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Invitations to the launch of The Queen’s Library’s manga collection proved to be in great demand.

More than 100 boys entered a specially devised quiz in an attempt to secure just 30 places at the lunchtime launch – entitled Kapow! – of the graphic novel and comic book collection. The top scorers from each year were selected, with the remaining lucky guests selected at random from the entrants.

Librarian Ciara Murray said: “The quiz and the launch certainly caused quite a buzz around School. It’s something that appeals from Year 7 all the way to Sixth Form. As the quiz answers demonstrated, many of our boys already have an extensive knowledge of manga, so I am sure the new collection will be a popular addition to the Library.”

Manga is a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children.

During the launch, the library was closed to all Year 7-11 boys except those on the guest list, although Sixth-Formers were able to use the facilities as usual.

The illustrated quiz was published on QE’s Pupils’ Learning Network. It involved questions such as:

• Who is the hero (or heroes) destined to fight these dastardly villains?

1. Lex Luthor  (Superman)
2. Ra’s al Ghul  (Batman)
3. Red Skull  (Captain America)
4. Mystique  (The X Men)
5. Doctor Octopus  (Spiderman)

• What does the Japanese word ‘baka’ mean?  (Fool, idiot)
• How many volumes of Naruto have been released in English translation so far?  (72)

Twenty-four Year 12 Politics students from QE joined 2,000 Sixth-Formers from around the country at a conference featuring some of the country’s best-known politicians.

The event at the Methodist Central Hall began with some initial remarks from the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. Mr Bercow then gave answers to questions from the floor, including an unabashedly robust response to a question posed by QE boy Neal Vithlani (pictured left with Natalie Bennett).

“I was lucky enough to ask him about the attempted coup by the Conservative government on the last day of the 2010-2015 Parliament,” said Neal. “Bercow, being the passionate man we all know, jumped at the opportunity to say how ‘William Hague and co.’ acted disrespectfully and in an underhand way. After criticising the behaviour of members of the Cabinet, Bercow drew huge cheers and applause from the audience, signalling that the rest of the conference would be a raucous event.”

The 24^th annual A-Level Politics Conference gave Sixth-Formers the chance to hear from, and question, MPs including Government ministers, shadow ministers and party leaders.

QE History and Politics teacher Helen MacGregor, who accompanied the boys, said: “This conference represents a unique opportunity for young people to speak with national leaders and it is also invaluable in linking classroom learning about Politics with the real world.”

Natalie Bennett, who is Green Party leader although she failed to get elected in May and is therefore not an MP, impressed Neal and his classmates as “one of the better speakers of the day”. Neal felt her performance was much better than in the General Election TV debates. “Bennett drew large applause when talking about the importance of getting young people into work and out of benefits.”

The conference heard from Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling, from Nadine Dorries – who inspired boys and girls alike with her account of the struggles of being a female MP in the ‘all-boys club’ of Westminster – and from one of the more senior MPs, Alan Duncan. His defence of the 0.7% of GDP allocated to the UK’s foreign aid budget drew loud support from the floor as he responded to a loaded question about poverty at home, Neal reported.

The first Labour MP to take to the stage was Tristram Hunt, who spoke on Labour’s electability in 2020 and was quizzed on his loyalty to Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn.

The audience was somewhat subdued, Neal reported, when the leader of the SNP at Westminster, Angus Robertson, spoke on his party’s policies, but then came to life – with a number of boos being heard – at his suggestion that England and Scotland should separate and rule themselves.

UKIP’s sole MP, Douglas Carswell, focused on the rise of his party and the need, as he saw it, for Britain to leave the European Union. “Carswell performed well and convinced many people sceptical of UKIP that they are not everything they are made out to be,” said Neal.

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, tipped by some as a future Labour leader, also came across well, with many in the audience warming to the former British Army Major precisely because he is not a ‘career politician’.

Recently appointed Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was the final speaker and was “an immediate hit with the crowd”. After talking about the Lib Dems’ own “failings” in 2010, he opined that Labour’s current “infighting” represented an historic opportunity for voters. “He left the crowd on a positive note, saying how the Liberal Democrats were the party of tomorrow and walked off the stage to a huge round of applause,” Neal concluded.

Fifty boys from Year 11 enjoyed an afternoon of creative and engaging Mathematics lectures during a visit to the West End.

The boys heard three talks from three of the country’s most popular Mathematics speakers, followed by a question-and-answer session open to all.

The talks at the Maths Inspiration Show at the Palace Theatre, London, were: Maths on the Back of an Envelope, by author Rob Eastaway; Yeah, but is it significant? by Dr. Jennifer Rogers (pictured), of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Adventures in the Fourth Dimension, by Matt Parker of Queen Mary University of London.

The first lecture was on approximation when using Mathematics in real-world situations. Mr Eastaway considered how to make estimates for the answers to questions such as ‘how many sausages are eaten a day in the UK’ and ‘how heavy are the pyramids?’ The lecture also mentioned that such questions are often asked in university and job interviews.

The second lecture explored the use of statistics and data, particularly in pharmaceutical research, involving type I and type II data. 

The third looked at geometry and particularly at shapes in the fourth dimension, such as the hypercube, as well as examining strange shapes such as the Klein bottle.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “The boys had an enjoyable afternoon finding out about how Maths can be used in a variety of contexts.”

Year 11 pupil Rakul Sri said: “It was really well presented and made Maths more interesting than I’d realised.”  Classmate Sahil Shah added: “The talks were very entertaining and eye-opening and showed us the importance of Maths in the real world.” 

The afternoon was chaired by freelance science writer Helen Pilcher.

The QE boys were accompanied by Head of Mathematics Jessica Steer and Mathematics teacher Sean McGouran and Extra-Curricular Enrichment Tutor Elaine White.

QE’s Combined Cadet Force have received a glowing report following their biennial inspection.

Major Andrew Hart visited the cadets during a number of training sessions and inspected and addressed the whole force on parade during the course of his day.

Contingent Commander Captain Alexander Masson, Major Mev Armon, 2nd Lieutenant Richard Scally and School Staff Instructor Charlie-Maud Munro all received Major Hart, who was carrying out the inspection. Lance Sergeant Shapland from the British Army (London District) Cadet Training Team also attended the day to provide weapons training.

The visitors were met by the Cadet Quarter Guard (senior boys) before enjoying tea and cakes with the Headmaster in his study. At the end of the day, Major Hart met Mr Enright again and summarised his findings with him before departure.

Major Hart said: “From the outset, it was very evident that the CCF played a major role within the School and was an integral part of the after-curricular activities offered. The Headmaster was proud that the CCF helped to develop his students in line with the ethos of the School.”

He noted that the CCF seemed to be very popular: not only does it have more than 100 members, but there was also an ‘on parade’ strength of more than 75 cadets. Such attendance levels are understood to compare very favourably with other schools. This showed, said Major Hart, “a very committed and motivated detachment”.

He was also impressed by the Quarter Guard: “All…were 16 years of age and had been in the CCF for three years or more. They were well turned out and spoke very confidently and competently. All had enjoyed, and continued to enjoy, the time within the detachment.”

Major Hart witnessed some of the training taking place and noted that, with the exception of a lesson being run by the visiting L/Sgt Shapland, they were run by cadet instructors. Both a lesson led by a Cadet Under Officer on firearms and another, on field craft, led by a Cadet Sergeant, were “extremely good and well delivered and well received”. He further noted: “The real estate at the School was excellent, allowing creative training to take place.”

The Headmaster, Major Hart reported, “is a strong believer in the benefits [the CCF] brings his students and was keen to highlight how it is treated as an integral part of the School.

“During the whole visit it was evident that the welfare and morale of the cadets was excellent,” he concluded.

Sixty Year 13 boys took part in two workshops led by researchers from Imperial College London.

Entitled Spectroscopy in a Suitcase, the workshops were organised and funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Two PhD candidates and one M.Chem. student from Imperial ran the two sessions for the Sixth-Formers. Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between light and matter and is an integral part of the A-level Chemistry course.

Boys had the opportunity to hone their skills in analytical chemistry and to try out two different spectroscopic techniques, infrared spectroscopy (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).

Each workshop started with a review of IR and NMR and then students were introduced to applications such as police breathalysers. They also learned about recent developments, particularly in the area of cancer treatment, where analytical tools have been developed to differentiate between cancerous and non-cancerous cells during surgery. Boys were then able to carry out some investigations themselves using both the IR and the NMR.

Chemistry teacher Dr Niamh Hickey added that after the workshops, the Royal Society of Chemistry generously allowed the Chemistry department to borrow the IR spectrometer for the rest of the week. This allowed Year 12 boys to be involved in extra lunchtime sessions that she was running and also enabled this year’s QE team in the RSC Top of the Bench Chemistry competition to have access to the equipment.

QE has won the regional heat of a national chemistry competition – adding to an impressive record of success in the prestigious event in recent years.

The victory in the Middlesex and Chilterns round of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Top of the Bench competition means that the team now go through to the national final at Loughborough in April.

QE’s Head of Science, Dr Malcolm Russell, praised the work of Chemistry teacher Elizabeth Kuo: “We have now won the regional competition four times out of the past six years – a striking level of achievement that, I am sure, is due in no small part to the weekly lunchtime training sessions that Dr Kuo organises.”

Under the competition rules, each team must include four pupils drawn from across Years 9-11.

QE’s competitors were selected by their teachers as showing outstanding promise in Chemistry. The team comprises Year 9 boys Vincent Tang and Alejandro Lynch Gonzales (seated front, left to right) as well as Ashish Khimasia, of Year 10, and Michael Takla, from Year 11 (seated back, left to right).

The regional heat was hosted by St Benedict’s, an independent school in Ealing, west London. There were around 20 teams competing, including a number from leading academic schools including Westminster and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’. The heat featured eight rounds, all of them theoretical: a practical element is, however, included in the final.

For winning the heat, the four QE contenders won £20 each and individual certificates, together with a silver plate and £100 for the School.

The Top of the Bench competition has been running for more than 20 years. It aims to foster children’s interest in Chemistry, encouraging them to study it in higher education and eventually to pursue it as a career.