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The School is celebrating its best-ever result in the UK Mathematics Trust’s Junior Maths Challenge.

Of the 299 boys from Years 7 and 8 who sat the challenge, 191, or 64%, were awarded gold certificates, compared to 134 last year. Five boys achieved a perfect score of 135 out of 135 – Guy Flint, Anshul Sajip, James Tan and Joshua Wong, of Year 8, and Rohan Battula, who is in Year 7.

A further 73 boys gained silver certificates and 25 received bronze certificates. In total, therefore, 289 QE boys – 97% of the contestants – were awarded certificates. Nationally, certificates are given to only the top 40% of students, with gold, silver and bronze certificates awarded in the ratio 1:2:3.

Across the country, around 1,200 of the highest scorers are invited to take part in the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. This year, this will include 33 boys – three times the total in 2015. A further 90 (57 in 2015) have qualified for the challenge’s other follow-on round, the Junior Kangaroo.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “We are delighted with how well the boys have done and look forward to the results of the Olympiad and Kangaroo.”

QE water polo player Thushira Kumarage turned out for the England Junior Men’s team for an international tournament in Vienna.

Thushira, of Year 11, was selected for the 13-strong squad even though he was on average a year younger than the players in the other 11 teams in the tournament.

After navigating the group stage, in which they competed with Scotland and with the second team of host country Austria, the England team went on to play Austria’s first team in the play-off for fifth and sixth places. After a closely fought contest, they were narrowly beaten on penalties.

Malta took first place in the tournament, which was played over four days.

Thushira (pictured far right) is in QE’s senior water polo team. Out of School, Thushira plays for the 115-year-old Watford Water Polo Club, which has a strong tradition of competition and league success and is known for its good coaching. In fact, four members of the England team were from the club.

Young engineers hoping to repeat the success of last year’s QE team in a major construction industry competition have got off to a strong start.

The 2015-2016 team from Year 12 have already won one award and narrowly missed out on another. Now they await the results of their presentation to an assessment panel at the South East Regional Final of the Constructing Excellence competition to find out if they have won the Health and Safety Award – the award won by the QE team in 2015. That team went on to win plaudits for their work from the world’s largest occupational health & safety organisation, the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

The QE boys are sponsored by Lovell Construction and are taking part in the competition as part of the Engineering Education Scheme, which is run annually by the Engineering Development Trust to introduce sixth-formers to engineering by promoting joint projects between schools and companies.

This year’s team, comprising Year 12 boys Sachin Ghelani, Tochi Onuora, Chris Suen and Yazad Sukhia, were set the following brief: Construction sites are teeming with the roar of engines and the noise of machines: Create a means of alerting workers to unsafe noise levels (85Db) so that they can take appropriate steps to protect themselves.

They set out to investigate the problem in the semi-completed Lymington Mews housing development being built by Lovell in Chadwell Heath, a prime area of real estate as it is soon to be served by Crossrail.

Technology teacher Michael Noonan, who organised the boys’ involvement in the competition, said: “They noticed that worker knowledge of protection methods was exemplary. However, the ability to differentiate between unsafe and safe noise levels proved difficult. This led to the boys’ planning of their idea – a construction safety helmet which would in addition to its basic function of head protection also provide a noise-alerting unit that would demonstrate when unsafe noise levels had been reached.

“This concept takes the traditional ‘hard hat’ and combines it with the newest advances in 3D printing technology, electronic control (through an Arduino console, advanced audio-sensory and Crumble programming) to create a fully functional and site-ready prototype.”

The boys worked diligently on investigation, research and design, Mr Noonan reported.  They carried out rigorous testing at Lovell’s Ponders End site, where there were significant groundworks sites taking place and consequently unsafe noise levels. The tests proved that the helmet was successful in indicating those unsafe levels.

The team presented their project to Lovell’s London Board of Management, who commented particularly on the advance and complex nature of the project and on the levels of enthusiasm and confidence exuded by the boys. Theirs was, they said, “the most impressive project we have seen yet”.

Next the boys took part in the Celebration and Assessment day at University College London. “The boys knew that the reputation of the 2014-15 team still loomed large, and that Queen Elizabeth’s had great prestige at this event,” said Mr Noonan. They succeeding in winning the Students’ Choice Award – a prize which had in fact eluded QE last year. However, there was bitter disappointment for the boys as they were pipped by Fortismere School by a single point for the new Contribution to Business Award, which recognises the greatest contribution to sponsors’ interests.

They then presented their project to the Constructing Excellence competition’s assessment panel for the South East region. “They eagerly await the announcement in June, which could again mean a possibility of national honours,” Mr Noonan said.

Sixth-Former Shahil Sheth was a runner-up in a national final of a competition aimed at finding the country’s most employable young people.

Shahil emerged in second place in the final of the National Schools Employability Challenge (NSEC), while his fellow Year 12 pupil, Aditya Ramachandran, also reached the final, having been named an “employability champion” following his success in the first two rounds.

Run by the Rate My Apprenticeship website in collaboration with professional services firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the NSEC offers young people across the country the opportunity to showcase their skills.

To reach the final, Shahil and Aditya had to get through stage 1 – a simple quiz designed to measure personality attributes relevant to being employed – and then stage 2 – a quiz and comprehension-based exercise.

The top 10 entries monthly from November to March were named ‘employability champions’ and invited to the national final at PwC’s offices at London Bridge. Shahil and Aditya were both February champions.

“In the final, they analysed our Maths and Verbal Reasoning skills via psychometric tests and teamwork skills based on PwC staff looking at how we worked together as a group,” Shahil reported. Points were also carried through from the first two stages.

The finalists were also offered a session with PwC –the world’s largest professional services firm – on the opportunities open to them when they finished school.

The boys were congratulated by Liane Ryan, QE’s Head of Economics, while the NSEC website proclaimed Shahil’s achievement: “Congratulations to the winner and runners-up who are now officially the most employable students in the UK!”

Guest of Honour Edmund Watson urged the congregation at QE’s Founder’s Day thanksgiving service to ask good questions – about themselves, about others and about the world around them. 

His address in Chipping Barnet Parish Church came at the start of Founder’s Day, which is a highlight of QE’s calendar. The service featured traditional prayers for the School, Bible readings, hymns and music by Vivaldi, Brahms, Rutter and Hubert Parry.

Dr Watson (OE 1999–2006), a junior doctor who excelled at Oxford University and in his medical studies, and hopes to become a consultant, told the boys at the service: “As you go through the rest of your careers at QE, use those wonderful brains of yours to think, and to make the most of this remarkable School environment – whose 443rd Birthday we celebrate today – to help you become masters of asking good questions.”

Afterwards, the boys, staff and guests processed to the School, where Headmaster Neil Enright made the traditional roll call in front of the Main Building. The School Chronicle, a regularly updated account of QE’s history, was also read aloud – a tradition started by Mr Enright’s predecessor, Ernest H Jenkins, in 1930. The VIP party included: Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin and his wife, Perin; the Headmaster; Dr Watson, his wife, Emma, and parents; Rector of Chipping Barnet Reverend Chris Ferris; and the Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Sury Khatri and his wife and Deputy Mayoress, Tara Khatri.

With the formal proceedings completed, at 1pm the eagerly awaited Founder’s Day Fete, organised by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s, got under way. New attractions this year included an Indian dancing display by the Bollywood Dance Academy, while there was also an appearance by Leon the Magician, a performance by the School Orchestra conducted by Director of Music Cheryl Horne and a fencing demonstration by the Paul Davis Fencing Academy.

The international food tent once again proved popular, with food from India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, West Africa and Turkey all featuring, and the Sri Lankan food stall reporting record takings. Hungry guests in fact enjoyed choice aplenty: there was a barbecue and a cake stall, while the Sai School Appeal (in aid of a rural school supported by QE in Kerala, India) offered milkshakes in various flavours, such as mango and Oreo.

Field events included a tug-o-war and the annual Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match between old boys of the School and the current First XI. The Old Elizabethans batted first, amassing 139-6, while the boys replied with 140-4, winning with one ball to spare. The high scorers, both of whom were unbeaten, were alumnus Sebastian Feszczur-Hatchett (2007-2014), on 67, and current pupil Harry Riley on 59.

Mr Enright said: “With the bad weather holding off, we enjoyed a thoroughly pleasant afternoon, with good attendance and many people staying longer than the official 4pm end time. My thanks go to the indomitable volunteers of FQE, whose months of hard work helped make the day such a success.”

The most borrowed author in The Queen’s Library is to visit the School in the autumn.

Robert Muchamore’s CHERUB books about teenage secret agents have proved hugely popular – and Librarian Ciara Murray reports that the Library’s latest acquisition, New Guard, the high-octane finale to the series, has been causing quite a stir. In fact, it was so eagerly awaited that Ms Murray devised a competition to decide which boys would be the first to borrow it.

“Robert Muchamore outstrips even J K Rowling here: his books account for an amazing 1,550 loans since the Library was first opened. They rarely get put back on the shelf – as soon as they are returned, someone else wants to borrow them! – so we are really looking forward to his visit.”

The books were devised when Robert Muchamore’s 12-year-old nephew complained that he could not find anything to read that interested him, and since their publication have delighted hordes of teenagers, even those who were formerly reluctant readers.

The competition, which involved a “fiendish” quiz, was open to Years 7–10 and required entrants to show their knowledge of CHERUB, or Charles Henderson Espionage Research Unit B – a fictional British Government security agency employing children and adolescents. There were more than 100 entries.

“As a tiebreaker, boys had to tell us why they love Robert Muchamore’s books; the answers demonstrated that their appeal continues apace, even as the series draws to a close,” said Ms Murray.

Three boys stood out in the competition, achieving 100% in the quiz and giving the following tiebreaker responses:

• “There is one thing I am gutted about: Why does CHERUB have to come to an end? … I would like to take this opportunity and recommend CHERUB to everyone 11 and up. It is truly something you will get stuck into.” – Manomay Lala-Raykar, Year 7 (pictured above left).
• “They are packed with hidden surprises and suspenseful scenes….One of the things that is wonderful in the series is the character progression – how the main character (James) progresses from a lazy, arrogant child to an intelligent and skilled secret agent.” – Aadarsh Khimasia, Year 7 (pictured above right).
• “They are very different from regular generic adventure books as they aren't set off in a distant land or world, so you can imagine yourself in the situations the characters are in.” – Tarun Bhaskaran, Year 9.

A further eight runners-up proved their expertise, also achieving 100%.

Once the winners of the quiz have had their chance to read the books, New Guard will be available to all. “We are already anticipating a long waiting list!” said Ms Murray.