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Queen Elizabeth’s School has retained its place as the country’s top boys’ state school in the Sunday Times Top 200 State Secondary Schools league table.

QE has twice been the Sunday Times’ State School of the Year. This year, as in 2011, it took second place nationally behind a girls’ school – The Henrietta Barnett School – although its 2012 A-level results were, in fact, slightly better than those of HBS.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very satisfying to be the top boys’ state school once again.“I am also pleased to note that, in terms of the A-level statistics published in the Sunday Times’ table for independent schools, QE is matching the top-placed boys’ school, St Paul’s, and narrowly outstripping the next, namely Westminster. QE can thus lay claim to being the joint top boys’ school – whether from the state or independent sector – in 2012.”

Earlier this term, QE was also named the best boys’ state school in the Financial Times’ Top 1,000 Schools table.

Year 11 pupil Joseph Levene has won the trophy for best U16 player at the Millfield International Schools’ Chess Team Championship. Joseph was competing as lead player for QE on board 1 and finished his matches undefeated, securing 6.5 points from a possible 7. “This was an outstanding achievement in a high-calibre field,” said Geoff Roberts, teacher in charge of chess.

Three other boys won prizes for the best performances on their boards in the competition held at Millfield School in Somerset. They were Kieran Chan on board 5, Sivashayndhan Sivanathan on board 11 and Caleb Sheng, who was undefeated on board 12.

“Overall the QE A team acquitted itself well amongst 13 of the élite chess-playing schools from across the UK and Ireland,” added Mr Roberts. “I was very pleased to see the strong performance of so many of the B team players who won board prizes; this shows the strength in depth of chess at the School and reflects the sterling work of Tony Corfe and his team in developing players at the Improvers’ Chess Club.”

In the tournament as a whole, Queen Elizabeth’s was placed in seventh position after the first two qualifying rounds, narrowly missing out on qualification for the championship as one of the top six teams by just half a point.  After five further rounds of intense competition, Queen Elizabeth’s finished two points behind the winning school in the Major Section.

The B team recorded their best performance to date in the tournament, with many boys winning games against other schools’ A teams.

Six QE Sixth-Formers have been awarded prestigious Arkwright Engineering scholarships. The previous highest total in a single year at the School is two.

The six Year 12 pupils – Rushab Badiani, Sebastian Feszczur-Hatchett, Niraj Shah (pictured left), Keeran Sivalingam, Osanne Gbayere (pictured below) and Michael Zhao – were among 1,100 students nationwide who applied for 300 scholarships. In addition, two Year 13 pupils, Mehul Jesani and Vignesh Gopalan, who were awarded Arkwright Scholarships last year, have won extensions for this year.

Congratulating the group, QE’s Head of Design and Technology Simon Vincent said: “The scheme aims to identify students who will be the country’s future leaders in engineering and related areas of design. For six students from one school to be in receipt of this award in a single year is a remarkable achievement.”

The scholarship gives Sixth-Formers a financial award to enhance their A-level studies, as well as providing a range of activities to promote their understanding and experience of engineering.  The scholarships are respected by leading universities and are supported by top engineering employers, such as Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Microsoft Research, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

Rushab, Sebastian, Osanne, Niraj, Keeran and Michael had to complete a rigorous selection process consisting of a detailed application form, a two-hour aptitude paper and an interview hosted by Imperial College, London. The aptitude paper tested candidates’ flair and originality in solving engineering design problems. During the interview day, the boys took part in a team exercise to solve an engineering problem with students they had never met before. Candidates and their parents also toured the engineering facilities at ICL and explored the diversity of engineering and design careers and their importance to the UK economy.

The scholarship scheme was established in 1991, by a group of headteachers who believed that Design & Technology was not being given the profile it deserved as a subject.

“This level of success reflects the considerable technical talent within the School,” said Mr Vincent.  “With the competition for rewarding jobs becoming ever more fierce, the Arkwright Scholarship will help all these boys at the start of their journey to be the country’s future leaders in engineering.”

The boys received their awards at a special ceremony at Imperial College.

The Old Elizabethans’ Association Annual Dinner saw a cohort of 1962 joiners celebrate together 50 years on, with many reunited for the first time since they left the School. Attendance at the formal dinner reached 100 – a significant increase on last year.

Twelve former pupils who had joined QE in 1962 (pictured below) celebrated the golden anniversary of their joining the School at the dinner. They were brought together following extensive research by OE Rob Walsh: “Of the 90 joiners in that year, I was able to track down 64, using various websites,” he said. “For most of us, it was the first time we had met since leaving School and the evening was filled with endless chat, reminiscing and swapping pictures. I only wish we had got together 20 years ago.”

The MC for the evening was the President of the Association, David Farrer.  Nigethan Sathiyalingam, the School Captain, proposed a toast to the Association and the Chairman, Martyn Bradish, replied with a speech. John Keeley, who was part of the historic QE trip to Russia in 1962 – and therefore was celebrating another golden anniversary – proposed a toast. The Headmaster, Neil Enright, responded.

“It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening,” said Mr Enright. “It was particularly pleasing to note the increase in attendance and to witness how much enjoyment the Old Elizabethans gained from meeting once again, often after a break of nearly half a century.”

The evening commenced with a sherry reception at 7.15pm and was followed by dinner at 8pm at which salmon mousse, braised lamb shank and crème brûlée were served.

QE hosted the local round of a national Geographical Association face-to-face quiz. The QE team of three narrowly lost out in a high-quality competition to Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ and City of London schools.

“The Worldwise Geography Quiz is an important way of engaging boys with the subject, whilst providing an opportunity for them to meet students from other schools,” said Geography teacher Sarah Jones. “Our team did well to finish third in a field that included teams from other high-performing schools.” The QE team was made up of Valavan Ananthakumaraswamy, Yash Patel and Pranesh Varadarajan, all of Year 10 (left to right, pictured below).

It is the sixth time that QE has hosted the competition, which included teams from eight schools. The quiz consisted of eight rounds, ranging from Geography in the News to Map Skills. “It was great fun to organise and brilliant training the team,” said Dr Jones.

Here is a sample of the questions from the round entitled Alphabet Run:

• What A is a landlocked state in the Pyrenees? (Answer – Andorra)
• What B is the bureaucratic capital of the European Union? (Answer – Brussels)
• What C is another name for a cwm or cirque? (Answer – Corrie)

A team of boys from Years 9-11 won second place in the regional round of a prestigious Science competition.

Robert Swan, Samuel Carling, Maaz Shahzad and Christopher Suen (pictured, left to right, below) tackled eight rounds of chemistry questions – many of which were outside the curriculum, at the Top of the Bench competition. Twenty-one teams competed at the event, hosted by St Benedict’s School in Ealing.

“The boys performed well,” said Chemistry teacher Elizabeth Kuo.

“They maintained the high standards set by QE teams in recent years, finishing a commendable second and only dropping 14 marks out of a possible 96.”

The boys were each awarded a prize of £10.