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Poetry and number puzzles were among the activities enjoyed by local children at QE’s 2016 Primary Challenge Day.

Now in its second year, the day gives Year 5 children from local primary schools the opportunity to find out about life as a QE pupil.

Teams from four schools entered this year. They spent their visit taking part in a range of English and Mathematics activities, including a number of competitions.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “At QE, we draw our pupils from a wide area, but we are always very keen to receive applications from local boys. Our Primary Challenge Day gives us the chance to welcome in girls and boys and girls from this area, giving them a taste of what being a pupil here is like. They engage in a little friendly competition in an enjoyable and stimulating setting. We also take the opportunity to remind them of the importance of applying for places – because, of course, only those who families from the local area who actually make an application are in with a chance of winning a place.”

The day’s competition, organisd by Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung, included interactive games and tasks comprising a spelling competition, a poetry-writing challenge, number puzzles and logic problems. The limerick round was won by Woodridge School, the crossnumber round and the spelling bee were both won by St John’s School and the logic round was won by Monken Hadley School. However, the overall winners were Foulds School.

A visit to the Henry Moore Foundation gave Year 8 artists fresh inspiration and insights for their own work.

Thirty pupils made the trip to the studio and gardens near Bishop’s Stortford, where they were able to see some of the greatest sculptures by Moore (1898–1986).

The group included Guy Flint and Hugh Westcott, who wrote afterwards: “Upon arrival, we explored the original studio of Henry Moore in which we found many maquettes – small, working versions of larger sculptures."

After that, they headed off to the 72-acre gardens, where many larger pieces were on display.  “Of these magnificent works of art, Knife Edge Two Piece was our favourite because we found it to be quite abstract – we could interpret it however we wanted to. We also thought the scale and size surprising: many of the sculptures were several meters tall, such as the Large Totem Head.”

In School, Guy, Hugh and their classmates have recently been sculpting and then drawing their own clay forms, basing them on the works of Moore and on natural processes such as weathering and erosion.

“Visiting the Henry Moore Foundation has inspired us, giving us new and innovative ideas on how we can work on and develop our artwork.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School reached the semi-final stage at the finals event of the National Schools’ Chess U19 Championship – QE’s best-ever result in the competition.

Earlier in the championship, the team had achieved victories over King Edward’s School, Chelmsford, and local rivals Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School. They thus became zonal winners, securing their place with 15 other schools at the finals hosted by Uppingham School in Rutland.

At Uppingham, QE qualified for the semi-final with emphatic wins against top chess-playing schools Winchester College (5-1) and Millfield School (6-0) in a last-16 match and quarter-final respectively.

Teacher in charge of chess Geoff Roberts said: “Reaching the semi-final of the most prestigious schools’ chess tournament – the one which every school has aspirations to win – is a real achievement and one that confirms our place amongst the country’s élite chess-playing schools.”

QE just missed out on qualifying for the final, losing to Hampton School 3.5-2.5 in a closely fought match. The School finished the competition in joint-sixth place overall.

“My congratulations to all the boys who have represented the School in this competition and a particular mention must go to the Captain, Jake Breindel, who now moves on to university, for his commitment to chess at QE throughout his seven years at the School as well as his rôle in creating the strong team environment which has underpinned our success,” Mr Roberts added.

He also pointed to the outstanding individual performance from Year 9 pupil Federico Rocco, who won all four of his games on board 2 – a clean sweep achieved by only four players at the finals, as the English Chess Federation’s report pointed out.

In addition to Jake and Federico, the following boys have represented QE in the competition in 2015-16: Ananth Balaji (Year 12); Rishul Karia (Year 11); Devin Karia (Year 8) and George Ivanov (Year 9).

Thirty Year 8 pupils enjoyed the chance to get their hands on genuine Roman artefacts during a visit to the site of the ancient city of Verulamium.

At the Verulamium Museum, the boys were allowed to handle objects discovered during excavations at the site in the 1930s. These ranged from a pestle and mortar and a frying pan to earrings and necklaces, as well as amphorae (large wine jugs), bricks and even knives!

Languages teacher Helen Shephard said: “The eagerness with which the boys discussed the objects and shared their ideas was amazing to see and to hear – many called it the highlight of the day.”

Another high point for the boys was their exploration of a hypocaust – the system used by the Romans to heat the floors in their homes and at the baths.  “The boys’ inquisitiveness about this ingenious system and the level of precision in their drawings and notes made for a very educational, worthwhile and enjoyable experience for all,” added Dr Shephard.

Verulamium was the third-largest city in Roman Britain; the museum stands on the site of the Roman town in the south-west of modern St Albans.

The visit gave the boys an opportunity to relate what they saw and heard to the sections on life and civilisation in Roman Britain in the Cambridge Latin Course Book II, the textbook they have been following this year.

In the first part of the trip, the boys saw an ancient Roman theatre, which could seat up to 7,000 people and which hosted plays, shows and sometimes even public executions!  Nearby were shops, wineries and a villa.

Next the boys were given a brief talk about the history of the site and had the opportunity to handle the artefacts. At the end of the talk, two of the boys dressed up as a rich Roman and a Roman slave – much to the amusement of their classmates. The visit to the hypocaust rounded off the day.

QE has taken first prize in a new national competition aimed at developing skills in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

More than 400 teams entered The Bright Ideas Challenge. QE, who had already been named regional winners, were announced as national winners at Make the Future London. This was a four-day festival of innovation hosted by the competition’s backers, energy company Shell, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, during which the ideas of all the regional winners were showcased.

Congratulating the QE’s Team Algae to Power from Year 8, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Competitions such as the Bright Ideas Challenge help to reinforce the relevance of what our boys learn in the classroom and show how ideas can lead to practical solutions in the real world. I am very proud of what the QE team has achieved and am delighted that their hard work and creativity has brought them this success.”

Team members Viren Patel, Eeshan Banerjee, Thomas Mgbor and Deshram Ganeshamoorthy won £3,500 for the School to support STEM teaching. This was in addition to their prize as regional winners: a tablet computer each and £1,500 for the School.

The competition was open to pupils aged 11–14. Entrants were challenged to apply their STEM skills to devise ways of powering the cities of the future.

The QE team looked at supplying clean sustainable renewable energy in the form of biogas, using algae growing on buildings to convert biomass into energy, producing fuel for hydrogen cars. The idea involves recycling the carbon dioxide produced by burning biogas and using it to feed algae that has been genetically modified to photosynthesise more efficiently. Competition organisers said this idea could promote a better quality of life for future city-dwellers.

During an enjoyable day at the Olympic Park, the boys were interviewed by Erik Bonino, the Chairman of Shell UK, and by Rachel Riley, mathematician and TV presenter, best known for co-presenting Countdown and The Gadget Show.  They were also photographed with both and their victory was celebrated on the Shell website.

A married couple who both survived the Nazi Holocaust as children spoke to the whole of Year 9 when they visited the School.

Peter and Marianne Summerfield’s talk complemented the boys’ Year 9 History syllabus, which covers the World War II period and includes a module on the Holocaust entitled Genocide and Intolerance.

The Headmaster, Neil Enright, said: “It was our pleasure and privilege to welcome Mr and Mrs Summerfield to the School.

“We cleared the afternoon timetable in order to devote plenty of time to their talk and to give the boys time to reflect on the very important lessons that it conveyed. I know that the boys greatly appreciated the visit and it is my hope that they will now play their part in ensuring that the Holocaust is never forgotten.”

Mr Summerfield was born as an identical twin in Berlin in Germany in 1933, four months after Hitler came to power. By the time of his birth, his parents were already suffering from the restrictions placed on Jewish people by the Nazis and, from 1936, they tried to find a country which would accept the family as immigrants. Eventually they received permission to leave Germany after a distant uncle said he would be a guarantor with financial responsibility for the family.

In August 1939 the family was finally able to escape Berlin on the last train before war was declared. However, all their possessions and even their luggage were stolen, so they arrived in England in that month penniless and with only their hand-luggage.

Mr Summerfield vividly remembers his early experiences of Berlin and of this eventful journey, which he recounted to the boys. His grandmother and uncle were later murdered by the Nazi regime. 

After the war, he and his brother completed two years’ National Service in the British Army, including time on active service in Egypt.  He then went on to study Law at Oxford and qualified as a solicitor.

Mrs Summerfield was born in Breslau, Germany, which is now Wroclaw in Poland, in July 1938.

Her parents were both dismissed from their careers in the legal profession because they were Jewish.

On Kristallnacht (9th November 1938), her father was arrested, along with thousands of other Jewish men, and sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Her mother managed to persuade an official at the Gestapo Headquarters to find a missing letter which gave permission for him to live and work in England. After receiving this letter, her mother went straight to the camp with it and her father was released and immediately travelled to London. Mrs Summerfield and her mother were able to join him in February 1939.

After finishing school, Mrs Summerfield became a teacher and then went on to open a chain of nursery schools. She later opened a school teaching English as a foreign language.

The couple have been married for more than 40 years; they have five children and 12 grandchildren.