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QE linguists have won national and regional honours in a literary translation competition run from The Queen’s College, Oxford, that attracted thousands of entries nationwide.

Year 7 pupil Jonas Dawit took second prize nationally for French in his age group, while Year 11’s Arjun Patel was the winner for Greater London for German. Olly Salter, of Year 12, also won a regional commendation, again for German.

All the QE boys who entered the Anthea Bell Competition were given a one-off lesson about literary translation from German or French into English, using resources provided by the competition organisers.

Languages teacher Katrin Hood said: “I congratulate everyone who entered, and of course our winners, who did brilliantly to be recognised amongst such fierce competition!”

It was the second consecutive year that QE has entered the competition, which is named after an acclaimed English literary translator who died in 2018.

“It has once again been a pleasure to discuss literary translations in class, and to hear our students’ fantastic and creative solutions to the particular challenges each text presents,” said Ms Hood.

The competition is run by The Queen’s College Translation Exchange – an initiative which seeks to bring together university students, school pupils, teachers and members of the public – and involves young linguists submitting their own translations of a specified piece of writing.

An internal round at the School is held first: open to all boys, it this year attracted 73 entrants, representing an increase on the 2021 figure.

From these entrants, judges from across the Languages department picked the best French and best German translator for each age group. They also identified the five from each group whom the School was allowed to enter into the national competition.

Nationwide, 14,000 secondary school pupils undertook the translation task, with more than 3,200 then going through to the national competition, which was judged by a team comprising both Queen’s College undergraduates and professional translators.

National runner-up Jonas had to translate the surrealist poet Robert Desnos’s poem, Le Crapaud, (The Toad). Its first stanza is:

Sur les bords de la Marne
Un crapaud il y a
Qui pleure à chaudes larmes
Sous un acacia.

Jonas translated this as :

A toad all warty
On the banks of the Marne
Weeps hot tears
Under a thorn.

“He has chosen to maintain the rhyme scheme of the original, but in doing so has had to change the meaning of some of the original words. These decisions are central to the translator’s craft,” said Ms Hood.

“The competition gave us an opportunity to go beyond what we normally do in the classroom and allowed the boys to be introduced to a wide range of literary texts that they otherwise might not have come across.”

After learning of his commendation, Olly reflected on the experience: “’Entering the Anthea Bell translation competition was immensely rewarding. The need to think outside of the box – to ensure not only the meaning, but also the tone, of the text was preserved – was exciting and something I will carry with me into my future study of languages and translation. I am so glad that I took part.”

The year group winners in the internal QE competition, most of whom are pictured, top, were as follows.

French:
Year 7 – Jonas Dawit
Year 8 – Nimesh Nirojan
Year 9 – Binaga Solangaarachchi
Year 11 – Darren Lee
Sixth Form – Theo Mama-Kahn

German:
Year 7 – Stephan Tinss
Year 8 – Hardik Ingale
Year 9 – Keon Robert
Year 10 – Avkash Lahkar
Year 11 – Arjun Patel
Sixth Form – Alan Yee Kin Yan

Fifteen QE sixth-formers successfully got to grips with how countries as diverse as the USA and Pakistan view the world in a Model United Nations conference.

The QE Year 12 team spent weeks preparing for the annual MUN event at St Paul’s School in London.

Model United Nations is an educational simulation of the real UN at which participants can gain greater understanding of diplomacy and international relations, as well as learning skills including research, public speaking, debating and teamwork.

Economics teacher Sheerwan O’Shea-Nejad said: “Our boys were already confident, as evidenced from their ability to lobby other delegations, but I am sure their confidence will only grow after their excellent performance.

“All the students enjoyed the experience immensely and relished the opportunity to improve their debating skills and knowledge of these important global issues. Many friendships were made and the boys hope that they will be able to attend another in-person MUN soon and are even considering hosting one next year.”

At MUN conferences, pupils are assigned as delegates to a country and participate in committees that deal with different sets of issues.

Policy proposals submitted ahead of the conference required the QE cohort to convey their countries’ plan to tackle particular global issues. Examples included: closing Guantanamo Bay; handling the tensions in the Taiwan Strait; overseas electoral rigging; nuclear testing on the moon; disarming the Taliban, and decolonising the Western Sahara. The boys had spent time researching topics and the stance they were representing.

On the first two days, the delegates engaged in some heated debate on the merits of their resolutions in separate committees, before choosing the best of them to be presented and discussed in General Assembly on the third day.

“The students debated and lobbied well, with Aryaman Madan and Nayel Muhammad Huda especially active in forming alliances with other delegations, both during committee meetings and in-between them,” said Mr O’Shea-Nejad. “Nayel was recognised as the best speaker on the Women’s Rights Committee and Abir Mohammed as the best speaker on the Legal Committee.”

Reflecting afterwards, QE delegate Ryan Whorra said: “MUN was an amazing experience, due to the rich debates between all the delegates as well as learning the art of diplomacy as all delegates attempted to achieve their countries’ objectives.”

Danny Adey said: “It was a great opportunity to get a better understanding of the inner workings of international politics and meet new people.”

Mathavan Chandra-Mohan added: “It was really interesting to debate current issues with students from other schools,” Rahul Doshi that the conference was “great fun”, while at the same time the debates were “challenging”.

The QE group, with their committee, comprised:

USA: Aryaman Madan (Security), Danny Adey (Women), Ruixuan Wu (Special Political and Decolonisation Committee – SPECPOL), Rahul Doshi (Disarmament and International Security – DISEC) and Jeshvin Jesudas (Legal);

Pakistan: Abir Mohammed (Legal), Frank Zhang (DISEC) and Kai Mukherjee (SPECPOL);

Ireland: Surya Dhaka (Legal), Yash Makwana (SPECPOL) and Aarian Hundal (DISEC);

Saudi Arabia: Ryan Whorra (DISEC), Nayel Muhammad Huda (Women), Mathavan Chandra-Mohan (SPECPOL) and Mukund Soni (Legal).

A QE team triumphed in their heat of the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition, beating both fellow Elizabethans acting as prosecutors and a team from another school.

After successfully grappling with a case involving harassment across the two rounds, the defence team amassed enough points to beat all other competing schools and take the top spot. Now both QE teams will take part in a national celebration event in June.

Biology teacher Nadia Kaan, who oversaw the boys’ involvement, said: “This competition is a fun and engaging way to introduce pupils to the law, while also developing skills such as teamwork and oracy.

“Our boys had worked hard since October to prepare, and they duly performed very well on the day. My congratulations go to our defence team on their victory.”

The competition, which is run by the Young Citizens education charity, has been running for over 25 years and is open to 12–14 year-olds from UK state schools. Participants take on the main roles found in a criminal trial – such as prosecutor and defendant – with the cases specially written by legal experts.

Run with the active support of practising magistrates and legal advisors, the competition is usually held within real courthouses, although this year’s event was held online because of the pandemic.

The two QE teams, all drawn from Year 9, found themselves facing each other in their heat after one of the other schools expected to take part pulled out. Defence team ‘lawyer’ Colin Copcea explained that it was only after much deliberation that a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict was returned by the supporting professionals in this round. He paid tribute to the efforts of all QE entrants, whether defenders and prosecutors: “Both teams fought hard to influence the magistrates.”

In the second round, the QE defence team went up against another school, and again secured their desired ‘Not Guilty’ verdict.

Afterwards, QE participants reflect on how much they enjoyed taking part and on the competition’s benefits:

• Vase Pardeepan: “This experience was absolutely incredible, and to be able to compete against other schools and communicate with professional lawyers really helped me understand  my personal passion for the career of law.”
• Simi Bloom: “It was interesting to learn more about how legal proceedings work and the justice system. ‘Mock trial’ was a great way to learn to how respond when things don’t go your way, boosting public speaking skills and overall confidence. I think the experience largely encouraged teamwork, too, as well as establishing trust between one another.”
• Adam Liang: “Of the many other clubs and competitions that I have attended, this one was by far the best. Thank you for this amazing experience!”
• Adithya Raghuraman: “Despite perhaps not playing a very important role on my team, I still greatly enjoyed being a part of the whole experience, from attending on Wednesdays when the club began and auditioning for different parts, all the way to helping out with different things on the day of the competition itself. It has made me realise that I have a passion for law, and perhaps may pursue it in the future.”
• Vidyuth Shankar: “Personally, I found the mock trial competition quite refreshing. It encouraged us to work as a team and creatively and intuitively work out the best angles to a problem. I found performing my speech exciting and enjoyed working in a team.”

The other QE competitors were: Samhith Aggana; Devansh Jha; Muhamad Mohamed; Soham Kale; Daniel Moon; Sai Murarishetty; Daksh Vinnakota; Ash Iyer and Adokshaj Magge.

Three QE boys were finalists in a national Geography competition run by Christ Church, Oxford.

Shreyas Mone, of Year 10, Zhuoer Chen, of Year 9, and Sarang Nair, of Year 7, were among just ten finalists nationwide.

All three were invited with their parents to a special prize-giving day at Christ Church, one of the largest and most famous of all the Oxford University colleges. The day included a pitch to encourage the visiting high-flyers to consider studying Geography there.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to Shreyas and to Zhuoer and Sarang on their success.”

The competition, which is part of Christ Church’s outreach work, was open to all UK state school pupils in Years 7–10. Entrants had to submit a video 2–5 minutes long on a geographical issue or phenomenon that was local to them.

The day featured screenings of the videos, a prize-giving ceremony, a tour of the college, and talks from current students and staff. There was also a workshop about geopolitics in popular culture, which covered, inter alia, the issues of missile tests in Iron Man and mineral resources in Black Panther, as well as how Bond villains were supposedly based upon enemies of the USA.

Shreyas’s video – entitled Why is the UK’s weather so dismal? – explored why the UK has mild temperatures and high rainfall, compared to the cold, dry conditions of Canada, when, for example, Calgary is on a latitude slightly to the south of London.

The video compared average yearly temperatures at Greenwich weather station with those at Calgary and found they were 11.35C higher.

This, Shreyas explained, is partly because of the Gulf Stream bringing warm water to Britain and conversely the Labrador current taking cold water to southern Canada. In the video, he addresses why this affects the weather in inland areas, rather than just the coast.

His video was illustrated by a range of maps and photos and even a clip of a fox jumping into snow, with colourful captions setting out his argument.

Shreyas was inspired to enter the competition after seeing it advertised by Head of Geography Emily Parry on eQE, the School’s remote learning platform.

Sarang’s video on the Effects of floods in Hertfordshire included photos of recent floods; it looked at where flood plains are and explored whether houses should be built on flood plains.

Four Year 10 boys won every round when they took on other regional schools in the Maths Feast competition.

After being selected to represent the School in the event, the four emerged with a perfect score of 121 out of 121.

Mathematics teacher Kirtan Shah said: “This was the first time I’ve seen full marks in every round of the Maths Feast competition since I started working here in 2018. So they did really, really well: definitely something to be proud of!

“They worked so well together as a team; by building on each other’s arguments, they were able to successfully reach sensible solutions to some challenging problems. They knew what each member’s strengths were and that really helped them gain their clean sweep.”

Hadi Al-Esia, Kovid Gothi, Saim Khan and Shreyaas Sandeep travelled to St Dominic’s Sixth Form College in Harrow on the Hill for the competition run by Advanced Mathematics Support Programme – a Government-funded national initiative.

They faced four rounds: team captain Hadi said each involved “intriguing puzzles that stretched our knowledge and problem-solving skills”.

The rounds were as follows:

1. What No Words? All teams were given a series of problems to solve, with the catch that they were only given diagrams. Not only did they have to work out the answer; they first had to work out what the question was!
2. Four for Forty: Students were given four long problems, including logic puzzles, which all required outside-the-box problem-solving, including logic puzzles. “They were able to deftly negotiate this round by each member of the team taking the problem which suited their strengths the most,” said Mr Shah.
3. Card Sort: Competitors had to reimagine every 3D shape (such as cubes) to try to unravel the shortest way to pass through or over them. “This was by far the most challenging round for the team to tackle as it involved a new dimension of geometry for them – a combination of Pythagoras and 3D visualisation,” Mr Shah added. “They finished the round with less than 20 seconds to spare.” The team’s favourite problem came from this round (see picture right): competitors were asked to calculate the distance from A to B if the net [what a 3D shape looks like if opened out flat] were open for the cone.Saim said: I particularly enjoyed the card sort round – trying to reimagine and visualise the shapes in a new way was challenging but immensely rewarding too!”
4. Four in a Row: A relay round, with teams splitting into two pairs to solve two separate sets of questions. “Our boys were able to comfortably finish the round, with eight minutes to spare,” said Mr Shah.

Hadi said: “I’m proud of our teamwork and the dedication we showed on the day,” while his teammate Saim added: “The Maths Feast was a fantastic opportunity; the problem-solving and lateral thinking the rounds called for was a refreshing invigorating experience.”

QE’s Year 8 and 9 VIQC robotics teams swept others before them in this year’s national finals to take top places at the end of the two-day competition in Telford.

The six junior teams also won a slew of the top awards, following in the footsteps of the senior VRC teams who had similarly taken awards in their competition over the previous two days.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “This represents QE’s strongest-ever performance at the VIQC Nationals, with only the Excellence Award eluding us. Overall, the success of both our VIQC and VRC teams in Telford was a welcome show of the students’ potential and of their focus, particularly as it came just a few days ahead of many of them travelling to Dallas, Texas, for the still greater challenges and excitement of this month’s Vex Robotics World Championships.”

Four teams – two from Year 10, one from Year 12 and one with a mix of boys from the two year groups – competed in the senior VRC bracket at Telford International Center. HYBRID, Vortex Invicta, HEX Green and Hyperion pitted their wits against the very finest robotic talent in the UK. The VRC championships drew 58 teams from all over the UK to battle it out in the competition’s Brunel and Lovelace divisions.

On the first day, QE teams had a record total of 14 games. “The pace was manic and it did mean the learning curve was steep, especially for HEX Green and Hyperion, who each had a sole representative on that day – Jamie Hoang, of Year 12 and Tharsan Nimalan, of Year 10. This was as a result of clashing A-level mock examinations ruling out their teammates,” said Mr Noonan. “Great credit is therefore due to Jamie and Tharsan, our ‘one-man armies’ of day one!

“The QE teams exploded out of the blocks on the second day, driven to make up for some poorer results on the first day. HEX Green and Hyperion had their ranks bolstered by the returning Year 12 students, and the increase in manpower was telling, as Hyperion secured a top-ten place finish, and HEX Green shot to the top of the skills rankings, a lead which they would never surrender.

“Hyperion reached the Brunel divisional finals, while an all-QE alliance of HEX Green and HYBRID made it to the Lovelace division semi-final, only to be cruelly denied a finals place by a loose battery connection. The day was not over for QE teams, however: when the medal winners were announced, Hyperion won the coveted Design Award (considered the second-most prestigious in the whole competition), HEX Green achieved double success, winning both the Skills and Think awards, and Vortex Invicta received a Judges Award. “Vortex Invicta’s first award of the season thus arrived at the highest level of competition they had so far faced!” Mr Noonan said.

“Overall, the experience was a great one of learning, particularly for the two middle-school [Year 10} teams who were looking forward to facing some 400 other teams in Dallas.”

Watching and cheering on from the tiered seating were QE’s six IQ robotics teams. “They drew many lessons from their older peers regarding showing resilience, reacting to failure and the importance of thorough preparation. Excitement reached fever pitch as students headed away to their hotel ahead of their own National championships on Sunday,” said Mr Noonan.

When the day dawned, the younger boys did not disappoint: “Our T5 robotics suite is the perfect furnace to forge success and achievement in competitive robotics, and the QE teams duly excelled, leading in almost all aspects of competition from the starting gun to the finishing post.

“All teams were in a frenzy of activity from Sunday morning to Monday evening; responding to judges’ enquiries, attempting to improve their skills, practising effective teamwork routines with partnering schools, and developing strategies to gain the extra edge ahead of the showpiece finals on the Monday.”

The achievements began with Gearsquad posting an early National Record Skills score. After strong QE performances in the Qualification and Skills elements of the competition, all eyes turned to the finals. The alliances (15 pairs from the 30 teams taken part) faced off in reverse order, from lowest to highest ranked,  and the ‘Chair of Champions’ was unveiled – a seat reserved for the (current) highest-ranked teams.

First up from QE was Cyberforce, followed by Nova, Shattersquad, Eclipse and finally The Rubber Bands. QE teams duly took their places on the chair, with a strong performance from Gearsquad and their alliance partners, Highgate, securing a near-perfect score.

“In the end, the six QE teams ranked first–sixth in the finals rankings, proving their ability to manage pressure at the highest level,” said Mr Noonan.

They also gained the following awards:

• Design, won by Cyberforce
• Amaze, won by Gearsquad and Shattersquad in their respective divisions
• Robot Skills and Teamwork National Champion, both won by Gearsquad
• Build, won by The Rubber Bands.

“A special mention must go to Shattersquad, Eclipse and Nova; Shattersquad secured their first two trophies of the season at this, the highest standard of event, while Nova and Eclipse came within millimetres of a national podium finish, despite Nova being out of competition for many months and Eclipse having a driver, Year 8’s Jaydon Lad, in a plaster cast.”

QE’s VIQC contingent were shortly afterwards due to compete against nearly 600 other teams in the World Championships.