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Forty-two boys took part in the Music Department’s concert tour to Durham, combining a demanding performance schedule with the opportunity to visit some of the historic city’s famous attractions.

The party also met up with one of the School’s alumni, Emeritus Professor of Classics at Durham University, Peter J Rhodes (OE 1952-1959).

The four-day tour began with a 6.30am departure. “The early start was definitely worthwhile,” said Music teacher Rebecca Lancelot. “It enabled us to settle in to our accommodation and then enjoy lunch beneath the impressive chandeliers of St Chad’s College.”

In the afternoon the boys enjoyed the Durham Miners’ Gala. “They found it a splendid and moving occasion, with marching bands leading new banners into the cathedral at the start of the service. The boys relished the opportunity to sing one of our Founder’s Day hymns, Jerusalem, again, and hear the cathedral choir,” added Miss Lancelot.

After supper in St Chad's, the choir had the invaluable experience of an intensive rehearsal with the cathedral's Master of the Choristers and Organist, James Lancelot, who is Miss Lancelot’s father. He was appointed in 1985. Prior to this he was successively a chorister of St. Paul's Cathedral, Organ Scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and, for ten years, Sub-Organist of Winchester Cathedral. He studied with Ralph Downes, Gillian Weir and Nicholas Danby.  In addition, Mr Lancelot is much in demand as a recitalist in Britain and abroad. Recent years have seen visits to countries including Holland, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the USA, Russia and Sweden. He is a past president of the Cathedral Organists’ Association and in 2002 became a Lay Canon of Durham Cathedral, also receiving an Honorary Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians. He received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music in 2008.

On day two, the party travelled to the Beamish museum in Stanley, where the boys staged three very well attended performances – one by the choir and strings, and two by the band. The evening was spent aboard Durham's largest vessel, the Prince Bishop, which was making her first outing in seven weeks, having been out of service due to recent flooding.

“The third day proved to be a busy and challenging one for the boys, but they more than rose to the occasion,” said Miss Lancelot. In the morning, the boys were treated to a tour of the cathedral and those who were involved in just one of two performances taking place later that day also toured the historic castle. “They excelled in a riveting lunchtime concert and an enchanting evensong, both of which were extremely well received.”

The day was rounded off with a barbecue at St Chad's College, which was attended by the boy choristers of Durham Cathedral Choir, with whom the QE chamber choir had performed at evensong.

Also at the barbecue was Professor Rhodes, Durham’s Classics Department’s specialist in Greek history from 1965 to 2005 and Professor of Ancient History from 1983. Since his retirement in 2005 he has been Honorary Professor and Emeritus Professor. He is the author of a number of acknowledged academic books and a contributor to the second edition of the Cambridge Ancient History, and the third and fourth editions of the Oxford Classical Dictionary.

In the USA, he has been a Junior Fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.  In 2002 he was Langford Family Eminent Scholar at Florida State University. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, where he was vice-chairman of the Classical Antiquity Section 1999-2002 and chairman 2002-5, and is a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy.

Professor Rhodes has since written to the School to say how much he enjoyed the occasion and to send his greetings back to Barnet: “Very many thanks, to you and all your colleagues – for bringing the QE musicians to Durham, to play and sing so well at lunchtime and at evensong, for enabling me to re-establish contacts with my old roots, and for the cufflinks.” The new cufflinks from the school would complement the pair given to him by his housemaster when he left QE in 1959, he said.

The final morning comprised a talk about, and tour of, Durham University with Mr James Randle and Dr Peter Swift. “We felt very privileged to be able to see inside labs in the Physics, Geography and Engineering departments, as well as a brand new lecture theatre,” said Miss Lancelot. The tour ended with a trip to St Mary's College, from where the group could admire the “stunning panoramic view of the cathedral”.

Miss Lancelot concluded that both pupils and staff had enjoyed a wonderful time in Durham. “The boys have performed to a very high standard and rightly received numerous compliments, not only for their musicianship but also for their polite manner. It has been a pleasure for us as staff to take such talented and considerate young men on tour, and we look forward to facilitating similar opportunities in future,” concluded Miss Lancelot.

Paralympic preparations among Team GB’s rowers have gone well, according to QE old boy and defending champion Tom Aggar.

Tom (OE 1995-2002), who won the gold medal for the single sculls at Beijing and is the world champion in the discipline, said he is looking forward to defending his title at Eton Dorney.

Speaking in the final run-up to the games, he told The Times newspaper: “We’ve prepared well as a team, and since Beijing, we’ve set our sights on trying to repeat the same success as a squad.”

The team are competing in three of the four Paralympic rowing events.

Tom said the Paralympic athletes had been buoyed by the success of the Olympics rowing team, who had a similar training programme. He added that he was eager to hear the ‘Dorney roar’ for himself.

Tom started rowing as part of the rehabilitation programme he undertook after an accident in 2005 that left him paralysed. In five years of competition he has never been beaten.

Barnet and Whetstone Press, Wednesday 29 August 2012

A record percentage of A* grades at GCSE has been recorded at Queen Elizabeth’s School. This year, the A* grade was awarded in 63.3% of examinations taken – an 8% increase on 2011. A* or A grades were given for 90% of GCSEs at the School.

The average point score per pupil also increased, reaching 620.16, against 596.53 last year.

Congratulating the boys on their achievement, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “These figures represent a dramatic jump in attainment at the top end. Taken overall, our GCSE results reflect the relentless pursuit of improvements in teaching & learning at the School. They are also the just reward for a great deal of hard work by the boys, backed by support from parents and others who are friends to the School.”

“Only last week, we announced our A-level results, which appear to be the best of any state school in the country. Our summer examination results at both GCSE and A-level thus form an exciting springboard from which we will shortly launch our new School Development Plan.”

Twenty-three boys achieved straight A*s, typically in ten GCSE subjects. In Mathematics, which was taken by all boys, 158 (90%) gained an A*. Similarly, in English Literature, another compulsory subject, 128 boys (73%) achieved A*, which is significantly higher than in 2011.

Of the 176 boys in Year 11, 96% were awarded five or more A*s or As, and the entire year group achieved the Government’s benchmark of five or more A*-C grades including English, Mathematics and Science.

The proportion of boys achieving the English Baccalaureate (EBac) performance measure is 96%. Introduced into league tables by the Department for Education in 2010, EBac recognises the success of pupils who attain GCSEs or iGCSEs at grades A*-C across a core of academic subjects – English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language.

QE boys and staff have been reflecting on their never-to-be-forgotten visit to ‘Super Saturday’ at the Olympics.

Eight places were awarded to QE pupils and two to accompanying members of staff through the London schools allocation for the morning session at the Athletics Stadium in the Olympic Park. Boys and staff had to enter an internal ballot in School to win their tickets.

“The atmosphere was fantastic and the 80,000-seater stadium completely full,” said Margaret Gibson, who runs the School’s Front Office. Her name was drawn along with PE teacher Nick Bird.

“We were lucky enough to see Jess Ennis compete in both the long jump and javelin disciplines of her seven-event heptathlon, and her performances in both these events set her up brilliantly to win her final discipline of 800m in the evening session which gave her the gold medal! We also can say that ‘we were there’ for the historic occasion when Oscar Pistorius ran in the 400m heats.  Thank goodness that no one blinked, as we had the 100m heats and saw the fastest men in the world and probably the biggest character in athletics today – Usain Bolt!”

The eight boys successful in the ballot were Musaji China, John Woods, Ameen El-Hariri, Joel George, Ghavin Kuganesan, Zarius Meher-Homji, Karan Sanghavi and Tomas Vieira-Short.

“It was a wonderful experience for all concerned: the stadium and cauldron containing the Olympic flame were magnificent, the whole park and its landscaping set out brilliantly,” concluded Mrs Gibson.

QE pupils, staff and alumni are now all eagerly awaiting the beginning of the Paralympics, at which old boy Tom Aggar (1995-2002) hopes to repeat his Olympic rowing gold from Beijing in 2008.

Following the completion of a new purpose-built area, Food Technology is being introduced at QE for the first time. It will be part of the wider Technology curriculum that is taught to boys in Years 7-9.

The aim of the course is to develop basic cooking skills, increase knowledge of nutrition and enable pupils to make increasingly informed decisions about diet and health.

“This will be the first opportunity for many of the boys to participate in cookery,” said Head of Technology Simon Vincent. “The new food facilities will offer pupils the chance to learn what is, in fact, an essential life skill. In today’s busy times, it can be difficult for parents to find time to teach their children to cook from raw ingredients. Ready-made meals and sauces are ever-more prevalent, but studying Food Technology will give pupils the knowledge to choose foods that are nutritious and healthy and give them the practical skills to prepare them safely.”

During the first year of the Food Technology course, pupils will acquire familiarity with working with a range of kitchen equipment, including the safe use of vegetable knives. They will learn how to: prepare a range of fresh ingredients; weigh and measure ingredients accurately, and how to use the oven safely. They will then progress to use electric hand tools, a cook’s knife, and the grill and hob. By the end of the course, pupils will also be able to make dough and pastry and a range of sauce bases.

Alongside cooking skills, pupils will also develop their ICT skills, using computers to research recipes, analyse nutritional content, plan meals and scale ingredients for different numbers of people.

There are plans for extra-curricular food clubs to be started later in the year. “The initial focus for these will be on the Sixth Form,” said Mr Vincent. “We feel it’s important to offer the boys who will be leaving in a year or two’s time the food skills they’ll need for university survival. Definitely no tins of beans in sight!”

Tom Aggar, (OE 1995-2002) who had been widely expected to retain his Paralympic title in the men’s single sculls, finished outside the medals in the final at Eton Dorney.

The 28-year-old, who took gold in Beijing, and was previously undefeated in international competition, finished fourth. He had qualified comfortably for the final, although the Chinese competitor, Cheng Huang took five seconds off Tom’s world record in his qualifying heat.

After the race, Tom spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m absolutely devastated. The standard has really improved year-on-year and I’ve always managed to stay ahead of the curve. I’ve turned in Personal Bests all year, but today, when I dug deep, there was nothing there.”

Later, Tom was philosophical in defeat: “It’s sport; you’ve got to take it on the chin. I’ve loved every minute of this experience and it’s definitely made me more determined now.”

“We are very proud of Tom’s individual achievements as an international rower,” said QE Headmaster Neil Enright. “He has contributed magnificently to improving standards in the sport. As he implied himself, he was the target to beat and he has handled this first defeat with great dignity.”

London 2012 has seen other standard-bearers reeled in by the following pack. Britain’s Lee Pearson was hot favourite for his tenth Paralympic gold in the 1A Dressage, but was pushed into second place by Joann Formosa of Australia. Another shock result was that of Oscar Pistorius, beaten into second place in the 200m by Brazil’s Alan Oliveria.