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Ben Pugh (OE 2002-2009) played a significant role as his team “stormed” to the final of the BBC quiz show, University Challenge. Pembroke College, Cambridge, made an unusually slow start in their semi-final against UCL and trailed in the early stages, before pulling level and finally winning 185 points to 125.

The show’s host, Jeremy Paxman, praised Pembroke as the only semi-final team who had not lost a match in the competition so far, describing their win as “another storming performance”.

Ben’s speed on the buzzer was crucial as he answered a number of starter questions to help his team to victory. His range of knowledge enabled him to answer questions on Shakespeare, chess, classical music, geography and Home Secretaries among other topics.

Ben, who is reading German and Russian at Cambridge, played a full part in School life during his time at QE and achieved top grades in his A-levels.

Sixth-Formers, staff and visitors were treated to an exposition of the effects of music on the brain by leading neuropsychologist and musician Dr Catherine Loveday.

During the open lecture, Lost in Music, in QE’s Shearly Hall, Dr Loveday, of the University of Westminster, endeavoured to unravel the mystery of music’s power, accompanied by professional pianist Anna Tilbrook, soprano Joanne McGahon and guitarist Darren Loveday.

Dr Loveday described music as “fundamental, universal and ubiquitous”. She referred to a 2004 study which documented more than 100 different feelings evoked in people by music. She outlined how physical changes to the body and brain underlie these emotional responses to music. Dr Loveday also referred to evidence that music can lower blood pressure, ease stress and reduce pain.

“Laughter, screaming and crying – they’re all basically a form of music and we’re innately primed by it,” said Dr Loveday. “We have these primal, direct responses, but then, as we learn the language of music more, our appreciation deepens. We become able to use sounds in more complex ways…matched by the complexity of our emotional responses.”

A lecture by Dr Loveday on the same theme, at the University of Westminster, was described in The Psychologist magazine as “a delightful neuroscience and music mash-up”.

Year 9 students listened to the dignified account of one woman’s experiences in Auschwitz, at a talk organised through the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Mrs Freda Wineman, who grew up a French Jew, gave a harrowing account of how her family was rounded-up and deported to the concentration camp. On arrival, her mother and younger brother, Marcel, were sent straight to the gas chambers, whilst she was allotted to a forced labour gang. Her head was shaved and her arm tattooed and she was set to digging ditches. 

She spoke of the touches of humanity and defiance that kept her spirit from being broken. She remembered, too, the Hungarian women who gave her their bread and tried to smuggle clothes to those prisoners working outside the camp in freezing conditions.

The talk was organised by History teacher Helen MacGregor, who said: “Mrs Wineman told the boys that she continues to relive her distressing experiences due to her unwavering sense of determination to bear witness to injustice and to prevent such evil ever happening again.

“It was a special day for Year 9 as they gained a valuable insight into one of the most horrific episodes in history and an understanding of human nature. The boys appreciated that they are the last generation to be able to hear the first-hand accounts of survivors of the Holocaust.”

This year’s Year 7 Music Scholars have been named after succeeding in a highly competitive short-listing process and then performing strongly in a special concert.

The five scholars – Alfie Clarke, Haran Jeyendran, Showgo Kimura, Andy Lau and Karnan Sembian – were among 12 boys who were short-listed for the concert. Each performed before an independent, external adjudicator, Simon Walton, Acting Director of Music at University College School, Hampstead. Mr Williams commended the boys on their high level of preparation and skill.

The concert programme included music from a wide range of genres, including Indian classical music, unaccompanied Bach on the cello and jazz by Oscar Peterson on the piano.

Headmaster Neil Enright presented certificates to the scholarship winners. “It is very pleasing to see the depth and breadth of musical talent at QE, and to know that we provide an environment in which such talent is nurtured,” he said. “Although, we encourage all our boys to excel at, and to enjoy, a broad range of disciplines, Music has always had a special place in the life of the School.”

A brief résumé of the five new scholars follows:

• Alfie Clarke has been learning the classical guitar since Year 2 and at his last school performed both as soloist and as part of various ensembles
• Haran Jeyendran has been learning the miruthangam (a percussion instrument) since the age of four. He also learns Carnatic singing, the electronic keyboard and the alto saxophone. Haran is a member of the QE Junior Indian Music Ensemble
• Showgo Kimura started playing the violin at the age of seven. He passed Grade 5 Music Theory with Merit last autumn and is currently preparing for Grade 6 practical. He is a member of the Junior String Orchestra and Choir
• Andy Lau also started violin lessons when he was seven years old. He is a member of the Finchley String Orchestra and took part in the Barnet One Voice concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. Andy is a member of the QE Junior String Orchestra
• Karnan Sembian has been learning the miruthangam since 2007 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Karnan has performed in a large number of concerts organised by QE.

Music Scholars receive financial support which can be used to reduce the cost of music tuition or to upgrade an instrument.

The other finalists were: Abbas Adejonwo; Abbeykeith Kugasenan Chettiar; Ricky Eatough; Shiran Gnanraj; Ghavin Kuganesan; Dillon Shah and Joshua Wong.

Boys from Year 9 had the opportunity to explore the development of aerial warfare and military equipment when they visited the Imperial War Museum’s site at Duxford in Cambridgeshire.

The site houses the American Air Museum, as well as a 1940s Operation Room and a host of planes and land-based military equipment. The trip was organised by History teacher Helen MacGregor, who said: “The boys particularly enjoyed tracing the development of military planes. The splendid sunshine made it possible for them to picnic outside and watch the various planes taking off and landing at the airfield.”

In addition to the permanent exhibitions of World War I, WWII and the Cold War, Duxford is also home to more modern commercial planes, including Concorde. The museum sets out the different conservation techniques required to preserve planes from different eras.

Cambridge University’s Vice-Chancellor highlighted all that Queen Elizabeth’s School and the university have in common at this year’s Senior Awards Ceremony.

Guest of Honour Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said both institutions have an uncompromising emphasis on academic excellence and both also accept and nurture applicants from all sections of society, regardless of their social or ethnic background. Consequently, unlike some other state schools he has encountered through Cambridge’s outreach work, QE identifies very comfortably with the university’s needs-blind, meritocratic approach to admissions.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We were delighted and honoured to welcome Sir Leszek. He not only gave an inspirational speech, but was also generous with his time after the ceremony, happily chatting with parents and boys at the drinks and buffet reception in the Shearly Hall.”

In his speech, Sir Leszek, who was appointed the 345th Vice-Chancellor in 2010, touched on his background. Born in Wales to Polish parents who came to the UK in search of a better life after World War II, he grew up in Cardiff and attended Cardiff High School.

He explained how the power of intellectual curiosity can lead one in unexpected directions. He, for example, trained as a medical doctor but soon went into medical research (virology and infectious diseases) and then later into administration. He had never imagined he would one day become Vice-Chancellor at Cambridge. Boys should therefore, to a certain extent, keep an open mind as to where their career might lead them.

During the ceremony in the School Hall, some 100 prizes were awarded to boys from Years 10 and 11 as well as the Sixth Form. The presentations of prizes were punctuated by musical interludes performed by the School’s musicians: these included pieces by Rutter, Vivaldi and Chopin, as well as by QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe. School Captain Nigethan Sathiyalingam gave the vote of thanks at the end of the evening.

In his first Senior Awards since becoming Headmaster last September, Mr Enright congratulated the prize winners for achievement that went well beyond merely fulfilling the requirements of a curriculum: to shine at QE required intelligence, creativity and a capacity for sustained hard work, he said.

He cautioned against boys adopting a utilitarian approach to their education: they should not be concerned if the particular studies they wished to pursue did not lie within a discipline that linked to a particular profession.

Mr Enright heralded the achievement of the 26 boys offered places this year by Cambridge and Oxford, as well as very many others who had gained offers from other Russell Group universities.

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