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Some of QE’s youngest pupils met up with their counterparts at a leading girls’ school for a day-long academic symposium on climate change.

Twenty-four Year 7 boys made the trip to independent North London Collegiate School, where they got to grips with climate change data and practised the skills needed to make a persuasive presentation advocating for climate action.

QE extra-curricular enrichment tutor and Science teacher Xiangming Xu said: “This trip was a great opportunity for students from both schools to work collaboratively on tackling environmental issues that we are facing currently within society.

“By the end of the morning session, all of them had managed to sharpen their skills on graph interpretation and data interrogation. The afternoon session was more ‘creativity’-based, with small groups producing a short presentation on the subject of What is the climate crisis and why should you care? Overall, it was a very successful event.

“Such partnership events with top girls’ schools stretch our pupils academically, boost their subject knowledge and enhance their oracy and presentation skills, while also giving them valuable opportunities to work collaboratively alongside girls, thus preparing them for a co-educational university environment and for their later careers.”

The day began with presentations from Science teachers aimed at familiarising the boys and girls with the issues involved and at providing the knowledge and scientific language with which to talk confidently about them. During the presentations, the pupils learned about: the use of data; scientific observation based on objects such as ice cores and fossils; greenhouse gases, and negative & positive feedback loops.

The pupils were arranged into groups of six – three boys and three girls – and encouraged to discuss the science behind the climate crisis. “Students from both schools engaged well with the teachers in this activity,” said Mr Xu.

One of the boys involved, Arin Gupta, said he had enjoyed, firstly, the session led by NLCS teacher Mr Dave, which covered both climate change itself and the vocabulary used to talk about it. “I really liked this session as it challenged some of the assumptions that I had made previously about climate change and persuaded me to change them.”

After that, Mr Xu addressed the pupils on how a picture can be worth a thousand words, with a simple photo, diagram or sketch being a powerful way of conveying emotion. Arin said: “We looked at different graphs, which gave us a lot of insight into what could be done about the climate crisis. For example, I was shocked to learn that eating no beef for a year would save water equivalent to leaving your kitchen tap on full blast for six days straight.”

The main aim of the day was for each group to make a compelling pitch to specific audiences –such as a business, a politician or a group of primary school children – setting out why and how they needed to change. Accordingly, the pupils next studied a range of rhetorical and literary devices which they could deploy as tools for their own presentations. They considered a speech by Greta Thunberg and also looked at poems warning about the peril faced by the planet.

“There was great variety in the final presentations,” said Mr Xu, “with impactful, passionate speeches, poignant poems, stimulating sketches and even catchy advertising jingles.”

The symposium proved popular with the boys, whose comments afterwards included:

• “It was a trip I will never forget.” Eshaan Anil
• “I had a wonderful day at NLCS and I learnt more than I could’ve imagined.” Arun Chopra
• “All of us got along quite well – especially the last part of the day where we all did our plays and poems (this was the best part of the day)! As a team, we all made the speech and this was inspirational. The second-best part was the tour around the school, and it was M-A-S-S-I-V-E.” Dhruva Bejugam
• “It greatly enhanced my critical thinking skills and I learnt, not only how to interpret graphs, but also to critically analyse them and to find their flaws…On the whole, I absolutely loved the NLCS trip and found it a fascinating, fun and insightful educational experience, where I could meet new people and learn new things.” Afraz Khan

Two Year 9 boys have won an international artificial intelligence competition – the only UK winners across all age groups.

Paarth Aggarwal and Nittant Moudgil took gold in the middle school category of the fifth annual World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY), beating teams from Australia, Greece, India and Indonesia.

They impressed judges with their project to help local councils mitigate the impact of fly-tipping, which combined an AI-powered app and a camera powered by a Raspberry Pi computer.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “AI is likely to transform all our lives in the future and it is good to see QE pupils at the forefront of this revolution. My congratulations go to Nittant and Paarth both for their success and for the combination of intelligence, inventiveness and application that they demonstrated in developing and presenting this project.”

The pair were mentored by Paarth Aggarwal’s father, Saurabh. Mr Aggarwal works for Cognizant, the American multinational IT services and consulting company, as an Associate Director in its UK Artificial Intelligence & Analytics Advisory and Consulting team.

They were among more than 1,000 entrants in the competition, which attracted interest from young people in more than 30 countries around the world: for example, the winners of the high school category were from the USA and those of the elementary school category from the UAE.

Paarth and Nittant won their medals and certificate for “outstanding performance”. Their project was designed to detect objects that are typically the subject of fly-tipping. They aimed to reduce the deleterious impact of fly-tipping on the environment and to help local authorities optimise their resources so that they can plan better and clean up more effectively.

Nittant explained: “This was definitely a unique endeavour for me, as I haven’t taken part in an AI competition before. Paarth and I decided to approach the challenge by seeing problems that we could fix and innovate solutions for, and we had recently started noticing quite a lot of fly-tipping in our local area. We found it to be a widespread issue that affects many communities and has negative environmental and economic impacts, so we decided on making an app that uses an ML model to detect waste and report it to the local council. Winning the gold medal was a pleasant surprise, but we had worked hard on it, so it was a welcome one.”

WAICY is sponsored by a number of international commercial and educational organisations. The competition judges look first for the effective use of AI in entries and expect entrants to demonstrate a thorough understanding of what AI means. Competitors are expected to be able to demonstrate their understanding by answering questions about the technical aspects of their projects, including any coding that these involved.

After learning of his gold award, Paarth said: “This competition encouraged me to develop the critical thinking in me and helped to hone my skills in AI. It was an exhilarating opportunity to experience the competition on such a global platform.”

In fact, he said, taking part had helped him overcome his fear of getting involved in such large-scale competitions. “I would highly encourage everyone to participate, persevere and learn in all competitions, whether it is on a large or small scale.”

From the Kashmir dispute and the rights of UK asylum seekers to urban planning and new directions for nuclear power, members have been savouring a highly varied range of topics at meetings of QE’s Élite Geography club.

And while the club for top GCSE geographers is run by Geography teacher Helen Davies, it is, she points out, recently the boys themselves who have been providing this food for thought in a string of “absolutely excellent presentations”.

The club, which is running under a new format this year, is open, by invitation, to boys among the top 30 geographers in Year 11. Pupils from Years 10–13 are also welcome to drop in and listen to the presentations on a week-by-week open basis.

The club’s activities comprise a combination of short projects using resources produced by the University of Oxford and presentations from the Year 11 geographers.

“The purpose of this enrichment activity is to develop awareness of the world and help pupils think holistically and critically about the issues affecting it now and in the future,” said Ms Davies.

“Geography is a subject that is valued highly by universities and employers, and being involved in Élite Geography could not only improve boys’ results at GCSE or A-level, but also help them develop high-order thinking skills – such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis – that will benefit their studies more widely across the curriculum.

“The students who are taking part in it this year in its new format are just loving it.”

The year’s programme began with a trio of presentations from Ms Davies on Water Scarcity followed by a week looking at the Ethics of Global Poverty.

Since then, it has been the pupils who have presented to their peers.

Among them is Year 11’s Chanakya Seetharam, pictured right, who gave a presentation on Geography through a Marxist lens. He said: “As a keen geographer, I have never been particularly given to the perception of Geography as somehow a ‘soft’ subject. The club provides an indisputably rigorous and academic forum, in which to discuss topical geographical issues.”

Presentations in January have included:

• Geographies of conflict: the Kashmir Dispute, given by Ady Tiwari
• Evaluating the use of thorium as an energy source for nuclear power, from Arjun Mistry
• Megafauna: the significance of long-term climatic changes and tropic cascades, delivered by Koustuv Bhowmick.

All these boys are in Year 11.

Pictured, top, is Year 11’s Saim Khan, speaking about Mitigating the impacts of solar hazards. Other previous topics this academic year were delivered respectively by Year 13 pupils Jai Patel and Thanojan Sivananthan: The rights of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and Contemporary urban planning.

The 11^th edition of The Econobethan – QE’s pupil-led magazine focusing on Economics, as well as on Politics and Sociology – spans the centuries and roams the continents.

It includes original writing from Year 12 pupils on topics ranging from the ancient world – the economic history of the Roman Empire – to the very contemporary concern of the climate crisis, and from the underlying causes of Africa’s poverty to Japan’s ‘apology culture’.

The 27-page magazine also has as its special theme, ‘Black history’, with four articles in a dedicated section. The Econobethan was published just ahead of this month’s launch of a statement expressing QE’s vision for a broad, diverse and inclusive curriculum.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Econobethan is always a stimulating read, and this issue is no exception, with high-quality, considered submissions from the contributors that should serve to inspire deeper thinking and research from other pupils.

“The theme of Black history is timely: through the launch of our long-term vision for a broad, diverse and inclusive curriculum, we seek to build on the very thoughtful work that has already been done at the School, ensuring that our pupils are well-equipped to thrive in our diverse, modern world.”

The Econobethan is edited by Aditya Kute, Avinash Srivastava and Nishanth Bhasuru. In their introductory editors’ note, they write that the magazine aims to “shed light on economic points of interest, as well as providing a platform for some of the School’s most talented writers to delve into current economic affairs”.

In the Black history section, Aditya looks at why Black History Month is important. He spotlights Sir Arthur Lewis, still the only Black winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics (which he won in 1979), and Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the American civil rights movement, who, at the age of 15, was arrested in 1950s Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white woman.

Aston Daniel looks in more detail at the work of Sir Arthur, while a piece from Avinash is entitled How Does Systemic Racism Continue to Impact Economic Outcomes for African Americans? and Keith Correia writes on How was the war on drugs in the US used as a segregation tool?

Elsewhere in The Econobethan, Nishanth explores Underworld Economics and concludes that while informal markets do cause ‘numerous issues’, nevertheless ‘contrary to the common belief, they aren’t completely negative’, since, for example, they ‘provide a pathway for low-earning families…to get by and survive’.

In the Languages section, Aayush Backory discusses Le fer et les finances: partie 1: l’économie du Luxembourg du 19ème siècle (Iron and finance Part 1: The economy of 19th century Luxembourg) and Arjun Patel writes in German on How do we Deal With the Climate Crisis? (Wie Bewältigen wir die Klimakrise?)

Boys from across the School gave free rein to their creative side in the latest edition of the pupil-run magazine, The Arabella.

The 37-page colour publication features contributions from boys in every year group under the theme of ‘hidden beauty’.

The contents from the 26 contributors include poetry, art, creative prose writing in English, French & German, and essays on music.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate all those whose work has been featured: it is another high-quality edition of our creative magazine, with plenty of examples of the sort of free-thinking scholarship that we seek to cultivate at Queen Elizabeth’s School.”

The most entries were for the poetry section, where the ten contributors’ poems – with titles as diverse as The Passageway (Ishan Nakadi, of Year 9) and Introspect (Akheel Kale, of Year 11) were interspersed with examples of boys’ GCSE and A-level artwork.

The section featuring writing on modern languages is prefaced by the editor-in-chief, 2023 School Captain Darren Lee, of Year 12. Addressing the pupil readership, Darren writes: “Don’t feel restricted to only writing in French or German: we would love to see entries in languages spoken at home! In the next edition, we hope to extend the languages section and include Classics submissions…”

In the music section William Joanes, of Year 10, takes a highly technical look at Hidden Science in Music, illustrated with a picture of the inner ear, while Year 12’s Tharun Dhamodharan delivers a paeon to the human voice, The Hidden Instrument.

The creative writing section is similarly varied, from final-year student Antony Yassa’s science-based examination of The Microscopic World to Year 11 pupil Shreyas Mone’s musings on Beauty in destruction – “a different kind of beauty” – where he cites examples such as volcanoes, thunderstorms and even videos of building demolition.

Six artists’ work is featured, including the front-cover illustration by Year 13’s Dylan Domb, pictured top, and pieces by Gabriel Gulliford (also Year 13), above right, and Year 12’s Pratham Bhavsar, left.

As the foreword explains, the magazine is named after Arabella Stuart, a descendant of Henry VII and sixth in line to the crown, who fell foul of King James I when in 1610 she secretly married another potential heir to the throne, William Seymore. While her husband was sent to the Tower of London, Arabella was committed to the care of the Bishop of Durham, but fell ill in Barnet en route. She stayed for some months at the home of a Governor of the School, Thomas Conyers, while her spiritual needs were attended to by another Governor, Rev Matthias Milward, who was also subsequently appointed Master (Headmaster) of the School.

Darren led an editorial team of 21 boys. Staff assistance and support came from: Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane; Head of English Robert Hyland; Curator of QE Collections and Head of Library Services Jenni Blackford; Library Services Assistant Corinna Illingworth, and from teachers in the Languages department.

Submissions are now being invited for the next issue, which will be issue 8 and is on the theme of ‘The Lure of Power’.

• Anyone with access to the School’s eQE portal may read The Arabella here.

The 2023 School Captain, Darren Lee, has taken a prize as one of the runners-up in a prestigious national German essay-writing competition.

Following an adjudication process that looked both at content and language, Darren was named among the prize-winners by King’s College London.

The A-level German writing competition run by King’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures was on the theme of how to tackle and overcome the climate crisis (Wie bewältigen wir die Klimakrise?).

Congratulating him, Assistant Head of Languages Burgunde Lukasser-Weitlaner said: “Darren’s prize is richly deserved. His competition entry was creative; it displayed his impressive language skills to good effect, and it also made a convincing argument.”

Darren opened this 443-word piece with an original poem, before then setting out to break down the issue into the ‘macro’ and the ‘micro’, considering how both large corporations and individuals could tackle the climate crisis.

The poem takes an apocalyptic view, ending with the words “…unsere Masken können nicht den Gestank eines sterbenden Planets reinigen”. (“Our masks cannot clean the stench of a dying planet.”)

But thereafter, while not flinching from the difficulties, Darren, who is in Year 12, strikes a cautiously optimistic note, stating that although it might appear that humanity is already doomed, there is in fact some progress.

He concludes his essay by urging people to eschew the temptation to blame others (“Es ist zu einfach, die Schuld auf anderen zu geben”), whether it be the rich, previous generations or huge, faceless corporations.

Instead, businesses can work together at the micro level, he urges, and thereby collectively reach the macro targets needed to provide a healthy environment for future generations.

He thanked both Frau Lukasser-Weitlaner for providing him with the opportunity to submit his essay in the competition and his German teacher, Rebecca Grundy, “for equipping me with the skills to write it!” Darren attended an online prize-giving organised by King’s.

The runner-up prize is only the latest success for Darren, who officially took over as School Captain on New Year’s Day and recently won a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship for engineering.