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Queen Elizabeth’s School has once again excelled in the British Biology Olympiad, with two sixth-formers reaching the final round, which is open only to the top 16 young biologists in the country.

Year 13 pupils Showgo Kimura and Michael Takla were selected from Round 2 for the four-day finals, a series of practical examinations held at Warwick University.

They were among five QE boys who had qualified for Round 2, with the others being fellow sixth-formers Ilan Elango, Milan Hirji and Simon Rey. The five’s qualification placed them in the top 2 per cent of the 7,818 entrants nationwide.

Last year, QE was crowned the best-performing school in the country in the prestigious Olympiad competition, and although it will not be known until later this year if it has repeated this feat, the School is certainly in a strong position, says Biology teacher Mev Armon: it has amassed a total of 14 gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze medals.

Congratulating Showgo and Michael, Mr Armon said: “They have worked for almost two years, developing additional skills outside of the specification at lunch times. I am very proud of them and of all the boys who were awarded medals.”

After returning from Warwick, the pair reflected on the experience. Their preparation included areas such as botany, gel electrophoresis and locust dissections.

Michael said: “I enjoyed the opportunity to improve my practical skills, learning new lab techniques, and being surrounded by other people who were as interested in Biology as I am. I particularly found a practical on the induction of β–galactosidase in E. coli very interesting because it complemented prior knowledge of the regulation of lac operon expression with experimental evidence.”

Showgo added: “Unlike with School practicals, we weren’t given any extra reagent, even if we had used ours up, and this meant it was important to plan before starting. I realised this too late and had almost finished the blood sample provided on making blood smears when I needed more to complete the rest of the examination.

“Although I made other small mistakes throughout the rest of the practicals, I enjoyed all of them, especially the maggot dissection. In this practical, we had to dissect a maggot of roughly 2cm to find the dorsal vessel (the ‘heart’) and apply several drugs to investigate their effects. At first, I kept damaging the heart, but after a few attempts I improved and was able to do the dissection with ease. I didn’t expect practical exams to be as challenging and interesting as they were and I’m sure the skills I gained from them will continue to be useful as I study Natural Sciences at university.”

Two QE boys who entered an international competition have had their work published in a new book.

Jonathan Ho, of Year 12, and Matt Salomone, of Year 11, drew on inspiration from the Trojan War for the poems they entered in a multi-disciplinary art competition organised by the University of Leicester.

The book, entitled Artefact to Art, was launched at the Annual Conference of the Classics Association in Leicester. During the ceremony, both boys were singled out for a special mention by the organiser of the competition, Dr Naoise Mac Sweeney, who is the university’s Associate Professor in Ancient History.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is wonderful news; my congratulations go to Jonathan and Matt. It is very exciting to have a success such as this in our maturing Classics department. Such competitions provide excellent opportunities for our boys to display their creativity and express themselves.”

Jonathan and Matt received delegate passes, together with their parents, to attend the day, worth £240 per family. The boys, who are particularly keen on myths and have set up their own society at the School, also each received a copy of the book. The boys’ entries were judged by the poet, Dan Simpson, with whom they were photographed at the book launch. The prizes for the winners were given out by the well-known author of the Roman Mysteries series of historical novels for young people, Caroline Lawrence.

The competition, which attracted 200 entries from four continents, required participants to produce a piece of art, whether handicraft or poem, inspired by an ancient artefact. Both Jonathan and Matt chose the black-figured amphora by Exekias from 540 BC, which shows the two friends and heroes of the Trojan War, Ajax and Achilles, playing a board game in full armour.

The pair have recently been looking at Homer with QE’s visiting teacher of Ancient Greek, Dr Corinna Illingworth, who also attended the ceremony. “Every piece of work that was included in the book – whether poem or handicraft- was displayed in a beautifully arranged exhibition,” she said. “The variety of artworks on show was very impressive and it was moving to read what had inspired each young artist.”

She added that the competition, which was open to all pupils of secondary school age, gave the two boys the chance to explore art history, consider mythical literature and practise creative writing.

Jonathan said: “What inspired me was how battles and wars are always manipulated by a few men and this can be seen even in ancient history. One can compare a game of strategy to war.”

Jonathan’s poem:

As the pieces are place, the army is drawn up,
The players focused, the army terrified.
Dim lights are engulfed by darkness,
As the stars in the sky foretell the future.
Who will win? Who will lose?
Only the Fates can see.
As the ground rumbles with the feet of men,
Destiny is made.
However, only one side can emerge victorious,
The other drowned in sorrow and loss.
What will happen next?
Let’s see who wins, then I’ll tell you…

Matt was inspired by similar thoughts: “These famous generals are playing a game together – perhaps a strategic game like chess – which interestingly shows the similarities between a general in war and a leader in a game. There is a clear contrast in the piece, but it also reveals that these two have fewer differences than I first thought.”

Matt’s poem:

The nature of war and the thrill of games
Are no much unlike. A duet of heroes,
Armed and allied, set for any challenge,
Sitting down all the while. Finding peace in a board game.

“Four!” “Three!” Thus, the winner seems evident.
Yet the other does not back off. End has yet to arrive.

Looming, towering, threatening with helm and hand;

Nervously raised foot in response, but the battle ensues
Yet neither leader strikes. For their war attacks the psyche –

Victorious in spirit, soldiers in their fingers,
Strategy in mind, fate in fortune.
Perhaps soon they will take up their shields;
Until then, the real fight is in dice.

QE pupils beat off competition from 30 other schools to win the regional round of the Team Maths Challenge.

The four boys from Years 8 and 9 secured victory over Merchant Taylors’, in second place, and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’, who came third. They now go through to the national finals in London’s Royal Horticultural Halls in June – the third time that a QE team has reached this stage in the prestigious UK Mathematics Trust contest.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate our boys on a resounding success, which demonstrated not only their mathematical prowess and their ability to think clearly under pressure, but also skills in communication and teamwork.”

The team was led by Year 9 pupil Dan Suciu and comprised Shimaq-Ahamed Sakeel Mohamed, also of Year 9, together with Year 8 boys Bhunit Santhiramoulesan and Agrim Sharma. They scored a winning total of 223 points out of 236 in the event, which was hosted by Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls in Elstree.

The competition aims to offer pupils a means of expressing and developing their enjoyment of Mathematics, with problems that are mostly accessible, yet still challenge those with more experience. The event involves four rounds:

• Crossnumber – one pair of contestants is given the ‘across’ clues and the other pair the ‘down’ clues
• Shuttle – pairs solve problems where the answer to the previous question feeds into the next question
• Relay – again working in pairs to solve problems, but also involves movement around the room in a race against the clock
• Group round – working as a team of four to solve ten problems.

Captain Dan said after the event: “We were delighted to win and really pleased that our hard work paid off, especially in the Shuttle Round. We’re all really looking forward to the next round.”

A QE team were placed in the UK’s top 10 schools in the national finals of the Bar Mock Trial competition – with numerous aspects of their defence case scoring full marks.

The team of senior boys had reached the national final of the prestigious legal competition in Cardiff after competing successfully in three qualifying rounds. They were placed ninth on the day.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We encourage our boys to enter such competitions because participation develops their oracy skills, enhances their ability to think on their feet – especially in a high-pressure situation such as cross-examination – and pits them against some of the brightest and most talented young minds in the country.”

“It also introduces them to the pressures and demands of the legal profession – a field to which many of our boys aspire.”

English teacher, Lucy Riseborough added: “I’m very pleased with the result, especially against such strong competition. Our defence team of Laurie Mathias and Mipham Samten was outstanding, and a special mention has to go to Mipham for his 10 out of 10 score.”

The final mirrored earlier rounds of the competition in which mock criminal trials were held in a Crown Court in front of real judges. The QE team took part in three trials, overcoming Woodroffe School from Lyme Regis by 91 points to 82 but losing narrowly to two other schools. This year’s overall champions were Wilmslow High School from Cheshire.

The QE team were the prosecutors in two of their cases and defendants in the third. All the boys took various parts, from barristers to witnesses, jurors, court reports and ushers.

“I was especially pleased to see the way in which our boys took on the feedback from the judges and markers and improved from round to round,” said Miss Riseborough. “The boys had picked up from Round Two the importance of restricting their questioning to crucial facts. They also performed with confidence, which put the opposition under pressure.”

The Bar Mock Trial Competition, now in its 27th year, is run by the Citizenship Foundation and supported by the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Faculty of Advocates, the Bar Library of Northern Ireland, HM Courts & Tribunal Service, the Circuits and the Inns of Court.

It is open to young people from state schools aged 15-18 and aims to give pupils insights into the justice system and an opportunity to develop skills such as logical reasoning, clear communication and teamwork. Two hundred schools entered this year.

The QE participants were: Nathan Chu, Shivam Masrani, Laurie Mathias, Mipham Samten, Anake Singh, and Benjamin Suen, all from Year 12, along with Alex Beard, Rivu Chowdhury, Hector Cooper, Kieran Dhrona, Haider Jabir, Viraj Mehta, Saifullah Shah and Sajan Suganth from Year 11.

A team of senior QE boys have reached the national finals of a competition that involves mock criminal trials in a crown court in front of real judges.

The QE team performed strongly in three initial rounds at the regional finals of the Bar Mock Trial Competition, before emerging victorious from the final round, where they were pitted against the day’s other best-performing school, the Reach Academy.

After seeing off all 11 of the other shortlisted London state schools at the regional event at the Inner London Crown Court, they will now compete in the national finals at Cardiff Crown Court in March 2018.

English teacher Lucy Riseborough said: “The boys did extremely well and the judges commented on how well the ‘barristers’ in our cases performed.”

Each team comprised not only pupils playing the part of barristers, but also others needed to create a realistic court scene, from witnesses and jurors to court reporters and ushers.

The QE contingent prepared two different cases in the run-up to the event. One was a theft and fraud case involving a carer accused of stealing £1,320 from the man she was looking after. She used to do his shopping and claimed that she had accidentally taken his bank card home and had left it in a safe place. Since she lived with five other people, she argued that one of them could have accessed the card.

The second involved a charge of grievous bodily harm: a couple had an argument and the defendant broke his partner’s tibia. However, he claimed she threatened him with a knife and that he was acting in self-defence.

Teacher Tom Jack reported that the boys not only performed well, but also improved through each round, with third-round barristers Laurie Mathias and Mipham Samten learning from the judge’s feedback from the second round, when the QE barristers, Anake Singh and Saifullah Shah, had successfully prosecuted the same defendant.

“The two barristers therefore restricted their questioning to crucial facts, meaning that their closing argument was a mystery to the opposition until the very last moment. Confident performances from the witnesses for the defence (Hector Cooper and Viraj Mehta) put the prosecuting barristers under pressure, leading them to halt their questioning earlier than planned. By the time the jury retired, the result was just a formality; they found the defendant innocent on both charges.”

Having done so well in the three rounds, the boys knew they had a good chance of reaching the final, but were nevertheless excited and proud when this was confirmed.

“This achievement afforded the boys the opportunity to prosecute a case inside one of the main courtrooms, an experience nerve-wracking and enriching in equal measure.” The final round brought intense questioning on both sides and “a tangible impression of strategising from the respective barristers”, said Mr Jack, who teaches Music. “During the exchanges, the QE boys had to contend with one defence witness who clearly had the potential to intimidate the opposition and throw them off their game with her lengthy and convoluted responses. However, after neatly extracting the responses required from the ‘difficult customer’, Saifullah Shah’s closing statement tied up the various strands of the prosecution’s argument, leaving the jury to retire with a difficult decision.

“Although they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, a majority decision narrowly found the defendant guilty, but the boys still needed the marks to go in their favour to claim a deserved victory. After deliberating for a good ten minutes, the judge returned with the news that the QE team had triumphed!”

The Bar Mock Trial Competition, which is open to young people aged 15-18, aims to give pupils insights into the justice system and encourages the development of skills such as logical reasoning, clear communication and teamwork. Now in its 26th year, the competition is run by the Citizenship Foundation and supported by the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Faculty of Advocates, the Bar Library of Northern Ireland, HM Courts & Tribunal Service, the Circuits and the Inns of Court.

The QE participants were as follows:

Barristers
Laurie Mathias, Year 12
Mipham Samten, Year 12
Saifullah Shah, Year 11
Anake Singh, Year 12

Jury
Alex Beard, Year 11
Nathan Chu, Year 12
Shivam Masrani, Year 12
Benjamin Suen, Year 12
Sajan Suganth, Year 11

Witnesses
Hector Cooper, Year 11
Kieran Dhrona, Year 11
Haider Jabir, Year 11
Viraj Mehta, Year 11

Court Clerk
Rivu Chowdhury, Year 11

Usher
Akram Ahmad, Year 11

QE sixth-formers heard from leading cross-party politicians at a day conference that touched upon topics ranging from Brexit to humanitarian issues in conflict zones.

Yet despite all this, there was a single appeal that rang out loud and clear, according to Year 12’s Eshan Patel: “Over the course of the event, one key message was expressed; that young people were vital in politics and were needed for the future of the country.”

Parliamentarians including Commons Speaker John Bercow, Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan and Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Jess Phillips made the call, making clear that young people were needed “to help increase the work that has already been done towards equality for women and minorities”.

The 2017 A-Level Politics Conference featured talks from currently serving politicians, who also answered the sixth-formers’ questions.

Brexit was a repeated point of focus. Speakers including Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer discussed a ‘soft Brexit’, the importance of access to the single market and matters of economic policy. Tory Remainer Anna Soubry discussed the approach of Theresa May in the negotiation process, standing strongly behind her.

High-profile Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured with three QE students) spoke on traditional values within politics, while the Liberal Democrats’ former leader, Nick Clegg, answered questions on the future of his party. Labour’s Chuka Umunna delivered a strong speech on the future of the country in relation to global events, such as humanitarian issues in Syria and Libya.

Overall, reported Eshan, the trip was interesting and provided many fresh insights for the QE boys. “It helped us understand how fragile the Brexit negotiations are, as well as the desired outcomes of the two main parties.” he said.

QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon, said: ““This was a rare opportunity for students to come face-to-face with national leaders and to address their concerns directly to decision-makers. QE students derive great benefit from this occasion.”