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An ambitious six-month project to complete a pupil’s guide to literature based on a map of the London Underground has been successfully completed.

The project was undertaken under the auspices of the School’s Creative Writing Club, set up by Year 11 pupils Prashan Balendran and Roshan Shah at the beginning of this School year, and forms part of the English department’s involvement with the Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI).

“For this project we created our own version of the London Underground map, replacing the station names with text recommendations and genres we thought the students would enjoy,” explained English teacher, Sarah Snowdon. “We tried, where possible, to keep the map geographically accurate – keeping the Sherlock Holmes tales based around Baker Street and The London Eye Mysteries on the South Bank.”

In the Creative Writing Club, Prashan and Roshan researched popular texts by surveying form groups in Key Stage 3, while Mrs Snowdon also asked her Year 7 and 8 pupils to name their favourite authors. Art teacher Jeanne Nicodemus, Librarian Ciara Murray and the team then used an empty tube map to plan different routes, trying to keep the cross-overs between genres as accurate as possible.

Year 12 student Hersh Kataria, who hopes to study Computer Science at university, used his skills to modify the map and produce the final version. “I loved being involved,” he said. “It allowed me to express my artistic creativity, using my mouse as a paintbrush and computer screen as a canvas. Of all the projects I've worked on, the literary tube map has definitely been one of my favourites. It's been a great learning experience and I'm really proud of the final design!"

Ms Snowdon is confident that the map will be useful to pupils. “Not only was this a valuable cross-curricular experience, but it will also be an interesting way for pupils to enjoy exploring their reading choices. They can share their favourite authors using their own personalised tube line and start thinking more carefully about the links that connect the different genres of texts they choose.”

The PTI is an educational charity that was set up to promote ‘a rich subject-based experience at school … and teaching beyond the test’. Each year a PTI Mark is awarded for individual subjects – each department has to apply annually and prove itself a worthy recipient of the award, which recognises inspirational teaching and learning.

Two QE boys have been selected to take part in the national final of a renowned debating competition. Ravi Karia and Jathieesan Umaasuthan, of Year 10, will compete in the final of the International Competition for Young Debaters in the hallowed halls of the Cambridge Union Society – the scene of countless speeches by leading statesmen and other public figures over the past two centuries.

“My congratulations go to both Ravi and Jathieesan,” said English teacher Tom Quinn, who oversaw QE’s entry to the competition. “They put in an excellent performance in the regional heats and thoroughly deserve their place in the national finals.”

The QE team at the regional heats, which took place at the New College of the Humanities in Bloomsbury, also included Tej Mehta, of Year 9, and Jamie Watkin-Rees, of Year 8. “They did a tremendous job amidst some very tough competition,” said Mr Quinn.

More than 800 students from four continents entered the competition this year. Ravi and Jathieesan performed strongly in opposing the motion ‘All religious schools should be banned’, while Jamie was given a special mention by the adjudicators after being pronounced the joint-fifth best speaker at the event. “This was a great achievement, especially considering he was by far the youngest person there,” added Mr Quinn.

The competition is for pupils aged 12-15 and aims to provide an opportunity for participants to improve their public speaking skills through constructing arguments, researching topics and engaging with current affairs. It also gives them the chance to meet entrants from other parts of the world.

Ravi and Jathieesan will debate at the Cambridge Union, the oldest debating society in the world and Cambridge University’s largest student society. It was founded in 1815 and celebrates its bicentenary this year. Past speakers at the Union include Winston Churchill, US President Theodore Roosevelt, the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, and actors Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy.

A team of QE boys has won the Heard-Collins Plate in the prestigious Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition.

The competition is an invitation-only event involving 64 teams representing leading state and independent schools from across the South East; it is the first time the School has won the Plate since 2002.

Bhavik Mehta, of Year 13, Yash Patel, of Year 12, Nitharsan Sathiyalingham, of Year 11, and Year 9 boy Ben Suen qualified for the knockout stages in the Plate by finishing as runners-up in their group in the opening round.

In the knockout phase of the Plate, they beat Watford Grammar School for Boys before an epic semi-final against North London Collegiate School, which they won 46-42. “Two tie-break rounds were required to separate the teams,” said Maths teacher Geoff Roberts. “An excellent team performance led to victory in the Plate final against Forest School by 44 points to 34.”

“Intellectually, this is a highly demanding competition; to be successful, boys have to be adept at applying a wide range of mathematical skills under time pressure, as well as adapting to a variety of different round formats,” added Mr Roberts.

“In some of the rounds, the boys achieved the highest score of all 64 schools competing, which is highly gratifying. Especially pleasing is the fact that we are one of very few state schools to have won the Plate.”

Year 10 boys were invited to consider what a four-dimensional object looks like – from a three-dimensional perspective.

The brain-stretching challenge came in a special lecture given by visiting university Mathematics Fellow and stand-up comedian, Matt Parker.

“The boys really enjoyed it,” said Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung. “It undoubtedly gave them a wider understanding of how Maths can be applied, as well as its purely theoretical side.”

Matt’s lecture, entitled Adventures in the Fourth Dimension, also covered how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, the surprising properties of Möbius bands (surfaces with only one side and one boundary) and Klein bottles (another example of a non-orientable surface, but one which, unlike Möbius bands, has no boundary).

Matt is currently Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London – a role he combines with broadcasting, writing and touring as well as visiting schools to communicate his dual passion for both Mathematics and comedy. He also tours regularly and has had a sell-out show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His latest comedy show, Festival of the Spoken Nerd, is currently touring with scientists Helen Arney and Steve Mould.

His latest publication is entitled Things to make and do in the fourth dimension.

Although Matt remains keen to fit in visits to schools when possible, he finds his time increasingly filled by a busy broadcasting and performing schedule. Notwithstanding such pressures on his diary, this was his fifth visit to QE.

QE has been summoned to appear in the regional finals of a national courtroom competition after winning an outright victory in the first round.

The Year 9 boys beat off eight other schools in the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition to secure their place at the regional finals in May.

English teacher Peter Morton, who organises participation in the mock trial, said: “Our magistrates had to work impartially and constructively with magistrates from other schools to reach fair verdicts in the trials. Teams were assessed not on the outcome of the trials – it wasn’t a knock-out – but on the quality of their performance in the courtroom. Two teams progressed from the heat – and we finished top of the table.”

The schools gathered at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court for the first round of the competition, which is organised by the Citizenship Foundation. The eight other schools involved included Bishop Challoner School and Southgate School. Competition organisers provided a scenario that involved the theft of a mobile phone from a flower shop.

For QE, Niall Murphy was the defendant and he was robustly defended by fellow QE team members, Tej Mehta and Mipham Samten, who secured his acquittal. Milan George and Shyam Mamtora were QE’s prosecutors. Both they and Tej and Mipham had to cross-examine witnesses from other schools. Conversely, QE’s own witnesses (Rehan Khan, Aashish Khimasia and Ibrahim Al-Hariri) had to respond to questioning from competitors from other schools.

Other roles played during the competition included the magistrates, a legal adviser, an usher and a reporter.

This year’s success mirrors QE’s achievement in 2013, when a School team also progressed to the regional finals. 

A team of Technology students, challenged to find a solution to dust problems in the workplace, have presented their product to university academics and experts from the construction industry.

William Forester, Alexander Norcliffe, Mitul Shah and Daniil Slavin, who are all in Year 12, took part in the six-month Engineering Education Scheme (EES), which aims to give pupils the opportunity to take on a real-life engineering challenge. This year’s brief related to dust on construction sites.

As part of the process, the boys visited a site in Lymington Mews run by the major construction company, Lovell’s, to see the problems of dust for themselves. They learnt that more people are likely to suffer each year from a work-related disease, such as silicosis, than are injured in work-place accidents.

The team then had two months in which to develop a prototype of a hand-held sweeping device that would not only sweep up construction debris but would also provide an effective method of wetting or dampening airborne dust and debris.

At the end of the research & development stage, the boys went on a two-day visit to the University of Hertfordshire, during which time they had the opportunity to develop a working prototype.

The boys then presented their findings and product to the Board of Lovell’s in Elstree with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation they had prepared. The final stage of the process was a computer-aided design (CAD) day at UCL.

“The EES provides an excellent opportunity for the boys to develop a wide range of skills and abilities related to engineering,” said Technology teacher Michael Noonan, who oversaw their participation in the scheme. “They showed great originality and ingenuity in their approach to the brief and developed knowledge and skill about both manufacturing and how to apply scientific theory to real-world applications.”