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Two Year 9 boys were among only a handful of prize-winners from a field of 150 young people at a literary review competition in London.

Fifteen QE pupils from Years 8, 9 and 10 took part in the WeRead event at University College School, Hampstead. The boys had to read and review at least one of six shortlisted books in advance.

“Manojj Mohanaranjan and Binu Perera both wrote really insightful reviews and are to be commended on their achievement,” said QE Librarian Ciara Murray.

Binu reviewed Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys: “After reading the first few lines of blurb, I wasn't exactly convinced that this book would be a good read, because personally I thought that it would be quite childish and predictable. I guess that that just goes to show that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.” He rated the book as 5/5 for its “unputdownability”.

Manojj reviewed Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan, also rating it at 5/5. “This book has not only shown me the insight into one life, but has taught me something about my own.

Although things come together at the end, it is not how Apple expects, but that is one lesson of life. Life is what you make it and families come in many forms, like Apple’s. Finally, being human means we make mistakes and aren’t perfect, though we always try to be,” he wrote.

The day also afforded the boys the opportunity to meet the authors and hear about how the books were written, as well as to purchase signed copies as souvenirs.

“I was extremely pleased with the standard of all our boys’ reviews,” added Ms Murray. “One of the best things about WeRead is that it introduced the boys to books they might otherwise not have read. It was also a great opportunity to hear directly from the authors about how they wrote their books and the obstacles and pitfalls they had to overcome.”

In her presentation, the author of Shine, Candy Gourlay (pictured above), said she wanted her audience to take away the idea of how important structure was to telling a good story. After the talk, several of the boys were keen to buy her book, and to get it signed. “I really enjoyed Candy’s talk – she had so much enthusiasm,” said Saad Mahmood, of Year 10.

After lunch, C J Flood (pictured right), author of Infinite Sky, which several of the boys had read and reviewed, gave a talk. In the Q and A session, Mipham Samten of Year 9 asked whether she considered the gender of her audience when she was writing. He pointed out that the cover of the book made it seem like as though it was aimed more at girls than boys. Flood replied that authors often do not get to make choices about their book covers. Given that two of her main characters were boys, and that they were responsible for driving much of the story, she felt there was a lot that her male readers could take away from the book.

“I asked her for tips, and she said to make sure you didn’t just take ideas from books you’ve read – that it was really important to put your own experiences into your writing,” said Naveen Weerasinghe from Year 10.

Celebrity baker Richard Burr (OE 1987-1994) is having his first book published. BIY – Bake It Yourself is out at the end of August.

“I now have all my favourite recipes in one place, rather than on scraps of paper all over the kitchen,” Richard wrote on his blog. “It’s turned out really well. I can’t wait until people are able to get their own copies to see what recipes appeal to people the most.”

Richard is also appearing alongside chefs including Jamie Oliver and Raymond Blanc at The Big Feastival – a weekend in late August of music, food and ‘fun for all the family’ set at the Cotswold farm of author, cheesemaker and Blur bassist, Alex James.

Richard, who lives in Mill Hill, was a finalist on series 5 of The Great British Bake Off in 2014, having won the programme’s ‘star baker’ accolade a record five times during the series. He has recently been filmed for a Bake Off Class of 2014 programme about the series’ contestants one year on.

He has regularly been in front of the cameras for the Scoff video food channel, where he is seen preparing his own recipes, and he appeared on a celebrity edition of the BBC’s Pointless TV quiz show with Frances Quinn, winner of The Great British Bake Off 2013. 

More locally, he was a judge at the Great Bushey Bake Off and he revealed on his blog that he has been elected a parent governor at the school attended by his six-year-old daughter.

Richard himself went to St Paul’s C of E Primary School in Mill Hill – where he opened this year’s summer fair – before coming to QE when Eamonn Harris was Headmaster.

He is the fourth generation to work in his family’s building business and is a member of the Federation of Master Builders. He traces his love of baking back to the time he spent baking with his mother as a small child. Then he had a Saturday job washing up in a local bakery as a teenager, which further fired his enthusiasm.

Married with two daughters, he does most of the family cooking and enjoys baking with his wife, Sarah. He especially enjoys bread and pastry-making, while making the girls’ birthday cakes are highlights of the family’s year.

Richard told the School last year that he is proud of the first-class BSc degree in Biodiversity and Conservation that he gained in 2012 from Birkbeck College, London, studying part-time.

With more than 80 events and involving competitors from across the year groups, the 2015 QE Sports Day was a triumph both of organisation and sporting endeavour. Harrisons’ House were comfortable winners in this year’s Sports Day, which is the culmination of a year of House competitions.

After a drizzly start, conditions improved until the weather was bright and sunny by the end of the event. The disciplines on the day included more than 50 track events, a full range of field jumping and throwing events, as well as tennis, table tennis, Eton Fives & Wall Ball, tug of war and rowing on machines. The House volleyball competition for Years 9 and 10 was new for 2015, with teams of seven players competing in a league system.

Sports Day’s main organiser was PE teacher Nicholas Bird, who enlisted the help of teachers from many departments to oversee activities, act as judges and time-keepers and to keep scores. The 2015 day marked Mr Bird’s QE Sports Day swansong: he leaves at the end of term to become Head of Boys’ Games at Belmont School, the preparatory school within the independent Mill Hill School Foundation. Mr Bird has been at QE ‘man and boy’: an Old Elizabethan (1995-2002), he has worked at the School as a teacher since 2006.

Head of Games Mark Peplow said: “I would like to convey our best wishes to Nick for his future and to place on record my thanks for all the hard work he has done over the years in co-ordinating Sports Day, which is a significant organisational challenge.”

Mr Bird also contrived to leave the School with a fresh sporting contribution of his own under his belt – an impressive performance in The QE Mile! This is the mile-long race which sees staff runners competing against a team of boys drawn from each year group from Year 7 to 10. With each runner completing 100m as a relay, the race takes the teams four times around the track.

The staff competitors included both men and women; this year, they were drawn mainly from the PE, History and Geography departments.  “In addition to Nick’s sterling efforts, there were strong showings by Jonathan Hart (PE), Guy Boyes (Geography) and Kwamina Korsah (History). In a battle to the finish, Mr Korsah just won it for the teachers,” said Mr Peplow.

Other noteworthy achievements of the day included Year 10 boy Keenan Dieobi winning his 100m and 200m sprints as well as the discus. Rufus Kent, also of Year 10, won the 1,500m and earned plaudits from Mr Bird for his “contribution to his form throughout the day”.

Children from local primary schools enjoyed the opportunity to find out what life is like as a QE pupil in a new initiative featuring competition in English and Mathematics.

Year 5 pupils from eight Barnet primary schools were invited to take part in QE’s new Primary Challenge Day. Teams from the schools spent a morning pitted against each other, each aided by a Year 7 QE boy, who was on hand to provide any assistance required and chat to the children during the refreshments.

While all the visitors received a certificate for taking part, there were additional certificates for the winners of each round and for the overall winning team, Whitings Hill Primary School, who were assisted by Year 7 boy Guy Flint. Second Master Colin Price presented the certificate to the Whitings Hill children.

Mr Price said: “Although Queen Elizabeth’s School draws pupils from a wide area, we are always very keen to receive applications from boys in local schools. The Primary Challenge Day constituted an ideal opportunity to open our doors to boys and girls from the local area and give them a taste of what it would be like to be a pupil here, while also reminding them that places are, of course, only available to those who apply.

“We hope they all enjoyed the day and now look forward to receiving applications in the autumn from some of the boys’ families for admission in September 2016.”

The event was the brainchild of Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung, who also organised it. A number of English and Mathematics teachers at QE were involved.  “In addition to the opportunity it gave us to build relationships with local primary schools, the Primary Challenge Day enabled us to build a sense of responsibility among our Year 7 boys by giving them a guiding role,” she said.

There were four rounds:

• Poetry games, during which children were given props and asked to write a limerick and recite it
• Number Puzzles, including finding solutions to a cross-number (similar to a crossword)
• Spelling bee
• Logic round.

The participating primary schools were: Christ Church, Foulds, Livingstone, Monken Hadley, Trent, St Mary's C of E, Underhill and Whitings Hill. Foulds entered two teams, making a total field of nine.

Sixty-five boys from the Combined Cadet Force enjoyed a week-long camp in Shropshire that featured activities ranging from kayaking to a 24-hour field training exercise organised by the QE contingent.

The CCF boys from Years 9-12, accompanied by seven members of staff, joined cadets from four other schools at Nesscliffe Cadet Training Centre near Shrewsbury.

Among the highlights was the award of second place – out of all 400 cadets there – for Year 10’s Zayaan Humdani in the short range shooting competition.

“It was a good week for our boys: such camps are invaluable experiences, helping cadets improve their individual skills and also developing teamwork and a sense of camaraderie,” said Major Mev Armon, who is both the CCF commanding officer and a Biology teacher at QE.

The week began with a day of personal development training at a local activity centre, which included kayaking, canoeing, mountain-boarding, climbing and Laser Quest. The following day was spent on the shooting ranges, with the cadets split into two groups, depending on their level of experience. Activities ranged from competition shooting at 200m and 300m for the senior group to weapons training and a DCCT (Dismounted Close Combat Trainer – a computer-simulated range) shoot for the junior group.

The middle of the week saw two days devoted to military skills and combat skills, followed by the field training exercise planned and run by QE. The last full day was given over to competition, with the schools entering teams of up to ten into challenges that included military skills, tug of war and a ‘gun run’ contest.

QE engineering students have progressed to the national final of a prestigious construction industry competition with their idea for a dust-beating, water-fed broom.

The Year 12 team won the Health & Safety category in the South East Regional Final of the Constructing Excellence 2015 competition.

Pupils William Forrester, Alexander Norcliffe, Mitul Shah and Daniil Slavin developed the broom to reduce the problem of dust on construction sites as part of the Engineering Development Trust’s sixth-month Engineering Education Scheme in conjunction with Lovell Construction.

Representatives of the Trust and Lovell attended a special presentation of the Regional Award at the School.

Lovell business systems manager Alex Wood said: “The brief was simple: ‘can you improve on the everyday broom to improve health and safety?’ We asked the students if they could come up with a better way of controlling dust on site – which can be a serious health hazard for construction workers – and produce a practical solution which would be affordable to produce.”

After carrying out research and experiments and collaborating with Lovell’s small tool and equipment suppliers, the students devised a prototype broom incorporating a controlled water mist. 

“The initiative was designed to encourage innovation and research and enabled the students to see how their school studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics feed into creating practical solutions,” said Mr Wood. “It’s also a way of giving young people a clearer understanding of the industry and of the health hazards which construction workers face.”

Michael Noonan, the Technology teacher who oversaw the boys’ participation in the scheme said: “The competition is run by the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health [IOSH], the world’s largest H&S organisation. Winning the Health & Safety category is a great achievement.”

For the national final, the boys will be expected to make two further presentations to the IOSH in October – one at Millwall Football Club and the other at The Victory Services Club . The winners will be announced at a special event at the London Marriott Hotel, also in October.