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The Prince’s Teaching Institute has awarded its prestigious Schools Programme Mark to QE’s Science Department.

The Mark recognises the department’s work to challenge and stretch students and is awarded after a year-long qualification and evaluation process.

The Prince’s Teaching Institute, which was created by the Prince of Wales, is an educational charity that seeks to foster inspirational teaching and to encourage schools to deliver a rich subject-based experience both within and beyond the examination curriculum.

Following the success with Science, which is part of QE’s work as a Training School, the School hopes that in 2011 the English, Geography and History departments will all gain the Institute’s Mark. QE’s History Department recently hosted a teachers’ conference on the Cold War organised by the Institute.

The awarding process for Science began with an evaluation of the department’s provision and with teachers attending a Cambridge University summer school featuring subject-based workshops in July 2009. It culminated successfully in July 2010, when departmental objectives for 2009-10 were judged and discussed during an evaluation day held in London.

QE’s Head of Pupil Progression and Chemistry teacher, Sarah Westcott, said: “Work particularly recognised by the Institute includes the incorporation of Forensic Science workshops at the end of Year 9 and the recent addition of the Extended Project Qualification in Year 12, both designed to challenge and develop students’ thinking outside of rigid curricular frameworks. The Institute also highlighted the many extra-curricular opportunities – such as astronomy, engineering and other Science clubs – that students at QE enjoy, as well as recent links with The Henrietta Barnett School.”

Brunel University has named four Old Elizabethans among its 2012 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls.

Tom Aggar (OE 1995-2002), who is now taking an MSc in Sport Sciences, will be looking to repeat his adaptive rowing gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics when the games come to London in two years’ time.

Second-year Law student Nathan Fox (2002-2009), who was last year’s English Schools bronze medallist, hopes for Olympic success at the triple jump. Nathan was recently placed third in the UK Athletics Championships with a jump of 15.39m.

Fellow triple-jumper Daniel Lewis (2001-2006) was fifth at the same event with 15.26m. Now in his second year at the West London university studying Politics and Economics, Daniel was the 2008 English Schools Champion.

Daniel’s QE contemporary, Chukwunonso (Nonso) Okolo, was the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) 2009 long jump bronze medallist and competes in both long jump and triple jump. Also in his second year, he is reading Communication and Media Studies.

Almost a third of all A-levels taken at Queen Elizabeth’s School gained the new A* grade, it was announced today.

The introduction of the new mark – awarded for scores of 90% and above – also revealed the academic strength in depth of the school: its average points score per A-level was 121.2 – above the 120 score for an A grade (A* is 140). Across all boys, the average points scored was 482.9, which is well in excess of three A* grades.

Headmaster Dr John Marincowitz said: “I am really delighted at these results and at the sea of happy faces that greeted me today. Our boys come from such a diversity of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and it is tremendous to see them acquire such grades. The overwhelming majority will go on to Russell Group universities and, from there, I have no doubt they will have interesting careers and make valuable contributions to society.”

“The results are also a source of considerable professional fulfilment for our staff, and that is so important too.”

Twenty-five QE boys are expected to gain places at Oxford or Cambridge this year. They include Eigo Takeda, who arrived in England from Japan at the age of nine speaking no English. He achieved straight A*s – in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry – double the number of A*s he required for his place to read Mathematics at St John’s College, Cambridge. Eigo is also a talented musician, playing the violin in two national orchestras.

“Eigo has done extremely well,” said the Headmaster. “Japanese to English is one of the hardest linguistic transitions – and Eigo came from Japan with absolutely no English at all. He is also a wonderfully strong musician – one of the best we have seen here, and we are a Music College!”

Eigo, who worked his way up from being in the bottom set when he was in Year 7, said: “Going to QE was the big turning point for me. It’s an excellent school with a great environment, where everyone is so competitive and intelligent. You are pushed to work hard because you don’t want to be left behind: it’s not forced on you; you are forcing yourself.”

Another pupil, Ramsey Kobeissi, achieved A* grades in English, Economics & Business and Politics, with an A in French, which was more than enough to secure a place offered to him by Pembroke College, Cambridge. However, Ramsey has chosen instead to become the first-ever QE boy to go to Yale University in the US – having first turned down an offer from Yale’s Ivy League competitor, Harvard!

Dr Marincowitz also highlighted the collective success of the school’s mathematicians, who achieved 43 A* grades, 40 As, 10 Bs. “Those are extraordinary statistics for a subject like Mathematics, which is a challenging A-level.” One of the school’s most able mathematicians is Ariel Weiss, who secured grade S (outstanding) in both of his STEP papers, in addition to straight A*s in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Chemistry and Economics. He has accepted a place at Queen’s College, Cambridge to read Mathematics.

“What is good about the A* grade is that it does distinguish between those who formerly would have just all have got As – and clearly there is diversity in that group,” he added.

Notable aspects of the A-level results at the school included:

• 31.7% of all A-levels gained the A* grade
• 80% of grades were either A* or A – a rise on last year’s figures for A grades of 77.5% 
• The number of grades from A* to B held steady at an impressive 95.7%

The school had 139 A-level entrants this year. 64% took four A-levels, an increase from 48% in 2009. Dr Marincowitz pointed out that the school, which is heavily over-subscribed for Year 7 entry, maintains a large Sixth Form, yet does not accept any external candidates into it. “We could easily ‘weed out’ our weaker boys at the end of Year 11 and replace them with high performers from elsewhere, but we have chosen not do that,” he said.

Notwithstanding the strength of the A-level results, Dr Marincowitz believes the school may do even better in the next few years. “We knew this was not one of our strongest years, so the boys have excelled themselves with these results.”

He pointed to the Lower Sixth’s AS results: 94% of examinations were awarded A or B grades (there are no A* grades at AS-level), which is a 2% rise on last year. “We have surpassed our previous best year – 2006 – and that group of boys went on the following year to generate 37 Oxbridge places. I expect next year’s A-level results to be extremely good and I know we have a very strong GCSE cohort this year as well, which all bodes well for the future,” concluded Dr Marincowitz.

Queen Elizabeth’s School today recorded its best-ever GCSE results.

Announcing the results, the Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz, said the exceptional performance of the Year 11 boys augurs well for them and for the School as most enter the Sixth Form next month.

“I am delighted with the boys’ remarkable achievements at GCSE,” said Dr Marincowitz. “A record-breaking 89.1% of entries were graded at A* or A, with exceptional performances in subjects like Mathematics, which achieved 160 A*s, 15 As and one B. These GCSEs, along with the School’s unprecedented AS-level results announced last week, reflect a great deal of superb teaching and bode well for the future.”

Results were also particularly strong in Science.

Key statistics among this year’s GCSE results included:

• 89.1% of all examinations taken were at A* or A (up from 86.1% last year)
• 98.1% were at A*-B (up from 97.6%)
• 96% of boys achieved five or more A* and A grades
• 100% achieved the Government’s preferred benchmark figure of five or more A*-C grades including English, Mathematics and Science.

Queen Elizabeth’s School today became an Academy – one of the first schools to make the transition under legislative changes introduced by the new Government.

In a letter to the School confirming the Government’s agreement to the move, Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “I am delighted that Queen Elizabeth’s School recognises the benefits Academy status will bring and has chosen to be in the first wave of schools to convert.

“Your Academy will now have the opportunity to use the freedoms and flexibilities of Academy status, to share best practice and work with others to bring about sustained improvements to all schools in the area. I would like to thank you for your commitment and wish you every success in the future.”

The Press Association has reported that Department for Education figures will today reveal that 32 schools across the country have completed the process to open as Academies this month, with 142 in total expected to convert over the coming academic year.

Old Elizabethan Lucian Grainge, a leading music industry executive, is to re-locate to California – a move seen as significant by business commentators.

Mr Grainge received his CBE at Buckingham Palace and was then feted at the Brit music awards on the same day earlier this year at a time when it became known that he was to become Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group.

Just two months ago he re-located from the UK to New York, but now he is moving to Santa Monica.Currently co-Chief Executive with Chairman Doug Morris, he will assume sole responsibility for the group from 1 January 2011.Sources close to him are reported to have suggested that others from Universal might eventually join him in California, the heart of the wider US entertainment industry.

Within the music industry Mr Grainge is considered both influential and highly successful; he has worked with a roster of artists such as Amy Winehouse, U2, Duffy, Girls Aloud and Eminem. He was instrumental in the recent deal between Universal and Simon Fuller, creator of the Idol TV franchise that began with the Pop Idol show. Under the deal, Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M division will market albums from the finalists of American Idol.

At Mr Grainge’s farewell party held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge when he left London, artists such as The Killers, Amy Winehouse and Duffy rubbed shoulders with leading figures from the worlds of business and politics, including Lord Mandelson, Lloyds Chairman Lord Levene, WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell and retail magnate Sir Philip Green.

Mr Grainge’s own eye for retail is said to go back to his childhood, when he would study which records customers chose in his father’s TV, radio and record shop.

Mr Grainge has advised both the Conservatives and Labour on the best way to tackle CD piracy.