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A team from QE has won the regional heat of an international children’s literature competition for the second year in a row.

Team Bookworm, comprising Lev Shafran, Ethan Solanki, Arjun Patel and Sultan Khokhar, all of Year 8, retained the Kids’ Lit Quiz cup in a closely fought North West London heat with a score of 86 points, just half-a-point ahead of University College School in second place.

The teams had to tackle 10 rounds of 10 questions each and had a joker they could play in one round to double their points. Questions ranged from the relatively straightforward to the more difficult, such as ‘Which 11th Century noblewoman, who has a statue in Coventry, rode naked through the streets on her horse?’ (Lady Godiva).

Team Bookworm were joined in the competition by Team Phoenix, which was made up of Year 8 boys Ye-Sung Baek and Siddhant Kansal, and by Year 7 pupils Leo Dane-Liebesny and Charlie Carolan-Boss.

“Both QE teams performed exceptionally well,” said Librarian Ciara Murray, who oversaw the School’s participation. “Only a few points separated them, so every answer and every contribution from the team members counted. I continue to be extremely impressed by the boys’ retention of information from the hundreds of books they have read.”

The QE participants were also helped by a timely assembly led recently by Religion & Society teacher Geraldine Booth, which had looked at real and literary heroes. One of the competition’s themed round was on the topics of heroes and included questions on Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai, all of whom had featured in the assembly.

“The boys have been preparing for the quiz since October,” said Ms Murray. “They overcame previous national and international winners including Arnold House School, the host for this year’s heat. This was a notable achievement as QE has only entered the competition on two occasions and has won the regional final both times.”

Team Bookworm will now go on to the national final at City of London School for Girls. This takes the form of a ‘fastest-finger first’ buzzer round; the winner will travel to Toronto in Canada next summer for the international final.

The School’s first large-scale concert of the academic year was a celebration of Music itself – so it was especially fitting that it took place on the day of St Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians.

Entitled An Ode to Music, the concert in the Shearly Hall, featured a programme that spanned the centuries, from the Baroque era to works by a number of living composers.

Director of Music Cheryl Horne said: “Pupils, family and staff joined together to celebrate the glorious history of Music alongside the amazing talent of our musicians at Queen Elizabeth's.”

The Junior Concert Band got a busy programme under way with a medley of Queen songs and a performance of the marches of John Williams, the film composer known especially for his Star Wars soundtrack.

The Junior Strings tackled excerpts from Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 ‘Pastoral’ and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, while the Junior Indian Ensemble played Carnatic (classical Indian) pieces by Thyagarajah.

The Flute Ensemble then performed Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D, before the Chamber Choir concluded the first half with one of the best-known songs of the rock and pop era, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Jazz Band produced a swinging start to the second half with two jazz classics, Mas Que Nada and Take the A Train, followed by I Want You Back, made famous by The Jackson 5.

Next the Celli played a selection from Jupiter, from Holst’s The Planets, before the School’s newest ensemble, The B Minors, took to the stage for the first time. This junior barbershop group performed Lennon & McCartney’s Yesterday as well as Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, who died just a few weeks ago.

The penultimate appearance came from the Saxophone Ensemble, performing Nigel Wood’s Silver Chalice, before The Symphony Orchestra and School Choir joined forces for the final item. They took on pieces from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. “This is probably most recognisable as the music from X Factor,” said Miss Horne. “With over 200 students on stage, it was certainly a rousing finale to send everyone on their way!”

Eighteen Year 12 chemists heard the world’s first professor of sustainable energy make a call for concerted global action on reducing waste.

QE Sixth-Former Souhardh Kotakadi was one of two members of the audience invited forward by Professor Tom Welton at the lecture in London to take part in an experiment designed to illustrate how Chemistry can be made more sustainable.

Professor Welton, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London, was giving the annual Daniell Lecture at Kings College London, entitled Chemistry for a Cleaner World. The lectures cover exciting contemporary developments in Chemistry and are aimed at A-Level students and teachers. They are delivered by internationally renowned scientists chosen not only for their contribution to modern scientific knowledge, but also for their ability to communicate to a young audience.

Chemistry teacher David Crouch said: “Such ‘super-curricular’ events are a great opportunity for QE students to look beyond the school curriculum and explore their own academic interests in more depth. This will be fundamental when writing their university applications at the start of Year 13.”

In a report, Souhardh and his Year 12 classmate, Dillon Shah, recounted the substance of the lecture: “One of the underlying issues raised was the significant amount of wastage produced by industrial processes in the chemical industry and the dreadful impact that this has on the environment. For example, Professor Welton mentioned that the majority of the material wasted by today’s generation is plastic, which collects in localised points in the world’s oceans.

“His message to the audience was simple: in order to be chemically sustainable, we need to recycle, reuse and compost more. He gave the example of how waste is often reused on ships returning to China: having offloaded their cargo in the UK, waste material from the UK is used by the ships as ballast to provide stability and reduce fuel use, before being ultimately recycled in China. He also highlighted the need to steer away from fossil fuels and turn to alternative, sustainable sources of energy, especially biofuels.”

Souhardh gave details of the experiment he took part in at the front of the auditorium: “It showed the effect of a catalyst on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (2H2O2 (aq) ? 2H2O (l) + O2 (g)), a reaction used historically for propelling rockets. By adding potassium iodide, the hydrogen peroxide decomposed faster than when a biological catalyst (chopped liver) was added. The reaction produced a volcano of foam, otherwise known as ‘elephant toothpaste’, due to the oxygen gas formed being trapped in air pockets in the soap.”

More than 60 Sixth-Formers headed off to the Institute of Education in London for an “inspiring” series of lectures on Maths in Action.

The day included a session with a senior examiner, who looked at common pitfalls in examinations and gave advice on developing good examination strategies.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “Each lecture was inspiring in its own way and has encouraged the boys to delve deeper into the topics they found most engaging on the day.”

The boys, all from Year 12, found plenty to interest them, according to their particular interests.

The lectures were:

• Bad Stats: what they don’t tell you on the news, Michael Blastland, author and broadcaster
• Mathematical models and the natural world, Dr Tom Ezard, University of Southampton
• The hidden maths in pop music, Kyle Evans, ‘mathemusician’
• Codes and code-breaking, Dr James Grime, mathematician and communicator
• Con-sequence, Sara Santos, Mathematics communicator.

Andrew Shamis said: “I really enjoy watching Numberphile [a youtube channel featuring Dr Grime] so I was really pleased to hear James Grime speak about code-breaking.”

“The talk about statistics in the news was particularly eye-opening as we are so reliant on news reports for information,” said Aditya Gupta.

And Vishva Vishnukumar added: “I really enjoyed the song performed by Kyle Evans. It was interesting to find out about the Maths involved in pop music.”

The day was organised by the Training Partnership, a provider of educational study days.

“These lectures are a very good way of introducing branches of Mathematics which are not covered as part of the A-level syllabus and of showing the range of applications to which the subject can be applied,” said Miss Fung.

The contribution QE pupils make to the local community through The Challenge has been recognised by the Prime Minister.

A certificate signed by Theresa May commends the School for its participation, while a report received by the School on this summer’s programme confirms that 78 boys from the current Year 12 took part – more than 11% of the participants from across the Borough of Barnet. In addition, a number of other Year 12 QE boys have now joined The Challenge’s autumn programme.

The Challenge, formally known as ‘National Citizen Service powered by The Challenge’, brings together young people from diverse backgrounds to work together on youth and community initiatives during a three-week summer programme and three autumn weekends.

Described by its organisers as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, it challenges participants to develop new skills, hone existing ones and use their potential to make a difference in their communities, while at the same time encouraging initiative, teamwork and social cohesion.

A registered charity which promotes community engagement, NCS enjoys support at the highest level: former Prime Minister David Cameron recently announced that his first new role will be to lead an expansion of NCS.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are keen to encourage participation in The Challenge, since it corresponds well to the School’s ethos of producing young men who are committed to serving their communities as well as pursuing their own academic and career goals. Furthermore, because it is comparatively inexpensive, it is very accessible to our pupils, who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.”

http://www.ncsthechallenge.org/

It is with regret that the Association announces the sudden death of John Chapman (1944-52) on 3rd December 2016.

John was for many years a stalwart supporter at the Memorial Playing Fields.

John’s funeral will be held at 11:15am New Southgate Cemetery and Crematorium, Brunswick Park Road N11 1JJ on 19 December 2016.  Attendees are invited by Hazel and her family to attend West Lodge Park EN4 0PY after the funeral.  For catering purposes would all who intend going to West Lodge please email Bob Parker at [email protected].