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QE pupils heard university lecturers expound on philosophers from Plato to Simone Weil and on topics ranging from hedonism to the philosophy of Science in a mind-broadening Sixth-Form conference.

And the event at North London Collegiate School was especially memorable for the QE contingent because it was announced there that a younger QE pupil – Binu Perera, of Year 11 – had taken second place in a prestigious philosophy essay-writing competition.

The one-day conference featured the following contributions:

• Dr Chris Hamilton, Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion at King’s College London, who looked at the 20th-century French philosopher, Simone Weil, exploring how her philosophy connects with everyday life and is not merely to be studied, but instead makes demands on how we live our lives.
• Professor Roger Crisp, Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford, who discussed the relationship between utilitarianism and hedonism.
• Professor David Miller, Reader in Philosophy at Warwick, who explored the philosophy of Science, asking whether the scientific method is our only hope of discovering truths about the universe.
• Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at Sheffield, who revealed how Plato’s philosophy still has plenty to teach us, even though it is 2,500 years old.

QE Head of Religion & Society, Jack Robertson, said: “Our boys asked a number of interesting questions after the lectures, with the organisers commenting on the high level of those questions.”

He also congratulated Binu, who was QE’s entry in the North London Philosophy Writing Competition, the final round of which was judged by Professors Crisp, Hobbs and Miller.

Binu’s essay tackled the question: Mark Zuckerberg has pledged 3bn dollars over the next 10 years to try to eliminate disease. Should we aim to extend people’s lives indefinitely? 

His closely argued composition concluded with a clear answer to the question posed: “To strive for immortality would only be an extension of all the discovery and research that has happened in the past century. We would be throwing away everything that we have worked so hard to achieve and would be failing our species not to work towards extending life indefinitely – to continue to innovate and learn is only human.”

Mr Robertson said: “The judges, who are three highly esteemed philosophers, were particularly impressed by the quality of the evidence provided for his argument, which demonstrated a great deal of research and hard work.”

A specialist group brought the traditional stories and stirring sounds of African culture to the boys of Year 7.

The IROKO Theatre Company first delivered a talk to the boys, recounting a traditional Nigerian moral tale to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Every member of Year 7 then participated in two workshops.

For the first, the Shearly Hall reverberated to the sound of drumming, with each boy allocated an instrument.

“The boys quickly created a symphony of drums, with bongos, tambos, jambos and other percussion instruments all combining to create a rhythmic and very exciting atmosphere,” said Head of Religion & Society Jack Robertson. “Our pupils developed an understanding of the necessity of team work and experienced the communal pursuit of a shared goal to produce a harmonious beat.”

The second workshop focused on story-telling. Various techniques, such as utilising dramatic gestures and ‘call-back’, were used to bring stories to life in an interactive way.

Founded in 1996 by actor and director Alex Oma-Pius, IROKO uses the arts – especially, but not exclusively, African arts – to advance the education, health and wellbeing of people from all backgrounds and nationalities, with a particular emphasis on working with children and young people. Its website states: “IROKO's fundamental principle is that its work should have a meaningful effect on the lives of the young people involved: it should educate, empower, motivate and inspire them and at the same time, it should be fun.”

Mr Robertson concluded: “Overall, there were plenty of interactive elements and the boys greatly enjoyed IROKO’s visit, finding it both engaging and informative.”

QE’s new robotics club has scooped prizes and set records at two separate competitive events.

Two QE teams – HYBRID and Gearsquad – successfully took on 29 other teams at the North London VEX IQ Challenge regional round at The Henrietta Barnett School and then just a few days later achieved similar success at the Central London round hosted by the City of London School for Girls.

VEX IQ is a snap-together robotics system which young people can use without tools. Designed to help pupils with STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), VEX IQ is a worldwide phenomenon, with more than 10,000 teams from 32 countries competing in over 750 tournaments. The School’s VEX club draws boys from Years 8 & 9.

At Henrietta Barnett, HYBRID not only took the Judges’ Award but also set a new UK record in the Teamwork Challenge, working collaboratively with a team from the host school. The two QE teams also made excellent presentations to Imperial College’s Jess Wade on their STEM research project and robotic design booklets, which involved investigating the potential uses of robotic technology in society. Dr Wade, whose Physics PhD looked at microstructure control and the characterisation of organic semiconductors, won the 2016 Jocelyn Burnell Award for her outstanding research and the work she does in encouraging others to study Physics. She commended both QE teams on their excellent presentations, lauding the boys for their very passionate delivery.

And there was no resting on their laurels for the School’s roboteers: just days later at the Central London VEX IQ regional round, hosted by City of London School for Girls, Gearsquad set a new record Robot Skills Challenge of 90 points. They then saw this record broken again by HYBRID, who amassed 100 points, thus making the two QE teams the top-ranked teams in this element of the competition in the UK. A few hours later, Gearsquad and HYBRID worked together in the Teamwork Challenge and matched the score set previously by HYBRID and their Henrietta Barnett partners. HYBRID and Gearsquad are therefore ranked joint-first in the country with their score of 65.

The QE boys are now looking forward to competing in the National Championships at Birmingham’s NEC in March and hope to qualify for the world championships.

Scheme leader and Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “These are quite remarkable achievements considering this is the first year that VEX robotics of any kind have been attempted at the School.  I am very proud of these boys’ performance; they have committed to countless lunchtime and after-school sessions to building, practising and perfecting their robots, and have reaped the rewards of that. They are now determined to bring that level of excellence to the national stage.”

The current VEX IQ Challenge tournaments are entitled Crossover, which is played on a 4ft x 8ft rectangular area and requires robots to achieve various tasks, such as placing balls in a scoring zone and parking robots on a bridge. The tournament comprise a number of elements:

• Standard matches: two alliances, each consisting of two teams, play against each other.
• Robot Skills Challenge: one robot and one driver playing alone against the clock
• Programming Skills Challenge: one robot using sensors to run autonomously.

Gearsquad members are: Sunay Challa (Year 9), Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy (Year 9), Romansh Gupta (Year 8), Siddh Patel (Year 8), Dillan Shah (Year 8) and Ukendar Vadivel (Year 9). HYBRID, which is the second QE team, has: Rohan Battula (Year 8), Piraveen Ithayarasa (Year 9), Nirmay Jadhav (Year 8), Lucas Lu (Year 8), Daniel Radzik-Rahman (Year 9) and James Tan (Year 9).

Mr Noonan and Chemistry teacher Katie Paske worked with the boys, assisted by Biology teacher Emma Pearl.

Four of the school’s top Year 12 debaters took part in a competition run by the Oxford Union – one of the most famous debating organisations in the world.

The Oxford Schools’ Debating Competition brings together pupils from some of the country’s most famous independent schools, including St Paul’s School, St Paul’s Girls’, Dulwich College and Wycombe Abbey.

Academic Enrichment Tutor and Geography teacher Helen Davies said: “Dhruv Kanabar, Ravi Karia, Dillon Shah and Jathieesan Umaasuthan (all Year 12) did an excellent job representing QE. Although they did not progress beyond the initial stages on this occasion, they were up against some stiff competition: our boys put up an admirable fight and made some very interesting contributions to all the debates.”

The competition involves the British Parliamentary style of debating. In the event at Northolt High School, the motion for the first round was This house believes that the Olympic Games should always be held in London, for which Jathieesan and Ravi made the ‘opening proposition’ (as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister).  “They made some excellent points about the high level of safety in London, about the re-use of the London stadium making it a more economically and environmentally sustainable solution, and about convenience for all involved,” said Miss Davies.

The second-round motion was This house would ban workers in essential state services (e.g. the NHS and public transport) from striking. “Dillon and Dhruv (‘opening opposition’) again presented some excellent counter-arguments to the motion, including the idea that actions speak louder than words and that striking is often necessary to start change.”

The competition judges included a European Debating Championships finalist and a World Debating Championship semi-finalist; all gave very high-level and valuable feedback to all members of the competition, Miss Davies added.

Reflecting on his participation afterwards, Dhruv said “It was an excellent opportunity to practise our debating skills against students from other schools.  I learnt a lot from the experience and thought that the motions we were presented with were very relevant and thought-provoking.”

Miss Davies concluded: “It was exciting to see our boys holding their own against debaters from some other very prestigious schools.  They all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as well as learning a great deal from it.  Debates such as these help the boys to develop skills which are widely applicable to a range of future careers.”

Five ensembles performed at QE’s annual Jazz Evening – with most of the musicians involved taking part in the event for the first time.

Held in the Shearly Hall, the popular concert featured pieces by composers as varied as Charlie Mingus and Lennon & McCartney, while the music ranged from familiar jazz standards – Take the A Train – to songs from other genres, such as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Music teacher Tom Jack said: “The evening was a great success, with all the students playing and singing at a really high level. It is particularly pleasing to see many pupils involved for the first time – only ten were also involved last year: the future for jazz and a cappella singing at the School looks bright.”

The Big Band began and finished both halves of the concert. The B-Minors, a new ensemble this year, performed three Beatles songs and Hallelujah, while the Friday Jazz group played Gershwin’s Summertime and Autumn Leaves by Kosma.

In the second half, the Barbershop group sang Moon River and the traditional My Evaline, before the Saxophone ensemble took on Mingus’s Boogie Stop Shuffle. Then Year 13 vocal soloist Varun Vassanth, the former School Captain, performed Don MacLean’s ode to van Gogh, Vincent (Starry, Starry Night), before handing back to the Big Band, who brought the Jazz Evening to a conclusion with Basie’s Blues in C and I Want You Back, made famous by The Jackson 5.

Old Elizabethan Jonathan Ho has launched a campaign to raise £35,000 to finish an inspirational documentary about his School friend Johan Byran’s quest to complete one of the world’s most gruelling physical challenges.

Johan Byran (OE 1997–2004, pictured left), who is a GP, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 18 yet has completed 23 marathons, despite the pain caused by his condition. Now he is aiming to tackle the race billed as the toughest of them all – the 250km Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) in the Sahara Desert.

Jonathan (Johnny, pictured right), who was Johan’s QE contemporary, is making the documentary, entitled Grit, in which Johan’s story will intertwine with that of other rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. He has been working on it for the past year and, to date, the work has been entirely self-funded. Now, however, Johan has published a promotional video in an attempt to use crowdfunding to raise the £35,000 needed to take a team out to Africa to complete filming for the documentary.

“Our aim in this project is to empower and give hope to those who suffer from chronic mental and physical health conditions,” says Johnny. “I want to know what drives Johan when he is in so much pain and his body is saying ‘no’.”

The promotional video features not only Johan, but also his wife, Sheena, brother, Daniel and friends. It explains that the Marathon des Sables is a six-day race in which competitors must carry everything they need on their back. This year’s event takes place in April.

“Do I think I will finish? I don’t know, but I do know it will hurt, I do know I will endure and I will not stop,” Johan tells the camera.

Johan traces his own love of running back to well before he received his diagnosis, when he used to watch QE teacher Colin Price (now the Second Master) in training for marathons. In the promotional video he reflects not only on the physical pain caused by his condition, but also on the emotional challenges it has posed.

After QE, Johan studied Medicine at UCL and now practices as a GP in Enfield. He also works in palliative medicine at St Francis Hospice near Romford in Essex.

Johnny went on to study at London College of Fashion for a year then to Kent Institute of Art and Design (now known as UCA Rochester), where he gained a degree in Photography. He has since: made a number of music videos for acts including Rudimental; filmed fashion shoots for top names such as Victoria Beckham; shot corporate videos for blue chips like Marks & Spencer and Ernst & Young, and made short films and documentaries on varied subjects.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in multiple joints. Diagnosis is most common after the age of 40 and it affects women two-and-half-times as often as men.

Through the making of Grit, Johnny and Johan hope to help charities such as Arthritis Research UK.

The video concludes with an appeal: “If this is a story you would love to watch, please share, donate or help in any way you can.”
To watch the promotional video and support the making of the documentary, go to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/grit-film#/