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Queen Elizabeth’s School students have drawn plaudits for their contribution to a civic event held as part of National Inter Faith Week.

Year 12 boys Adeel Haque, Henry Peto and Harish Karunalingam took part in the Question Time-style debate with pupils from three other schools, Ashmole Academy, St Mary’s High School and JFS. They discussed questions about the role of faith in society at large and also within schools.

The debate was chaired by Father John Hawkins, of St John’s C of E Church in Barnet. He subsequently wrote to QE Deputy Head, Neil Enright: “It was my privilege to chair the evening and your students shone and did themselves and QE […] proud.

“At the end, the Superintendent of Barnet police, Mr [Neil] Basu, came up to speak with me and said that he had been in meetings all day with senior police men and women and the level of debate this evening far outshone anything he had heard all day. Indeed he had hoped to slip off home after his own contribution, but had remained to the end of the evening because he was so riveted by the students’ debate.”

The event was attended by the Mayor of Barnet and by several faith leaders. It also featured entertainment from the Jewish Care choir.

“It was extremely good to get to grips with the role of the inter-faith concept in schools and to learn about the opinions of others,” said Henry. His fellow debater, Adeel, added: “The event was an extremely enriching experience and one that widened my perspective on the role that faith has to play in our modern society.”

Twenty-one boys at QE have gained their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Awards – little more than a year after the School offered the Award at this level for the first time.

A further three boys from the group of 29 Year 10 pupils who registered for the Award in September 2009 are awaiting confirmation that they are also entitled to their Bronze certificates and badges.

Teacher Christina Wu, who co-ordinates the Awards, said: “I am delighted that 24 of the 29 boys have gained Bronze already or about to receive the Award: this is a completion rate of 83%, which is most encouraging.”

To complete the Award, boys had to undertake an hour’s activity per week in each of the Physical, Skills and Volunteering categories and complete a two-day expedition. Two of the activities had to be sustained over three months and the third for six months.

Examples of activities carried out by the boys included:

• Physical: Cricket, rugby, golf, swimming, tennis, badminton, martial arts
• Skills: Photography, musical instruments, Young Enterprise, public speaking, learning Braille, computer repair, learning Mandarin, writing articles for a rugby club match programme, chess
• Volunteering: Charity shop helper, sports and music coaching, assisting at temple/Sunday School/retirement home/NHS clinic/vet, Combined Cadet Force

Before their 15-mile expedition through Great Waltham in Essex, the boys attended four classroom-training sessions, where they learned walking skills, campcraft, map and compass-reading skills, first aid and emergency procedures. They planned their own routes, navigated themselves and cooked their own meals while camping.

Years 11,12 and 13 made three visits to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

The Institute is a leading player in the Human Genome Project. Boys attended lectures on the causes of bubonic plague and the role of mutations in gene expression, as well as taking tours around the facility.

QE have won the regional round of the Royal Society of Chemistry Top of The Bench Competition for the first time and will take part in the National Final at Imperial College.

After being prepared over the last half-term by their teacher, Elizabeth Kuo, the School’s team saw off competition from several high-achieving schools at the Chilterns and Middlesex round, held at St Benedict’s School, Ealing. QE has been entering the competition for 10 years and its previous best place was fourth.

“We will now take part in the National Final in April and will start preparing for this in January by undertaking extra practical work with the team,” said Dr Kuo.

The team comprises: Mehul Jesani ,Year 11; Aniruddh Raghu, Year 10; Allessandro Zanre and Tianlin Zhang, both of Year 9.

Nineteen Year 10 boys have been running their own registered business, Retrocycle Records, as part of the Young Enterprise competition.

Their coasters, made out of recycled centres of old vinyl records, are going on sale in the School Shop. The boys also hope to sell to local markets in the New Year.

It may feel cold in Barnet at the moment, but it’s just a light chill compared with the temperatures experienced by penguins!

Year 7 and 8 boys in QE’s Geoexplorers club have been finding out about the Antarctic birds and how they cope with winter temperatures that average -40C to -70C.

Geography teacher Tessa Roberts said "Boys learned how these ‘cool creatures’ have special feathers and feet to adapt to the extreme cold. They made models of penguins from recycled egg boxes and then surrounded them with flags representing member countries of the Antarctic Treaty.”

The club, which meets every Friday lunchtime, has also run two quizzes this term. More than 50 boys took part in teams in the London Underground Challenge, while a second quiz, How well do you know QE? focused on matters even closer to home.

Next term, the club will be looking at the Geography of art and doing some landscape drawings.