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Liberal Democrat Kishan Parshotham emerged victorious in the Mock Election at QE after a well fought contest.

Kishan had more first preferences – 34% – than any of the other five candidates and would have been the victor under the First Past The Post (FPTP) system. However, QE adopted the Alternative Vote (AV) system and, since 34% was less than the outright majority required to give him instant victory under AV rules, the second, third and other preferences of lower-ranked candidates were considered until one candidate had more than 50% support. This eventually produced a victory again for Kishan in a run-off against the Labour candidate, Tommy Peto.

The Mock Election attracted wide interest not only from the Sixth Form but also from boys lower down the school. Turn-out was 44%.

To represent their chosen party, boys had to secure five nominees. They then decided on a manifesto and spent time garnering support from all year groups.

The candidates were: Matthew Barrett (Conservative), Tommy Peto (Labour), Kishan Parshotam (Liberal Democrat), Makoto Takahashi (Green Party) and Guy Emanuel (UK Independence Party). David Parkinson was an independent candidate, running for the Independent Left party.

In the run-up to the Mock Election, teacher John Varndell arranged an opinion poll with the help of his form 8S and Politics Club. This poll showed not only the party that the Lower School boys wanted to win – Liberal Democrats, with the Independent and Conservative candidates coming out on top with the older years – but also which policy areas helped them to that choice. In addition, the poll also showed who would have won under the FPTP system and who under the AV system. The AV system is considered by the Electoral Reform Society to be the best voting system when a single position is being elected.

Teacher Helen MacGregor said: “Question time with all six candidates was held a week before polling day. There some excellent points and high-quality debate among the candidates, as well as some good questions from the floor.”

Voting took place on Wednesday 5th May, with the results declared the following day to coincide with the General Election.

Forty-two QE boys qualified for this year’s Intermediate Mathematical Kangaroo competition, which is for Years 9 to 11.

Six of the candidates – Rajan Mistry, John Sime, Rahul Mukherjee, Andrew Wang, Nayen Vaghjiani, and Calum O’Sullivan – were awarded certificates of merit, which go to the top 25% of entrants. The remaining 36 gained certificates of participation after sitting the one-hour paper.

Like the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad, the Kangaroo is a follow-on round from the UK Mathematics Trust’s Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. However, while the Olympiad is a UK competition, the Kangaroo is a Europe-wide competition in which more than 3 million pupils take part. The competition’s name derives from the fact that it was inspired by the Australian Mathematics Trust.

QE candidates have achieved notable success in this year’s Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad, with the results of two boys placing them among the UK’s top 50 mathematicians in their age group.

Gabriel Gendler, of Year 9, achieved a perfect score of 60 in the competition, while fellow QE pupil Madhi Elango scored 52 out of 60. Both boys were awarded medals for their impressive solutions to the questions. They received book prizes, Symmetry: The Ordering Principle and The Golden Section, which were given to the top 50 entrants in the competition, as well as certificates of distinction, given to the top 25% of the 1,600 students selected to take part in the Olympiad.

The Olympiad is the follow-on round from the UK Mathematics Trust’s Intermediate Challenge, which was sat this year by more than 200,000 pupils in Year 11 or below.

Seven other QE boys also qualified for the Olympiad and all gained certificates of merit, which are given to boys in the second 25% of results.

Head of Mathematics Gee Scarisbrick said: “Heartiest congratulations to Gabriel and Madhi, who distinguished themselves and were very worthy recipients of their book prizes. Indeed, congratulations are due to all the boys who qualified for the Olympiad: to be in the top 1,600 of over 200,000 who sat the Challenge is a real achievement.”

QE beat off competition from 33 other schools to win a regional mathematics team competition.

The victory in the Team Maths Challenge means that QE has reached the national finals of the UK Mathematics Trust competition for the second consecutive year.

The QE team comprised four boys from Years 8 and 9: team captain Madhi Elango; Gabriel Gendler; Bhavik Mehta and Yash Shah. They scored 227 points out of 240.

The competition, which took place at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, combines mathematical, communication and teamwork skills, offering pupils a way to express and develop their enjoyment of mathematics.

Other schools taking part included the hosts as well as Haberdasher’s Aske’s Boys, Merchant Taylors’, North London Collegiate School and Northwood Prep.

QE Sixth-Former Makoto Takahashi has won first prize in a national essay competition run by the Royal Geographical Society.

Makoto won the David W Smith Memorial Prize and a £100 cash award, while fellow QE pupil Chon Kemp was one of only three entrants nationwide whose essays were ‘highly commended’ in the contest.

Makoto and Chon both have offers from Oxbridge colleges to read Geography from October; Makoto at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Chon at Jesus College, Oxford. Makoto was also the Green Party candidate in QE’s mock election earlier this month.

The competition involved writing an essay of up to 1,500 words on the subject ‘To what extent are cities in the developing world working towards the goal of sustainable development?’ All Year 13 geographers at QE entered the competition.

The annual competition run by the Developing Areas Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society is named after David W Smith, who also published under the name of David Drakakis Smith. He was an outstanding scholar committed to researching on Third World cities. He died in 1999.

Year 13 pupil Ramsey Kobeissi has accepted the offer of a place at Yale – the first-ever QE boy to go to the Ivy League university.

Ramsey had initially planned to take up a place on Harvard’s Liberal Arts programme and had also received an offer from Pembroke College, Cambridge, but has turned down both in favour of the equally prestigious university in Connecticut.

“I simply found that Yale was the best ‘fit’ for me in an emotional-connection sense; I felt most at home academically and socially there,” he said. “In comparison to Harvard, I felt that undergraduate students were given more priority and attention, there was a greater sense of spirit/unity and the social scene was far better.

“I greatly look forward to being able to sample all kinds of classes in ‘shopping week’, in which students can freely drop in and out of classes to see which ones they would like to choose for the upcoming term, as well as all the extracurricular opportunities (usually free or heavily subsidised), such as weekend trips and internships in New York/Boston.

“When looking at UK universities, I was uncomfortable that I was required to apply for a subject from the very beginning, when I am undecided as to what I want to do in the future,” Ramsey explained. “The American university system involves a ‘liberal arts’ education with a wide variety of classes, and a specialisation is not selected until the second year. From then on, only half the classes taken are in the chosen field, allowing for plenty of academic exploration. Of course, there was also the adventure of studying in another continent to consider.”

Interviewed recently by QE Assistant Head David Ryan, who is Head of the Upper Sixth and of Careers, Ramsey said the US application process was not especially challenging, although time-consuming and very different to the UK system.

Asked whether Yale would cost more to attend than a UK university, Ramsey replied: “The old myths about the cost of US universities are just that. Since 2004, most top US universities have aggressively courted overseas students using financial aid packages which often bring the cost down to lower than what a student would pay in the UK. Students whose parents earn less than $60k p.a. will pay nothing, and those whose parents earn under $180k p.a. will pay 10% of their parents’ income at maximum. My education in the US will cost less than a UK education thanks to the generous financial aid I have received.”

Ramsey paid tribute to the assistance given to him by the School, which included organising a talk with Janet Irons, Harvard admissions officer for the UK and Europe. Head of Lower Sixth Liam Hargadon had been “tremendously helpful as the School’s resident expert on the US” he said, also thanking Mr Ryan and the Head of English, Susannah Sweetman. “I am extremely grateful to the Headmaster for being a mentor from start to finish and providing my ‘school counselor’ recommendation,” Ramsey concluded.