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QE parents and staff have reduced the number of low-occupancy car journeys on the school run after signing up in numbers for a new app aimed at reducing local traffic and cutting CO₂ emissions.

It is only six months since the School partnered with HomeRun and launched its app with parents and staff, but already the single-family car usage rate has been cut by 9%, thanks mainly to a 22% increase in journeys shared.

HomeRun’s impact report states that QE families have thus saved some 10 tonnes of CO₂ and 22,633 school run miles – equivalent to 481 mature trees or 0.9 trips around the equator.

The high level of participation – the families of 526 pupils have signed up – has unlocked a £1,000 grant to the School from HomeRun. The money is being invested into QE’s Greenpower team, which builds electric racing cars.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My thanks go to all parents and colleagues who have signed up: this is a real environmental success and a great start to our involvement with HomeRun. As a School, we seek to be good neighbours, and these figures are a ‘win’ both for us and for residents on nearby streets, where there is a reduction in both pollution and vehicle movements.

“Many of our boys already travel to QE on School coaches or on public transport, which we encourage. This app helps people with logistics and can result in reduced fuel costs for car-users, as well, of course, as improving the environment more generally.”

“I know that there is much enthusiasm about the scheme among the families of our new Year 7 intake joining us in September, so there is scope to make even greater savings in the future. I hope that even more parents from other year groups will get involved.”

The scheme seeks to promote more sustainable travel methods, in particular by helping people car-share where they feel that using public transport is not a viable option.

HomeRun collects anonymised data on school run journeys, showing how far pupils travel, what type of transport they use, and how much carbon the journey emits. The app then promotes alternatives to low-occupancy car usage for the school run such as:

• Journey-sharing
• Travel buddies
• Cycling initiatives
• Park & stride (where families living far from a school are asked to park a ten-minute walk away and then complete their journey on foot, bringing health benefits as well as reducing emissions and local congestion).

Finally, the HomeRun app creates a secure, dedicated space for people to share travel information. Those who opt in can connect with other families in their locality, since the app shows people how far away other users live, without revealing their actual address. It allows the School to update parents when boys will be ready to leave Queen’s Road outside the normal School day – after clubs and activities, for example, or when returning from a School trip.

Mr Enright welcomed the grant, which has gone to QE’s Greenpower racing team: “It is an exciting initiative, which is developing skills in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as nurturing enthusiasm for sustainable technologies among our boys.”

• The photo of the boys in a car was taken during a trip last term to the Warner Bros studios in Leavesden, when they tried for size the Ford Anglia made to fly by Arthur Weasley in one of the Harry Potter books.

QE has teamed up with education technology specialists Atom Learning to support primary school children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Children aged 7–11 who are eligible for Pupil Premium will have free access to online learning resources and to preparation for grammar school entrance tests.

The new support programme, which is open to both girls and boys, helps children extend their learning, developing their core academic skills and building their confidence.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “At QE, we are firmly committed to the principles of meritocracy and of inclusivity. Our admissions process is strictly meritocratic: anyone can apply for places here, irrespective of their financial background. Furthermore, although we welcome pupils from a wide geographical area, QE is very much part of the local community – a Barnet school, just as our 1573 royal charter envisaged. We are, therefore, especially keen to encourage social mobility in areas close to the School.

“This partnership with Atom is about removing barriers: we are equipping disadvantaged children to thrive in their education, helping to ensure that they do not miss out on opportunities. While families do not have to be aspiring to selective secondary schools to take part in the programme, we hope that it will help further broaden access to grammar schools, making them even more socially representative. We naturally hope, too, that some of these families will consider QE for their sons.”

Atom Learning provides an online learning and 11+ preparation platform, giving access to a range of fun and engaging materials to help children during Key Stage 2. It is used by over 100,000 families across the UK, including 14,400 families with children preparing for 11+ exams.

With some families nationwide paying for private tuition and coaching to prepare their children for grammar school entrance tests, the partnership between QE and Atom, with the free support that it offers, should help create a more level playing field for applicants. The programme is open to any child who has been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, as well as looked after children.

It is designed to benefit all children, whatever their current attainment level; it may also be helpful in familiarising those hoping to apply to academically selective secondary schools with some of the topics and skills that they might encounter in those processes. The programme will not prepare candidates specifically for the QE entrance test.

QE is one of more than 20 grammar schools across the UK with which Atom is running partnerships. The value of the programme nationally is put at £1.1m. Those who qualify will be given free access to Atom Home, usually priced at £575.90 per year.

Atom Learning gained prominence a few years ago for raising the largest-ever Series-A funding round for a UK EdTech company. Its Chief Operating Officer, Flo Simpson, who leads its Outreach and Access department, said: “At Atom, our mission is to make exceptional education accessible to all, and our partnership with Queen Elizabeth’s will bring our award-winning learning technology to even more families. Atom empowers children to not only excel on their 11+ exam day, but to build a lasting love for learning and confidence that will pave their path to success throughout their lives. We’re dedicated to widening access to incredible education resources, and we’re delighted that grammar schools are putting pupil premium support at the top of their agendas.”

• To access the programme delivered through the partnership between QE and Atom Learning, click here.
• For families not eligible for the programme, access to the same resources can be purchased directly from Atom.
• Free QE entrance test sample papers are available to all on the School’s website.

Past, present and future came together to make Founder’s Day in Queen Elizabeth’s School’s 450^th anniversary year an unforgettable occasion.

Always a highlight of the School calendar, Founder’s Day this year featured a string of anniversary-related special events, including the burial of a time capsule, as well as time-honoured traditions, from the reading of the School Chronicle to a cricket match between the current School XI and alumni.

The afternoon fete, run by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s, drew the biggest numbers in recent memory, while there was a moving retirement ceremony for Barrie Martin MBE, QE’s long-standing Chairman of Governors, who steps down from the role this summer.

The event, which raises funds for the School, was a financial success, too. Having raised their target to £25,000, the Friends saw this figure comprehensively beaten: the current total stands at £41,042.48, including more than £28,000 on the day itself.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our anniversary slogan is ‘thriving from ancient roots’ – and Founder’s Day 2023 exemplified this to the full. In the morning we reflected together on our long and rich history in the thanksgiving service at the parish church, while the happy crowds at our colourful afternoon fete were a reminder of just how vibrant and successful is the Elizabethan community of today.

“Barrie Martin made an immeasurable contribution to that success: the 24 years since he became Chairman of Governors have seen QE rise steadily to its position today as one of the UK’s leading schools, and generations of boys owe him a debt of gratitude.

“Fittingly, the burying of the time capsule on Staplyton Field gave us an opportunity to look to the future, as any organisation must do if it is to maintain its success. The artefacts in the capsule include predictions from our current Year 7 about what the School might be like in 2073, when we hope the capsule will be opened on QE’s 500^th anniversary.

“My thanks go to the small army of people – including FQE volunteers, staff and pupils – who made the day such a success, and to the many who contributed so generously to maximising FQE’s income, which will be invested in the School.

“I hope many will be inspired to help in the future: you can put the third Saturday of June in 2024 in your diaries now!” Mr Enright added.

The day began with an innovation: a procession from Tudor Hall – the School’s home from its founding through to 1932 – which arrived at St John the Baptist Church promptly for the 11am service.

There, Giles Martin (OE 1992–1999) the son of the Chairman of Governors and the Programme Leader for Higher Education Practice at Bath Spa University’s School of Education, reminded the boys and wider congregation of the words of Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as it you were to live forever.”

Reflecting on his memories and experiences at the School in music, debating and sport, he stressed the importance of teamwork. He was part of QE’s undefeated water polo team of the late 1990s.

After staff and boys made their way to Queen’s Road, the Roll Call and Reading of the School Chronicle took place in front of Main Building, with two paragraphs added to the latter’s account of QE’s history, covering the royal visit in November by The Duke of Gloucester and the 450^th anniversary celebrations, including the March service in Westminster Abbey.

School Captain Darren Lee, of Year 12, stepped forward to fill the deep hole dug for the time capsule. This included:

• A letter from the Headmaster to the Elizabethans of 2073;
• Darren’s reflections on the 450th celebrations;
• 450th memorabilia including a 450 badge, documents and flowers from the abbey preserved in resin by Art teacher Jeanne Nicodemus;
• A copy of the recent whole-school photo;
• The Year 7 pupil’s predictions – intended as a surprise for the Elizabethans of the future, it can however be noted that the boys predict technology, and AI in particular, will radically change education methods!

The Barrie Martin retirement ceremony included the presentation of a book of photos from his years of service, a framed sketch of the School and other mementos. Flowers were presented to his wife, Perin, as well as another of the resin cubes containing flowers from the 450th anniversary service (supplied by the florist who also provided flowers for the Queen’s funeral and King’s coronation).

A photographic portrait of Barrie will be placed in the ‘crush hall’ in the Main Building upon his retirement. It was taken by the School’s photographer Eleanor Bentall, who has also taken portraits of subjects including Boris Johnson, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, Clare Balding and Tinie Tempah.

Thanking those present, Barrie, who is also Chairman of FQE, recounted how he came on board with the Friends after being approached by FQE stalwart Diane Mason. He joined the Governing Body in 1989, having been invited by Eamonn Harris (Headmaster 1984–1999): “I wasn’t stupid enough to say no to the Headmaster!”

Recalling some of the key milestones in the years that followed, he said he was unable to thank all those “exceptional people” that he had worked with, who had “made what I did possible”. Particular thanks were, however, given to the three Vice-Chairmen of Governors he worked alongside: the late Sid Clark; Ken Cooper; and Nick Gaskell, who will succeed Barrie as Chairman on 1 September this year.

The 1pm–5pm fete brought together current and past pupils with their families, as well as families of boys who will join Year 7 in September, large numbers of Old Elizabethans from different eras, local residents, former staff and other supporters.

The ever-popular international food tents were extended this year, while there was a range of impressive culinary creations battling it out in the Cake Competition. Additional attractions included a VEX Robotics tent – popular with parents as much as anyone! – and Ju Jitsu, where, rumour has it, Barrie Martin was seen performing a martial arts hold.

Away from the Stapylton Field, the QE Collections mini-exhibition included a rare opportunity to see the original 1573 Royal Charter that brought about the founding of the School. A particular draw was a book-signing by Dr John Marincowitz (Headmaster 1999–2011), whose new history of the School was published in March. This had to be extended due to the long queues. He said: “I met many lovely boys, old boys, parents and even a descendant of former Master James Barcock (1689-1719)! Such a variety of really interesting people.”

At the back of the School, the Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match on Third Field saw the old boys claiming what Head of Cricket Richard Scally described as “a well-deserved victory”. He added: “Both openers for the OEs – Omar Mohamed and Shahil Sheth – scored quickly, amassing 50 runs each and setting a challenging total of 159. In reply, the School lost early wickets and the run rate became too high, and although there was some strong resistance from Year 12’s Rohan Belavadi and Ranvir Sinha, it all proved too little too late, and the old boys won by 39 runs.”

• Donations can still be made through the dedicated Founder’s Day JustGiving page. The fundraising total includes money taken on the day, online giving, sponsorship from a House Music competition on the eve of Founder’s Day and the sale of advertising.
• The full-colour, 56-page fete programme includes a range of features, as well as advertisements from donors and supporters. You can read it here.

Sixth-formers from QE and Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School lent their support to efforts to clean up the River Brent in their battle against the scourge of litter.

The litter pick in Dollis Valley Park was the latest activity for QE Together – a Sixth Form partnership between the two Barnet schools formed early in 2022 that has a focus on projects to support the local community. As well as litter picks, QE Together has undertaken a primary school assembly and a concert for nursing home residents.

For this activity, they first worked in small teams comprising pupils from both schools in various areas of the park, before converging on Dollis Brook, a tributary of the Brent, where they laboured with Ben Morris, founder of CURB (Clean Up the River Brent), to clean up the waterway.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), said: “I congratulate all the students for working hard and persevering to complete what was, at times, an unpleasant task.

“We were both exhilarated and a little depressed at how much rubbish the QE Together team pulled out of a tiny section of the Dollis Brook. Thanks also to Ben from CURB for the inspiration!”

The afternoon began with the groups of three or four students amassing litter such as plastic bags snagged in brambles and bottles buried in the earth. They used bags, gloves and litter-pickers provided by the venture’s sponsors, Signature Care Homes.

Omar Siddick, of Year 12, said: “We were struck by the sheer amount of commercial packaging we found littering the grass, hedges and riverbank. Cans of beer and drink were among the most frequent findings, but we uncovered even more obscure items, such as derelict tents and car batteries.”

With stage 1 of the day complete, and nine or ten bin bags duly tied up and piled together, the whole Sixth Form team came together to tackle the brook.

Seyi Esan, also of Year 12, said: “With the help of Mr Morris, we were able to recover a host of surprising items from the riverbed, such as: a heater; two big trolleys; one small trolley, a plastic tricycle and a bike.

“Retrieving these (and more) items seemed easy, but pulling them up the steep riverbank proved more difficult than anticipated,” Seyi said, adding that teamwork was the key to completing the job successfully.

At the end of the day, everything collected was placed next to the public bin in the park, ready for the municipal waste collectors.

It had been, Omar concluded, “a productive and enriching exercise”, both because of the public service performed in collecting the litter and because it provided the QE boys with a welcome opportunity to collaborate with the girls.

Senior boys from QE and their counterparts at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School went on a litter pick – the latest event in the community-oriented QE Together partnership.

Shocked by the amount of plastic waste discarded in the Dollis Valley, twenty sixth-formers from the two schools decided to take matters into their own hands, heading into the great outdoors armed with protective gloves and bin bags.

Since the start of 2022, QE Together, a new partnership led by the QE and QEGS sixth-formers themselves, has organised a series of successful community events.

Sushant Deshpande, who is in Year 13 at QE, said: “Our motivations were high and we were enthusiastic to clean up the park.

“We managed to collect quite a lot of litter and thoroughly enjoyed the process, with both schools having a memorable time.

“We look forward to doing more events in the future, perhaps even involving more schools within our community.

“We’ve taken pride in giving back to our wider circle and have had multiple successes so far. We hope to sustain these initiatives for many more generations of QE Together,” he added.

Pupils from the two schools have met regularly over the past two terms, organising a string of events and activities:

• Singing at Abbey Ravenscroft Park Nursing Home in a joint visit that built on a tradition of past visits by boys from QE
• Running a joint assembly for Year 6 children at Whitings Hill Primary School, where the team discussed the move to secondary school, including both its challenges and the things to look forward to
• Campaigning together for safer roads.

Crispin Bonham-Carter, Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement), said the QE Together team were grateful to their sponsors, Signature Care Homes, who donated the gloves and bin bags for the litter pick.

Boys from QE picked up an existing pre-pandemic partnership with one girls’ school and staged a joint concert as part of their developing links with another.

Year 8 and Year 10 pupils from QE met their counterparts from The Henrietta Barnett School for debating – part of the well-established academic partnership between the two schools.

And QE Together – a recent initiative led by sixth-formers at QE and near-neighbour Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School – gained fresh momentum with the staging of the joint concert for residents at a nursing home.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “QE is very much part of the community and, as such, we value our local partnerships highly. Our academic links with HBS give our boys the chance to flex their intellectual muscles against their peers in activities such as debating, while the focus of our link with QEGS is on community action.

“In addition, both these connections offer our boys the opportunity to socialise and study with girls, thus better preparing them for university and careers.”

QE’s Head of Academic Enrichment, Nisha Mayer, said: “The Year 8s enjoyed an animated and enjoyable morning at HBS. They debated in mixed teams in breakout rooms before assembling for a grand final.”

Topics for the Year 8 event included ‘school strikes’ for climate change, and rich countries accepting more refugees.

The motion of the final debate – made up of the best debaters from both schools selected from the earlier sessions – was the prospect of extending the school day. “Unsurprisingly perhaps, the opposition won the debate, but the proposers certainly made an excellent case for making up time lost during the pandemic,” said Mrs Mayer.

Year 10 QE boys travelled to HBS for a preparatory workshop for their debates, which included agreeing on the motions to be discussed. The girls then came to QE for the debates themselves, with the final held in the new Friends’ Recital Hall.

For QE Together, a concert took place at Barnet’s Abbey Ravenscroft Park Nursing Home, involving musicians from both QE and QEGS.

Organised by QE Vice-Captain Dylan Domb, of Year 12, who is a regular voluntary helper at the home, the lunchtime event included music for clarinet played by the girls and songs sung by QE’s TTBB Vocal Group.

QE musician and fellow Vice-Captain Jao-Yong Tsai, of Year 12, said: “QE Together is aiming to foster greater connections with all aspects of the local community, and the presentation of a charity concert at a nursing home within walking distance of both schools was a strong illustration of such goals.

“Students at both schools have long enjoyed volunteering locally, and integrating the arts into both that and a project that brings the two schools together is but the beginning of a growing relationship with people in the local area.”

QE Together has plans for further events, including a Big Litter Pick.

QE expanded its series of popular challenges for local primary school children this year, adding a humanities day to the programme.

The events, which are part of QE’s partnerships work with the local community, are aimed at giving Year 5 girls and boys an early taste of secondary school education.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are pleased to support local primary schools in this way.

“I know that our staff and pupils involved in running these enrichment activities greatly enjoy the opportunity to meet the visiting children.”

The first of the three days was the ever-popular Primary Forensics Workshop. The visitors were tasked with completing a number of experiments and analyses to work out who had murdered the Headmaster!

There were stations where the children could undertake: hair and fibre analysis using a microscope; fingerprint analysis, and blood spatter analysis (with a blood substitute).

The pupils worked to solve the ‘crime’, using the evidence they collected to build a case, while also weighing up the respective motives of the suspects.

Boys from Year 12 helped staff run this workshop, engaging with the children at each station.

In the Maths and English Challenge, the girls and boys had to solve a series of games and puzzles that ranged from a cross-number round to a session looking at composing and performing poetry.

There was a focus on teamwork and collaboration. Each team had the support of a QE Year 7 pupil.

Special plaudits went to Foulds School pupils, who achieved a near-clean sweep of the prizes, having impressed across the various disciplines on the day.

The new humanities day hosted by the History, Geography and Economics departments comprised two separate activities.

Firstly, teams were given the challenge of designing a castle on paper. They had to base their design on a certain set of criteria and follow a budget, requiring them to decide which features they wanted to prioritise.

They then faced a number of scenarios, presenting both challenges and opportunities for their fortifications. Could their castle and kingdom survive?

“This was a way of exploring history and strategy in a fun and engaging way,” said Mr Enright. “The Year 5 pupils also had to adapt their plans as the scenarios unfolded, which meant teams had to communicate well and quickly make decisions.”

There was then a Sustainability Challenge run jointly by Geography and Economics. The children had to work in groups and devise a sustainable product. They designed their product, chose a logo and decided on their target market. Then each group presented to the other children in attendance. Among the ideas generated were: a mobile phone where the case is a solar panel and charges the phone, and a ‘plastic’ bottle where the bottle itself is biodegradable.

“Our staff were really impressed with the confidence shown by the children in their presentations and by the creativity they brought to bear in designing their products,” said the Headmaster.

Participating Barnet primary schools this year included: Underhill, Whitings Hill, Christchurch, and Foulds.

QE played a central role in the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, with the School’s new Friends’ Recital Hall serving as the main venue and its own musicians performing in a special charity concert there.

Pupils and staff performed to support victims of the war in Ukraine, with donations going to UNICEF and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

Joshua Ballance, artistic director of the festival, which is now in its second year, told interviewer Nick Jones, of The Barnet Society, that QE had blazed a trail for others to follow. “It is a real breakthrough for the festival to stage a showcase concert by a school orchestra and jazz band, and we hope other schools will join us next year.

“To demonstrate our involvement with local schools, we shall be running master classes at Queen Elizabeth’s with some of the professional musicians who have performed at the festival, ” said Mr Ballance. “We want to extend our reach-out programme and offer master classes at other schools. Our link with Queen Elizabeth’s demonstrates the partnership we would like to create.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “QE is very much a part of Barnet, so it was splendid to support this new festival bringing professional music to our community. I was also pleased that our own musicians were involved and that we were able to showcase our new facilities to music-lovers beyond our immediate Elizabethan family. I look forward to many similar events in the future.”

During the charity concert, QE’s Director of Music, Ruth Partington, joined Year 12 pupil Jao-Yong Tsai and the School’s accompanist, Tadashi Imai, in a performance of Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio, for clarinet, viola and piano.

There was a performance of Brahms’ Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, i. Allegro & ii. Adagio. The Jazz Band and QE’s junior jazz group, conducted by Music teacher Caroline Grint, performed a medley for the concert’s finale that included Rock Around the Clock, Georgia on My Mind, and Bandstand Boogie.

Following the charity concert, audiences returned to the 230-seat recital hall – part of the School’s new Music complex officially opened in May – for the festival’s final two events.

First the Mad Song ensemble of young musicians, directed by Mr Ballance, performed a range of music by modern composers Missy Mazzoli, Kaija Saariaho, Joan Tower, Richard Causton, Barbara Monk Feldman, and Steve Reich. The evening was acclaimed by Bernard Hughes, reviewer for specialist website theartsdesk.com as an “ambitious and intriguing concert”.

More familiar musical fare came in the final concert held in The Friends’ Recital Hall, when cellist Ben Tarlton and pianist Robin Green played Beethoven’s Sonata in F for Cello and Piano, Nadia Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano.

Founder’s Day 2022 has been acclaimed as a resounding success, with large numbers of old boys among the crowds and the entire QE community giving generously, easily outstripping the fundraising target.

The first in-person Founder’s Day since before the pandemic proved a considerable draw, with large numbers coming along to enjoy the fun and family atmosphere at the afternoon fete organised by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. The formal aspects of the day – which this year included a memorial service for former Headmaster Eamonn Harris (1984–1999) – also ran smoothly, as the School marked its rich traditions in style.

Founder’s Day is always the biggest fundraiser in the School calendar, and this year was no exception. As of today, total takings stand at £32,392.04, some 62 per cent higher than the £20,000 target.

Current Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a very happy occasion and a great celebration of the School’s 449th birthday enjoyed by all parts of our community. I was particularly pleased to see so many Old Elizabethans – more than I can remember on similar occasions in the past – returning to their School.

“My thanks go to all the boys, staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make the day a great success on this important day for the School and for FQE. I also wish to express my gratitude to everyone who donated money: once again, the Elizabethan community has done us proud!”

After the morning Thanksgiving Service in Chipping Barnet Parish Church attended by Year 7 boys, their families and staff, pupils and teachers walked to the School for the traditional Roll Call and reading of the School Chronicle (an annually updated account of QE’s history) in front of Main Building.

After that, as the fete began on Stapylton Field, the memorial service for Mr Harris commenced in The Friends’ Recital Hall, which was officially opened last month. Mr Harris died in late 2019 and the memorial service was postponed from the early days of the pandemic.

The service featured music played by pupils including pieces by Brahms and Henryk Wieniawski.

After a welcome from Mr Enright, Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin MBE read Wordsworth’s A Poet! He hath put his heart to school.

There were tributes from two teachers who worked under Mr Harris: Eric Houston, a QE teacher from 1976 who was Second Master from 1999–2010, and Dr John Marincowitz, who went on to become his successor, serving as Headmaster from 1999 until his retirement in 2011.

“It was lovely to welcome back so many former pupils and members of staff for the Eamonn Harris memorial, alongside members of Eamonn’s family and friends,” said Mr Enright. “It was fitting that the re-arranged memorial took place on Founder’s Day. The current format of bringing everyone together for reflection and celebration on the third Saturday in June was reinstated by him.”

The fete, which took the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as its theme, featured an array of food stalls, as well as attractions to suit all tastes, including Indian dancers, performances from School musicians and renditions of Shakespearean monologues from Year 8 dramatists.

The £32,392.04 total raised includes money collected at the fete, as well as sponsorship funds from the inter-House Music and The Voice concert challenge on Friday and online donations via the main Founder’s Day JustGiving page.

The afternoon also saw the playing of the Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match – an annual  Founder’s Day fixture for Old Elizabethans and current senior pupils – on Third Field at the rear of the School.

During the morning, the guest speaker at the service was Michael Stewart CBE (OE 1978–1985) whose career has been in in national security-related jobs, with a particular focus on counter-terrorism. He is currently the Director of Prevent, one of the four pillars of the UK’s counter-terrorist strategy.

In an entertaining address, he wove together examples from popular culture, social media, the natural world, his career and the School. His theme was that “appearances can be deceiving” – but only for a short time, since the truth comes out eventually. The School may look very similar to how it did in his day as you walk up to the Main Building, he pointed out to the congregation, but it is a place transformed and so much better. He noted the crucial role Eamonn Harris had played in this.

Other VIP guests included: the Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Cllr Alison Moore; the Representative Deputy Lieutenant of the London Borough of Barnet, Martin Russell, and the Headteacher of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Violet Walker.

Old Elizabethans present during the day spanned all generations. Among them were a group of 17 celebrating 50 years since leaving in 1972; they have been meeting up with each other on Founder’s Day since the turn of the millennium. There was also a visit from Sir Lucian Grainge (OE 1971–1978), chairman and chief executive officer of the global music company, Universal Music Group, and his brother Justin Grainge (OE 1976–81).

Opportunity beckons for the QE community to come together to celebrate and to raise funds for future facilities on one of the most important occasions in the School year – Founder’s Day.

For the first time in three years, the day’s events, including the popular afternoon fete, are being held live and in-person. Founder’s Day takes place this Saturday, 18th June.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is wonderful that we can meet each other physically again after the pandemic-affected years. Founder’s Day is the School’s biggest individual fundraiser, so, as well as being a splendid occasion of celebration and community, it is the source of much-needed funds that will be used to enhance facilities and opportunities for current boys and those who will enter our doors in future years.”

Those unable to attend in person can still make what will be a valued donation, however large or small through the School’s JustGiving page, which has been retained for this purpose, Mr Enright added.

This year’s events starts tomorrow, Friday, with an inter-House Music and The Voice Challenge which will be live-streamed. Each house will have an hour to put on a concert which must feature not just music but also a vocal element. The challenge is for each house to raise as much sponsorship as possible, and the School has created online giving pages for each house, listed below, along with the times of the performances.

Money raised from this will be divided between the School’s planned Robert Dudley Studio – a 104-seat drama and spoken-word studio – and the cost of commissioning a piece of music for next year’s QE 450^th anniversary celebrations.

“The music challenge promises to provide a plenitude of high-quality performances which display the boys’ creativity alongside their musical talent. More broadly, the Founder’s Day events themselves provide pageantry, fun, fellowship and a celebration of all that is great and good about the Elizabethan community,” said Mr Enright.

Founder’s Day itself will commence on Saturday morning with the traditional church service for Year 7 and invited guests at Chipping Barnet Parish Church. This will be followed by the Roll Call and reading of the School Chronicle, in front of the School’s Main Building.

The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s (FQE) Fete will feature food and drink for all tastes, as well as stalls and games. It is promised that some members of staff will be found in somewhat less dignified circumstances than usual – stuck in the stocks!

There will be music to enjoy, as well as Shakespearean monologues delivered by Year 8 dramatists. The afternoon will also feature the Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match, played annually on Founder’s Day by Old Elizabethans and current senior pupils.

On an equally celebratory yet more reflective note, there will be a service for those who wish to honour the memory of Eamonn Harris (Headmaster 1984-1999). Mr Harris died in late 2019: a memorial service planned in 2020 had to be called off because of the pandemic.

“Eamonn was one of the most significant figures in QE recent history,” says Mr Enright. “He raised the stature of the School enormously, laying the foundations for our current success, and it was also under his leadership that the FQE, as we know it today, was born.”

The day is scheduled to come to a conclusion at 4.30pm. “My thanks go to all those involved who have worked so hard to bring everything together for what, I am sure, will be a great celebration,” said Mr Enright.

“By coming to the fete, or sponsoring the music challenge, you are supporting the FQE charity, which, in turn, benefits generations of pupils. Your contributions enable us to develop facilities and provide transformational opportunities to young people which we could not achieve based on our state funding alone.

“We appeal to you to give generously and trust you will thoroughly enjoy the events. Rest assured that we are most grateful for all support and donations, large and small,” added Mr Enright.

Details of the concert timings for the Music and The Voice Challenge are as follows. Each link is a click through to a House-specific sponsorship page:

9.15am Broughton
10.15am Harrisons’
11.15am Leicester
12.15pm Pearce
1.45pm Stapylton
2.45pm Underne