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The Chairman of Governors’ team emerged triumphant after a closely fought contest in this year’s successful Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s Quiz Night.

The annual fund-raising event attracted 14 teams and the raffle alone raised nearly £300.

There were 10 rounds of questions covering a broad range of topics from art and literature to sport and TV programmes; together with a marathon round consisting of ‘dingbats’. The winning team, which included the Chairman of Governors, Barrie Martin, along with Margaret Gibson, who runs the School’s Reception Office, eventually pulled clear to take the title with 123 points.

The quiz was held in the Refectory on the site of the planned new dining room and library, for which the FQE are currently fund-raising.

The quiz masters were: Year 12 student Ryan Murphy; George Mason, whose wife Diane is the FQE Secretary, and parents Peter Forrester and Mark Norcliffe. The scoring was overseen by Neil Enright, Deputy Headmaster. Supper was organised by the FQE catering team headed by parents Katie Huglin and Karen Forrester, while Mr Oakes and Mrs Sandu, also parents, looked after the bar.

“I would like to thank everyone who supported this event by entering teams, as well as the members of the FQE who worked so hard to make it the success that it was,” said Mrs Mason. “Other events to look out for are the Founder’s Day Fete on Saturday 18th June 2011, and the annual Staff v Parents cricket match and barbecue on Friday 8th July, which starts at 5.00pm.”

All monies raised go towards enhancing and improving facilities at the school.

An eclectic programme of music was put together for the first of this year’s themed QE concerts, entitled Dusk to Dawn. All the pieces performed had some link to the theme of ‘music of the night’.

“The concert was a great success,” said QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe. “Notwithstanding the thematic link between the repertoire, there was still a huge amount of variety in the genres performed – exhibiting the talent we have at the School and enabling the audience to enjoy the music on a new level.”

"It was the first opportunity for a number of our ensembles to perform this academic year, and also the first opportunity for many boys in Year 7 to give a performance at QE.”

The Training Band played pieces from Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, the Junior Strings performed an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and the Camerata and Symphony Orchestra tackled Elgar’s Chanson de Matin and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain.

A Camerata medley from the early 20th century was accompanied by the dance troupe from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, who will be travelling on a joint tour with QE boys to Boston. The musical items were interspersed with readings linked to the theme, from authors as diverse as Auden, Dylan Thomas, Shakespeare, Robert Frost and Walter de la Mare.

The programme also included songs from The Lion King and a medley from The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night album played by the Training Band and the Junior String Orchestra. The School’s Junior Indian Music Ensemble performed the traditional raga pieces , Hanumathodi and Raaravedha Gopal.

In his programme notes, Mr Howe added: “I would like to thank the boys who performed for their commitment to the extra-curricular life of the School and also the directors of the ensembles for their continued dedication to their groups. I would also like to thank two of our Year 11 pupils, Praveen Prathapan and Janan Sathiendran, who worked with the Junior Indian Music Ensemble to prepare for the concert.”

Stapylton House has won the School’s inter-house trophy for 2010, it has been announced.

Over the course of the year Stapylton amassed 263 points to clinch the Eric Shearly House Cup, with consistent performances across all competitions. Underne were not far behind with 248 points and Broughton took third place with 227 points.

Stapylton’s Head of House for 2010, Jesse-Steve Amartey, praised the individual efforts of his fellow House members “from those who won sporting events, to those who sold more raffle tickets than demanded of them”. But he added: “I believe the real reason we won was our ability to work together: our collective spirit and effective teamwork ensured we won inter-house competitions across all year groups.”

Thirty Year 12 pupils from a girls’ school have teamed up with QE boys for an innovative research collaboration focusing on the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).

During a one-day symposium at the start of the initiative, the girls from The Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead came to Barnet and were paired with their QE counterparts. Each pair identified an EPQ research topic to work on together during the spring half-term holiday. (Devised by Sir Mike Tomlinson in 2006 during his review of education for 16-19 year-olds, the EPQ is equivalent to an AS level.) All the participants will then meet up again at QE on 11 March to present their findings.

The initiative has been organised by QE’s Head of Pupil Progression, Dr Sarah Westcott. She told the pupils involved: “The ability to research and synthesise information in an analytic fashion is a key skill, both for your future success at university but also beyond in your professional lives: this is why such collaborations between our schools are important.”

The day was introduced by the Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz, who similarly underlined the importance of independent learning skills, not only in an academic context but in pupils’ wider experiences. Joseph Masters, a current Year 13 EPQ student, then passed on the benefit of his experience in tackling a research project to the 60 participants.

Students spent the afternoon choosing a question from two lists: one for Science-based and the other for Humanities-based topics. Examples included:

• Is the UK budget deficit being reduced too quickly? (Humanities)
• Is laughter the best medicine? (Humanities) 
• The language we speak shapes our entire being (Humanities) 
• Alternative medicine makes a mockery of science and should be banned (Science) 
• Mechanisms of cell differentiation (Science)
• NICE should approve funding for all new medical treatments proven to have an effect (Science)

Working in the recently refurbished Heard Sixth Form Centre, the pairs not only chose a topic but also identified suitable sources of information and planned their methodology for answering the question. On 11 March, they will have to deliver a five-minute presentation of their key findings and be questioned by their peers. They will also need to submit an activity record, clearly outlining how they apportioned the tasks between themselves and their research methodology.

• This collaborative research project is the latest in a growing number of joint events involving QE and The Henrietta Barnett School. The two schools have much in common: both are selective schools with ‘outstanding’ Ofsted inspection reports; they are both specialist Music Colleges and both have gained The Prince’s Teaching Institute Schools Programme Mark (QE for Science and HBS for English).

British Paralympic champion and former QE pupil Tom Aggar (1995-2002) continues to dominate his sport. He was named 2010 World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year by the sport’s international governing body – for the second year in a row

The award winners were announced at World Rowing’s annual gala dinner at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley.
The accolade follows a season during which he remained unbeaten in the adaptive men’s single scull and improved his own World Best time. In November 2010, he trounced the opposition at the World Rowing Championships, winning gold by a 13-second margin to secure his third Championships title.

Tom won gold at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and has already been named in the GB Rowing Team for the London Paralympics in 2012.

He started rowing as part of rehabilitation programme, following an accident in 2005 that left him paralysed. He trains under coach Tom Dyson and is currently a Sports Sciences MSc student at Brunel University.

Queen Elizabeth’s School is the highest-ranked state school in the country in the Financial Times 2011 Top 1000 schools. It was also the highest-climbing school in the table, up 14 places to eighth place behind seven independent schools. It is the fifth consecutive year in which QE has been a top 25 achieving school.

The influential league table is based on 2010 A-level results. QE had 139 A-level entrants last summer; 32.4% of all A-levels gained the A* grade, whilst 80% of grades were either A* or A – a rise on last year’s figures for A grades of 77.5%. In addition the number of grades from A* to B held steady at an impressive 95.7%.

In addition to 25 boys who were offered places at Oxford or Cambridge this year, one student who achieved three A* and one A grade became the first QE boy to take up a place at Yale University in the United States.

The Financial Times school league tables differ from others in that they focus solely on academic achievement as defined by ‘core’ subject A-level results. Subjects such as drama and media studies are not included in the FT’s analysis. Its ranking combines two measurements: the points per candidate (to measure the quantity of work), and the points per entry (to measure the quality).

"What a splendid accolade for our boys and their teachers! The FT’s is the most demanding measure of all and reaches the heart of the matter: the school’s performance in those difficult, academic subjects that discerning university admissions tutors prefer. It is indeed a remarkable achievement to be the top state school consistently outperforming all but very few independents. It also explains why the overwhelming majority of our boys achieve fiercely contested places at Russell Group universities," said Headmaster Dr John Marincowtz.

To download the Financial Times School Rankings table, follow this link:
http://rankings.ft.com/secondary-schools/secondary-schools-2011