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A Year 11 pupil has taken first prize in a prestigious national science essay competition. Daniel Fernando was placed first in his section of the Royal Society of Science Union’s Science Challenge 2012 competition. Year 12 student, Movin Abeywickrema, also reached the final.

Both boys attended a special presentation at the House of Lords, where they met Lord (Robert) Winston (pictured with Daniel), who had made the final adjudication and who presented the prizes.

“The boys did exceptionally well, in what is a highly regarded and rigorous competition,” said Headmaster Neil Enright. “We are very proud of their achievement, which displays their excellence in both science and essay-writing.”

The competition, which attracted hundreds of entrants from across the UK, was split into two categories – one for undergraduates and one for schools. Each category offered four essay prizes on different topics, with an overall winner chosen from the four.

The four essay topics were

• Ethical issues in science today
• The role of science journalism in the 21^st Century
• Providing sustainable food, energy and water
• How politicians should make best use of science

The requirements for the essays were particularly stringent. The entrants had to write 800 words in the style of a newspaper article or feature, rather than as a scientific paper. It also had to be written in a style that was accessible to the general public, not just a scientific audience.

Daniel’s winning essay was on What scientific breakthrough should we focus on to provide sustainable food, energy and water for nine billion people on a planet of apparently finite natural resources, and why? He received £250 and an RCSU Schools' Science Challenge 2012 Winners' Trophy.

Movin (pictured on the right) wrote on the five main ethical issues that face modern science and how they should be tackled.

At the final, the 24 finalists were given a tour of the House of Lords, followed by a reception in the Attlee Room, where they met: Lord Winston and the rest of the judging panel; Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times; Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent for the BBC and Peter Lacy, Managing Director, Sustainability Services – Europe, Middle East, Africa & Latin America, for competition sponsor Accenture.

QE achieved its best-ever results in this year’s national Chemistry Olympiad, with six students of the eight boys entered achieving the coveted gold award, and the remaining two winning silver.

The Olympiad, which is organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry for Year 13 students, attracts thousands of entries each year from across the UK. Only 7% of entrants nationally achieved gold – which required a score of 45 and above from a two-hour examination paper. Participants who scored 30-44 were awarded silver, with lower scores receiving bronze, a commendation or a participation certificate.

The RSC says the aim of the competition is to stimulate debate on, and enthusiasm for, chemistry and raise awareness of the subject. The Round I paper is set to a standard that provides an opportunity to develop some of the skills required for study at university and beyond.

“It’s a taxing examination,” said Chemistry teacher Elizabeth Kuo, who helped prepare the eight boys – a higher number than the School has entered in previous years. “They did exceptionally well and we are very proud of their achievement.”

• Gold winners: Ahmed El-Masry, Ruhaid Kurram, Ian Leung (pictured sitting), Parth Patel (pictured sitting), Saad Sultan and Janaka Sumanasekera

• Silver winners: Sanketh Rampes and Krishan Shah (both pictured standing).

A team of four boys from QE took third place in the national final of the annual Top of the Bench competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Pranesh Varadarajan and Alexander Wingrave, of Year 9, along with Bhavik Mehta from Year 10 and Year 11’s Abishek Mukherjee won through the Chilterns and Middlesex qualifier to the final, where they took on 29 schools from across the UK and Belgium. (The team is pictured below with Dr. Jason Riley of Imperial College, London.)

The annual competition is run by the RSC for students aged 14-16 and attracts entries from hundreds of schools.

“This is a fantastic achievement,” said QE’s Head of Science, Dr Malcolm Russell. “The boys did exceptionally well and were rightly both pleased with, and proud of, their performance. Their teacher, Dr Elizabeth Kuo, clearly prepared them very well for the challenge, ably assisted by Year 12 student Mehul Jesani. It was a great day and the outcome was excellent.”

The final, which was held at Imperial College’s South Kensington campus, comprised two elements – a test of factual chemical knowledge and a practical, problem-solving exercise. The practical was based on an experiment on rates of reaction, requiring understanding of dilutions and the associated calculations.

“The competition demanded the highest standards from the competitors, with some of the questions using material that is of A-level standard; that is, well above what might be expected of their age,” added Dr Russell.

The boys were each awarded a £15 Amazon voucher at a prize-giving ceremony on the day.

Year 7 cellist, Joshua Wong, has performed at two iconic UK venues as part of a large-scale Olympic-themed musical event.

Brent Make Music 2012 – Pass the Torch involved 1,700 instrumentalists and was held at Wembley Arena and the Royal Albert Hall. It included Brent’s best young musicians alongside young musicians from the neighbouring boroughs of Haringey and Enfield.

The show featured mass choirs, classical ensembles, a rock group and a steel pan band. Guest players from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also appeared, performing with the young musicians a specially-commissioned collaborative work by James Redwood entitled Pass the Torch – A World Symphony.

Joshua performs as a member of the Brent Music Service Senior Strings and is in the School’s Junior Strings and the Training Band. Currently studying for Grade 8 in cello, he is also an accomplished flautist and pianist, studying both those instruments at Grade 5.

More pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s School achieve Cambridge University’s qualifying standard than at any other boys’ grammar school in the country, it has emerged.

The Good Schools Guide (GSG) has revealed that in the lowest-achieving state grammar schools nationally, only 2% of pupils achieve the Cambridge standard of AA in traditional subjects such as Mathematics and Physics, plus a B in any other A-level. At QE, the figure is 63.5%, placing the School in second place, just behind the girls at The Henrietta Barnett School, where the figure was 65.43%.

Figures from the Good Schools Guide also reveal that QE very successfully ‘adds value’: its score of 1039.4 placed it eighth in a nationwide table of 166 grammar schools (with 1,000 being an average grammar school score for the progress made between Key Stage 2 and GCSEs). It is an especially good score given that entry to QE is so competitive and that, as the GSG cautions: “The more highly selective a grammar school, the less scope it has to add value.”

Welcoming the findings, QE’s Headmaster, Neil Enright, said: “We certainly recruit very able boys, but that is only the beginning:  we provide an optimum educational environment which enables our pupils not only to achieve high academic success, but also produces young men who are confident, able and responsible.”

Janette Wallis, of GSG, said: “The top grammars are definitely coming up with the goods but most people would be surprised by the huge range of results grammars are getting. We are concerned that some grammars are not doing as well as they should be, considering the selective intake they have.”

The GSG figures were published shortly after a report commissioned by education charity the Schools Network said grammar schools should be subjected to tougher targets than other state secondaries.

QE holds a number of GSG awards for GCSE performance. The guide’s description of QE includes the following: “An extraordinary school that offers the able, the diligent and the aspiring, whatever their social or ethnic origins, an education hard to rival in the state or private sector.”

A team of QE mathematicians comprehensively beat all-comers to qualify first from their region for the national final of the Team Maths Challenge. It is the third time in four years that QE has qualified for the national final of the event, which is run by the UK Mathematics Trust.

The team of four boys comprised captain Jas Shah and Rohan Haldankar of Year 9, and Nitharsan Sathiyalingam and Julian Navanathan of Year 8, who competed against 35 other schools at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School.  The team scored 225 points out of a possible 240 – beating second place Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ by 14 points.

The competition combines mathematical, communication and teamwork skills and offers pupils ‘another way to express and develop their enjoyment of mathematics’.

“The boys are to be congratulated on an excellent performance,” said Maths teacher Wendy Fung. “They demonstrated good mathematical knowledge alongside great teamwork. It is particularly satisfying to see such consistency in this demanding competition.”

The team now progresses to the national final, which will be held at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London on 18^th June.  For the final, the competitors will be given a topic to research in advance; then they will be expected to complete a poster using all the material they have prepared to address questions asked on the day.