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Sixth-Former Sahil Handa has won a place at Harvard – as well as receiving offers from two other leading American universities and from universities in the UK.

Harvard in Massachusetts, one of the eight east-coast Ivy League universities, was recently named the world’s best university in the Times Higher Education rankings of global reputation. Sahil, a former School Vice-Captain, will take a Liberal Arts course there, majoring in either Politics or Philosophy.

Sahil, who is in Year 13, also received the promise of a generous scholarship from the University of Virginia, alma mater of Robert and Ted Kennedy, and was offered a place at the highly rated Stanford University in California, but after weighing up the pros and cons he opted for Harvard, the USA’s oldest university.

He is one of a number of QE boys in recent years to receive offers from overseas universities, and especially from America.

Sahil has always participated enthusiastically in School and community life. He won a Jack Petchey Award after heading QE’s peer-mentoring scheme – which he did in his role as Vice-Captain – and served as director of a youth-run charity organisation, The Youth Project. With over 1,500 volunteers in ten countries, this organisation co-ordinates initiatives to feed the homeless, mentor disabled children, build sports halls in slums and is running a mental health campaign. He is part of Hendon’s Leo Club (the youth programme of Lions Clubs), which involves fundraising and community service projects. He has received a Social Leaders Impact Award from the Future Foundations youth training organisation.

His ability was also recognised by global management consultancy McKinsey & Company, which selected him for one of its leadership schemes. “The programme involved a residential stay with the organisation, where I learnt about leadership and networked with successful young people,” he said.

His interests include theatre and dance. “I ran the School dance club for four years, which included taking the boys for performances inside School and out.” Sahil was also an individual finalist at a national televised dance competition, where he combined hip-hop and street dance with bhangra and Indian dance.

He was made a drama director at School and led a group of 35 actors in putting on a production of Hamlet while also working with disabled people in theatre workshops. Sahil performed in the West End with other QE boys as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. He successfully auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and, in total, has acted in more than 15 productions – both at School and elsewhere – often in leading roles.

He is a QE cricketer and also a badminton player. And Sahil was one of only 50 young artists from across London to be selected for the Royal Academy of Arts’ AttRAct scheme.

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.”