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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.

Two QE students won through to the national final of the Rotary Club’s Young Writer competition, after achieving success in both the district and then London Area heats.

Eddy Burchett, of Year 7, and Year 11 boy Pranay Shah (both pictured left, with Rotarian Richard Selby) were among 18 QE students who entered the competition, which was on the topic of the Olympics. The Rotary Club of Golders Green promoted the entries of Eddy, Pranay and of a third QE boy, Rahul Kanwar, of Year 7, to the district heat.

Eddy and Pranay then progressed first to the area final – where they were winners in their categories and age groups – and to the national final.

“They reached the pinnacle of London's entrants, before being pipped at the post at the national final by other worthy entrants,” said Richard Selby of the Golders Green Rotary Club, who added that the small team of readers had very much enjoyed assessing the varied entries from the School.

Pranay’s poem was entitled The Olympian’s Medallion of Spirit while Eddy’s work was called Olympic Dreams.

All the participants (right) were presented with certificates at a special ceremony at the School. Rotarians Richard Selby and David Grannell were accompanied by novelist Liz Goes.

Neuroscientist Peter Zeidman (1996-2003) has returned to scientific research after two successful years in industry.

At the start of this year, Peter took part as one of a panel of young scientists in an updated radio version of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme for Radio 5Live.

“The show involved each of us proposing one technology which could change the world in the future,” he explained. “I discussed neural interfaces using EEG [Electroencephalography] developed by Tristan Bekinschtein and friends at Cambridge University, which could allow the identification of consciousness in patients incorrectly diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. One future development could be to allow two-way communication with these locked-in patients.”

Peter, who described taking part in the programme as “a great experience” afterwards told presenter Maggie Philbin that he had enjoyed opening “a window into research which could one day change our lives” and that there was real joy in “having something explained in plain English which we might never have been able to comprehend”.

Peter took a first-class degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Birmingham in 2006, and followed it with an MSc in Natural Computation and a further MSc in Neuroscience from University College, London. He is now studying for a PhD at the Wellcome Trust for Neuro-imaging at UCL. His research uses MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to explore the relationship between memory, imagination and spatial awareness in the human brain. Below is an image of Peter's own brain.

Peter enjoyed his two years working for Tessella PLC developing computer systems, and is now applying his technical knowledge to scientific research. “At the moment I’m researching how the brain comprehends visual scenes – an ability which enables us to recall memories from our past, imagine fictional scenarios and perceive the world around us.”

He hopes that understanding these abilities in a healthy brain will lead to a better understanding of how the brain functions in illness and disease.

“Above anything else, Queen Elizabeth’s gave me the confidence to do well. Growing up with intelligent and interesting schoolmates also taught me a huge amount.”

QE’s History Society welcomed prominent British historian Professor Julian Jackson to the School for a talk on the French Resistance.

Professor Jackson is Head of the History School at Queen Mary, University of London, and is an acknowledged authority on modern French history. He has recently participated in a multi-part documentary made for French television on the subject of the Resistance – the only British historian invited to take part.

During his talk entitled Resisting the Nazis in Occupied France, Professor Jackson made the distinction between ‘Resistance’ – activities undertaken by organised groups of armed resisters; and ‘resistance’ – the small, yet symbolic decisions made by French citizens every day in their relationship with the Germans.

“It was a fascinating and multifaceted talk which emphasised the agonising dilemmas that average French people faced every day, and it challenged the audience to think about how they themselves would navigate the same dilemmas,” said Tahmer Mahmoud, QE’s Head of History, who arranged the lecture. Professor Jackson cited the example of a German soldier offering a pregnant woman a seat on the Paris Métro. If she accepted, he asked, was she approving of the Germans? If she refused, was she resisting? And who decided what was resistance and what was not; what was right and what was wrong?

“The event was very well attended and it prompted the students to think about the role historians have in judging the people they study,” said Mr Mahmoud.

As a specialist in French history, Professor Jackson also brought interesting insights to the recent French presidential elections. He reflected on the continuing resonance of resistance and collaboration during the Nazi occupation on the French national psyche today.

• Professor Julian Jackson is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1982. After many years at the University of Wales, Swansea, he joined Queen Mary History Department in 2003. His published works include: The Politics of Depression France 1932-1936; The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy 1934-1938; France: the Dark Years 1940-1944. The latter was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times History Book Prize and translated into French in 2003. The French translation was commended by the judges of the Prix Philippe Viannay-Défense de la France.

A number of events have been held by the School to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

A specially themed concert, in which every piece was linked to either kings or queens, took place at the School as part of a series of special musical events celebrating the Jubilee. At the Kings and Queens Concert in the Shearly Hall, there were performances from the Concert Band, Senior Strings, Top Brass, the Choir, the Camerata and the Symphony Orchestra. Pieces included highlights from Scheherazade and an arrangement of Henry VIII’s Pastime with Good Company. Haydn’s Emperor Quartet contrasted with the perennial favourite, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. The second half of the concert featured Handel’s Entry of the Queen of Sheba and William Walton’s Crown Imperial.

Several teachers performed readings from the writings of monarchs – Henry VIII and Elizabeth I – and from kings and queens in literature. QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe described it as “an evening of full and varied entertainment that all enjoyed”.

The School also held a special Jubilee-themed lunch in a bunting-decked Refectory (pictured above), where boys and staff enjoyed street party type delicacies including grilled chicken, cucumber sandwiches and jam and cream scones.

At an earlier concert (pictured below), also to mark the Jubilee, QE boys joined pupils from Mill Hill County High School to premiere composer Tim Benjamin’s specially commissioned piece Common Wealth at a civic ceremony.

As part of the celebrations, more than 70 trees are being planted in local schools. QE has received a witch hazel which has been planted in the grounds, near the School gate, with a plaque commemorating the Diamond Jubilee.