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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.”

Boys at QE planted hundreds of trees and flower bulbs, ensuring that the School’s 450^th anniversary year would leave a living environmental legacy.

Forty-seven boys from Year 10 headed to Heartwood Forest with the aim of planting one sapling for every year of the School’s history, while back at the Queen’s Road campus, Year 7 pupils helped plant bulbs. The bulbs were selected so that the flowers will bloom each year around 24^th March, the day of the signing of the Royal Charter in 1573.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our anniversary year has been about celebrating the present and looking to the future, as well as remembering our rich history: so, what better way to mark the end of the year than by doing some planting – an activity bringing environmental benefits to both current and future generations!”

Trees have been a theme throughout the anniversary year. HRH The Duke of Gloucester heralded the start of the anniversary celebrations by planting an oak tree when he visited the School near the end of 2022. In his anthem commissioned for the thanksgiving service on 24^th March 2023 in Westminster Abbey, international composer Howard Goodall wrote that “like an oak [QE] draws its strength from ancient roots spread deep and wide”. And “thriving from ancient roots” was chosen as the slogan for the year.

The area planted in Heartwood Forest, near St Albans, has been donated to the Woodland Trust relatively recently. The trust aims to reverse deforestation there, creating corridors for wildlife. The 47 boys, accompanied by staff including Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter and Head of English Robert Hyland, spent several hours working in the mud to plant several species of young trees under the guidance of trust volunteers. During their labours, the boys saw wildlife including deer and red kites. The Headmaster also stopped by to lend a hand with the planting.

The eager planters easily exceeded their target of 450, Mr Bonham-Carter explained. “We lost count in the end, but we estimate that our 47 boys planted upwards of 700. Many thanks to The Woodland Trust for looking after us and helping us mark the end of our 450th anniversary in such a long-lasting and life-affirming way.”

The opportunity arose after last year’s Year 10 visited Heartwood Forest on the QE Flourish days in July – special activities run as part of the School’s Flourish extra-curricular programme – and took part in various conservation activities.

Mr Hyland added that the Year 10 pupils had recently been reading extracts from authors such as Henry David Thoreau, William Hazlitt and Edward O. Wilson on environmental themes. “When it comes to raising awareness of ecology and sustainability, it is so much more powerful, however, to experience a connection to the world around us at first-hand.”

The bulb-planting by Year 7 around the School campus was also a muddy experience. The new plants will provide visual interest, as well as supporting the ecology and biodiversity of the School site, building on existing efforts to re-wild selected areas.

• Click on the thumbnails below to view the gallery.
• Read more about our 450th anniversary celebrations in our dedicated anniversary section.

Year 8 pupil’s Aaryan Prabhaker’s entry in a climate art competition run by Imperial College London has been transformed into a mural on display close to the revamped Battersea Power Station.

Colours for the Climate, Aaryan’s design for the Grantham Climate Art Prize competition, calls on people to reduce their meat and dairy intake, and to eat more plant-based foods.

This year’s COP28, the 28^th annual UN climate meeting currently taking place in Dubai, has a focus on food and agriculture, amid considerable debate about the role of the livestock industry in producing greenhouse gases.

Aaryan’s is the second major QE success in the competition: Year 9 pupil Kelvin Chen, a runner-up in the 11-14 age category, saw his artwork showcased on billboards in London last month in the lead-up to COP28.

Head of Art Craig Wheatley said: “My congratulations go to Aaryan on making the most of the opportunity to enter the competition and on producing such a strong piece of work. After first impressing the judges, his artwork, with its strong message, is now grabbing attention from thousands on the streets of the capital.”

The boys were encouraged to enter the biennial competition by Art teacher Jeanne Nicodemus. Imperial’s Grantham Institute, which is a research centre for climate change and the environment, challenged entrants aged 11-25 to create bold designs for outdoor public murals focused on the solutions needed to tackle the climate crisis.

Competition entrants were asked to seek inspiration from the institute’s Nine things you can do about climate change list: number 2 on the list is ‘eat less meat and dairy’. The competition attracted more than 1,000 entries.

Aaryan’s design in the 11-14 age group was highly commended and was selected to be a mural at Pump House Lane, Nine Elms, where there is an exhibition of the artwork of the competition winners and runners-up. With Octopus Energy sponsoring the main competition, the Grantham Institute secured separate funding for this project from property developer Ballymore.

Aaryan’s artwork, which features a range of fruit and vegetables, was painted as a mural by artists Karla Rosales Garcia and Roger Rigol.

He and his parents, Amieya Prabhaker and Shalini Varma, attended an unveiling of the mural, where they met the sponsors as well as representatives of the competition organisers.

In a note to the School, Mr Prabhaker and Dr Varma said: “We would like to express our thanks to the teachers at QE, especially Ms Nicodemus and Mr Wheatley, who have inspired the creativity amongst the boys and guided them at each step.”

• Click on the thumbnail images below to see Aaryan’s artwork displayed in full.

QE’s production at this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival was uncompromising and unflinching in its depiction of the brutal feud between the Montague and Capulet families that is at the heart of Romeo and Juliet.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), lauded the vivid depiction given by the School’s senior actors of the dark themes that pervade the perennially popular tragic tale set in the Italian city of Verona – including depression, street brawls, domestic violence, duelling and poisoning.

Yet he also praised Year 10’s Dhruv Pai (Romeo) and Year 12’s Anshul Nema (Juliet) for their “sensitive and intelligent portrayals of the ‘star-cross’d’ lovers” immortalised in the title of the play.

The 19-strong cast drawn from Years 10–13 travelled to Finchley’s Arts Depot to take part in the local performances for the national festival, run by the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation. In addition, the boys put on three showings in Main School Hall, giving all of Years 10 and 11 the opportunity to see the play, which is part of the GCSE English syllabus.

“Two sullen gangs facing off… faces masked… hoodies up… suddenly a knife is drawn and all hell breaks loose! That was just the start of our brilliant senior drama production of Romeo and Juliet,” said Mr Bonham-Carter.

“The surrounding cast provided a wonderful supporting ensemble of raging fathers, desperate friends and loutish thugs. It would be churlish not to mention [Year 13’s] Keiaron Joseph’s outstanding Mercutio, who delivered one of the best ‘Queen Mab’ speeches* I’ve seen. That and [Year 12’s] Saim Khan’s convincingly thuggish Capulet – complete with gold necklace – almost stole the show!

“Special praise must go to the protagonists, Anshul Nema and Dhruv Pai: it can’t be easy falling in love in front of an audience of your school mates, but it is a credit to both the cast and the audiences how convincingly this was handled.

“All in all, a fantastic experience for all.”

Saim reflected afterwards on an “amazing experience” that encompassed making new friends across year groups, sharing funny moments in rehearsals when things went wrong, and getting to see a different side of people as they fully embraced their characters.

“Getting the chance to perform in front of all our friends and family at the Arts Depot, one of the best venues in Barnet, was a unique opportunity – a truly special day for all the cast.

“On a personal level, playing the part of Lord Capulet was fascinating, since I could explore the nuances in his character, and delve deeply into how quickly he turns from a caring, but slightly overbearing, father at the start of the play, to one who raised a hand to his own daughter towards the end of it.

“It also meant that I got to wear a rather flashy costume for the performance, complete with that large (sadly fake) gold chain!”

* In his speech, Mercutio teases his friend, Romeo, about an unrequited romantic infatuation for a girl called Rosaline, telling him that the mischief-making Mab, queen of the fairies in English folklore, has been infecting his dreams. Romeo later meets, and falls in love, with Juliet.

• Click on the thumbnail images below to scroll through photos from the production.

A QE team will go to the national finals of a Royal Society of Chemistry competition after beating off fierce competition to win their regional heat.

Team 38 (pictured top) scored 66 out of a maximum possible 72 – or 92% – to take first place ahead of St Benedict’s School, on 65 points, in the Chilterns and Middlesex round of the Top of the Bench competition.

In joint third place, with 64 points apiece, were three other QE teams and a team from Harrow School.

Head of Chemistry Amy Irvine said: “We are very proud of the four boys in the winning team – what an achievement!”

Describing team 38’s score as “magnificent”, Paul Tiley, from the RSC’s Chilterns and Middlesex Local Section Committee, added: “We were very impressed with their knowledge and understanding of Chemistry.”

The winning team comprised: Zayn Phoplankar, of Year 11; Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen, of Year 10; Aarush Choudhary, of Year 9, and Rishan Virmani, also of Year 9.

In addition to progressing to the national round of the competition in the spring, they win a silver shield and Amazon vouchers.

They were among a total of five teams entered by QE, all made up of boys from Years 9–11. All five finished among the top ten teams. “Their teamwork was exceptional, as they answered some very challenging Chemistry problems via Zoom,” said Dr Irvine.

The Top of the Bench competition is open to all secondary schools in the UK and has been running for more than 20 years.

Boys towards the bottom end of the School have been solving Chemistry problems of their own in the Year 7–9 Chemystery club (photos 2 & 3).

With a little help from sixth-formers, they determined the citric acid concentration in sour sweets – specifically, Swizzles Fizzers and Haribo Sour Sparks.

“The students solved this particular ‘mystery’ very well, with some excellent titration technique on display from the younger boys, supported by our brilliant Year 12 chemists,” Dr Irvine added.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Michael Heseltine delivered a lunchtime lecture giving an insider’s view of the key characters and issues that have shaped modern British politics.

The Conservative politician, who worked directly with four Prime Ministers, spoke to a packed house drawn from all year groups in the Friends’ Recital Hall. The optional lecture, part of QE’s Flourish extra-curricular programme, was organised by Year 13 pupil Anish Kumar and the QE Politics Society.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are keen for the boys to hear from leaders and influential thinkers in their respective fields. Lord Heseltine is a towering figure in British politics: it was an honour to welcome him to the School and we are most grateful to him for taking the time to visit and deliver such an insightful lecture drawn from a political career spanning some 50 years.”

Mr Enright thanked Anish and the Politics Society for organising the visit and paid tribute to all who had worked to ensure it passed off smoothly.

Lord Heseltine, who is 90, began his career as a property developer, before becoming one of the founders of the Haymarket publishing house. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001, when he was created a life peer.

Having previously served Ted Heath, he entered the Cabinet in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher as Secretary of State for the Environment. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State within John Major’s  administration. Later, he fulfilled advisory roles when David Cameron was Prime Minister.

Lord Heseltine began his lecture after a welcome from Anish – who introduced him as “one of [his] political heroes” ­– and warm applause from the boys.

In his lecture, he covered topics ranging from industrial strategy (a particular interest and area of expertise of his) and the revitalisation of the city of Liverpool (with which he has a special, and perhaps unique, relationship as a Conservative politician), to devolution. Famously a supporter of the European Union and opponent of Eurosceptics, he expressed his desire to see the UK return to the EU fold in the future.

In a Q & A session chaired by Anish, pupils then posed their own questions.

• On the future of the Conservative Party, he opined that it will find power from the centre-ground – an answer that was especially topical, given the recent Government reshuffle and the return to government of David, now Lord, Cameron;
• On the nature of a life in politics, Lord Heseltine said it was a privilege, but one that inescapably involved making unpopular decisions, often on “50:50” issues in which the side you support will think you reasonable and “a good, sensible bloke”, while those whose expectations are dashed will believe you don’t listen, don’t care and are in politics only for yourself!
• When asked about his proudest moment, he referenced his 1981 party conference speech;
• On whether he regrets not quite becoming Prime Minister, he answered in the affirmative and furthermore set out the approach he would take to transform the nation’s governance and economic strategy if he were in 10 Downing Street today.