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Year 11 boys gained fresh insights into J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls when a theatre company came into School.

Say Two Productions not only performed the classic drama to the whole of Year 11 with the participation of some of the pupils, but also conducted a ‘hot-seat’ question-and-answer session, with the professional actors answering the boys’ questions while still in character.

English teacher Lucy Riseborough said: “This was a fun and engaging delivery, which refreshed Year 11s’ minds about the plot and the key issues of the play. It was also a good opportunity for some of the boys to immerse themselves in the play by participating in the action.”

Set in 1912, the play exposes a wealthy family’s guilty secrets following the death of a poor, young woman. Priestley, a socialist playwright, used the story to critique Edwardian English society and to suggest that people of all classes bear responsibility for each other.

The play, which was first performed in 1945, is one of the texts that the boys have been studying for this summer’s English GCSE examinations; the theatre company’s visit thus served as a revision aid.

Towards the end of the session, one group of boys was invited to change into costume and recreate the opening scene of the play. They therefore had to consider how to go about staging a scene, looking, for example, at what can be communicated by where the actors are on stage.

Say Two Productions design a bespoke experience based on the School’s requirements. “In this case they were asked to help students understand the context of the play and the characters’ thoughts and motivations. This was certainly brought out in the Q&A after the performance,” said Miss Riseborough.

The English department is now considering commissioning another visit from the company, possibly for a performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Software developer Josh Benson is working to inspire the next generation to follow in his footsteps through his passionate support for a national schools technology competition run by his employer.

Now in its fifth year, PA Consulting’s Raspberry Pi competition is aimed at pupils from Year 4 to Year 13.

“It's a fantastic competition, giving schools the chance to create something amazing and submit it.” said Josh. “Finals day involves meeting some big names in technology. I think it's vital to help kids get into technology and coding, inspiring them to change the world one brilliant invention at a time.”

Josh has been working for PA Consulting since September 2015. “I am a software and innovation consultant, and work in many different projects, from large IT transformations to quick and impressive prototypes. I have a huge passion for technology, and I'm interested in projects that can make people's lives better.”

He helps to run the Raspberry Pi competition by giving up time to serve as a coding mentor, assisting schools with any technical issues through offering advice and guidance. “I have also run a learn-to-code session with a selection of kids from different schools at my office, which has encouraged more teams to apply,” he said.

This year’s competition theme is Innovation for All: entrants are asked to develop innovations that will improve the lives of people who have conditions that limit their ability to do things that most take for granted. Raspberry Pi is the name of a series of small, single-board computers developed in the UK to promote the teaching of computer science in UK schools and in developing countries.

Josh’s career has gone from strength to strength, based on the foundations laid when he was at School. “I found QE tough at the time, but it has helped me become more disciplined in work, curious about new opportunities, and keen to expand my horizons.”

Josh went to Manchester University from 2005–2010, taking a first in his Master’s degree in Computer Science. While a student, he was involved in various university societies and activities, including the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Jewish Society, squash, football and Tae Kwon Do.

During a period in which he worked as a software developer for the betting company, OpenBet, from 2010–2012, he served as a volunteer with the educational charity, Limmud, organising and marketing large Jewish festival-style events.

From OpenBet, he went to Capco, a global business and technology consultancy, where he was an innovation developer, taking a leading role in creating apps for use as part of the company’s internal digital strategy. He left Capco in August 2015 to join PA Consulting.

OE Ife Adepegba was one of 14 black male Cambridge University students pictured in a photo that quickly ‘went viral’.

The image, posted on Facebook by the university’s African-Caribbean Society, illustrated the fact that in the 2015-2016 academic year, only 15 black, male undergraduates were accepted into Cambridge.  But, says Ife, it also conveyed a positive message, aiming to inspire the black youth of today to apply. “A quote from one of my friends, Dami Adebayo, of Robinson College, sums it up perfectly: ‘Black men don't grow up thinking they'll make it here. They should.'”

Ife adds: “Although we do not look like the 'typical Cambridge student', our presence is as important and valid as the next person’s, and we need to encourage more and more people to break boundaries and transcend stereotypes.”

The photo was spotted by famous rapper Stormzy, winner of multiple MOBO awards and a Brit Awards nominee, who posted it on twitter – “And you can only imagine how many potential young applicants that platform has the capability of reaching,” says Ife. The story was subsequently picked up by innumerable news organisations, including the BBC.

Ife (OE 2007–2014), who appears fourth from right standing in the first photo (above right) and in the centre of the second (below right), is in the third year of his Architecture degree at King’s College.

“My main activities at university are quite compromised due to the intense workload of my degree, but I still have managed to continue doing athletics (sprinting), representing the university, and have also been involved in the university's charity fashion show for the last three years.”

Upon graduating, he plans either to undertake a year’s work experience in an architectural firm or to pursue a master’s degree.

“I would like to thank QE for all the opportunities, both academic and extra-curricular, and to stress the importance of current students taking full advantage and reaching their full potential.”

QE is the only state school to feature in a list of the top ten schools generating the highest level of applications to prestigious graduate training schemes.

New research reveals that former QE boys are among the most likely nationally to apply for jobs at the most sought-after banks, law firms, management consultancies and FTSE 100 companies, alongside former pupils from leading independent schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, Westminster, Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Boys and North London Collegiate School.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very pleasing to see our high position in this list. We certainly encourage our boys to be ambitious and have detailed programmes in place to assist them with university applications and with their future career.

“Employers value applications from QE boys for a number of reasons. Firstly, our strictly meritocratic admissions policy means they can be sure that our leavers are genuinely able, regardless of their family background. And, of course, employers also take note of our exceptional examination results and of our consistently high progression rates for Russell Group, Oxbridge and Ivy League universities.”

QE’s 2016 A-level results were its best ever recorded, with 98.9% of the 518 examinations taken awarded grades A*-B.

Reported in the Daily Telegraph, the research carried out by Rare, a recruitment company specialising in encouraging diversity in the workplace, found that 30 per cent of sixth-formers at the top ten schools had applied for the most prestigious graduate schemes. This compares to just 0.3 per cent of students at the bottom ten per cent of schools, meaning students educated at the ten schools were 100 times more likely to apply than those at the lowest-placed.

The ten schools represent 0.3 per cent of the national school population, yet produce three per cent of all applications to the top firms.

The data has become available for the first time after applications to 28 leading City graduate schemes – including Boston Consultancy Group, Baker McKenzie, Barclays, Deloitte and Clifford Chance – were analysed using a Contextual Recruitment System (CRS).

A QE team which designed a helmet aimed at saving construction workers’ hearing from damage were among the national engineering prize-winners at The Big Bang – the UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair.

After progressing through the first day, the four-strong Year 13 team were named as one of the Big Bang Competition Senior Engineering Runners-Up, placing them among the top five teams at the major event held at Birmingham’s NEC.

They had reached the national finals after previously impressing judges with their Sonus-mico Helmet, which warns construction workers when workplace noise exceeds safe levels. The helmet was developed last year under the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) by Yazid Sukhia, Tochi Onoura, Christopher Suen and Sachin Ghelani.

Fresh from their success in Birmingham, Tochi was congratulated in an interview by Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London. He explained to her that the team was sponsored by construction company Lovell and that they had come up with the idea after visiting one of Lovell’s sites. During the visit, they had been told about the problems caused by excessive noise.

Sound levels above 85db over a prolonged period can cause permanent hearing damage, Tochi explained. “What is often the problem is that people don’t know how loud that actually sounds – it’s really hard to tell.”

They designed the circuitry and casing to fit inside a normal construction helmet, choosing that to house the device because it is mandatory for everyone on a construction site, including visitors, to wear one.

During the autumn, Tochi’s team were among those invited to show off their design to politicians, policy-makers and industry representatives at a special event at the House of Commons billed as the Big Bang @ Parliament.

• The School has two Year 12 teams in this year’s Engineering Education Scheme, one is again supported by Lovell, the other by office fit-out and refurbishment specialists, Overbury.

It is with regret that the Association announces the death of Adrian Turner (1933-41) on 29 April 2017.

The funeral will be held on 17 May 2017 at 10:45am at Parndon Wood Crematorium.