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QE’s Ridwan Uddin and Nabil Haque have won awards from the Bangladesh High Commission for their GCSE results – and Nabil used his acceptance speech to pay fulsome tribute to the role his grandfathers played in the country’s independence movement.

Year 12 boys Nabil and Ridwan, who are both from families of Bangladeshi origin, received Outstanding Achievement Awards at the High Commission in Kensington after being nominated by Head of Year 12 Liam Hargadon. The awards are offered to British-Bangladeshi pupils gaining at least ten A grades at GCSE or three As at A-level.

Since his tally of 13A*s was the highest of those at his ceremony, Nabil Haque was invited to give an acceptance speech on behalf of his fellow winners. He spoke of his pride at being “recognised as one of my home country’s highest achievers – an honour I deem to be at the pinnacle of my 17 years of life thus far”.

Nabil, who hopes to study Fine Art at Oxford University’s Ruskin School or University College London’s The Slade, congratulated the other award-winners and paid tribute to his parents for their support. He also thanked “all the teachers, friends and my School – whom I owe much gratitude to”.

However, he reserved his highest praise for his paternal and maternal grandfathers. Both had made the “bold and brave” decision to move to England in the 1950s, but had then constantly travelled to and from Bangladesh “fighting for what they believed in and the independence of our nation”. His mother’s father, Mushtaq Qureshi, had in fact been a freedom fighter, Nabil said. Bangladesh won its independence in 1971.

“My Nana and Dada were the most unselfish men I have ever met. Not only would they provide for their close families with what was not the most generous wage, but they would give freely to the British Bengali community around them, and simultaneously, send an abundance of money back to their homes in Sylhet. I have heard countless parables from both my parents about how strongly both men believed in education, knowledge and culture, tirelessly repeating the mantra that ‘education was the key to success’ as they, too, tirelessly toiled and worked for their family.

“These two characters were the stalwart figures in the respective sides of my family and, I believe, provided the basis for all I have achieved and wish to achieve in the future,” Nabil said. “As British Bengalis therefore we must remember the dichotomy of our identity; we live in Britain now, but our Bengali links will always stay fundamental to who we are as people. We are the next generation. We are the future of both Britain and Bangladesh.”

After delivering his speech, Nabil was complimented on it by other speakers, particularly MP Desmond Swayne, former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister David Cameron.

He was also selected to represent the High Commission in an interview with the Bengali International BBC News Network. And Nabil was invited back to the High Commission for this month’s celebrations marking the 45th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence by the High Commissioner, Md. Abdul Hannan, himself.

Fifteen Year 8 boys worked with girls from an independent school to design a shelter capable of sustaining life on Mars.

The Science Fair, held at St Albans High School for Girls, was the latest collaboration between QE and girls’ schools – although, unlike most other such collaborations, this involved younger boys.

Organiser Sarah Westcott, Head of Lower School Science, said: “This collaboration with St Albans enabled our students to develop key problem-solving as well as team-working skills. It was also a good opportunity for them to meet and work with female students of the same age group and share ideas about the difficulties of interplanetary survival.”

Working in mixed teams of three, pupils spent the first part of the day in a design-and-build session, with testing of the shelters occurring later in the afternoon. The shelters were tested to withstand structural damage and to see how well they would protect inhabitants from UV light.

Boys were also treated to a session in an inflatable planetarium and saw a presentation about how life on Mars might unfold.

The influential chair of one of Parliament’s most prominent Select Committees explained its work on a visit to QE – but lamented the fact that it had neither the power nor resources of its US equivalent.

Keith Vaz MP, who has been Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee since 2007, came to the School to give a Politics Society talk organised by Year 12 pupils Adrian Burbie and Ragul Premanathan.

A former Minister for Europe and a Privy Councillor, the high-profile Mr Vaz, who represents Leicester East, is the longest-serving Asian MP.

Born in Aden to parents from the Indian state of Goa, he moved to Twickenham with his family in 1965 and went on to take a first in Law from Gonville and Caius, Cambridge.

His talk, which was intended to complement the AS and A-level Politics syllabus, focused on the role of select committees and the work they do in scrutinising the executive in Parliament. Among the insights he gave was that Theresa May is the hardest Home Secretary to deal with in terms of “getting answers out of her which can be used against her”.

He spoke with particular emphasis on the contrast between the British Parliament’s Select Committees and Congressional Committees in the US.

Congressional Committees have the power to “cause Presidents to quake”, block bills and budgets, while their equivalents here have little power – they can only make recommendations. “When you go to Washington, you can just feel the power,” he said.

Furthermore, he felt British Select Committees were woefully under-resourced, comparing them again unfavourably with the US situation. His committee only had six part-time staff, while Congressional Committees had at least 30 full-time staff.

When asked by Adrian Burbie whether he would support George Osborne’s proposed sugar tax in the Budget, he said: “Well actually, George Osborne supports my sugar tax.” Mr Vaz has been a long-time campaigner on diabetes prevention, being a diabetic himself. He therefore strongly approved of the tax’s introduction – the only part of the Budget that he actually liked.

He was questioned by Liam Hargadon, Head of Year 12, on whether he thought Parliament needed to be more diverse and representative of the wider population. Mr Vaz, who is seen as a voice for the British Asian community, responded that Parliament had made great strides in representing ethnic minorities and women, but that work remained to be done.

Light relief was provided in an impromptu competition staged by Mr Vaz, who had brought along prizes: Big Ben pencils, a signed copy of one of his recent reports and a coveted coaster from high-flying Leicester City FC.

The questions and answers were:

• Who is the President of the European Commission? (Jean-Claude Juncker)
• Which Republican candidate dropped out of the race recently? (Marco Rubio)
• Who scored the winning goal for Leicester City’s in their game against Watford? (Riyad Mahrez)

Callum Murphy, of Year 13 and Neelay Sumaria-Shah, of Year 12, were among the winners.

Award-winning children’s author Candy Gourlay gave QE boys valuable and inspiring tips on how to improve their own writing when she visited the School.

Ms Gourlay delivered a session entitled The Hero’s Journey to Year 7 and 8 pupils in a visit arranged by English teacher Panayiota Menelaou.

During the hour-long talk in the Main Hall, she gave the boys an overview of what a story needs to be successful and then linked this to her own life and her desire to become a writer.

‘It was refreshing to hear an author’s journey to success and it showed our students that they have to be hard-working and determined if they wish to succeed,” said Mrs Menelaou. “Candy’s talk was inspirational and gave students an array of ideas about how they could improve their creative writing.”

“It was a very productive presentation, especially for the Year 7 students, whose recent work has involved writing their own scripts in preparation for acting them out.”

Ms Gourlay is a Filipino author based in the UK, whose 2010 debut novel, Tall Story, won the National Children's Book Award of the Philippines in 2012 and the Crystal Kite Award for Europe in 2011. Her second novel, Shine, published in 2013, won the Crystal Kite Award for the British Isles and Ireland in 2014 and was longlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

The students not only enjoyed asking questions, but many also took up the opportunity to buy signed copies of Tall Story and Shine.

“Some students told me one thing they really liked hearing about was that despite Candy Gourlay being rejected several times, her determination to continue writing and improve her craft was motivating and made them realise that it does take time to learn to write and craft a good story,” said Mrs Menelaou.

“It was an excellent opportunity for boys to learn more about different genres and types of writing, both of which are aspects of literature that they are exploring in their English lessons.”

A week-long charity football tournament culminated in an exciting five-a-side staff competition.

Thirty-seven boys and three staff teams battled it out in the Broughton and Harrisons’ House event, raising £117.90 for the School’s nominated charity for this year, Macmillan Cancer Support.

Organised by History teacher and Extra-Curricular Enrichment Tutor Matthew Dunston, the event brought together male and female teachers from across the departments. A crowd of 48 boys turned out to watch the staff battle it out on the back field. Each spectator contributed £1.25 to the takings, which was added to the subscriptions paid by the players.

In the exciting half-hour final, which took place in chilly conditions, Mr Dunston’s red team emerged as 5–1 winners. There was then the extra treat of a penalty shoot-out, producing both fantastic goals and spectacular saves.

Founded in 1911 as the Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, Macmillan Cancer Support is one of Britain’s largest charities, providing specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer.

The charity was chosen by QE pupils as part of a survey run through the eQE virtual learning resource.

The School’s other four houses are planning their own charity events to take place later in the year.

QE’s thriving Medical Society has welcomed a string of guest speakers, including an Imperial College professor and an old boy of the School who spoke about life as a junior doctor.

The lunchtime Medsoc is organised by Year 12 pupil Bushry Basheer, who also arranges the speakers.

Bushry recently welcomed back to the School Old Elizabethan Kiran Patel (2000–2007) (pictured left), who previously visited QE as the Guest of Honour at the thanksgiving service on Founder’s Day in 2014. He studied Medicine at King’s College London and qualified in 2013, then completing his two years of foundation training at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals, as well as with University College London Hospitals. He is currently in the first year of his core medical training at Northwick Park Hospital.

Kiran told Medsoc that he had no regrets about having chosen Medicine as a career: the skill sets it offers are in worldwide demand, while academically he finds it both challenging and enjoyable.

He welcomed questions from his audience of boys from Years 10-13, counselling them to think seriously before embarking on a medical career. The amount of responsibility that medics take for the life and wellbeing of others can be stressful at times, he pointed out, adding that Medicine was also not a career for those seeking financial reward. The route to becoming a consultant is long and involves a string of examinations requiring hard work and perseverance, he added.

Kiran hopes to become a cardiologist, having expressed an interest in the subject since he was in the Sixth Form.

He commented on the current junior doctors’ dispute: without the goodwill provided by staff working overtime, the NHS would collapse. Hence it was imperative for the Government to avoid further demoralising the workforce, Kiran said.

In addition to Kiran’s visit, Medsoc has welcomed OEs Athavan Thirukkumar and Mahenthran Thanurshan, (both 2003–2010), who were also keen to help a younger generation of pupils. Having started their higher education reading Medicine at Queen Mary University, the two are currently students at Barts and the London School of Medicine. They spoke on Life as a Medical Student.

Other speakers invited by Bushry in recent months include:

• Professor Paul Aylin (pictured right), a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at Imperial, who spoke on the topic of the ‘weekend effect’ – the claim that you are more likely to die in hospital if you are admitted at a weekend – and the use of ‘big data’ in Medicine
• Ludvic Zrinzo, Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Neurosurgery at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He gave a lecture entitled Sentient stardust and brain surgery in which he spoke about his work as a functional neurosurgeon – which involves inserting electrodes into the brain to stimulate electrical activity – and compared this to more invasive neurosurgery.
• Charles Till, a paramedic with the Red Cross and London Ambulance Service, who spoke about the importance of paramedics in acute Medicine.

Bushry also recently delivered a talk himself; he compared health systems across different countries, considering how the NHS could be improved (bureaucracy and cost-efficiency) and also where it is doing well (including end-of-life care).