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Forty‑six pupils from Years 9 and 10 headed to QE’s biennial Holland rugby tour – and began with resounding victories over new opponents, Bulldogs Rugby Club.

Living up to their name, the Bulldogs of Almere, near Amsterdam, showed plenty of spirit and scored early in their matches against both year groups, but QE’s U14s and U15s soon rallied and went on to win convincingly.

After that, it was time for the 27th Hilversum International Youth Rugby Festival, featuring 69 teams from six different nations.

Here, although there was no repeat of the triumphs of QE’s last visit, in 2024 – when the U15s recorded the School’s first-ever overall victory in the festival and the U14s won the bowl competition – the Year 9s’ wins did include beating host team Hilversum.

Head of Rugby Oliver Di-Lieto, who led the trip, said: “It was an unforgettable rugby tour, combining competitive fixtures and cultural experiences, so giving the boys a memorable blend of rugby development and shared adventure.

“We were brilliantly hosted by RC Bulldogs, and the pupils enjoyed mingling with the opposition after the matches.

“The prestigious Hilversum festival provided a fantastic opportunity for the boys to test themselves against high-quality opposition. Throughout the day, the QE squads showed resilience, discipline, and a growing maturity in their play. The Year 9s won a couple of matches, while the Year 10s battled against strong opposition, applying themselves well and scoring some brilliant tries in the process.”

Besides the rugby, the boys enjoyed a range of activities including bowling and This is Holland: the Ultimate 5D Flying Experience – a panoramic flight simulator.

“These activities strengthened team bonding and made for memorable experiences,” said Mr Di-Lieto.

U15A captain Kevin Gajera said: “It was a great tour, and having the opportunity to play in such a big international tournament was brilliant. This experience will definitely make us stronger as a team, and we are looking forward to next season already.”

The tour was organised by specialist sports tour company Inspiresport, who sponsor the annual QE Barnet Rugby Sevens Tournament.

Tour awards
Year 9 Player of the Tour: Andy Hasanaj
Year 9 Best Tourist: Aryamann Wadhwani Sharma
Year 10 Player of the Tour: Abbas Rajvani
Year 10 Best Tourist: Tianche Dong

Broughton just pipped last year’s winner, Stapylton, to become QE’s champion House, with 1,592 points, against Stapylton’s 1,589.

Headmaster Neil Enright presented the Eric Shearly House Cup to Broughton’s leaders as the climax to the traditional end-of-year assembly.

“My congratulations go to House Captain Robin Bickers, Deputy House Captain Zeyuan Wu, and to all the members of Broughton House,” he said. “As the points totals attest, this was a closely fought contest. Points are amassed from many different areas of School life, and Broughton’s achievement thus demonstrates considerable commitment, as well as consistency across a broad range of endeavour.”

Underne came third in this year’s competition.

The cup is awarded based on points that are awarded to QE’s six Houses throughout the academic year. They include points gained through a large number of House competitions. Points are also gained according to the total number of merits and good notes earned across the year groups.

Broughton has the distinction of being the only House named after an Old Elizabethan. William Grant Broughton was educated at QE in the late 18th century and was appointed Archdeacon of New South Wales in 1828, having been noticed and assisted by the Duke of Wellington. He went on to become the first (and only) Bishop of Australia of the Church of England.

The trophy Broughton received, the Eric Shearly Cup, is named after Eric Shearly (1920–2005), who dedicated 76 years of his life to QE, where he was both a pupil and a teacher. He was an enthusiastic advocate of extra-curricular activities, having himself been a highly successful QE athletics captain in the late 1930s.

The special assembly was introduced by Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter, who leads the QE Flourish extra-curricular programme.

He told the boys that QE Flourish this year included no fewer than 200 trips, 33 of them residential. Every single member of QE’s teaching staff took part in at least one School trip. Six hundred and fifty boys had seen a live show. In total, the programme had delivered 13,508 experiences to individual pupils, Mr Bonham-Carter said.

The assembly celebrated many of the year’s achievements and House competitions. Areas covered included charity work; the environment (including autumn tree-planting and bulb-planting as part of the 2023 450th anniversary celebrations); EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion); QE Together (the pupil-led community partnership with Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School); debating; Music; chess; drama; and sport.

The boys were told that £500 was raised for the Noah’s Ark Hospice and another £500 for overseas charitable work, split between the School’s long-running Sai School Appeal supporting a rural school in Kerala, India, and Teach Sri Lanka, which supports the education of children from all communities and all backgrounds in that nation.

The assembly also celebrated a busy year for the School’s musicians, who have been involved in eight concerts, QE’s May the fourth be almost with you Music festival, trips, charity performances, and this month’s tour to Vienna, as well as providing musical support for several formal School occasions.

With chess thriving at QE, especially in the lower years, there was the announcement of 20 boys winning junior colours, seven winning intermediate and seven winning senior, as well as a large number of commendations.

In sport, 23 teams represented the School this year. There were more than 119 fixtures, with a total of 407 different boys playing for QE.

A 46-strong group of rugby players developed their skills and bonded as teams on a spring tour to Holland.

The short tour, resumed after a two-year break because of the pandemic, was previously open to Year 9, but this year was opened to Year 10 as well, attracting 23 players from each year group.

The trip over the Easter break began with a very long journey from Barnet to Amsterdam, via Caen – with the crossing to France impacted by the P&O Ferries chaos. After successful matches at Rugby Club Eemland in the city of Amersfoort, 32 miles from Amsterdam, the party made the short journey west to take part in the Hilversum Festival – one of the largest and most well-established youth rugby tournaments in Europe.

Head of Rugby James Clarke, who organised the trip, said: “The tour provided a brilliant environment in which our boys were able to develop their skills and enjoy the camaraderie and team spirit that being part of a touring party fosters. It was great to be able to resume this tour after two years and for the experience to be extended to both Years 9 and 10.”

“Both age groups played RC Eemland teams on the Saturday. We won both matches and were hosted brilliantly by the club afterwards,” said Mr Clarke.

The boys then went bowling in the evening. The trip also included a visit to the stadium of Amsterdam’s mighty AFC Ajax.

“At Hilversum the next day, the boys thoroughly enjoyed the tournament, played some really good rugby, and were a real credit to the School.”

The U15s (Year 10) drew four matches and lost one: they were, said Mr Clarke, unlucky not to secure any victories in the tournament, which was run in a round-robin format.

By contrast, the U14s from Year 9 enjoyed considerable success on the pitch and came second in their age group in the tournament after winning four of their matches and losing only one.

The final night, before the trip home on Easter Monday, saw the presentation of tour awards. Ubaidah Rahman was named player of the tour among the U14s, with Theo Moses taking the prize for the U15s.

The tour was a swansong for PE teacher Oliver O’Gorman, “a great member of the PE department since 2018”, Mr Clarke added. Mr O’Gorman has taken up a new post with international IT security company Fortinet.

Year 9 boys enjoyed a successful trip to Amsterdam for one of Europe’s largest youth rugby tournaments, where they took on club sides from the UK and the Netherlands alike.

The 24-strong QE squad won three of their four matches in the U14 category of the 20th annual Hilversum International Youth Rugby Festival.

QE’s Director of Sport Jonathan Hart said: “It is great to support this ever-growing tournament; the boys played extremely well and should be proud of what they achieved in Amsterdam.”

Some 85 teams, with players aged from 7 to 18, played approximately 175 matches during the festival. Hosted by RC Hilversum, it attracts entries from England, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Belgium, as well as the Netherlands. Ten teams competed in the U14 competition in which the QE boys were involved.

The QE contingent’s annual tour began this year with a warm-up game against Amstelveense RC, a club from the town of Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, which they won by one try.

“The squad were feeling extremely positive going into the tournament the next day,” said Mr Hart. They played group matches again RC’t Gooi (a club from the Dutch town of Naarden), Beaconsfield RFC, Basingstoke RFC and RC The Dukes (from the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch).

“On a glorious day with blazing sunshine (a stark contrast to the previous year), the boys played extremely well and worked hard to secure their three wins out of four,” said Mr Hart.

He praised “notable performances” from Danny Adey, Victor Angelov, Muhammad Nayel Huda and Akhil Walia, but added: “The whole squad should be congratulating themselves for the way they conducted themselves on and off the field; it was a pleasure to take them, as they all created a great tour atmosphere.”

From enjoying spectacular views near the summit of Mount Etna to learning how to make their own pizzas, QE’s younger pupils sampled Sicily’s best on a Geography tour.

Forty-one boys from Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in the five-day trip led by Geography teacher Helen Davies, who was accompanied by four other members of staff.

After the first evening spent ten-pin bowling, the first full day brought a coach trip to Mount Etna, Europe’s highest active volcano. The guide-led tour included travel, first in a cable car and then in jeeps, to reach a height of 2,900m, where the strong winds brought heavy windchill that was felt even through multiple layers of clothing.

Nivain Goonasekera, of Year 9, said: “Whilst the whole trip was incredible, my favourite part was probably reaching the summit of Mount Etna: we were all taken aback by the photogenic, breath-taking views, which totally compensated for it being -5C!”

After returning to lower altitudes and warmer temperatures, they visited the nearby Alcantara Gorge – a basalt formation created by Mount Etna’s volcanic activity.

On the following day, after getting up at 5:30am, the boys set off for a full-day visit to the Aeolian Islands, a volcanic archipelago visible from Sicily.

A short boat ride took them from Milazzo to Lipari, the largest of the islands, which boasts deep caverns, steep cliffs and attractive views. Then, on the island of Vulcano, the group sampled the mud baths, where a pool of brackish water and mud clay is continuously agitated by sulphurous bubbles, the olfactory effects of which are known to linger, as Nikhil Mark, of Year 7, discovered: “It was a bit ‘icky’, but the mud was warm. We were all stinking like rotten eggs when we got back.”

On day four, the group visited the Straits of Messina and Tindari Lakes, where they saw the linguetta di sabbia, a sandbank stretching 1.5km into the Tyrrhenian Sea. “It is an extraordinary sight, for which the correct geographical term is a ‘spit’,” said Miss Davies.

One evening activity popular with the boys was the visit to a restaurant, the Café Sikelia. There they not only learned about the history of the pizza and the different types available, but also had the chance to try their hand at making one themselves, before tucking into a pizza dinner.

On the final day, they headed for the amphitheatre at Taormina, which was built by the Greeks in the third century BC and expanded by the Romans. Robert Hyland, Head of English, was able to give the boys plenty of information about the history of the amphitheatre.