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Some 70 boys travelled to the Rockies for the QE skiing trip – the School’s first to the western side of Canada.

Their epic journey took in a coach ride to Gatwick, a flight to Reykjavik in Iceland, a further flight to Edmonton, provincial capital of Alberta, and a second, long coach ride to the ski resorts at Jasper.

PE teacher Richard Scally, who led the trip, said: “We arrived to near-perfect conditions and temperatures, which made for a great week’s skiing: we were definitely rewarded for the extra travel.

“As well as almost having the mountain to ourselves, the boys got to experience Ice-skating on a frozen lake, a night walk up an ice canyon and the sight of the least light-polluted night sky in the northern hemisphere at a planetarium. Many great memories were made and litres of maple syrup consumed!”

Mr Scally was supported by a seven-strong staff team, each of whom led a team of boys, who were drawn from Years 8–13.

Their hotel – the recently renovated Lobstick Lodge – lies deep in the Rockies in the Jasper National Park, which is Canada’s largest Rocky Mountains park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jasper itself is a picturesque town often referred to as The Gem of the Rockies.

As well as daily morning and afternoon ski school and opportunities simply to relax together, the boys enjoyed a full programme of other activities. In addition to the ice-skating, canyon walk and planetarium visit, there was a quiz night and swimming. On the final night in Canada, QE staff led an awards evening.

The next day, the group rose early for the coach journey back to Edmonton. Before boarding their flight to Iceland and, ultimately, back to London, they were able to visit Edmonton Mall – home not only to North America’s largest indoor shopping mall, but also to a theme park and aqua park.

SATURDAY 25th MARCH 2017 AT 6.00 P.M.

"This House Believes that experts are overrated"

This year’s Annual Dinner Debate will take place at the School on Saturday 25th March at 6:00pm

There will be a three-course dinner (including wine) with a minimum of after-dinner speeches. After dinner we will hear the 52nd Annual Debate.

This year, Kane Evans (OE 2003-10) will propose the toast to the Elizabethan Union. After leaving QE, Kane took up a gap year before studying History at Christ's College, Cambridge. He now works as a Senior Commercial Analyst at Manchester United Football club, coordinating a team responsible for providing qualitative and quantitative research which helps to steer the commercial strategy of the club.

The price of a ticket is £30; the dress code is black tie/evening dress.

Tickets are available through the FQE Online Shop, to be found at www.fqeshop.co.uk

It is with deep regret that the Association announces the death of Bob Parker (OE 1945-53) on 6th March 2017.

Bob was a Vice President of the Association and he will be long remembered for the many years of service to the membership in various roles including the Rugby Club and latterly the 40 Society.

The funeral will take place on Friday 17 March 2017 at 1:30pm at
New Southgate Cemetery & Crematorium
Brunswick Park Road
New Southgate
N11 1JJ

After the service Liz and her family invite you to join them for refreshments at West Lodge Park, Cockfosters Road, Hadley Wood, Herts EN4 0PY.  For the purposes of catering, please email Martyn Bradish [email protected] if you expect to attend at West Lodge Park, by Monday 13 March 2017.

Only family flowers please.

Donations in Bob’s memory are being made to Cherry Lodge Cancer Care, 23 Union Street, Barnet EN5 4HY or in support of the Royal Free Hospital Smartseat Appeal https://www.royalfreecharity.org/donate and in the box Name Your Choice select Other and enter Smartseat in Your Fund Choice.

Staff and pupils are now enjoying the improved facilities and learning environment of the Heard Building, which has been refurbished, extended and converted into a new base for the English department.

Since the autumn, the Heard Building has been entirely reorganised and structurally strengthened, with a new link added to the adjacent Fern Building. The block provides self-contained accommodation for English, including eight classrooms and offices. It has been decorated with enlarged photographs of recent School drama productions.

The project was completed on time and on budget, its costs, totalling more than £1m, being met entirely by charitable giving through the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are extremely grateful to FQE for their tireless support and to the many parents, old boys and supporters of QE who have given so generously to enable us to complete this important project, which is the latest stage in our Estates Strategy.”

The building was first opened in May 1997 by the then-Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Chris Woodhead, when it was used to accommodate the growing Sixth Form. It was one of the very first projects to be supported by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s.

It is named after Luxton Robert ‘George’ Heard (OE 1927–1936). Mr Heard, who died in 2009, was School Captain in his final year as a pupil. He later became QE’s Chairman of Governors, preceding the current Chairman, Barrie Martin, who took over in 1999. Mr Heard’s pupil record card – written by his Headmaster Ernest Harold Jenkins, who could be quite withering in his assessment of boys – states that he was “a real good fellow and an excellent School skipper…he carried nearly all School offices and societies on his shoulders” and that his “character and appearance [were] first-class”. He was, it notes, a “good scrum half”, a cricketer, the editor of the School magazine and that he “largely ran the Library and Dramatic Society”.

A new plaque has been mounted in the building next to the existing bust of Mr Heard. It pays tribute to the donors, including Arthur Perks (1935–1940), who left a substantial legacy to the School when he died last year. The plaque records that the architect for the refurbishment and extension project was Hollins Architects and the contractor was Borras Construction.

Mr Enright spoke of his gratitude to Borras, who have made a donation towards the cost of providing iPad Minis, which are shortly to be made available to teaching staff. The company’s London Construction Manager, Robert Broadfield, came into the School to present the donation.

Twenty-three Year 12 pupils studying Further Mathematics learned from some of the country's most entertaining mathematicians at a festival for schools.

Maths Fest 2017 at The Camden Centre, which was organised by ‘stand-up mathematician’ Matt Parker and Mathematics author Rob Eastaway, looked at how Mathematics is being used across a hugely diverse range of fields.

QE sixth-former Karnan Sembian said: "The trip was useful in illustrating the hidden applications of Maths, from coding messages in wars to computer graphic simulations to cartoons to theme park rides."

The festival speakers included:

• Simon Singh, author and broadcaster, who spoke on the Mathematics in The Simpsons TV programme
• Eugenie von Tunzelmann, visual effects artist, who displayed computer graphics that she had used in the film, Interstellar, and in her theme park work
• James Grime, internet Mathematics personality, whose session looked at coding and how the alphabet can be expressed in binary and then coded and decoded. He spoke on the World War II Lorenz cipher machine, which was more difficult to 'crack' than the more famous Enigma machine, and examined how a particular message can be distinguished from all the others that are 'floating around'
• Katie Steckles, Mathematics speaker and puzzle-maker, led an interactive session, with pupils trying to solve puzzles. She also spoke about some number theory problems, such as the Collatz conjecture on hailstone numbers, which appear simple but are yet to be solved.

The QE boys were accompanied by Mathematics teachers Jillian Simms and Gregory Lee.

"Eugenie von Tunzelmann's graphics were amazing and the thing that was really interesting was she actually showed the paper notes revealing the maths she had used to work out the trajectory of the light rays bending around a black hole – lots of matrices and complex numbers!" said Mrs Simms.

"My favourite session, though, was Simon Singh's: I love the idea that some really hard maths is hidden in the Simpsons stories, such as the fact that the weight of the Higgs Boson was predicted in the programme 12 years before the particle was actually found."

The festival included Maths Slam, in which students gave prepared presentations in under five minutes on topics including: Fibonacci numbers and astrology; the binary and duodecimal system, and the irrationality of the proof of root 2.

Another highlight of the day was the UK final of Who wants to be a mathematician? in which the finalists had to answer questions put to them on stage by Matt Parker.

Pupil Hariish Paveendran said: "It was a fascinating day out; I especially enjoyed learning about the use of computer graphics in films," while Abhijeet Vakil added: "It gave me a greater understanding of the working behind the Mathematics we learn."

Two Mathematics conundrums, from Katie Steckles’ session:

• The Collatz conjecture on hailstone numbers involves taking a positive integer and then, if it is even, dividing it by 2, and, if odd, multiplying by 3 and adding 1. If the process is repeated, a cycle of 4, 2 and 1 occurs: for example, 16 … 8 … 4 … 2 … 1. But, the boys were asked, how do we know if it always ends up in such a cycle and how do we know there is not another cycle
• The pancake-sorting problem, with which she ended her session, begins with a disordered stack of different-sized pancakes, where the challenge is to sort out the pancakes into size order with a spatula. A spatula can be inserted at any point in the stack and used to flip all the pancakes above it. The pupils learned that for a stack of three pancakes, all of different sizes, it can be demonstrated that the minimum number of flips required can vary between 0 and 3, depending on the arrangement of the pancakes in the stack. However, for a stack of 20 pancakes, no one has yet been able to find the maximum number of flips that could be required!

It is with regret that the Association announces the death of James McLeish (1940-47) on 20 February 2017.