Viewing archives for Alumni

Despite this year’s unique circumstances, Founder’s Day 2020 goes ahead this weekend – as an innovative virtual event combining tradition with fun.

Organisers from the School and The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (FQE) were determined that, the Covid-19 crisis notwithstanding, Founder’s Day 2020 should still be a day to remember.

Together they have laid on a rich digital programme that showcases creativity with entertainment: attractions include high-quality musical performances from some of the School’s leading musicians, an exclusive live video curry Cook-Along from a professional chef and a special message from Old Elizabethan Robert Rinder (TV’s Judge Rinder, OE 1989–1994).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Founder’s Day is always a highlight of the Queen Elizabeth’s School calendar – a unique opportunity to bring together the whole Elizabethan community, including boys and their families, as well as alumni, governors, staff, friends and neighbours. On Saturday 20th June 2020, we are doing that again, except that this year, it all takes place online.

“I warmly invite all our families, friends and supporters to join us at noon on Saturday for our virtual programme, which includes much to entertain and inform and will also feature some treasured Founder’s Day traditions, albeit adapted for an online audience. Do log on and join us for this enjoyable day!”

Founder’s Day is FQE’s single biggest annual fundraiser for the School. Mr Enright appealed for people to give especially generously this year, since the School is facing a coronavirus-related drop in income due to the reductions in external lettings. FQE have made it quick and easy to give by setting up a dedicated Virtual Founder’s Day 2020 JustGiving page.

“I am immensely grateful to all our families and alumni for their unceasing support for the School and for the financial generosity of so many,” added Mr Enright.

Even before the day, money has been flooding in, with more than 130 individual donations already bringing in around a third of the £20,000 target. These have been accompanied by comments such as:

• “Kudos to the FQE team for not letting COVID-19 hamper the annual celebration of the Founder’s Day event. Thank you.” – Pratyush Dutta Gupta, of Year 9
• “Well done to everyone at QEB – students and staff! The great work has touched, and continues to touch, many lives. Thank you.” – Joan Okhiria
• “I feel lucky to be part of this wonderful School. A huge thank you for all of your support – especially to those teachers who came in and looked after the keyworker children during this difficult time.” – Rhian Kotwinski

The main Founder’s Day presentation – launched as a YouTube Premiere – runs from noon until 12.30pm on Saturday 20th June.

That is followed after a short gap at 12.45pm by the Cook-Along, when chef Nik Gulhane will teach viewers how to cook a special Founder’s Day lunch in an exclusive-to-QE YouTube Premiere broadcast.

Anyone can take part, although Nik, Founder of North London’s Spice Monkey school of Indian cooking, is especially encouraging QE pupils to try their hand at cooking – and urging them to get sponsorship to raise funds for the School for doing so.

“I understand that sharp knives, cooking oil, boiling water and hot ovens may all be involved, so some pupils may need a little helping hand from adults to make sure it all happens safely,” said the Headmaster.

Ahead of Saturday, a special edition of The Queen’s Library’s Roundness podcast has been published. For current QE families, this will be available from the dedicated Roundness page on the eQE digital platform, but it will also be available from all normal podcast services, including Spotify and Apple.

The three stories in this podcast are based on the research of Dr John Marincowitz (Headmaster 1999-2011), who is writing a history of the School and its relation to English education more widely. Exploring the lives of three governors from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the episode sheds light on an under-explored area of the School’s history.

Creator, Surya Bowyer said: “The often dangerous escapades of these three men are stranger than fiction, and must be heard to be believed.”

• Donations may be made through the FQE Virtual Founder’s Day 2020 JustGiving page.

Old Elizabethan George Mpanga’s podcast has been nominated for a Peabody Award – one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious media prizes.

Have You Heard George’s podcast?, which last year swept the board at the British Podcast Awards, is the first British podcast ever to receive a nomination for a Peabody Award, a prize which recognises excellence in storytelling in broadcasting and digital media.

News of the nomination comes as George (OE 2002–2009) continues to garner media attention for his work during the Covid-19 crisis. Having introduced BBC Television’s coverage of the global One World: Together at Home concert last month, George has now spoken of his own lockdown experiences on BBC Radio Four’s World at One programme.

Interviewed by presenter Sarah Montague, George was on buoyant form, mentioning school twice as he set out how stimulating his time during lockdown has been and how the “group prayer sessions” set up by his mother were helping his family stay in touch with each other.

He explained that, whereas if he were to speak of his time at school, that would necessarily exclude some people, the current crisis was affecting everyone and was therefore creating a “common language” to which all could relate.

George then read out the first poem that he wrote about the coronavirus, which examines the opportunity for creativity as we are forced “indoors with our phones beside us – literally left to our own devices”.

The poem continues: “We are internationally connected and this brings us closer, as can be expected. That is why I am still in touch with my old schoolteachers: human beings are social creatures.”

Asked in conclusion if there was a sense in which, notwithstanding the terrible consequences of the pandemic for many, he was in some sense enjoying the lockdown experience, George concurred: “I do try and squeeze all the enjoyment I can out of life’s challenges: I think that has been the basis of my career.”

Have you heard George’s podcast? includes a mix of storytelling, music and fiction, with an original score by collaborator Benbrick (the songwriter, producer and composer also known as Paul Carter). George has explored themes and issues including education for disadvantaged young people, the Grenfell Tower fire, the Libyan slave trade and his personal relationship with Uganda and Britain.

Commissioned by the BBC, two chapters are currently available to listen to on BBC Sounds, with the third coming later this year. On receiving news of the nomination, George said: “It says a lot that the Peabody Awards have endorsed our podcast with a nomination – it’s the most experimental, creative thing we’ve ever done. People work their whole lives for this recognition, and we’re blessed to receive it so early – especially as the first British podcast nominee ever!

“We’re deeply grateful for every single listener who has brought us to this point, and honoured to be in the company of so many greats from across the media. Thank you to Benbrick, my team and the amazing people at BBC Sounds. If I sound like we’ve already won, it’s because this nomination is a victory.”

Out of nearly 1,300 entries, George’s podcast was one of the 60 that were nominated by a unanimous vote of the board of jurors. Thirty of the nominees will be announced as winners at a later date. The Peabody Awards, which were first awarded in the 1940s, were named after American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody.

Old Elizabethan George the Poet played to an audience of many millions when he opened BBC One’s coverage of last night’s One World: Together at Home concert.

George Mpanga (OE 2002–2009) performed a two-minute poem, Our Key Workers, paying tribute to those working for the NHS “like my mum” and other key workers who are keeping the country going during the pandemic lockdown.

Global Citizen, co-organisers of the eight-hour globally streamed benefit concert with the World Health Organization, today announced that the show raised £$128m (£102m) for coronavirus relief efforts.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “As ever, George’s words were both thoughtful and inspiring, his striking turn of phrase perfectly capturing the sacrifices being made by front-line workers and expressing back to them the nation’s gratitude.”

The concert, curated by Lady Gaga, featured global music stars performing in intimate settings as they self-isolate at home. They included the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Billie Eilish.

Songs were interspersed with messages from actors such as Matthew McConaughey and Lupita Nyong’o, as well as world figures, including Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

George’s poem refers to a wide variety of people in key roles, including not only health workers but also bus drivers, teachers, cleaners, carers and those in waste management. Several of these jobs and those of other key-worker roles are depicted in George’s video, which also shows deserted city streets.

With the refrain “People are doing what needs to be done, But this fight won’t be easily won”, the poem appeals to the public to abide by the current restrictions: “We need to help the cause, By keeping ourselves indoors.”

He mentions his friend “Anoop” – believed to be Anoop Raghavan (OE 2002-2008). He is one of huge number of Old Elizabethans in key-worker roles playing a critical role in fighting the pandemic locally, nationally and internationally.

The poem concludes: “Every one of us was given a unique purpose, so let’s honour the service of our key workers.”

Sixty-five senior QE boys have enrolled on a coaching programme run by alumnus Kam Taj.

Kam (Kamran Tajbaksh, OE 2004–2011), a performance coach, inspirational speaker and author, will help the pupils through an online course supported by more than 100 videos and activities.

After taking a first in the Manufacturing Engineering tripos at Churchill College, Cambridge, Kam secured a job as a management consultant with a global firm. However, he had begun doing performance coaching work while still at university, and in 2016 left the consultancy world to concentrate fully on coaching and motivational speaking.

Thanking Headmaster Neil Enright and Assistant Head Michael Feven (Pupil Development) for their support, Kam said: “QE is consistently named as one of the best schools in the UK, and I’m confident that this course will be an asset to the students’ academic and personal development, especially during these uncertain times.”

Kam is, in fact, a regular visitor to QE. In recent years, he has led a motivational skills workshop for Year 12 boys and helps pupils with their Oxbridge preparations.

Mr Enright said: “I am pleased that so many of our boys are taking advantage of Kam’s expertise by signing up for his Exam Success Academy online programme. Kam is both an Elizabethan and a very gifted performance coach, and although there are, of course, no public examinations this year, I am sure that the principles the boys will learn on the course will stand them in good stead for the future.”

The programme focuses on eight principles: time management; mindset management; study tools & techniques; on-the-day performance; academic & personal support groups; sleep optimisation; physical activity & movement, and nutrition & hydration.

Kam had been due to visit the School last month to talk to Year 12 on Student Life at Oxbridge (discussing topics ranging from choosing a college, the academic intensity of Oxbridge, student life beyond academic matters, and common traps that students fall into in their first year), but the visit had to be shelved because of the Covid-19 restrictions.

It would have followed three workshops held earlier in the Spring Term and run by Mr Feven, as well as Head of Year 12 Helen Davies and Head of English Robert Hyland (both Oxford graduates), that were focused on providing Year 12 boys with advice on applying to Oxbridge. The workshops take place each year, although Kam’s talk was to have been a new addition to this programme.

Surgeon and former School Captain Ash Kalraiya is one of only 11 Fellows appointed for 2020 to the prestigious NHS Innovation Accelerator. The honour recognises his work as founder and CEO of MediShout – a company dedicated to helping hospitals solve their logistics problems.

While celebrating news of the fellowship, Ash (OE 1997-2004; School Captain 2003) has in recent weeks turned MediShout’s attention towards helping to meet the huge challenge posed to the NHS by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We have currently adapted our platform so hospitals and GP practices can report all Covid-19-related issues, such as not enough PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], a need for more stock or equipment and issues with new patterns of working.

“We just had 150 GP practices ask to sign up and several NHS Trusts, so it’s super-busy as you can imagine! However, we’ve managed to improve things for hospitals using our technology so far, which is nice to know.”

After leaving QE, Ash read Medicine at Imperial College London from 2004-2010, also completing a BSc in Management at Imperial as part of his studies.

Currently an Orthopaedic Registrar with NHS North West London, Ash says: “I’ve worked in the NHS over the past decade, and during that time realised my biggest frustrations were when logistical issues (like missing stock, or broken equipment, printers not working etc) delayed me every day and meant I had less time to spend with patients.”

MediShout’s website recounts that a particular turning point for Ash came when several of his operations had to be cancelled one morning because a lightbulb in theatre was broken. Even more frustratingly, several members of staff had known of the problem, but not reported it.

“The NHS has actually seen a 32% increase in cancelled operations due to equipment issues, so it’s a huge, neglected problem,” he says. “So, I created a solution called MediShout: an app for staff to instantly report such issues to the person or team who creates change.”

The MediShout app and platform uses cloud-based technology to connect people, helpdesks, smartphones, tablets, IT systems and RFID tagging. NHS staff use the app to make instantaneous reports of any logistical issue that threatens to hamper them in their work, and the system’s algorithms then ensure this information gets to the right people.

Furthermore, the combination of big data and artificial intelligence means that Medishout can “predict problems before they even happen,” Ash adds, thus driving long-term improvements, in addition to identifying the issues most affecting patient care so that these can be fixed first.

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), now in its fifth year, is an NHS England initiative delivered in partnership with England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs). It recognises and supports those offering high-impact solutions supporting the priority areas for the NHS in England, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

The NIA’s recognition, which is both for him as a Fellow and for MediShout, follows several years’ hard work in building up the business. “We started to get some traction with quite a few hospitals, so got accepted to the quite competitive NHS Innovation Accelerator. It is a huge honour to be accepted as one of the Fellows,” he says.

The NIA’s rigorous selection process includes review by over 100 clinical, patient and commercial assessors, an informal review by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), interviews, and due diligence.

Concerned about the impact that the cancellation of this year’s A-level examinations might have on current QE boys, Ash has been in touch with the School to offer them his encouragement.

“Journeys to success are long, usually a lifetime. So, A-levels are a stepping stone, not the final destination,” he points out, adding that not having the desired A-level grades on their CV will not stop boys from fulfilling their big ambitions in life. “It’s ok not to succeed every time. It took me five years to get into the QE rugby A team. I failed my first-year exams at medical school. I failed both my surgical exams first time. I’m pretty happy with my journey, as failing and learning is what pushed me to keep going!”

Ash keeps in close touch with old QE friends. “My funniest and most active WhatsApp group is with friends from my year – Joe Besser, Mat Houghton, Anil Haldar, Ed Hughes, Gideon Adler, and Deepon Sen Gupta (he didn’t actually go to QE, but most people assumed he did!).

“Joe is in Australia and visiting him in 2015 is when I met my now wife, Sonal Lodhia, who moved to London. It’s a funny old world but I can indirectly thank him, that I’m being well fed during this Covid-19 lockdown!”

Kiran Patel is enjoying a highly successful medical career that has taken in work and study in locations ranging from Harvard to the London hospital where he was born.

Now a Clinical Research Fellow and a cardiology specialist registrar at the National Heart and Lung Institute based at Imperial College, Kiran (OE 2000–2007) is a member of the Royal College of Physicians. The winner of a string of prizes and awards for his work and research, he graduated from King’s College London with a First in 2010 and then from the college’s medical school with triple distinction three years later.

Kiran says he has “very fond memories” of his time at QE, where he was in Leicester House and where he was appointed a Senior Vice-Captain.

He was in the form group of current Headmaster Neil Enright, starting from September 2002 when Mr Enright arrived at QE as a new member of staff. “I remember lining up outside room A in 2002 on his first day as Head of Geography and form tutor for 9L. He subsequently remained our form tutor for three years, bringing us much-needed consistency after having had four form tutors in the preceding first two years at QE. This was in addition to our Geography lessons with Mr Enright during these years and again in Sixth Form.

“After QE I went on to study medicine at King’s with an elective – an eight-week period built into the curriculum to allow students to explore health service outside of the UK – at Harvard medical school. I deliberately chose to pursue a laboratory-based project investigating cardiovascular development in zebrafish, which was inspired by my undergraduate BSc research at St Thomas’ Hospital. The experience afforded me the opportunity to develop scientific skills in preparation for applying for an academic foundation programme after graduating from medical school. As one would expect, Harvard provided a highly intellectually stimulating environment that carried with it a palpable ‘buzz’. One could sense that ground-breaking, cutting edge research was being conducted all around the medical campus.

“Upon my return to the UK, I was surprised that my short undergraduate project at Harvard was short-listed for the Young Investigator Award at the London Cardiovascular Society, and found myself competing against doctoral candidates with considerably more experience than me.” He was named runner-up for this award.

On graduating from medical school in 2013, Kiran was offered two academic posts, one at Cambridge University and the other at UCL. “I chose to remain in London to pursue my interest in academic cardiology, a decision I believe reaped its rewards when I was able to present my research into inherited heart disease internationally.

“My first posting as a junior doctor was at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital, where I had done my work experience placement in 2005. It felt somewhat of a homecoming, and I was glad that I was able to give something, however little, back to the local Barnet community after being schooled in the area and having done my work experience there as well.

“I then rotated to UCLH [University College Hospital] in 2014 – the hospital where I was born! – and then another local hospital, Northwick Park, in 2015.

“The last three years have been particularly busy; in 2017 I passed exams to gain membership of the Royal College of Physicians, applied for and started specialist training in cardiology in north west London, and married my wife, Jaime.

“Thankfully, we had a month after our wedding and before I started practicing as a cardiology registrar at Northwick Park and Central Middlesex Hospital in October 2017, so we decided to spend that time on honeymoon exploring Australia.

“In 2018 I temporarily paused my clinical training to pursue a PhD at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, investigating the impact of fat and obesity on cardiac electrophysiology (the sub-specialty of cardiology that focuses on management of rhythm problems).

“My work spans the spectrum of bench-to-bedside-to-population spectrum with three related but well-defined projects. It is a particularly relevant topic given the increasing prevalence of obesity and heart disease, and the health and economic burden that they represent.”

He and his team hope that their research will provide a mechanistic insight into obesity-related heart disease, and determine how weight loss can cause favourable changes to heart function.

“I am currently supervising two undergraduate BSc students and will be presenting some of this research at a European conference later this year.

“My longer-term ambition is to complete sub-specialty training in cardiac electrophysiology in London and remain committed to my teaching and academic interests.”

Kiran continues to do ad hoc shifts at Northwick Park Hospital. He lives in Stanmore, where he and his wife bought a house last year.

“We see our family regularly and I have remained in touch with several OEs, although this has largely been through work; in 2018 there were at least 12 OEs working at Northwick Park Hospital across different specialties, including me in cardiology and others in respiratory, emergency medicine and acute medicine. It felt like a QE reunion and was a privilege to work alongside my OE peers as doctors, and to be able to teach, support or advise whenever required of me.”

Kiran also fondly recalls being QE’s Guest of Honour at the Founder’s Day church service and Roll Call in 2014.

“It is always wonderful to hear from my alma mater and see that QE continues to grow strength to strength,” he adds.