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Queen Elizabeth’s School brought high standards of musicianship to its Christmas celebrations as it ended the term with a two charity events and a traditional Carol Service.

The Top Brass ensemble and members of the Chamber Choir performed carols in the Spires shopping centre to raise money for North London Hospice, a local charity that QE has supported for many years. Despite playing in sub-zero temperatures, the seven brass players and six singers richly entertained the substantial lunchtime crowds, drawing many out of the shops and raising nearly £100 in an hour. “Among the crowds were children in buggies who were thrilled to see the brass instruments and revelled in their loud sound, and also retired people who enjoyed the traditional sights on a cold, wintry day,” said QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe.

The invitation to perform carols in the Spires dates back at least 15 years. The Charity Christmas Concert in association with the Rotary Club Barnet is of a similar vintage; this year’s was the 17th such event. It featured a tremendous variety of music, from George Gershwin to Giovanni Gabrieli and from Leroy Anderson to Archangelo Corelli. There were traditional pieces – the Choir and Senior String Orchestra performing And the Glory of the Lord from Handel’s Messiah – as well as fresh interpretations of old favourites, such as Away in a manger set to Ragam Shankarabaranam, perfomed by the Senior Indian Ensemble.

Praising the dedication and hard work of pupils throughout the term, Mr Howe also saluted their “wonderful performances” during the concert and announced that Senior Music Colours are to be awarded to boys in Years 11, 12 and 13.

Towards the end of the evening, the 2010-11 Rotary Club President, Ian Johnston, thanked the audience in the Shearly Hall for their support and spoke about the club’s charitable endeavours: “It would be difficult to list all the other things we do in the local community, but giving dictionaries to schools, taking underprivileged children out to Paradise Park, a trip into the countryside for the elderly, supporting school activities such as interact clubs and helping preserve the environment are but a few. We support the Jaipur limb centre in India, Water Aid, Shelter Box, Save a Child’s Heart and many more projects.”

The concert concluded with the audience joining in the singing of three carols.

The School’s Service of Nine Lessons & Carols in the final week of term was held at the Church of St John The Baptist . Readings were given by QE pupils from throughout the School, including the School Captain, Sam Sherman, and by members of staff. In addition to the congregational carols, there were choral pieces by the School’s Choir and Chamber Choir, from the plainsong introit Veni Emmanuel to John Joubert’s 1951 Torches carol. The organ was played by Old Elizabethan Peter Martin.

The Headmaster gave the ninth and final reading from the famous first chapter of St John’s Gospel, in which the apostle unfolds the great mystery of the incarnation. After the blessing, the service ended with the congregation singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

QE pupil Sidharth Samant has been awarded the Arkwright Scholarship at a ceremony held at the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The award provides support in the Sixth Form for the country’s best young design and engineering students.

More than 800 top students from schools across the country applied for the scholarship and fewer than a third of these – 263 – were successful. Professor Dame Ann Dowling, Head of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, presented Sidharth with the award at the institution’s Savoy Place headquarters. His sponsor for the scholarship was Dr Gerald Avison, of the TTP Group, which comprises leading technology and development companies.

Previous QE Arkwright Scholarship winners Sam Catchpole-Smith and Priyesh Patel have also now won continued scholarship support in Year 13.

The origins of the Arkwright Scholarship date back to 1991, when a group of committed Headteachers who believed that Design & Technology was not being given the profile it deserved as a subject decided to take action. They introduced a scheme to encourage and stimulate high-ability young people to consider engineering and technology as a career. The Arkwright Scholarships Trust saw a steady increase in scholarships awarded over its first few years under the enthusiastic leadership of Tony Pickering, former Head of Pocklington School, near York. Since 2000 generous funding and services from The Smallpeice Trust, based in Leamington Spa, have enabled the scheme to expand. A total of 684 Schools are now affiliated and the scheme has the support of 135 sponsors.

The rigorous selection process requires candidates to make a detailed application, to sit an aptitude paper and to be interviewed. During the interview, students present their GCSE project work to a panel of interviewers and discuss their commitment to design, engineering and technology.

“We are extremely proud that Sidharth has gained an Arkwright Scholarship: it is due reward for his outstanding work,” said the School’s Head of Design, Simon Vincent. “The Arkwright Scholarship Trust encourages its scholars to act as ambassadors of flourishing Design and Technology departments in their schools, and Sidharth has now joined Sam and Priyesh in fulfilling that role.”

A team of QE boys have repeated last year’s success by reaching the knock-out stages of the prestigious and highly competitive Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition.

Sixty-four teams representing schools from across the South East region took part in the regional tournament. QE’s team of Hone Cheng (Year 13), Akash Raja (Year 12), Nigethan Sathiyalingham (Year 11) and Bavik Mehta (Year 9) recorded comprehensive victories against North London Collegiate School, Emmanuel College and St Michael’s School to qualify for the last 16.

“The Hans Woyda competition is intellectually a highly demanding contest,” said QE Mathematics teacher Geoff Roberts. “To be successful, boys have to be adept at applying a wide range of mathematical skills under time pressure, as well as adapting to a variety of different formats. Some rounds required mental mathematics; others relied on the efficient use of a calculator. To beat three very strong schools and score so highly in every match in the group stages was an excellent achievement.”

In a repeat of last year’s departure from the competition, the boys faced a very strong Merchant Taylors’ School team in the knock-out stage and again lost a close-fought match to go out of the competition.

A group of Year 8 boys have been making the most of the opportunity to learn more about opera whilst developing their teamwork skills with girls from the North London Collegiate School.

Eight boys have been involved in the joint project with an equal number of Year 8 girls from NLCS. Last term the group went to see a performance of Puccini’s La Bohème at the English National Opera. Shortly after, they experienced the slimmed-down version of the Royal College of Music’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach. The students were given the opportunity to interview most of the cast, the director, the conductor, the technical director and the designer after the show.

“It was a fantastic experience for them,” said QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe. “They thoroughly enjoyed the experience of live opera and felt particularly fortunate to have the opportunity to speak to the professionals involved at first-hand. We are very grateful to QE Music teacher Jennifer Brown, who organised it.”

The project culminated in a visit by the QE boys to NLCS to watch different productions of Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte on DVD. The boys and girls were paired in teams and were asked to analyse what they had seen with their partners, then answer a series of questions and complete a series of tasks. Throughout the project the boy/girl teams have also been expected to complete a series of online tasks on the NLCS website.

Mr Howe added: “Our boys learned a great deal not only about opera but also about working in collaboration with other people.”

Boys have enjoyed success in the early rounds of a number of prestigious debating competitions around the country and remain in contention for regional and national prizes.

In the English Speaking Union’s famous Mace debate, QE Sixth-Formers, Calum O’Sullivan and Krishan Shah, have progressed to the regional final. Other competitions entered include the Cambridge, Oxford, and London School of Economics (LSE) schools’ debates, which are all still in the first-round stages.

Year 11 public speakers Nirmal Chohan, Alex Davis and Rohan Sathyanand have progressed to the branch final of the English Speaking Union’s Public Speaking competition. Expectations are high in the light of last year’s success by the QE team, which won the Hertfordshire Champions Shield.

A group of Year 10 debaters recently took part in a debating consortium at Henrietta Barnett School. “Forty-five QE students and 90 from Henrietta Barnett enjoyed an entire day of debating; it was a very enjoyable and enriching experience for them all,” said Nisha Mayer, QE’s teacher in charge of debating. Some of the boys also attended the LSE Schools Debate earlier in the year and some will be participating in the International Competition for Young Debaters.

“We are always happy to see new students who are interested in debating or public speaking,” said Mrs Mayer.

A team from QE has reached the regional finals of a prestigious student investment competition. The team, made up of boys from Year 11 and called Beyond Infinity 2, finished in the top 20 in the South East Region of the IFS Student Investor Challenge.

The competition is a UK-wide investment game for students with a top prize of a trip to New York. Each team invests a virtual £100,000 in the stock markets with the aim of out-performing their rivals.

From a hugely competitive field of 7,460 teams, three teams from QE were placed in the top 175 nationally. Two QE teams finished in the top 20 of the South East Region, but with only one place per school available in the regional final, QE’s Vortex team were eliminated.

The Beyond Infinity 2 team, comprising Vishal Davda, Deversh Seth, Arran Patel and Ameet Shah finished 33rd in the whole competition and 15th in the South East region, displaying impressive market ‘savvy’ by increasing their portfolio from £100,000 to £116,343.94 over the three-month period of the initial competition. The Vortex Year 10 group, consisting of Richard Cheung, Pranay Shah, Jerry Yeung and Aneek Shah, increased their portfolio from £100,000 to £114,542.73, finishing 52nd in the whole competition and 20th in the South East region.

At the regional finals on 10 March in the City of London, the teams will be put through their paces with a series of tough questions. The teams who can demonstrate secure business knowledge will progress to the national final in late April.