Viewing archives for School performance

Lord Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, challenged this year’s leavers to make the world a better place when he came to QE as guest speaker for Valediction.

All of Year 13 gathered in the Shearly Hall with their parents for the ceremony – a last chance to celebrate the contribution of the Class of 2024 to Queen Elizabeth’s School and to mark the start of their new status as Old Elizabethans.

As well as presentations to all leavers and music played by the School’s senior musicians, the afternoon included a prizegiving for those who had excelled in their studies and extra-curricular activities.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a super afternoon, with a great atmosphere. Lord Woolley was a brilliant and charismatic guest speaker. Amusing and inspiring in his address, he then happily spent time at the afternoon tea reception speaking to the students and their families.

“Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, even if, after all the miserable weather we’ve had this year, it was possibly just a little too hot and sunny for some!”

In his address, the Headmaster told the leavers: “You sit here holding the most spectacular array of university offers of any Elizabethan cohort to date. Collectively, you’ve received offers from 46 UK institutions across 187 individual courses, including from 22 of the 24 Russell Group unis. We know that this year has seen a record 62 Oxbridge offers and, perhaps even more staggeringly, 55% of you hold offers from a World Top 5 university.”

Not only did many of them, now 18, have their first opportunity to vote in the forthcoming General Election, but many more opportunities were now available to them in life more generally.

“You are always welcome at Queen Elizabeth’s and can be part of our community for as long as you like. There is a growing network, online and in person, from which you can hopefully benefit. Do keep in touch,” the Headmaster concluded.

Year 13’s Darren Lee, who was School Captain in 2023, delivered an entertaining speech: “Though some of us may look different, with growth spurts and beards, we are the same 192 who sat the entrance test and joined in Year 7….. We did it and we did it together.”

He acknowledged the facilities and extra-curricular opportunities the School provides, as well as the care of the teachers, while noting that some of the best ‘lessons’ came from spending time with each other: the experience is as much about the moments around and between lessons, as what happens within them, he said. He implored his peers to keep in touch.

The guest speaker, who is Baron Woolley of Woodford, became Principal of Homerton in October 2021 ­– the third Black person to be elected head of a college at Cambridge or Oxford. He sits as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords. He has a focus on building consensus across political and community lines, and is passionate about educational access and supporting those with potential who are marginalised.

Lord Woolley began by celebrating the role of parents and families, asking them to stand up to be applauded by the boys. Having an 18-year-old son of his own, he identified with them, saying he knows it is not always easy, but is absolutely worth it. He celebrated the staff of the School, reminding the leavers that they turn up each day “to educate you, but also to make you shine”. They genuinely care and want you to succeed, he said.

He also called back up some individual students who had caught his attention: Darren Lee (“Our future Prime Minister!”) for his leadership and eloquent speech; Isher Jagdev (Latin prize winner) to help him with the Latin that he will need on Saturday when he conducts the graduation ceremony for Homerton undergraduates at the Senate House in Cambridge; and Nathan Woodcock (“Mr 100%”) whose perfect attendance had been noted. “To achieve change you have to be present; you have to turn up. He’s someone I’d want on my team.”

He spoke a little about his journey from a tough council estate in Leicester, where you had to learn to fight and where “the reason to go to school was to see your mates”. No one went to university from his school, but, he told the leavers: “You are going to the best universities on the planet.” Coming to Queen Elizabeth’s School was like being among the winning children in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: “You’ve had the golden ticket. Not everyone gets that chance, so the question is: what are you going to do with it?

“Be the people to stand up to inequality, to help people out of poverty, to find the cure, or build something better. The Headmaster and I are not asking you to be brilliant, to share your abilities, to make an impact on the world… we are demanding it. Not everyone can be the principal or the CEO, but every one of you can do something that makes a difference.”

The music during the afternoon included a remix composed by Indrajit Datta, as well as a medley of popular hits that had formed the soundtrack to their school years, played by Indrajit’s Year 13 peers.

Music during the afternoon tea outside following the ceremony was played by the Year 8 and 9 Music Colours winners.

• Click on the thumbnails below to view the images.

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.

Olympian Derek Redmond offered both congratulations and some sage advice born of his own hard-won experience to prize-winners at 2024’s Senior Awards ceremony.

Mr Redmond enjoyed a successful international career as a sprinter before it was cut short by injury. He drew on the lessons he learned from this huge disappointment to explain to the boys how they can overcome the setbacks that will inevitably come their way and then go on to further success in the future.

He was Guest of Honour at the ceremony – a highlight of QE’s calendar – speaking to the assembled boys, their families, staff and VIPs including the Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou, in the School Hall.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This year’s Senior Awards was very successful, with a great atmosphere: it was the first time we have had a professional sportsman as our guest speaker, and Derek’s speech was pitched perfectly for the occasion. It was very well received, with large numbers eager to speak with him at the post-reception ceremony.”

In his own speech, Mr Enright drew parallels between the prize-winners’ achievements and those of élite sportsmen. He pointed both to the personal attributes that the boys had demonstrated to achieve such success, but also to the way in which QE itself contributed: “We achieve at a very high standard here. We are unashamedly personally ambitious for our performance and our future development. But we do so together, in unison and cooperation. We all realise, I hope, that our individual performances are enhanced by working together in partnership.”

Senior Awards saw well over 100 prizes awarded to boys from Years 10, 11 and 12. They ranged from awards for individual subjects to those for ‘contribution & responsibility’ and for excelling in extra-curricular activities including chess, music and the Combined Cadet Force.

The evening was punctuated by musical interludes performed by some of the music prize-winners. The music played included pieces by Handel, Schubert and contemporary British composer, Ian Clarke.

In Mr Redmond’s speech, he congratulated the award-winners on all the work that they had put in unseen to earn the “15 seconds of fame” they enjoyed as they came up to receive their prizes.

But he signposted that he also wished to give them a reality check – that they have now set a standard for themselves that everyone will be expecting them to reach all the time.

Using his own personal story, he explained that there will be setbacks, but that his definition of success is “getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down”. To do so you need determination and self-belief.

He recounted how, having ‘popped’ his hamstring in the Barcelona Olympics semi-final in 1992, he spent the next 18 months going through recurrent treatments and operations, only for it to happen again as soon as he was back in training each time. This led his surgeon (who by this point had very little left to work with) to declare that the hamstring was ‘shot’, that his athletics career was over, and that he would never compete for his country again.

It was this last part that riled him and motivated him, as he took it as an indictment that he would never be good enough.

However, he went on to play for England (briefly) in basketball and played professional rugby, just missing out on selection for the national Rugby Sevens team. He has subsequently successfully raced endurance motorbikes, won a national kickboxing title, and is still boxing (ahead of turning 60 next year).

He has found new challenges to motivate him in which he can achieve. He does not claim to be the most naturally talented in these other sports, but has put in the work. This applies to whatever field the boys want to pursue, he told them.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has set a new all-time record for the number of places offered by Oxford and Cambridge universities, with the 2024 figure of 62 offers easily surpassing the previous school record of 47, set only last year.

There were record numbers of offers from both universities – 46 from Cambridge and 16 from Oxford – with just over one in three boys in Year 13 receiving an Oxbridge offer.

The offers cover a wide range of disciplines – from Law and Medicine to History and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies – and come from 33 colleges.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is brilliant news! It’s a huge jump up from last year’s figure of 47, which itself comfortably exceeded our previous record of 40.

“These offers are testament to the academic accomplishment and sustained application of these students, both in public examinations and in their university admissions tests.

“They also demonstrate that these candidates were able to a make a convincing case at interview, where they were invariably up against very stiff competition. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many Old Elizabethans and other friends of the School who conducted mock interviews with our boys in the autumn.

“This record is a very auspicious start to our new QE Futures programme, which seeks to further refine and enhance university admissions support and preparation, building on much excellent work embedded here over recent years.”

The highest number of offers came from the following colleges:

• Queens’, Cambridge – five
• St Catharine’s, Cambridge – five
• Trinity, Cambridge – four

There were: 18 offers for Medicine: eight for Economics, or Economics and Management; eight for Engineering; seven for Mathematics, as well as smaller numbers for other subjects, including famous courses such as Cambridge’s Natural Sciences and Oxford’s PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

Digging down into the statistics reveals a steady improvement in QE’s offer-to-application and offer-to-interview ratios over the past five years. This year, 90% of Oxford and Cambridge applicants were called for interview and 49% of applicants offered a place.

Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane, who heads QE Futures, said: “To have reached a point this year where very nearly half our Oxford and Cambridge applicants have received an offer demonstrates how strong those ratios have become.

“We are confident that these students will make a positive impact on the life of their respective colleges and universities. Of course, receiving an offer is not the end of the process: the hard work continues as these boys strive to meet the conditions of their offers.

“There has been an encouraging picture more broadly, with other students securing a range of offers from other leading institutions: 344 offers so far across 119 courses at 32 different universities.

“As ever, we are mindful that there are some strong and credible candidates disappointed at not receiving the offers for which they had hoped.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School has further cemented its reputation for achieving the very highest levels of academic performance, taking second place in the annual Sunday Times Parent Power league table.

QE has now taken first or second place in the survey every year for well over a decade. The table is based on A-level and GCSE results.

The survey is separate from the Sunday Times Schools Guide’s State Secondary School of the Year title, which is judged using broader criteria. QE won that in 2001, 2007 and 2022.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We have consistently been in one of the top two spots in the Parent Power table for so long that the remarkable is for us now unremarkable!

“Nevertheless, this is still by any measure a considerable achievement, for which my congratulations go to all my colleagues and to our families.

“In fact, this success is yet another accolade to add to our list of memorable highlights in this, our 450^th anniversary year. Those highlights include new academic records, such as the 47 Oxbridge places offered to our boys and 58.2 per cent of A-levels taken here in 2023 being offered A*.

“There was also: our royal visit from HRH The Duke of Gloucester; our thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey, attended by the whole School; and a very special Founder’s Day.

“Moreover, the year has been punctuated by splendid concerts, sporting triumphs, impressive drama productions and competition successes – all attesting that the QE experience extends well beyond examination results.”

In the article accompanying the survey, Times journalists Sian Griffiths and Helen Davies stated: “This is the first time that performance in this summer’s A-levels and GCSEs has returned to pre-pandemic grade boundaries in England and many of the schools that triumphed this year were also those that managed to keep high-quality teaching going online during the pandemic.”

They noted, firstly, that single-sex schools once again lead the table, and, secondly, that London dominates in terms of educational excellence, with 40 schools out of Parent Power’s top 100 being located in the capital.

Mr Enright added: “My congratulations go to the first-placed school in the Parent Power table, Wilson’s School in Wallington, Sutton, who have enjoyed their own remarkable year.”

New figures show that QE pupils received more offers from Oxford and Cambridge universities than those at any other state secondary school last year.

Queen Elizabeth’s School is the top non-fee-paying school in a table published by The Spectator magazine, which shows QE’s 2022 figure of 34 offers outstripping other grammar and comprehensive schools nationwide.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is always good to receive independent corroboration of our success, and this news is a testament both to the dedication and professional expertise of our staff and to the sustained hard work of our very able students, who come from a wide range of backgrounds. Our Sixth Form team are highly experienced at guiding pupils who aspire to places at the world’s leading universities and on very competitive courses, such as Medicine.

“It is also encouraging to note that, with our 2023 Oxbridge offer total having jumped to a record 47 [pictured top], we may now even have stretched our lead in this, our 450^th anniversary year.

“I should add that these offers are secured by boys who are usually heavily involved in the wider life of the School: in sport, music, drama, and other extra-curricular opportunities, and also in our volunteering programme, in mentoring younger pupils, and in serving as prefects. Our focus is not merely on examination results – important though those are – but on fulfilling our School mission to produce young men who are ‘confident, able and responsible’.”

The Spectator’s table is based on figures released by the two universities in the 2022 UCAS application cycle. It ranks 80 state schools, independent schools and sixth form colleges by the number of places secured.

QE is in 11^th place, ahead of 25 other grammar schools and three schools described as comprehensives or academies. The top ten places are taken by independent schools and sixth form colleges. First place in the table goes to Brampton Manor Academy in Newham – listed by The Spectator as a sixth form college.

QE’s figure of 34 offers means that very nearly a third (32.7%) of the 107 boys who applied last year were successful. This conversion rate outstrips all the sixth form colleges (many of which also have far larger Year 12 and Year 13 rolls than QE), and all but two of the independent schools in the table’s top ten.

Oxford and Cambridge have increased the proportion of acceptances from state schools in recent years. It is now 69 per cent, up from 52 per cent in 2000.

Huge success at the top GCSE grades have made 2023 another vintage year for QE as it celebrates its 450^th anniversary.

With no GCSE examinations taken in 2020 and 2021, and last year’s results adjusted because of the pandemic, all eyes were on this year’s Year 11 to see how they would compare with the 2019 cohort.

They did not disappoint: no fewer than 1,556 of the examinations taken at QE this year were awarded grades 9 or 8 – equivalent to the old A* – a 3.5% increase on 2019. The increase took this measure to 82.9% of all results, comfortably breaking through the 80% threshold. For grade 9 alone, there was a 3.1% increase, and for grades 9–7 (previously A* and A), the increase was 2.5%.­­

Results from all departments were strong, with especially shining performances in Mathematics – where 84% of the 190 students gained a grade 9 (with no results lower than a 7) – and the sciences, with 86% of those taking individual Biology and Physics securing 9s, and 79% for Chemistry.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My heartfelt congratulations go to the boys for a highly impressive set of results: like our A-level candidates last week, they have done us proud in our 450^th anniversary year.

“GCSE results in recent years have been very strong here, so they had a lot to live up to, but thanks to their hard work and to the dedication and detailed approach of their teachers, they have not only held their own, but have made incremental improvements on the record of their predecessors.

“This consistency of excellence sets our Year 11 pupils up well for Sixth Form studies and for exciting future opportunities at university and in their careers.”

Figures in this article were updated following the outcome of re-marks in early October 2023.

As A-level grading returns to pre-pandemic standards this year, QE is celebrating “brilliant” results that cement the School’s place in the very top echelons of the country’s academic schools – a proud pinnacle in its 450-year history.

At the highest possible grade, the School improved significantly on its 2019 figures, with 58.2% of A-levels being awarded A* – easily beating the pre-pandemic record of 46.9% set in 2018. It was a similar record-breaking performance for combined A–A*: 89.1% of A-levels had these grades, well above the equivalent figure in the pre-Covid years.

And at the benchmark A*–B, QE continues to shine, achieving 96.9% in 2023, the 18^th consecutive year in which QE has exceeded 95%.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are very pleased indeed with this brilliant performance. Like the record-breaking 47 Oxbridge offers made to QE boys in the spring, these A-level results demonstrate that, in our 450^th anniversary year, the School is thriving and continues to go from strength to strength.

“We recognise that this Year 13 cohort has not always had an easy journey: they were unable to sit their GCSEs because of Covid, so, like their peers across the country, this was the first time they had faced high-stakes testing.

“Ofqual, the examinations regulator, told examination boards to aim for the proportion of top grades to be in line with the levels recorded in 2019, so for our boys to have comfortably exceeded that level is really quite an achievement – one which demonstrates that the highest standards were maintained at QE throughout the pandemic. They should be very proud of what they have achieved.

“The pandemic has in fact helped us accelerate the technological development of the School; we have taken great strides in our digital strategy, whilst continuing to invest in our campus, its facilities and the further opportunities that this generates for our boys.”

Among many successes across the subjects this year, French stands out for its 100% performance – all five candidates achieved A*.

In purely numerical terms, Mathematics had the most A* grades, with 106, followed by Chemistry (44) and Further Maths (43).

“While examination performance certainly matters, what goes on beyond the classroom here, including all the many opportunities available through our QE Flourish enrichment programme, is of equal performance,” added Mr Enright.

“This cohort at QE have taken full advantage, making an impact on a national and international stage, not least in providing members of the team that won the VEX Robotics World Championships in 2018. We have many stars – one of their number, Rahul Doshi, won Channel 4’s Child Genius programme some years ago, for example – but he and his peers wear their intelligence, talent and ambitious aspirations lightly.

“They should be proud of the wider contribution they have made. Known for their kindness and empathy, they have supported each other as friends, and those lower in the School as peer mentors. They have also helped to establish and develop connections with the local Barnet community, such as our QE Together partnership with Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School.”

“We hope that these students take away from QE not only great results, but a broad range of experiences that will have shaped them into well-rounded young men of good character, ready to step into the world and make a positive difference to the lives of others, living up to, and perhaps even exceeding, the example set by many illustrious Elizabethans over the past 450 years.

“Congratulations to the boys and their families on their fantastic achievements.”

Figures in this article were updated following the outcome of re-marks in early October 2023.

Almost 120 prizes were awarded to boys in the first three years of the School at Junior Awards.

Former QE First XI cricket captain and First XV rugby player Sunil Tailor (OE 1996–2006) was the guest of honour, telling the boys that he had now united his love for sport with his career in accountancy: he is the Head of Commercial Finance at reigning Premiership champions Saracens.

He even brought along the huge Premiership trophy to show the audience in the Main School Hall, where VIPs took their places, together with prize-winners, their families and staff for the afternoon ceremony.

Headmaster Neil Enright said afterwards: “Junior Awards is always one of the highlights of the end of our School year – an opportunity publicly to recognise the achievement of those who have stood out even in such a high-achieving context as Queen Elizabeth’s School.

“Gaining an award here is thus a considerable honour, and doubly so this year because the prize-winners achieved their success in our 450th anniversary year.”

The afternoon saw musical interludes played by the three year groups’ Music prize-winners. Year 7’s Eshaan Anil performed Fauré’s Elegie Op. 24 on the cello; violinist Joseph Donovan, of Year 8, played Nikki Iles’ Hay Barn Blues, and Year 9’s Shreyas Iyengar performed Beethoven’s Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13 Pathétique Movement I Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio.

In addition to prizes for curriculum subjects, there are House awards, prizes for overall commitment and awards for extra-curricular.

In additional to congratulating the prize-winners and their families, Sunil spoke about topics including values in sport and organisational culture.

Sunil read Economics at UCL, graduating in 2009, and was a cricket coach at Middlesex from 2007–2011. He worked for more than ten years for accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson before joining Saracens in November 2022.

He chairs the newly formed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group at Saracens and last year, following the racism scandal in English cricket, he was consulted about his own experiences by Middlesex CCC.

After Sunil’s address, the winner of the Year 7 award for debating & public speaking, Afraz Khan, gave a vote of thanks.

Following the ceremony, guests and staff enjoyed refreshments on Stapylton Field.

Four hundred and fifty years to the day since Queen Elizabeth I granted the Charter for the establishment of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, the Elizabethan community gathered in Westminster Abbey to celebrate in a special service of thanksgiving.

Featuring elements ancient and modern, today’s service reflected the past, present and future of a school that has in recent years risen to a place of high national repute.

All 1,295 pupils attended, together with almost all staff, as well as governors, Directors of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s, Foundation Trustees, former staff, Old Elizabethans and around 300 current parents – a congregation of some 1,800 people.

Carried into the abbey were the Royal Charter itself, granted by Elizabeth I on 24^th March 1573, and a banner that was presented to the School by HRH Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester, during his visit in November 2022.

The service included religious and literary readings, with Year 11 pupil Rohan Kumar’s winning entry in the School’s 450th Anniversary Poetry Competition, and music from every century of the School’s existence, culminating in a premiere performance of an anthem commissioned from internationally renowned composer Howard Goodall.

In his address, Neil Enright, 40^th Headmaster of the School, said: “Today, we gather in this sacred and magnificent place to celebrate our School’s foundation. The place where our founder, Queen Elizabeth I, was crowned and is buried – a place of national celebration and commemoration. But, also, a place which inspires us to reflect upon our foundations, as much as our founding.”

Drawing an analogy with Jesus’s parable of the foolish man who built a house on the sand and the wise man who built his house on the rock, Mr Enright said: “There have been many times over the past 450 years when the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew and the School’s foundations were tested.”

These storms included an outbreak of plague in 1603, when the School was said to have grown ‘sick in decay’, the imprisonment and even execution of governors for their support of the Crown during the English Civil War, straitened financial circumstances in the 18^th century, the bombing of the School by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War, and the School’s decline in the 1970s and early 1980s, which saw it earmarked for closure by the local authority.

“Over the past 450 years, our remarkable school has often flourished, and always survived,” said Mr Enright.

“Our challenge is to ensure, in a world of shifting sands, where the rain will again descend, and the floods will come and the wind will blow and beat down upon us, that we will not fall. That we will stand firm on our foundations and draw strength from our roots, spread deep and wide, and meet the bold assertion of our Charter that we will be: ‘one Common Grammar School in or near the town of Barnet… for the education, bringing up and instruction of boys and youth…… and the same to continue forever’.”

The service covered four broad themes of: foundations; challenges; service to others and hope for the future.

It was conducted by The Right Reverend Anthony Ball, Canon in Residence, and sung by QE’s Chamber Choir, with guest singers from the staff, Old Elizabethans, and St Albans High School for Girls, all conducted by Director of Music Ruth Partington. The School Orchestra was conducted by Caroline Grint, QE’s Assistant Director of Music, and the organ played by Mr Peter Holder, Sub-Organist.

Before the service, the congregation listened to the orchestra’s performance of William Walton’s Crown Imperial and the Indian Ensemble’s performance of Tani Avartaram.

Among the guests were the headteachers of many partner schools, together with councillors, former Mayors of Barnet, and other supporters of the School.

The VIP party included: The Worshipful the Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Cllr Alison Moore; The Deputy Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Cllr Nagus Narenthira; Representative for The Lord Lieutenant of Greater London, Vice Lord-Lieutenant Colonel Jane Davis OBE QVRM TD DL; and The Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Hamza Taouzzale.

After the first hymn, Helen Edmunds, Head of History, read from the Charter. Other readings were given by pupils of all ages, including 2023 School Captain Darren Lee, who is in Year 12.

The Headmaster said the traditional Founder’s Day prayer, while others leading in prayer included Mrs Emi Aghdiran, Governor and Director of FQE, and Matthew Rose (OE 2002–09), Head of External Relations.

Years 7–10 had travelled to the abbey by coach; Years 11–13 came on the tube. The Headmaster led them all in an act of rededication to the School’s mission, with each of the six Houses invited to respond, in turn, with “Adsumus” (We are present).

Before the final blessing and procession, the Chamber Choir gave the first-ever performance of the new anthem commissioned by QE, which has as its refrain:

That like an oak, it draws its strength
From ancient roots spread deep and wide.
From ancient roots
From ancient roots
From ancient roots spread deep and wide.

As the congregation departed to enjoy refreshments together, the bells of the abbey rang out.

• To view the order of service, which includes the full lyrics to Howard Goodall’s new anthem and Rohan Kumar’s competition-winning poem, click here.
• For more photos from before and after the service, click on the thumbnail images below.
• For more 450th anniversary news, click here.