn new skills and develop their confidence in public speaking – not something that necessarily comes naturally, but something we can all work on.

“Being able to communicate cogently is important in most careers and helps build social confidence, too.

“Congratulations to Mohith on his performance and the multi-tasking involved in solving his Rubik’s cube simultaneously, which is quite a feat!”

Billed as the UK’s largest youth-speaking event, the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge is a programme managed and delivered by Speakers Trust, the UK’s leading public-speaking organisation. It is supported and funded by the Jack Petchey Foundation. Sir Jack Petchey, who is 98 years old, is a businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune in property and timeshare.

The aim of the challenge is to amplify young people’s voices by building confidence, developing skills, and creating platforms for young people to share their stories and ideas to empower not only themselves but each other.

After competing in the regional final at Friern Barnet School, Mohith was presented with a certificate by
Councillor Nagus Narenthira, the 58^th Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet.

“It was a great way to improve my public-speaking skills and talk about something I was passionate about,” said Mohith, who is a member of Pearce House.

Writers for the latest issue of QE’s Econobethan magazine aim to make sense of complex environmental and economic issues as they look back at the COP28 summit.

The pupil-run magazine, produced in time to be read during the Christmas holidays, focuses on the summit in Dubai, while also exploring wider economic and political topics.

While celebrating progress made in combatting climate change, several of the articles identify potential or actual blockages to further progress – such as the lack of legal sanctions for countries failing to meet climate goals – and look at what can be done to move forward.

Economics teacher Celia Wallace said: “The new editors have done a wonderful job publishing this magazine, and the writers have been amazing at thinking outside the box and providing some good solutions for the problems at hand.”

The latest edition, which is issue XVI, was put together by a Year 12 editorial team comprising Zaki Mustafa, Tejas Bansal, Akheel Kale and Uday Dash.

In their introduction, they write: “Our team of writers have created a comprehensive analysis of [COP28] that is a must-read for those seeking clarity amidst the confusion of global geopolitics.”

In his own article, Leapfrogging Industrialisation, Tejas argues that the developed nations must assist the developing world in forgoing the traditional industrialisation route from which they have themselves benefited economically, and instead enable developing countries to reach their net carbon zero targets by helping them implement sustainable technologies. Tejas even provides a summary of the article in German.

Bemoaning “woefully ineffective” global climate action to date, Saim Khan, of Year 12, traces the issue to “the collective action problem, a deep-rooted psychological problem that means destructive self-interest is allowed to prevail over the greater good for all”.

Akaash Gill evaluates COP28 through a legal lens in his article entitled Enforcing Climate Justice, while fellow Year 12 student Shreyaas Sandeep takes a nuanced approach to dealing with the impacts of the OPEC oil cartel’s activities on COP28 and the climate crisis.

Other articles in the main COP28 section of the Econobethan are:

• What will the effect of a green energy revolution be on the Middle East? by Vidyuth Shankar, Year 11
• Is environmental sustainability and economic progress truly compatible? by Hari Kumarappan, Year 12
• The impact of war on COP28: how the Israel-Hamas conflict has affected global climate diplomacy by Ayaad Salahuddin, Year 12.

The separate Economics and Politics sections feature articles on topics ranging from Rohan Varia’s look at whether Kenya has been successful in balancing the requirements of economic development with environmental sustainability to Year 12 student Andreas Angelopolous’s survey of right-wing populism within Europe. Akheel Kale, in his “brief exploration of agent-based modelling” (ABM) in Economics, looked at the opportunities that increased computing power in the 21^st century has opened up to simulate intelligent agents in order to overcome the limitations of traditional macroeconomics.

Members of the QE Together partnership have now begun editing after spending two days filming in a Barnet primary school as part of a community outreach project.

A team from the partnership – consisting of senior pupils from QE and Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School – visited QE’s near-neighbour, Christ Church Primary School. The filming was the latest stage in a project that the team have been working on for several months to create a promotional video aimed at encouraging prospective parents to sign up for Christ Church’s nursery.

Lead Enrichment Tutor Kanak Shah said: “All the students – our boys, the girls from QEGS and the Christchurch pupils – did very well, and the little ones were adorable!”

The QE team comprised the 2023 School Captain, Darren Lee, and two of the 2023 Vice-Captains, Shuaib Adam and Anthony Bartlett.

Shuaib, of Year 13, explained that the QE Together team had first held meetings with Christ Church’s head, Mrs Elena Print, to map out ideas and plan the key messages of the video.

During the two days, the team thoroughly explored the school in their filming, as well as shooting B-roll footage (supplementary video) to support the visual story-telling at the heart of the film.

“We engaged with children, including those as young as nursery, guiding them to express the school motto [‘Through God’s love, we learn, aspire and achieve; we flourish’] and ethos. This collaborative effort not only enriched the visual narrative, but also provided an authentic perspective on the school’s values and identity.

“The experience so far has taught us many valuable skills, especially teamwork skills – both within our team and in collaboration with other schools – which has strengthened our capacity for effective communication, task delegation, and collective problem-solving. The cross-school collaboration has not only expanded our network for QE Together’s future, but also deepened our understanding of community dynamics and the importance of collective efforts.”