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Jay Foreman (1996-2003), a comedian and musician, is now enjoying a busy 2011 after winning Best Newcomer at the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards 2009, taking third prize at the Musical Comedy Awards 2010 and being named Bedford New Comedian of the Year 2010.

Jay has gained enormous popularity both through his live performances and through the internet. He has his own following at the School: a number of boys recently went to see him perform in Putney. His song, Moon Chavs, has, for example, become a viral hit on youtube, with more than 200 different fan videos uploaded to date. Among his other online hits are his student-orientated Ask a Rabbi videos, in which he dresses as an orthodox rabbi and gives spoof Agony Aunt-style answers to students’ questions.

In a review of his show, Pretend You’re Happy, at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Steve Bennett, of the UK comedy guide, Chortle, wrote: “Generally, the writing is sharp and sophisticated and the musicianship strong, making him a sort of Victoria Wood for the Spotify generation.”

“My show is hard to describe and I’ve got enormous trouble trying to decide whether it is comedy or music,” says Jay. His songs often have provocative titles such as I’m glad John Lennon Died or Stealing Food. “I love to make people laugh at something they shouldn’t find funny, like if they know it’s bad-taste or if it’s quite sad.”

Jay began performing comedy songs on acoustic guitar in 2005 at York University. Many of his live performances there were filmed by York Student Television and made available online.

Jay has made appearances on Nuts TV and Lunch with the Hamiltons. In 2009 he contributed jingles to the weekly comedy podcast, Answer Me This.

Jay is the brother of the award-winning beatboxer, Beardyman (Darren Foreman), also featured in this newsletter. They have collaborated on stage several times.

The School would like to thank the following old boys, who assisted with the recent careers day for Year 9:

• Kane Evans (2003-2010)
• Stuart Hinds (1989-1996)
• Marios Kyprianou (2003-2010)
• Laurent Lemberger (1996-2003)
• Joe Liang (2001-2008)
• Ashu Mahedeshwar (1995-2002)
• Ajay Patel (2001-2008)
• Tony Qin (2001-2008)
• Adam Selwyn (1986-1993)
• Priyan Shah (1991-1998)
• Harry Vekeria (1980-1987)
• Matteo Yoon (2003-2010)

If you would like to get involved in similar events, or if you have news to share about yourself or other former pupils, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact [email protected]

Pupils from the School have won two prestigious national business competitions.

For the second consecutive year, a QE team took first prize in the Tune into Business competition run by the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in partnership with The b-Live Foundation, a careers and community site aimed at pupils at secondary schools.

And Year 12 student Adeel Haque came first in the ifs Young Business Writer of the Year competition, with another QE pupil, Abhijai Shah of Year 13, short-listed to the final five.

Contestants had to write a 1,000-word article derived from the headline Does the UK economy need rebalancing away from financial services?

Competition judge David Budworth, Deputy Financial Editor at The Times, said the standard of all five finalists was extremely high. “One essay stood out. Adeel Haque’s entry was well-written, well-argued and powerful, without resorting to hyperbole or cliché – exactly the approach adopted by The Times’ leader writers,” he said.

“Adeel is to be congratulated, particularly as there were a record number of entries this year,” said QE’s Head of Economics and Business, Liane Ryan. “Adeel was commended for his excellent reporting style and analysis, together with his good research.”

Adeel’s prize was a cheque for £500 which was presented at a lunch at the ifs London office. Adeel has also been offered work experience this summer at The Times.

Tune into Business was won by four Year 11 Economists: Bennie Jaderberg, John Otugade, Marco Saccardi and Nigethan Sathiyalingam. They were required to step into the shoes of a high-powered music executive and decide on the most viable artist to invest in out of a choice of three. They had to justify their decision using market data, financial information and other social variables.

“We are very proud of the boys’ achievement,” said Headmaster John Marincowitz. “To win such a prestigious competition in two consecutive years speaks of a consistently high level of performance.”

Alumnus and former QE teacher Tim Adnitt (OE 1988-1995) is creating new standards in Music Technology.

Tim is a Senior Product Designer/Product Owner at Native Instruments, a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based audio production.

Working in both London and Berlin, he leads the design of the Komplete Kontrol keyboard software, as well as contributing to the Maschine groove production system. Throughout 2015 he drove the design and development of Native Kontrol Standard. This extended plug-in format represents a new standard for integrating music software with hardware, enabling software instrument manufacturers to take advantage of the features of Komplete Kontrol and Maschine hardware. Native Instruments’ latest accolades include an Editor’s Choice award from Electronic Musician magazine for the Komplete Kontrol S Series keyboards.

Tim is supported at Native Instruments by one of his former Music Technology students at QE, Adil Ghanty (OE 2003-2010) who joined the company as a Product Designer in summer 2015. Adil’s appointment is testament, says Tim, to the strong tradition of Music and Music Technology at the School.

Alongside his work at Native instruments, Tim continues to work internationally as a sound designer and audio engineer.

He co-produced and mixed Dancing on Frith Street, an album by the critically acclaimed and popular British jazz big band Loose Tubes, which won Jazzwise magazine’s Archive Album of the Year 2010 (Critics’ Choice).

More recent credits include co-production and mixing of Loose Tubes' new album, Arriving, voted number-three Jazz Album of 2015 by both Jazzwise and The Guardian.

The traditional Founder’s day celebrations take place at the School on the third Saturday of June.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has received another national accolade, with the Sunday Times’ 21st annual Parent Power guide naming it as the country’s top boys’ state school.

QE this year maintained its position in the maintained schools league table, again taking second place overall behind The Henrietta Barnett School, a girls’ school in Hampstead.

The primary measure used in compiling the tables was the proportion of A-level grades at A*-B. HBS, on 98.4%, was closely followed by QE on 97.7%, with third-placed Wilson’s School in Wallington further behind on 93.0%. The table also recorded the percentage of A* and A grades at GCSE. Here, QE’s 90.1% was marginally ahead of HBS (90.0%).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This summer’s examination results at both A-level and GCSE were very strong indeed and represent a tribute to the sustained hard work of our students and also to the dedication and expertise of our staff. It is gratifying to see those efforts recognised nationally.”

QE’s success in the Parent Power table is the latest in a number of recent national endorsements. In March this year, it was ranked as the top state school in the Financial Times‘ top 1,000 schools table. The FT’s is the most demanding of all league tables as it measures the schools’ performance in difficult “core” academic subjects.

During the summer, research published by the Sutton Trust revealed that Queen Elizabeth’s sends a greater proportion of its students to Oxford or Cambridge than any other state school in England. The research also found that, in terms of placing students at the country’s leading 30 universities, QE is the top state school. In fact, it is the only state school among the top 37 schools nationwide, sending 87% of its pupils to the most selective universities.